LGBT+ Community of the USA: Prostitution

I'm not a big fan of prostitution, but if it's going to take place, it should take place legally. That way, it is more likely that the rights of the sex worker will be protected. And also it might reduce the number of sexual assaults?

Idk. I'm being idealistic. I have no idea how this works. I doubt their rights will actually be protected under current administration and everything. But theoretically, I think it would be better to legalise it.

 

It's just strange to me that people can sell their bodies visually(strip clubs) but not sexually. If it's consenting adults I don't think it matters. I feel the same with polygyny.

---------- Post added 9th Nov 2016 at 08:57 AM ----------

Legalize pot too!

 

I'm not in the USA but I agree with Brytaleith. If it happens it should happen legally, and more importantly, safely.

 

I'm indifferent, I would not engage in it but other people should be free to do what they want with their own bodies as long as it does not hurt others.

 

It was legal for a period of time recently in Canada, as a result of a Supreme Court of Canada decision, and the world didn't end.

I suspect the police grew a bit bored in the big cities though, and searched for other people to bust.

 

I really don't care either way. Personally I'd never hire/rent/whatever a prostitute myself but I've never really cared too much about what other people do as long as it doesn't affect me in anyway at all. If people wanna be prostitutes or have sex with one that's there own thing

 

Absolutely. Its legalization would lead to its strict regulation by the government, which would be a better situation for everyone involved.

 

I disagree. I think it would be better to criminalize the buying of prostitutes, while not punishing the prostitute themselves.

 

I hear about a lot of people getting murdered or worse trying to do it illegally, so having an extra eye of regulation there would be a lot better, I'd presume.

So many unnecessary deaths. While I feel we should discourage it due to such safety hazards, we shouldn't be making it even more unsafe for those who do or end up stuck in such a situation.

 

As long as it's safely regulated, then sure.

 

I think it should. There are a lot of hate crimes against prostitues that you never hear about and I think this would keep them protected. Also for some people they just aren't good at getting laid but still crave it and I don't see anything wrong with that so yea I think we should legalize it.

 

It's your body. If you want to charge to let people fuck you it's your prerogative.

 

Forgot to address prostitution and the trans community. If laws protected them then many wouldn't have to resort to being sex workers. That and a higher minimum wage. Some would still do it but I hear many cases of job discrimination towards trans people so they have to resort to prostitution. It's sad and to the trans community my heart goes to you. I'm still ignorant on this topic but if anyone wants to chip in more I'll listen.

 

We could have Local Chapter 69 of the International Sisterhood of Harlots. Union power would help them get benefits and services. Maybe a healthcare plan with no deductibles for STI checkups.

But, yes, while I oppose prostitution on moral grounds, I don't on legal ones.

 

It should be legalized so that it can be regulated for the safety of people in sex work.

 

I honestly don't know. I believe that sex work is a principled wrong. Even if theoretically you could separate it from sexism, in the real world it continues a norm where women's bodies are commodities and gives in to an expectation that sex always be accessible, no matter what.

It's also important to remember who sex workers are. They are often girls and women and boys and young men who have been taken into the industry when they were most vulnerable. A handful, I am sure, are self-respecting, autonomous, socially and legally aware of their rights and mature. But most are not.

The problem I have is with the model. Criminalising sex workers is self-evidently wrong. It drives them underground and stops them from seeking protection.

So you have two reasonable options, of regulating or partially criminalising sex work.

I. Regulation​

The first option is to make sex work legal to buy and to sell. The rationale for this is that sex workers are more protected when they have a business framework and institutional protection.

However, regulated sex work still sets those pernicious norms about women and men's entitlement to women's bodies. Even if you regulate sex work, there is no doubt that you legitimise an industry in which many women are humiliated, disrespected and abused, who do not report the minor incidents because it impacts their employment and capacity to get clients. So you have women who accept degradation day by day until the cumulative harm is enormous.

And even with policy measures to limit abuse such as refusing to allow foreign (or otherwise out-of-jurisdiction) sex workers to work in a jurisdiction to cut trafficking or refusing foreign residents to limit sex tourism and the culture of impunity it brings, you still don't change that prostitutes find themselves in those bad situations domestically. Debt bondage to a brothel or vulnerable women being pressured into those environments from a young age all are hallmarks of the sex industry and can be very hard to uncover due to internal cultures of abuse and silencing and the difficulty of examining sex workers' finances.

Given those restrictions don't stop the fundamental harms of the sex industry, it's not entirely clear that legalisation is the best route. The two goals are flawed - the business environment is not only flawed in itself, but the legal institutions designed to protect sex workers are not accessible because of the culture and incentives of the business. The first goal harms the second while still legitimising a sexist culture.

II. Criminalising buyers but not sellers​

Alternatively, forbidding the purchase of sex work without criminalising its sale allows sex workers to access protection while still discouraging the existence of the industry. In order for this to work, there have to be pathways out of prostitution, which is why it's only advisable for advanced welfare states.

This is the Nordic model, excluding Finland, which has a weak model that allows purchasers to get away easily thanks to unduly strict evidentiary standards.

Critics often raise the issue that this model forces sex workers to make judgements about their clients 'on the fly' without time to vet them. Simply put, that doesn't hold up. Sex workers in regulated environments must do so anyway due to the nature of the business and clients' demands for discretion. A violent client might not appear so at the time of the transaction.

And given that the business environment is harmful even when legal, this model doesn't add a new harm on top of that, because the sex worker has the capacity to seek the same level of help but is constrained by an industry culture less or equally institutionally strong, which cancels out that harm.

There's also the argument that doing this leaves only the worst clients. But I just don't think that's entirely true. A significant minority of clients of sex workers enjoy the socially transgressive element, most of them not engaging in explicit violence. Criminalisation won't change that. Many other users of sex work will have incentives that are not greater than the risk of prosecution and exposure and will cease to buy sex work. Norwegian and Swedish data support the idea that street and other forms of prostitution reduced significantly.

Those unperturbed by committing violence will buy sex work anyway. The law clearly never mattered to this group.

So if you have a reduction in those buying sex work, the proportion of violence could increase but the number of sex workers harmed will decrease. That can make violence easier to identify (again, the business incentives mean a regulated environment doesn't accomplish that) and also allows punishing those who buy sex work to serve as a disincentive for the broader normative standard about sex and women's roles in our society it sets.

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Empirical data are hard to get because of the lack of thorough research and the division within feminist theory and between feminist approaches and other approaches (religious moralistic, nonreligious libertarian) makes it hard to have reliable testimonials.

But I think that, if the goal of public policy makers is to achieve the balance between sex workers' safety and setting good standards for women's rights and the role of women in modern society, then criminalising the purchase of sex work really might be the way to go.

 

i don't really care (indifferent) because i wouldn't prostitute myself and i'm kinda iffy on it morally, but if others want to do it in a legal way with many many many regulations to prevent sexual abuse, violence, etc, then that's their choice.