Adara's Apostasy

Adara's Apostasy is the eighth book in the Free Spirits series. It follows a sociology student conducting research on the Stallbrook Police Department, while also exploring her own sexuality and attitudes.
== Plot Synopsis ==
Adara Khan is a graduate student in sociology, employed as an intern at L+B Consultants in Philadelphia, where she analyzes data for studies on policies intended to end demand for paid sex. She is asked by her supervisor, Wolfe O’Cleary, to come to his office; there she is introduced to Bridie Chase, the heiress and head of the Chase Action Fund and its Abolition Initiative devoted to eliminating prostitution and sex trafficking. O’Cleary and Chase tell her about the policies around commercial sex being followed in the city of Stallbrook, and propose that Khan travel there to conduct research on this, with the hope of revealing them to be a failure. Chase even offered to pay a generous stipend through Clymer University to cover living expenses and other costs. Khan is intrigued by the idea – especially having it as the subject of her master’s thesis – but points out that she will be bound by the ethics code of the American Sociological Association to be honest, fair and as unbiased as possible in her research. Later, when she arrives home and goes to bed, she becomes aroused and masturbates, using self-bondage for enhanced stimulation, which leaves her feeling conflicted and guilty.
Adara moves to Stallbrook, where she shares a rented house with Imani Turner, Ginny Hill and Vera Kuhn. When she tells them of her research, Imani and Ginny express their support for the policies of Chief Graham while Vera voices a more negative attitude. Ginny also discloses that she had engaged in survival sex work after running away from an abusive home environment, and how the support of the Jezebel Project and the Free Spirit Connection helped her. Later she arrives at City Hall to obtain copies of the report on Chief Graham’s commercial sex policies commissioned by the Stallbrook City Council. She also runs into Stuart Nathanson, an ex-boyfriend who now works for Mayor Jack Oskanian. She then arrives on the University of Stallbrook campus, where she meets Professor Vadimas Likarauskas, who will be one of her advisors; he has the department administrator assist her in gaining access to further research materials.
On Saturday, Adara begins poring through the materials she’s accumulated, and also learns about the politics of the city, where ranked-choice voting and easier ballot access have led to more diverse political representation in city government. Sunday, she goes with Ginny to the downtown Local Gathering of the Free Spirits, where she meets and interviews Lateshia Williams, a psychologist and Free Spirit Celebrant who also volunteers for the Jezebel Project. Lateshia shares with Adara the Free Spirit attitudes around sexuality, including their support for sex worker rights. Adara also meets Bridget, a member of the Gathering who also works with Jezebel, and who provides her email address for future discussion.
After meeting with Professors Likarauskas and Jennifer Roy, Adara walks through downtown and stops at Lilith’s Passion, the woman-owned sexuality boutique. There she meets Amalia Echevarria, a Free Spirit and member of the Allegheny Power Exchange. They later go to a coffee shop to discuss the possibility of Amalia and others in the BDSM community helping her act out one or more of her erotic fantasies. Adara also shares that she has become intrigued by the concepts of sex-positive feminism, leading to an evolution in her own views and attitudes.
Adara then arrives at a renovated firehouse in the East Side, which the Jezebel Project uses as its headquarters. Bridget greets her there, and introduces her to Jezebel’s director Jane Hardesty, medical advisor Marshall Chasen, and legal advisor Angela Dubuisson; Lateshia joins them later while Adara is interviewing them. Jane describes her journey from Roman Catholic nun to member of a radical feminist commune, to starting Jezebel and embracing a harm-reduction approach with the help of Bridget. When the Jezebel team is ready to take their motorhomes to Creston Street to conduct outreach, Adara is allowed to accompany and observe, even sliding down the fire pole to the garage where the vehicles are kept.
Later, Adara meets Amalia at APEx’s dungeon in the North Side, where they prepare for an erotic fantasy session where Adara is bound, blindfolded and pleasured by several women. The experience is both intense and inspiring for her, and she talks about the emotional repercussions with Amalia.
