Margo St. James
| Margo St. James | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Margaret Jean St. James September 12, 1937 Bellingham, Washington, USA |
| Occupation | Feminist activist |
| Known for | Founder of St. James Infirmary Clinic & COYOTE |
| Spouse(s) | Paul Avery |
Margo St. James (born September 12, 1937 as Margaret Jean St. James), is an American self-described prostitute and sex-positive feminist, founded the organization COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics), which advocates decriminalization of prostitution and the St. James Infirmary Clinic.
Margo St. James was born in Bellingham, Washington.
St. James founded COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics) in 1973. The forerunner of COYOTE was WHO: Whores, Housewives and Others; Others in this case meant lesbians. The first meeting of WHO was held on Alan Watts's houseboat; and the name COYOTE came from novelist Tom Robbins who dubbed St. James the coyote trickster.
St. James began attending international conferences: the United Nations Decade Face of Women Conferences in Mexico City, the 1976 Tribunal of Crimes Against Women in Brussels, the 1977 International Women's Year Conference in Houston, the 1977 Libertarian Party Convention, the 1980 Decade of Women Conference in Copenhagen, the 1976 Democratic National Convention in New York City—where St. James organized loiter-ins—and the Republican Convention in Kansas City. In 1974, St. James lectured at Harvard, among other campuses.
In 1976, COYOTE, led by St. James, filed a lawsuit against Rhode Island. In the case, COYOTE v. Roberts, the argument was based on how much power the state should have to control the sexual activity of its citizens. The lawsuit also alleged discrimination on how the law was being applied. Data was submitted that demonstrated selective prosecution, the Providence Police were arresting female sex workers far more often than the male customers. St. James testified in the case. Although the case eventually was dismissed when the General Assembly changed the prostitution statute in 1980, COYOTE and St. James are given credit as one of the reasons prostitution in Rhode Island was decriminalized, prostitution was outlawed again in 2009 (see Prostitution in Rhode Island).
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