User:Worm That Turned/Norma Hotaling

Early life
Norma Hotaling was born on 21 July 1951 in Florida, her father died when she was three years old, leaving her mother, Norma Louise, and her brother, James. It was around that time that Hotaling was first sexually abused, abuse which also occurred between the ages of five and seven. This included being paid at five years old in the playground to watch pornography with men. Hotaling attended school in Palm Springs, but Hotaling later stated "I had been going to juvenile halls, jails, psychiatric hospitals, emergency rooms and drug treatment programs since I was 12."

At some point during her childhood, Hotaling was trafficked into prostitution, and by the time she had reached 18, the age of consent in Florida, she was involved in street prostitution. Soon after, she became addicted to heroin and ended up homeless on the streets of San Francisco. Over the next twenty years, Hotaling would be arrested more than thirty five times, take such a beating from a pimp that she would require a metal plate in her skull and make 15 attempts to end her drug dependency.

In 1989, aged 38, Hotaling decided to break the cycle by turning herself into the police. She attended the nearest station and demanded to be jailed. She remained there for six weeks and although she nearly died from drug withdrawal - which she referred to as "the poor man's drug treatment program" - the experience changed her life.

Activist
Hotaling went to Haight Ashbury Free Clinic to help her turn her life around. She joined San Francisco State University, and graduated magna cum laude with a BSc in Health Education in 1992. She worked with those suffering from AIDS and wrote editorials for local newspapers against the legalization of prostitution. One of the police officers who had arrested her in the past, Lt. Joe Dutton, read these editorials and employed her to counsel prostitutes and their clients. She was also called as an expert witness at trials of pimps.

Legacy
Hotaling died unmarried on 16 December 2008 of pancreatic cancer. She was remembered as "intimidating" and "an ex-prostitute with an attitude".

Stacey's bit

 * Full bio (from her perspective) (ref name=Bio)
 * Bit more bio from Newspaper interview in 2001 (ref name=Herald)
 * was involved in COYOTE but set up SAGE as a "countermovement" as COYOTE doesn't distinguish between voluntary and involutary prostitution. SAGE will work with women who don't want to leave prostitution

Projects worked on
SAGE has a SAGE Trauma and Recovery (STAR) centre.
 * Standing Against Global Exploitation project (SAGE) she co-founded in 1992 as she was "exiting the criminal justice system" Founder and executive director City officials called her 'unqualified' to open project. Before SAGE organisations were just handing out condoms and bleach (for needles) and prostitutes were targets of attacks by neighborhood groups.
 * 1995 Joint paper with Melissa Farley on PTSD and prostitutes - 4th world conference on women (Beijing)
 * November 1996 international conference on Violence, Abuse and Women’s Citizenship in Brighton, gave speech (see source for more info on her views)
 * 1999 leased office space with help of Gavin Newsom at 1385 Mission Street - SAGE now owns building.
 * 1995 helped created 1st "First Offenders Prostitution Program (FOPP)" "she helped the San Francisco District Attorney's Office create a first-of-its-kind class for johns caught soliciting prostitutes." informally known as "johns school. Model used "throughout the United States and in Canada, South Korea, and England." She teaches on course for offenders


 * 2004 law change to prosecute men who prostitute minor - worked with Kamala Harris
 * 2005-2007 6 room safe house in San Francisco.


 * Her 3year Joint work with Korean "non-profit making organisations and government agencies" resulted in new legislation.


 * 6th Annual Cheyenne Bell Leadership Awards Gala dedicated to her

Awards she (or SAGE) has won
More than 20 awards. 1998 Innovations in American Government Award 2000 Peter F. Drucker Foundation Award for Nonprofit Innovation. 2001 Oprah Winfreys Angel award 2008 Cheyenne Bell Award

Norma Hotaling Awards

 * Awards set up in her memory:

Survivor-Centered Service Provider Award 2010 - Vednita Carter 2011 - Kathrin Hardy 2012 - Tina Frundt 2013 - Kathleen Mitchell

Innovative Demand Reduction Program Award 2010 - Rachel Durchslag 2011 - Kaffie McCullough 2012 - Kendis Paris, Lyn Thompson, and Kylla Leeburg 2013 - James Dold

Josephine Butler Abolitionist Award for Law and Policy Development 2010 - Dr. Donna Hughes 2011 - Amanda Kloer 2012 - Kathryn Xian 2013 - Melissa Farley