The first Bad Date Lists — which are lists that give descriptions of people who attack those who sell sex — began appearing in the early 1980s. The lists got their name from the street term for the sale of sex which is “date.”

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In 1983, a “Bad Date Book” was published in Vancouver, Canada by the Alliance for Safety of Prostitutes. In 1986, the “Ugly Mugs Scheme” was published in Australia by the Prostitution Collective, with the term “ugly mugs” to referring to the attackers.

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In the United States, regional versions of Bad Date Lists cropped up in various cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. These publications waxed and waned over the decades, with new ones cropping up and old ones falling by the wayside.

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In Albuquerque, N.M., the first Bad Date List was started in the mid-2000s and put out by a local homeless nonprofit, which added about three new reports to it a year. In 2009, Christine Barber, our executive director, who, at the time, was a volunteer with the nonprofit, started her own 501(c)(3) to help women on the street. She soon was taking so many reports for the list — about three a week — the homeless agency gave her their blessing to take it over.

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It quickly become clear the list had to serve a larger purpose, which was to give information about attacks against all women on the street, whether they did dates or not. At the same time, some women who did not sell sex found the “Bad Date List” name off-putting and would get offended if offered the list. All of that led Christine to change the name to the Bad Guy List.

 

In July 2023, when Christine and other experienced volunteers decided to start Asur, management of the Bad Guy List came with them.