"Criminalizing the sex industry creates ideal conditions for rampant exploitation and abuse of sex workers...[I]t is believed that trafficking in women, coercion and exploitation can only be stopped if the existence of prostitution is recognized and the legal and social rights of prostitutes are guaranteed."

        -Marjan Wijers, LLM. Chair of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Trafficking in Human Beings.  

               No matter how taboo, no matter how wrong it may seem, no matter how enforced, Prostitution is a thriving black market in my hometown Portland, Oregon.

Prostitution has, is, and will always exist because it’s inescapable to pretend that there is not an eternal, if not marginal, demand for prostitutes, as well as willing sex workers.

 *Before I go on it’s necessary to acknowledge also the thriving black market business which enslaves and distributes underage and/or non-consensual prostitutes. This practice is heinous and I am NOT proposing that we ever legalize this practice, because underage prostitutes cannot be considered consensual and of course neither can people held and forced against their will. Freedom for a consensual, adult prostitute and that of a child/forced trafficked person are two different issues, but they overlap because illegality of any prostitution fuels trafficking and abuses for both groups.. The former requires safety and equality in his/her chosen profession, and the latter deserves freedom from his/her slavery. The latter also requires all the police power and funding that is currently being wasted in apprehending and incarcerating the former.

 

                In illegal prostitution, prostitutes lack the right to keep their earnings, losing much of their money to pimps. This black market environment means that both prostitute and pimp can participate, unregulated, in drugs and all kinds of abuse. Due to the illegality of their profession, prostitutes will rarely go to the authorities or document abuses. They also are exempt from contributing in taxes due to the currently illegal nature of their field.

 

*Even though it has been feared, hated and shunned, pornography is a legal business and porn stars (who also have sex for money) are afforded human rights that prostitutes are not; a safe working environment, a decent wage, accountability and protection from their bosses and co-workers. Porn is regulated to help assure that porn stars are not being abused, and also that they are contributing to society through taxes. Why are prostitutes not afforded the same rights and responsibility?

 

                Regulated prostitution would greatly reduce incidences of disease transmission, all kinds of abuse, and drug abuse (because they will likely have to take drug tests like everybody else). Regulated prostitution would likely reduce the demand for illegal, underage, forced prostitutes by providing a legal, std-free, consensual alternative. It will be guaranteed that the prostitutes in the regulated brothels will be adult, drug free and STD free. Prostitution authorities can then focus on the black market selling of forced, underage sex slaves.

 

 

No matter how much you don’t like or agree with it, prostitution is a thriving business!

 

Please choose to take give consensual adult prostitutes their rights!

"It is estimated that if prostitution were legalized in the United States, the rape rate would decrease by roughly 25% for a decrease of approximately 25,000 rapes per year...."
      -Kirby R. Cundiff, PhD