Portal:Prostitution

The Cleveland Street scandal occurred in 1889, when a homosexual male brothel in Cleveland Street, London, was discovered by police. The government was accused of covering up the scandal to protect the names of aristocratic and other prominent patrons. At the time, sexual acts between men were illegal in Britain, and the brothel's clients faced possible prosecution and certain social ostracism if discovered. It was rumoured that Prince Albert Victor, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales and second-in-line to the British throne had visited, though this has never been substantiated. Unlike overseas newspapers, the English press never named the Prince, but the allegation influenced the handling of the case by the authorities, and has coloured biographers' perceptions of him since. (read more ...)

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Andrêsa do Nascimento (1859–1927) was a courtesan and celebrated society figure in fin de siècle Lisbon. She was better known as Preta Fernanda (literally: Black Fernanda) and Fernanda do Vale (her nom de plume). She was, perhaps, the best known black citizen of the city in that period.

Nascimento was born to poor parents in a small village near Ribeira da Barca on the island of Santiago in Cape Verde, probably in 1859. Cape Verde, a volcanic archipelago off the west coast of Africa, was a Portuguese colony and a nexus for the Atlantic slave trade. Although slavery was abolished in Portugal, it was only selectively abolished in Cape Verde in 1857 with complete abolition in 1878. It is possible, therefore, that one or both of Nascimento's parents were enslaved when she was born or had been enslaved. (read more...)

• ...that Ida Dorsey built the last standing bordello (pictured) from Minneapolis' three red-light districts?
• ...that Amsterdam's Prostitution Information Center provides the city's visitors with information and advice about prostitution?
• ...that because of an effort to curb the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, prostitution in Germany has been legal since the 1920s?
• ...that the chrysargyron tax forced some Byzantine families to sell their children into slavery and prostitution?

• 11th
  • 1929: Birth of Grisélidis Réal, a writer, sex worker and activist from Geneva, Switzerland.
  • 1952: Birth of Lindi St Clair (Marian June Akin), a British author, leader of the Corrective Party, and campaigner for prostitutes' rights. She accused the Inland Revenue in the High Court of England of being "Her Majesty's pimps".
• 14th
  • 1885: Brothels were outlawed in the United Kingdom by the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.
• 15th
  • 1889: Birth of Marthe Richard, a French prostitute and spy. She later became a politician and worked towards the closing of brothels in France in 1946.
• 16th
  • 1959: Street prostitution was outlawed in England and Wales by the Street Offences Act 1959 coming into force.
• 17th
  • 1888: Murder of Martha Tabram, an English prostitute killed in a spate of violent murders in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. She may have been the first victim of the still-unidentified Jack the Ripper.
• 31st
  • 1888: Murder of Mary Ann Nichols. Her death has been attributed to the notorious unidentified serial killer Jack the Ripper.

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