Adara’s next research-related appointment is in the offices of Stallbrook’s Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the umbrella organization for the International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO). It is here she meets several officers, including the founders of a reform group, and the Captain and two patrol officers from the Creston Street Special District. They discuss the changes in their department under Chief Graham, and the policy of de-facto decriminalization of full-service sex work which they support. Aldo Alvarez, the SEIU organizer who helped the reformers in their shift from the more conservative Fraternal Order of Police to the IBPO, also takes part in the conversation.
As Adara continues her research, she finds that the facts she is uncovering run counter to what she had been encouraged to believe, especially the reports published by Wolfe O’Cleary. She manages to get hold of the raw data on which O’Cleary’s reports are based, and combs through them carefully, then goes to Professor Likarauskas with her findings. He advises her not to cite O’Cleary’s reports in her thesis, and to send the notes to herself by certified mail, holding onto the sealed envelope until she might need them. When she realizes later why he has given this advice, she is shaken.
Adara then meets with Mayor Oskanian and two prominent members of the City Council, Rhonda Carver and Angel Portillo. Carver, a progressive Democrat, has always supported Graham’s reforms, while the Republican Portillo was skeptical of the de-facto decriminalization policy. Oskanian initially had both accompany him on a fact-finding tour of the Creston Street Special District; this was later followed by a full-scale investigation by the entire City Council, which in the end voted to support Graham’s approach. Portillo explains how his views shifted in light of the overwhelming evidence that Graham’s policies actually helped reduce violence and other problems, especially in conjunction with the work of the Jezebel Project. Indeed, Portillo’s speech in support of Graham swayed moderate Democrat Thomas Tran and independent Joe Abramov to join him, thus making a two-thirds majority in support of Graham. Portillo notes that his decision did cost him support in more conservative circles, while gaining respect from others, and that he faced an uncertain future in the upcoming elections.
After the meeting, Adara is sifting through notes and materials at a diner when Stuart stops by, wanting to talk. They discuss two incidents at the college where they met, and the different views they took which led to their eventual breakup. The discussion turns philosophical, with Stuart continually emphasizing the importance of facts in discerning whether a claim is true, and Adara questioning on the basis of feminist critiques of scientific empiricism. The course their conversation takes leads to an epiphany for her, and she packs up her things and leaves – but not before giving him a grateful kiss.
Adara is back in the APEx dungeon with Amalia, where she will join her and three other friends in another fantasy session, this time a lesbian gangbang with Amalia’s friend Darla submitting to them and two other women, Sophie Giuliani and Tula Huttunen. Afterwards, Adara talks with the others about how she is embracing both her sexuality and a less dogmatic form of feminism, one very much in line with the Free Spirit values her new friends embrace
With the municipal elections coming, Adara meets with members of the Student Coalition Against Trafficking, a radical feminist group opposed to Chief Graham’s policies and promoting the Swedish model. The meeting also includes members of conservative Christian ministries for trafficking victims, also opposed to Graham’s policies but at odds with the beliefs of SCAT’s members. Benjamin Gerber, a retired police Lieutenant, also joins the meeting, and angrily expresses his disdain for Graham, liberals in general, and what he considers the naivety of the others. Adara walks away from the meeting with the impression that both the SCAT members and the ministry members are basing their beliefs more on doctrine and theory than evidence, and that their competing doctrinal views ironically put them at odds with one another.
Adara later enjoys a night out at Tandy’s Bistro with Imani and a group of Free Spirit women. She shares how she is restructuring her general survey into a number of more specialized surveys for different demographic groups, how her conversation with Stuart led to her taking that course, and her anxiety over her spontaneously kissing him. Imani then points out to Adara that Chief Graham has now come into the bar with another gentleman, and Adara wonders about asking him if she could interview him for her thesis. When a man begins to harass a woman, and refuses to leave when the bartender tells him to, Graham steps forward and calmly informs the man that his options are to leave or be arrested; the man then leaves in a huff, to the applause of the remaining customers. The group of women talk about the issue of sexual harassment and how they respond to incidents, as well as how the Free Spirit community handles such cases. After Adara takes a bathroom break, she notices Graham about to leave and approaches him about an interview; he responds favorably, giving him her business card to contact his office for an appointment.
