PROSTITUTES IN Copenhagen, who were anticipating a bumper trade during the UN climate summit, have reacted angrily to an official attempt to blacklist them.
The city’s mayor, Ritt Bjeregaard, who is a former EU environment commissioner, has circulated postcards to the city’s 150-plus hotels urging them to advise guests not to patronise prostitutes during their stay. “Be sustainable – don’t buy sex” was the message.
Now, the Sex Workers Interest Group has hit back by saying that its members, all of whom operate legally, would offer free sex to any participant in the conference, on production of the offending postcard and their “COP 15” badge.
“This is sheer discrimination. Ritt Bjerregaard is abusing her position as mayor in using her power to prevent us carrying out our perfectly legal job. I don’t understand how she can be allowed to contact people in this way,” spokeswoman Susanne Møller said.
She said it was reprehensible and unfair of the city’s political leaders to be using the UN climate summit as a platform to conduct a campaign against sex workers.
“But they’ve done it, and we have to defend ourselves,” Møller told the avisen.dk website. “All delegates who come to Copenhagen for the world climate summit will be able to use the postcards for payment after making a request on our website,” she said. However, she did not expect that many of them would be taking up the offer over the next 10 days.
At least 15,000 delegates, observers, journalists and others have arrived so far, and many more are expected, including 110 heads of state or government, who will start arriving in the middle of next week for the final “end-game” of these climate talks.
Prostitution was legalised in Denmark in 1999 – coincidentally, on St Patrick’s Day – and operates mainly on the basis of “house calls”. Copenhagen’s red light district is located behind the central station.
Ironically, one of the “hotels” that received a batch of postcards from the mayor’s office was Studio Freya, which is reportedly a brothel.
“We have no intention of buying sex. We sell it,” Anette, the woman who runs it, said.