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Green Dolphin Street supplied the setting The setting for nights beyond forgetting
Green Dolphin Street...
Shawn Mallroy: I am a peer educator here at HIPS organization, which HIPS stands for Helping
Individual Prostitutes/People Survive. I had been prostituting and I got caught several
times. And the judge--well, my parole officer had advised me that they were going to send
me back to prison. And his supervisor for some reason came in the room and said "Please
don't send her to jail" let's try this new program called HIPS. I was like HIPS? So he
ran it pass the judge and I took advantage of the name and what it stands for and I wrote
my judge and I asked her to please allow me to address this program because I've never
had--they all have programs for drugs but they never have, ever have I ever heard of
a program that addressed a prostitution issue.
When I recall the love I found on I could kiss the ground on Green Dolphin Street
Diamond: And I left home, you know to get away from my family because there was a lot
of negativity, you know they didn't understand. And, you know, I had to come here. You know,
just to be comfortable to--I don't have to worry about my family seeing me in the streets,
you know what I'm saying, or to criticize me or this and this and that.
Gigi Thomas: I was out there struggling. I had just lost my job from the Washington Post.
I was going back and forth on the streets.
Shawn Mallroy: I--I went numb. Anybody can do anything to me and I felt nothing, I learned
to black myself out, you know, out of body out of mind. And I went through life like
that.
Cheryl Smith: You know when I was classy going out getting to some money, constantly going
to the crap land. Hell I haven't had nothing, no cloths, no nothing, shoes, no nothing.
Then I met HIPS and I was able to come up here. If I have been out one--one day straight
or two days straight with no cloths, I could come here wash up, change my cloths and go
back and do the same thing again.
Cyndee Clay: Being nonjudgmental is like a cornerstone of our program. And it's--you
know it's a cornerstone of [indiscernible] [00:03:11]--in the sense of like we, you know,
I think there are a lot of people who will look at sex workers and tell them like you
shouldn't be doing what you're doing and you need to change. And we find that by not putting
that judgment on them, by not placing that judgment--it really provides as space and
then opportunity for people to kind of lead their own lives.
Sergeant Brett Parson: I had a lot of misconceptions. I was ignorant about the motivation behind
it. And so there was really a big learning curve for me and the folks at HIPS really
helped me with that to understand kind of the whole social injustice that goes on, that
cause people to get into this line of work.
Shawn Mallroy: First I was just passing around they taught me how to sell, and then I started
using, and then I will sell it to--to keep using, to keep from selling myself. And then
eventually my habit got worse and worse and worse. And I became a person that tricks,
a person that prostitutes because it was quick.
Cheryl Smith: We should go right through the back door, go buy some crack and then come
back through back door. So it's right in the next complex, if they didn't have it on that
complex all I was going to do is walk over to the next complex and they have it there.
This is back in, back like the late 80s going to late 90s and it was all around, everywhere.
You don't have to worry about searching like you didn't now. You go to any corner and somebody
was selling crack, 24 hours a day.
Shawn Mallroy: I was running for the drugs, I just had to get more and more and more.
And I got to the point that I didn't care. If a John, a man, or something pull up a date
and that's when it comes in where the protection is at, you know. Most of them are like, well
I don't like condoms, you know, I can't get in, you know get hard or whatever. And if
you press and you get their drug, I mean like, okay, just don't come at me that was my phrase.
Diamond: I didn't really know what the common van was, but I used to see this van that just
constantly rode down on the stroll, you know, and that's where all the girls meet at and,
you know, do their soliciting.
Gigi Thomas: When I saw the van out there, and when they drove up one day--I was just
like what is this people doing out here, because there was a bunch of Caucasian people on the
van. And I was like oh, you know, somebody's family must have passed away from AIDS. You
know, I was really feeling sorry for them, I was like that's so nice of them passing
out condoms. And when I--well, you know, so when I went up to them and I was talking to
them, Amy Patit [ph], she was on the van. She was the outreach director and she was
so friendly and so nice. I remember years later after I got myself together off of drugs
and everything that I saw her out there again and she was, like oh it's good to see you,
[indiscernible] [00:06:17]. I was like, oh thank you, and I was just like this people
are still all here.