Shortly after the municipal election, the Stallbrook Alliance for Sex Worker Rights (SASWR) meets in the downtown Free Spirits meetinghouse; the five-member Executive Committee convenes first, before the main membership meeting. Adara is there to conduct surveys of sex workers and others, as well as learn more about the history of sex worker organizing in the city, with SASWR getting started after the Jezebel Project and Graham’s reforms, and with considerable help from the Free Spirits. At the membership meeting, a street-based sex worker named Maya shares her story, followed by Adara explaining her research and the surveys to be taken.
In Wilmington, Delaware, Wolfe O’Cleary meets with Bridie Chase and two of her advisors, political consultant Burton Trumbull and private investigator Genie Crouch. They discuss the situation in Stallbrook, where those in support of Graham’s de-facto decriminalization have gained some ground in the City Council, and Crouch reports that she can find no “dirt” which can be used to discredit Graham. Chase concludes that their best option is to support right-wing candidates in the 2023 elections in order to shift the City Council towards her own views. O’Cleary sees this as a contradiction to her earlier support for progressive candidates, but Chase argues that this is a case of political pragmatism, and he acquiesces to her insistence.
Adara arrives at the downtown Free Spirit meetinghouse to attend the Sunday celebration, and runs into Tula, who talks about her open relationship arrangement with her boyfriend, and the possibility of their finding someone for a polyamorous triad. After the celebration service, Adara goes up to the communion rooms with Sophie and one of her male submissives, Justin, where the two women co-top him, including Adara pegging him. Adara and Sophie talk some more while washing up with Justin resting, before leaving for the day. On the way out, Adara meets Tula again, who says that Tom Ramey, a lawyer who serves in the local Free Spirit leadership, would be willing to discuss some of her concerns with him. She then meets Tula’s boyfriend when he arrives – Stuart Nathanson.
The following Wednesday, Adara is at home mulling over the now-complicated relationship between herself, Tula and Stuart. She talks it over with her housemate Imani, when a phone call interrupts their conversation. Kira Fredericks from the local SCAT chapter tells her that they will be engaging in a protest march on Creston Street on Friday, and expecting that the police could arrest some of them; Adara nervously tells her that participating would be a conflict of interest with her role as a researcher, but that she might be able to observe. Adara then shares this with Imani, including the fact that her telling the police about the protest would also be in conflict with her role. Their conservative housemate Vera then enters, and tells them that she received a call about the protest. Imani now proposes that she could inform the police about this, based on her hearing the news from Vera, while Adara looks into going to the Special District to observe police operations there. On Thursday, Adara arrives at the Special District and is given permission by Captain Hunter to observe her officers; meanwhile, Hunter’s desk Sergeant receives a phone call about the upcoming protest, leading Hunter to make preparations with the Department’s Special Events Coordination Unit. On Friday, officers are briefed on the protest and the preparations made in anticipation; Hunter addresses the protest group about their legal limits, and the protesters find approximately four dozen uniformed officers on the street. The protesters begin their march, then attempt to block vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and entryways to buildings, to which the officers respond with warnings and then arrests. Arrested protesters are taken to municipal court, and Kira’s behavior in front of the judge leads to additional contempt of court charges against her.
