August 9, 2000
*** CLARIFICATION: On 30 June 2004, I received an e-mail from one Jamie Lee Hamilton in response to the following piece. I make the following clarifications/addendums:
First, I refer to Jamie Lee Hamilton as a transvestite. I have since apologised to her for my ignorance, as she is in fact a transsexual, and there is a difference there that I did not comprehend at the time the piece was written.
In a response to Hamilton's e-mail, I clarified what I meant in the seventh paragraph of the piece. It was not my intention to leave the reader thinking that Hamilton had left me with a distasteful impression. In hindsight, some nearly four years after the piece was written, I acknowledge that the paragraph was poorly written and executed, as well as unedited.
-- Joseph Planta, 01 July 2004
The transvestite and her brothel - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Last Thursday, sex trade (formerly prostitution, before this damned political correctness set in,) activist Jamie-Lee Hamilton gave up and turned herself into police on charges that she’s (or he’s, because she has undergone a sex change operation,) running a brothel.
Grandma’s House, which ran as a drop-in centre for hooker’s was transformed by Hamilton into a brothel, with the former mayoralty and council candidate Hamilton charging $15 bucks for use of the house’s rooms. Soon after her public declaration that it was a brothel, she immediately taunted on police to arrest her. She claimed it was all a ploy to bring the social ill into the public fray of debate.
Hamilton, one unfailing when it came time to chasing the limelight, took advantage of her arrest to pose for that extra newspaper shot and those pesky TV cameras. As reported in last Friday’s Vancouver Sun, Hamilton’s brothel was met with an undercover sting, yet she refused to be arrested claiming that she be taken to the hospital because of heart trouble. Vancouver Police complied on the condition that she turn herself in the following day. She did and without missing a beat, lambasted Mayor Owen and other politicians, as she entered the station.
To say that Jamie-Lee Hamilton is flamboyant is an understatement. Hamilton, ran for mayor in the last civic election, but bowed out and opted to run for the city council, albeit the run turned up unsuccessful. Hamilton used the media spotlight full tilt with gimmicks like throwing dozens of shoes at the foot of City Hall. After losing the race, Hamilton went on a crusade to get hooker’s their rights. Her arrest this Thursday, according to her is a, “catalyst for change.”
The work she’s done for hookers is admirable. I wouldn’t, simply because, endeavour myself in the activism that Hamilton’s dedicated herself to. All the attention and contacts in the right places, yet her harangue has fallen on deaf ears.
I must admit, though that Hamilton’s public outbursts are rather garish and ill-effective. I actually stood, literally feet from her, and as eerie as it was, was struck by her brashness and bluntness. It was at the NDP convention of last February and she was in an opposite line for the concession. She was speaking in a broad-like (meaning loud) tone, so as the entire group of folk could hear what the hell she had to say. She made it known that she was passed over as a delegate to the convention when she refused to go public with an endorsement for Ujjal Dosanjh. (Which, as an aside, is not unbelievable, as late in the game for that race , the Dosanjh people went haywire to get endorsements from everyone and their dog.)
Hamilton was chastised, by the PNE concession worker for touching the doughnuts which were on the counter, and was further indication of the utter unease met with someone who lives dangerously and has lived a varied life.
Her brothel, which was met with NIMBYites and their ilk, has shut down and Hamilton faces up to two years in the old crowbar hotel. Hamilton, which I can’t seem to confirm, may be a proponent of legalised prostitution or legalised brothels. She claims that the city, thus she immediately refers to Mayor Owen himself, reaps from the revenue generated from massage parlours and escort agencies, yet chooses to shut her operation down, because she caters exclusively to the downtrodden.
Thanks to Hamilton, we trot out the issue of prostitution and whether it should be legalised. Proponents will cite examples of the Netherlands and others will just relish in the public talk of hookers and the world’s oldest profession. Truth be told, I can’t support the legalisation of prostitution and brothels. Yet, I hope Jamie-Lee Hamilton will continue to speak out for a pitiful and alienated bunch.
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