Two female LGBTQ activists, Ezra Fry and David Acevedo, were arrested for illicit prostitution following an undercover sting in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Both activists, who are teachers in the local school system, allegedly told police they needed to sell sex or risk starvation.
Fry, a substitute teacher contracted out by Education Management and Staffing solutions, hasn’t worked in Hamilton County Schools since August. Acevedo, a special education teacher at Calvin Donaldson Elementary, was suspended without pay on August 29 pending an investigation.
The sting was conducted on August 25 and 26 in the Chattanooga area as part of an operation involving the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Human Trafficking Unit, the Tennessee Human Trafficking Task Force, the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations, the Chattanooga Police Department, the Office of 11th Judicial District Attorney General Coty Wamp, and Grow Free Tennessee. Five men were arrested and/or cited as a result of the sting.
Acevedo and Fry were both charged with possession, unlawful carrying or possession of a weapon, drug paraphernalia, and prostitution or promoting prostitution. A police report indicated that an officer posing as a “john” made contact with Fry via an illicit prostitution website to set up a sexual encounter. Fry, who calls herself “non-binary,” allegedly explained what she would and wouldn’t do and how much it cost, pricing her wares at $150.
After an exchange of cash in the bedroom of the transvestites’ house, the officer identified himself and detained both teachers. Inside the residence, police reportedly found “a large amount of drug paraphernalia” and a revolver.