The fines of the protesters are paid, and they are released from city jail, with the four members of SCAT being taken by car service to the Laurel Hill Hotel outside of Stallbrook. They are met by Burton Trumbull, and Bridie Chase then joins them by video conferencing. They discuss the fallout from the failed protest, including the possibility of someone whom they contacted informing the police. Chase then proposes that SCAT work with her and others to help get conservatives elected to the City Council, and June Merrill balks at the idea of supporting misogynistic candidates. Chase and the others pressure her to accept the situation, and SCAT commits to the plan. Later at a location in the city, Republicans Carl Hersch, Michael Jaeger and Kristine Manatos meet with Constitution Party members Tom Jamieson, Vince Ruby and Peter Saxon to discuss overtures Trumbull has made on Chase’s behalf to support the campaigns of conservatives opposed to Chief Graham’s policies.
Back in Stallbrook, Adara has a conversation with Tula and Stuart, leading them to enjoy a threesome. A few days later, Professor Likarauskas introduces her to his colleague and friend, Willa Emerson of Aletheia Research Associates. Emerson shares with Adara that Chase approached her to conduct research on the end-demand policies favored by the Abolition Initiative, but that Emerson turned her down when it was clear that Chase was expecting a predetermined conclusion. Adara talks about her review of O’Cleary’s work, and Emerson provides her with materials showing that she is not the first to critique his approach.
Adara then participates in a large play party at the APEx dungeon, joined by Amalia and other friends. She spends most of the time watching other BDSM scenes, then joins in a scene led by Amalia, followed by relaxing and talking with Amalia’s friends Saturn and Mina, and returning home to a good night’s sleep. The following Sunday, she interviews Bridget about her experiences as an escort and activist for sex worker rights. She then engages in a text exchange with Amalia, Sophie and others about acting out a complicated erotic role-play, which they arrange with several friends, including the owners of a small restaurant where it is to be staged.
At last, Adara has her meeting with Delbert Graham, Stallbrook’s Chief of Police. He talks to her about his background, how he came to embrace a more progressive method of law enforcement, and especially his support for the decriminalization of sex work. Adara is impressed by his thoughtful and compassionate approach to achieve “real justice,” even if it means ignoring the letter of the law when strict enforcement would lead to greater harm. With both being fans of Star Trek, they exchange the Vulcan salute on parting. Graham even helps her get an interview with Nate Teixeira, the District Attorney who used to volunteer for the Jezebel Project and who shares Graham’s views on policing and justice.
With her thesis completed and submitted to Clymer’s sociology department for review, she is urged by several people in Stallbrook to make a public presentation. She does so under the auspices of the University of Stallbrook, outlining the evidence that Graham’s de-fact decriminalization produces measurably better outcomes than end-demand or other approaches. While two opponents of Graham’s policies express their dissatisfaction, they fail to win over any other members of the audience; even the sex trafficking survivors assert that the Stallbrook model actually helped them as well as the sex workers in the area.
After another threesome with Tula and Stuart, Adara learns from her advisor at Clymer that Wolfe O’Cleary has published a competing report, claiming her as a co-author and incorporating selected elements of her thesis out of context. This leads to a meeting on the Clymer campus, arbitrated by her advisor, with O’Cleary and a top executive of his consulting firm on one side, and Adara with Tom Ramey's legal partner on the other. Adara asserts that she had no prior knowledge of O’Cleary putting together a different report, and then shares her discovery of serious methodological flaws in O’Cleary’s work. The executive from L+B Consultants agrees to withdraw O’Cleary’s report, and that his other work will be scrutinized; Adara’s advisor determines that this will now clear the way for final approval of the thesis, and Adara receiving her master’s degree.
After her commencement, Adara prepares for the next chapter of her life – an instructor position at nearby Riesenburg University concurrent with a position at Aletheia Research Associates. Before this happens, however, Bridie Chase arrives in a limousine to talk with her. While superficially polite, she is clearly displeased with Adara’s defection to the cause of decriminalization, but Adara holds her ground and argues that Chase’s actions have done more harm than good, and that it would be better if she invested her money and energy to fighting poverty rather than making lives miserable for sex workers. Before Adara leaves, Chase reminds her about the influence she wields, warning her about “committing to be David to my Goliath” – and Adara, with a smile, reminds her that, in that legendary conflict, it was David who had triumphed.