...supplied the setting The setting for nights beyond forgetting
Jeff Chubb: I've been working for 12-years as the guest of the sex worker community in
DC. The reception that the organization gets, because of its reputation. It doesn't, it--other
organizations that I've worked with don't receive the same sort of, you know, running
and screaming down streets, HIPS, HIPS. You can hear people running across traffic, you
know, coming to the van. People who recommend it to their friends, people may not even know
us, and when they learn about what we're doing, you know, really thank--we're thankful that
there is someone out there who's providing free services in order for the people to stay
safer on the street.
Diamond: I am--I hold the trans support groups for the transgender girls. I'm a peer educator,
we meet once a month. And we talk about just trans issues.
Gigi Thomas: What the client advocate does is basically doing a one on one counseling.
And we meet the clients wherever they're at. And when the clients come in, usually giving
up referrals and doing a lot of--a lot of counseling. What I try to do is think about
the times that I was out there on the streets, just some of the services that I'm saying
that, I needed it, I need it, and also some of the other girls needed it when they were
out there. So I try to make sure that they are transgender friendly and also sex worker
friendly.
Diamond: Like the outreach where we do *** testing, you know, and they have like--like
the *** van that goes out on the streets and provide the condoms for the girls. And
you know we provide clothes for people that's out in the streets when it's freezing, you
know, we give them hot chocolate to them in the--in the winter when it's, you know, cold
and stuff like that. So we just basically, just there to help. You know what I'm saying,
yeah, it's like a family, you know, once you become a part of HIPS and we're there to help
you. We're always going to be there to help you. We'll never going to turn our backs on
you.
Cyndee Clay: HIPS is an organization, you know, really exists because we believe that
sex workers can be like the forefront of the fight against ***.
Shawn Mallroy: We go out on foot to various areas and pass out these safety kits. And
what's in these safety kits are, a HIPS card an outreach card, a hotline card. We try to
put two flavors which are basic flavors that are used for oral sex. And then after which
we use Magnums, we also insert two Magnum condoms inside of it. You know, how most people
out here want to think they have the biggest ever and a book of matches which has the HIPS
logo on it as well as the HIPS hotline number. And then we insert two of our water base lubrications.
And we're ready to roll.
Sergeant Brett Parson: I don't think by giving someone a *** you're encouraging them to
have sex. I don't think by giving someone a needle, you're turning them into a ***
addict. I don't think that by giving someone a clean pipe and a rubber--a gasket to put
around that pipe, you are somehow turning them into a crack addict. What you're doing
is you're reducing the risk of them somehow contracting *** or hepatitis, or some other
communicable disease, which then spreads on to other people because we know that people
are having sex. Whether it's legal or illegal sex.
Cyndee Clay: You know sex workers have--have contact in a meaningful way with the general
population and have that opportunity to educate.
Diamond: I'm out on the streets talking to the girls, I'm out on the streets telling
girls, there's the *** van, go get condoms. You know, go get that date rate sheet, you
know, it's updated. Go look and see who's on there, you know, look at those hack numbers.
I'm out there every like Friday and Saturday talking to the girls. If I'm not on Eastern
Avenue, I'm down on K Street. They ask me, they're "oh when can we call up to HIPS, you
know". They ask me questions and I like that, because I'm going to give you answers. And
I tell them, you know, whatever you need, whatever you want, whatever you don't understand
ask me.
Cyndee Clay: The sex workers deserve not to be judge all the time. And they--they deserve
places and--and venues and, you know, spaces where they're respected. And where they can
work on issues that are really important to them.
Shawn Mallroy: Well because--because of HIPS today my whole life has changed. No I no longer
think the same way, I don't react the same way, I don't' do the same things I used to
do, because as HIPS stands we're helping individual prostitutes to survive, I was once that. And
I found out, you know, there's another way of living.
Diamond: I want people to know that, it's not about what a person does, it's basically
about helping and understanding why--why certain people are doing it. You know what I'm saying,
because everybody have their own reasons why they are in the streets. Everybody have their
own reason why they're into drugs or whatever. But I go at least to help them.
Gigi Thomas: A lot of times People are out there saying, you know, sex worker, some people
call them prostitutes, but sex workers. You know, they see them out there as, you know,
*** people, dirty people. But you need to realize that's somebody, mother, brother,
son, daughter, you know, sister. You know, they're still human beings, you know. And
a lot of times they're out there for survival.
Shawn Mallroy: I've decided to try life and stop being left out in the cold. Some may
call me bold, I guarantee remembering my past, this time I'll never fold. The card game remember
that? What cards are you holding, do you plan a deal or chill, come on family I'm just keeping
it real.
Green Dolphin Street supplied the setting The setting for nights beyond forgetting