Norma Hotaling (July 21, 1951 – December 16, 2008) was an American women's-rights and anti-sex trafficking activist. Hotaling was a former prostitute and heroin addict who drew from her personal experiences to create new methods for getting women and men out of prostitution and into what she saw as healthier lifestyles. She founded the San Francisco non-profit SAGE (Standing Against Global Exploitation) in 1992. She championed holistic methods of "treatment" for former sex workers, and her methods because popular worldwide. As part of her own rehabilitation, Hotaling earned a bachelor's degree in health education from San Francisco State University. In San Francisco, she and SAGE became well known for focusing on men's roles in prostitution by establishing the First Offender Prostitution Program or "John" school, to combat and lessen the demand for prostitutes by males. In April 2008, Hotaling was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and died eight months later. SAGE continued to operate until 2014.
Early life
Hotaling was born in Palm Beach, Florida. Her father died when she was three years old. She and her brother were primarily raised by her mother and grandmother. She was sexually abused around the time of her fifth birthday and sexual abuse continued through all her childhood years which were spent in New York and Florida.
Prostitution
Although the details of much of Hotaling's first two decades of life are shadowy, what is certain is that she was working as a prostitute by the time she was eighteen. She moved to San Francisco in the 1980s. Hotaling was addicted to heroin and remained an addict for twenty-one years. However, she had a life-saving realization in the 1980s: "I realized that if I stayed in the sex industry, I was going to die. That was clear to me… It was during the time when AIDS was hitting the streets and people were getting infected."
Toward the end of her work in the sex industry, Hotaling was kidnapped, driven to a cemetery in Colma, outside of San Francisco, brutally beaten and sexually assaulted. She was left for dead, and the resulting physical injuries required her to have a metal plate installed inside her skull.
Rehabilitation
In 1989, Hotaling turned herself into jail and began her recovery process from drug addiction. She credited her choice to the fact that she had a circle of friends and family members who could serve as role models. As Hotaling healed from her addiction and trauma, she worked in San Francisco's jails as a counselor for prostitutes and addicts. It was during her jail work that she made the personal and institutional connections that became vital to founding and building SAGE.
Activism and community role
Hotaling was best known for her anti-trafficking advocacy work. She played an active role in changing rehabilitation treatments for prostitutes locally and internationally. In an oral history interview, a SAGE employee under the pseudonym "Angela" said "Treatment as we know it today exists because of people like Norma. She changed the face of treatment as usual in San Francisco by creating trauma-informed care. This led to 'harm reduction,' which was unheard of when we got together and began talking about an organization which was to become SAGE.”
Hotaling was also known for her advocacy for Hepatitis-C awareness. Because she was infected with Hepatitis-C, she was conscious of the high risk of transmission for former prostitutes. Because intravenous drug usage is common among those involved in prostitution, the danger of Hep-C or HIV transmission is high. SAGE's harm- reduction approach to public health was used to prevent risky behavior, for instance, by offering condoms and bleach (for cleaning needles) to those at risk.
Personality
Norma Hotaling was regarded a charismatic woman. She was able to communicate well with the whole spectrum of society, from inmates and prostitutes, to the most politically successful of local, national, and international circles. On one occasion she visited the White House and spoke with President George W. Bush about the conditions of trafficked women. On a local level, she regularly worked effectively with the Sheriff's Office, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris.
Hotaling believed that education and training were key factors in the rehabilitation process and undertook the task of replacing prostitution with financially viable, self-affirming employment. Accordingly, she generously enabled a number of employees and members of SAGE to attain bachelor's and master's degrees.