Fred Cherry

Fred Cherry (15 April 1926 – 30 July 2003) was an American activist for greater rights for johns (clients of prostitutes). He gained some measure of fame as self-styled "elector of homophobia" in his fight against (in his own words) "the Organized Homosexual Conspiracy of America", who he said opposed his own fight to get his freedom to patronize prostitutes recognized as being a matter of civil rights.

In 1985, Cherry, and Margo St. James, filed a lawsuit against Ed Koch, then mayor of New York City, seeking to overturn New York's laws banning prostitution on the grounds that Cherry's disability would make it impossible for him to find sexual companionship other than prostitutes, thereby violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The lawsuit was dismissed.

External links

* [https://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Fred_Cherry_v_DoJ/ EFF archive of material relating to Cherry v. DoJ]
* [http://www.salon.com/april97/news/news970421.html Johns of the world, unite!]
* [http://www.iswface.org/swhback.html Fred Cherry remembered by International Sex Workers Association]
* [http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/STDs/cherry_v_Koch.htm Cherry v. Koch, 129 Misc. 2d 346, 491 N.Y.S.2d 934 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1985)] Court upholds NY prostitution laws