== Sub-plots ==
Three major sub-plots are also covered in this book:
=== The politics of Stallbrook ===
Stallbrook’s electoral system is much more inclusive than in many real-life locations, with a lower threshold for ballot access, and the use of ranked-choice voting. As a result, the Democrats and Republicans compete with seven other parties – Green, Libertarian, Pirate, Constitution, Working Families, Socialists United, and even the satirical Beer and Pizza Party – as well as independent candidates. There is also a form of “fusion” voting where a smaller party may “co-endorse” a candidate from a larger one, with the Working Families Party often co-endorsing progressive Democrats, and the Constitution Party co-endorsing conservative Republicans.
In the 2019 City Council elections, the Democrats and Republicans each lost one seat, while the Pirates and Greens each gained one, with the independent and Libertarian Council members retaining their seats. The most hotly contested election was for the second district, where Angel Portillo ran for re-election as a Republican, but without the co-endorsement of the Constitution Party, which ran Peter Saxon against him, along with five other candidates. In the end, as the votes for minor candidates were transferred according to preferences, Portillo won re-election over his challengers.
=== Police reform in Stallbrook ===
Several years prior, the Stallbrook Police Department was notorious for corruption, racial and gender bias, and other abuses, as was the city Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) lodge. While younger progressive officers like Ron Marshall and Greg Bogosian started Stallbrook Police United for Reform (SPUR), Mayor Allan Phillips and his allies in the City Council looked for a new police chief to clean up the Department from the top down. They found their man in Delbert Graham, a decorated career officer who had most recently tried to address corruption in a smaller local department, and who accepted their invitation to become Stallbrook’s fifty-second Chief of Police. SPUR’s leaders would meet with Graham, and they would embrace a shared vision of widespread reform.
Chief Graham started by identifying the most blatantly corrupt officers within the Department – the “Dirty Dozen” – and have them quickly removed. As this group included most of the leadership of the corruption “Machine,” Graham soon had a free hand to both clean house and institute numerous policy changes. His actions also emboldened the officers within SPUR to confront the “Old Guard” within the FOP, leading to a “Big Split” where a large portion of officers resigned from the lodge and joined the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, the latter eventually replacing the former as the official union for all Department employees. Together, Graham and SPUR’s leaders worked to change not only the policy but the internal culture of the Department, even recruiting reform-minded officers from other cities, such as Joanna Carvalho and Tarika Rashad.
=== Sex worker issues in Stallbrook ===
Before Bridget arrived in Stallbrook, an escort named Eva organized and ran a group called the Courtesan Guild, which admitted only escorts and did not engage in overt activism for sex worker rights. People reportedly found Eva difficult to work with, and after she left the Guild soon collapsed.
When Jane Hardesty arrived and formed the Jezebel Project, Bridget engaged her in discussion and convinced her to adopt a harm-reduction approach, addressing the needs of street-based sex workers so that those who desired to leave would be in a better position to do so on their own terms. Shortly after Jezebel got off the ground, Chief Graham issued a moratorium on stings against escorts and their clients, and then approached Jane and Bridget about plans to create the Creston Street Special District. These and other reforms by Graham developed into an overarching policy of de-facto decriminalization which increased safety for sex workers and others involved in commercial sex, but without any measurable negative impact on the rest of the city.
This made it possible for Bridget and others to start the Stallbrook Alliance for Sex Worker Rights, with members and leaders from both the sex worker community and their allies. The Alliance’s members form caucuses for current and former sex workers, allies, and other groups. The Executive Committee or “Exec” is composed of three current or former sex workers and two allies, each nominated by their respective caucuses and elected by the entire membership. Membership meetings often begin with a member sharing their personal story, as a form of community building.
Category:Books in the Free Spirits series