Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
I am a client of women prostitutes, commonly known as a "john." I am now 71
years of age and I have been patronizing women prostitutes since the age of
thirty.
I have to give you some background about myself so that you may understand
exactly how and why I became a john. I was born with a chronic illness
known as celiac disease. This is also known as malabsorption syndrome.
On June '84 I sued in New York State court for the purpose of having the
laws penalizing prostitution declared unconstitutional. I lost the case on
the grounds that I hadn't been arrested. Go to any law library and look up
the case of Cherry v. Koch, 491 N.Y.S. 2d 934 & Cherry v. Koch, 514 N.Y.S.
2d 30.
The complaint in that case says, and I quote:
b. Plaintiff CHERRY suffers from a medical condition
known as malabsorption syndrome (also known as celiac disease).
c. Said medical condition causes plaintiff CHERRY to
suffer from emaciation and extreme fatigue, making it impossible
for him to engage in normal social activities that lead to
meeting women and sexual relationships.
d. After many years of unsuccessful attempts to develop
a sexual relationship with a non-prostitute woman, plaintiff
CHERRY first had sex, at the age of thirty, with a woman
prostitute.
End of quote.
Just to show you how thin I am, when I was 38 years old, I was five feet,
ten inches in height and weighed 98 pounds. Now, because I have a low
thyroid condition, I have ballooned up to 120 pounds.
Here is another example of a disabled john. This comes from the book:
NOT FOR LOVE, by Virginia McManus, pages 150-151 (New Dell Edition First
Printing--January, 1964 . Ms. McManus was a schoolteacher who had a friend
who was a prostitute. One day the police raided the friend's apartment and
arrested Ms. McManus along with the friend. Because Ms. McManus was in that
apartment, she lost her position as a schoolteacher. Then Ms. McManus
decided that she might as well BECOME a prostitute. Something similar to
that happened to Margo St. James. Anyway, here is what Ms. McManus says
about one of her clients:
Quote "He was a well-known John in New York; he had a spinal disorder and
was quite crippled and it was necessary to go to his home. There would have
been no problem had he lived alone, but he stayed with his mother. The
mother herself would often place the call for a girl since the man had
difficulty holding a phone, and she would answer the door and usher the
girl into his bedroom. Afterward she would politely offer a cup of coffee
and attempt to make casual conversation. The whole experience was rather
ghastly and strained but he paid a hundred dollars and most of the call
girls felt morally obliged to see the handicapped Johns and be unusually
kind to them." unquote
Now one has to consider that the first edition of this book was copyrighted
in 1960, and one hundred dollars was a lot of money then.
Do you realize that each and every one of the parties to that transaction
is defined as a criminal by the laws of just about every state in the
United States? The mother, in particular, is actually committing the crime
of "promoting prostitution" (pimping) which is a felony and can get a
person a prison sentence of several years. Just ask Norma Jean.
[material omitted]
I am more than just a john. I am an ACTIVIST john. I began my activities in
1962. I was then a member of the American Civil liberties Union. The New
York branch held a meeting which they advertised as an old-fashioned town-
hall meeting at which anyone could discuss any subject. When I tried to
advocate that the American Civil liberties Union take up the case for
decriminalization of prostitution, I was hooted down, and the moderator of
the meeting agreed with the hooter's denial of my right to speak there.
In 1964 I became a member of an organization called the New York City
League for Sexual Freedom. This was then an organization of ALL sexual
orientations which advocated and demonstrated for the rights of ALL sexual
minorities. For example, on 8/23/64, I was the central figure in a
demonstration for decriminalization of prostitution. On 9/19/64 I was one
of the participants in a demonstration for homosexual rights.
At that time there was only one homosexual rights organization in New York
City, namely the Mattachine Society. The next thing that happened was that
a large number of homosexuals and lesbians from the Mattachine Society
joined the New York City League for Sexual Freedom and took over. They
elected their people to lead the New York City League for Sexual Freedom.
Under their leadership, the League stopped advocating decriminalization of
prostitution and, instead, began to advocate homosexual child-molesting.
That's when I started to be homophobic. I decided, as a means of protest,
to mail out a large number of postcards denouncing one of the leaders of
the Mattachine Society. I decided to denounce the Reverend Robert W. Wood
of the United Church of Christ. He agreed with many people that the world
is overpopulated, but then he went on the preach the doctrine of homosexual
superiority. He said that God had created homosexuality in order to counter
the population explosion. On the way he also said that abortion and
sterilization were immoral. And, of course, like many homosexuals, he
argued that prostitution was also immoral.
I specifically denounced him for insinuating that Jesus Christ was a
homosexual. I think it is obvious that when a Christian clergyman claims
that Jesus Christ was a homosexual, that clergyman is claiming that
homosexuals are morally superior to heterosexuals.
I have also sent large numbers of postcards denouncing Edward I. Koch,
formerly Mayor of New York. Koch wrote a letter which was published in the
New York Post on October 19, 1979, page 25. In that letter Koch compared
prostitutes to "garbage in the streets" and "odor, disease and rats." And
yet Koch did not object to HOMOSEXUAL prostitution. When Frederick
Richmond, Brooklyn's notorious homosexual child-molesting Congressman ran
for re-election in 1978 Koch endorsed him. This was AFTER Richmond had been
arrested for offering money for sex to an underaged boy.
In 1984, as I mentioned previously, I sued in New York State to have the
laws on prostitution declared unconstitutional. I hired William Kunstler to
represent me. I wish I had been aware at that time of Kunstler's interview
in Playboy Magazine of October 1970. In that interview Kunstler denounced
Playboy for "degrading" women by publishing nude photographs of them.
Anyway, it is obvious to me and any one else who has any knowledge of law
that Kunster deliberately lost that case.
I have appeared on several T.V. talk shows. I appeared three times on the
Morton Downey, Jr. talk show. Now, people has criticized Downey, but he
always allowed both sides of a controversy to be represented, and WELL
represented. Other talk shows only allow one side of a controversy.
In 1984 I appeared on the Phil Donahue talk show. He wouldn't allow me on
the panel. Only Downey allowed that. Anyway, I was in the audience and I
said: quote "Every sexual activity involving consenting adults is permitted
nowadays except prostitution, and I don't think it is fair that we should
be the only ones who are still being arrested for what we do in private."
Unquote:
Thank you for your patience and I also want to thank Norma Jean for giving
me this opportunity to speak.
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Mr. Cherry,
I was present as a visitor at the board meeting of Equality