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Decriminalization of Prostitution Will End Illegal Brothels and Stop Trafficking of Women
SWOP-USA is pushing prostitution decrim ballot initatives in Berkeley and San Francisco. Removing the laws against prostitution will eliminate the black market need to traffic enslaved women and children.
Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA Pushes Prostitution Decriminalization initiatives in San Francisco and Berkeley
Decriminalization of Prostitution Will Help Prevent Trafficking of Women and Illegal Brothels
The recent raids in San Francisco, netting an alleged sex worker trafficking ring highlights the need for decriminalization of prostitution. “As long as there is a demand for sex and it remains illegal, there will be a black market for these women. Law enforcement will never be able to arrest all the traffickers,” said Robyn Few Executive Director of Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA. “Our position is that shining a light on the sex industry will decrease the ability of criminals to profit from it. The last thing that a licensed brothel owner would want to do is hire illegal, underage or trafficked women and jeopardize their business.”
“Prohibition gives cover to traffickers. It allows them to use the laws against prostitution to intimidate, especially when it comes to children. Women and girls being held against their will are afraid to go to police because they will be treated as criminals,” said visiting scholar Dr. Rita Brock former Harvard fellow, theologian, author and educator.
Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center women’s program coordinator Elizabeth Sy also thinks providing sex workers equal protection under the law is the way to protect women and girls from traffickers. “The existing law leads to isolation of women. This is especially true for those that have language barriers. It prevents them from seeking police protection for themselves or others that are in trouble. Decriminalizing prostitution doesn’t mean decriminalizing trafficking. The purpose of halting trafficking is to protect the women who are the victims of it, but until we decriminalize prostitution we will not achieve that goal.”
Who: Robyn Few of Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA, visiting scholar and former Harvard fellow Dr. Rita Brock and API Wellness Center women’s program coordinator Elizabeth Sy.
What: Press conference to highlight the need for decriminalization of prostitution in order to prevent the abuses of sex slave trafficking.
Why: We are doing outreach to the neighborhood to educate them.
Where: In front of 2054 19th Avenue between Pacheco and Quintara (the location of one of the recently busted brothels).
When: Monday January 26, 2004 12:00 PM
Decriminalization of Prostitution Will Help Prevent Trafficking of Women and Illegal Brothels
The recent raids in San Francisco, netting an alleged sex worker trafficking ring highlights the need for decriminalization of prostitution. “As long as there is a demand for sex and it remains illegal, there will be a black market for these women. Law enforcement will never be able to arrest all the traffickers,” said Robyn Few Executive Director of Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA. “Our position is that shining a light on the sex industry will decrease the ability of criminals to profit from it. The last thing that a licensed brothel owner would want to do is hire illegal, underage or trafficked women and jeopardize their business.”
“Prohibition gives cover to traffickers. It allows them to use the laws against prostitution to intimidate, especially when it comes to children. Women and girls being held against their will are afraid to go to police because they will be treated as criminals,” said visiting scholar Dr. Rita Brock former Harvard fellow, theologian, author and educator.
Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center women’s program coordinator Elizabeth Sy also thinks providing sex workers equal protection under the law is the way to protect women and girls from traffickers. “The existing law leads to isolation of women. This is especially true for those that have language barriers. It prevents them from seeking police protection for themselves or others that are in trouble. Decriminalizing prostitution doesn’t mean decriminalizing trafficking. The purpose of halting trafficking is to protect the women who are the victims of it, but until we decriminalize prostitution we will not achieve that goal.”
Who: Robyn Few of Sex Workers Outreach Project-USA, visiting scholar and former Harvard fellow Dr. Rita Brock and API Wellness Center women’s program coordinator Elizabeth Sy.
What: Press conference to highlight the need for decriminalization of prostitution in order to prevent the abuses of sex slave trafficking.
Why: We are doing outreach to the neighborhood to educate them.
Where: In front of 2054 19th Avenue between Pacheco and Quintara (the location of one of the recently busted brothels).
When: Monday January 26, 2004 12:00 PM
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It certainly should be legal to be a prostitute but it should be illegal to promote or solicit prostitution. In countries like Holland and Germany where prostitution as an industry was legalized, the trafficking in women has increased and is a booming private profit industry, encouraging the degradation and exploitation of women. Thus, the problem is worse than ever. Solicitation and promotion of prostitution are forms of rape. Prostitution is a prostitute is allowing some lunatic to assault her for money. The kind of man who would solicit a prostitute is a very sick person. There is nothing normal or natural about soliciting or promoting prostitution at all. It is a sign of extreme decay of the bankrupt social order in which we live, capitalism. The horror of it all cannot be explained away as work, which it is not. Dressing it up as "making appointments for one night or one hour stands" only increases the horror of it all. Where there is no commitment, there is only the profit motive, and in the case of prostitution, this is rape for money. The goal of all socialists and anyone else who cares about the workingclass must be to eliminate the promotion and solicitation of prostitution.
pay to have your back massaged, but not OK to pay to have your front massaged, is anti-sex.
Besides, a great deal of prostitution, especially in this town, has nothing to do with women. How do you factor that into your theory?
Besides, a great deal of prostitution, especially in this town, has nothing to do with women. How do you factor that into your theory?
My views on this are more mixed. Definitely, they should decriminalize, because the situation that they have in the Netherlands is very preferable.
But I almost think there should be a different word for non-coerced sex work like various people who even have college degrees and other options do, where it is a truly free choice, vs. the majority of female prostitution which is pimp controlled, and pimps by definition don't contribute any work and are the equivalent of oppressive corporate bosses. By my perception, more male prostitution falls in the earlier category, but it can be poverty-coerced. In other countries where it is almost legal like SE asia, pimps still violently run the business because of the excess of really poor people. In the US, it's more of an interaction of poverty and drugs and regressive religious/social standards.
My cousin is a prostitute in Las Vegas since she ran away at 14 like all her siblings because of my aunt's severe packrat disorganizational disorder where there were tunnels amongst the piles of junk(the whole family is very book-smart, but dysfunctional), and she had 5 kids taken away and a long term periodic heroin problem. I'm not sure if she had a pimp type figure but her husband would aim guns at her etc. So decriminalization would be a plus, but there needs to be something more to elevate the position of most of the working class female prostitutes to a position of freedom.
But I almost think there should be a different word for non-coerced sex work like various people who even have college degrees and other options do, where it is a truly free choice, vs. the majority of female prostitution which is pimp controlled, and pimps by definition don't contribute any work and are the equivalent of oppressive corporate bosses. By my perception, more male prostitution falls in the earlier category, but it can be poverty-coerced. In other countries where it is almost legal like SE asia, pimps still violently run the business because of the excess of really poor people. In the US, it's more of an interaction of poverty and drugs and regressive religious/social standards.
My cousin is a prostitute in Las Vegas since she ran away at 14 like all her siblings because of my aunt's severe packrat disorganizational disorder where there were tunnels amongst the piles of junk(the whole family is very book-smart, but dysfunctional), and she had 5 kids taken away and a long term periodic heroin problem. I'm not sure if she had a pimp type figure but her husband would aim guns at her etc. So decriminalization would be a plus, but there needs to be something more to elevate the position of most of the working class female prostitutes to a position of freedom.
Male and female prostitution are the same. Being a prostitute should not be a crime but promoting or soliciting prostitution should remain a crime. There is no elevating rape; only elimination of the soliciting or promoting of prostitution can be on the agenda of any serious socialist. It is an issue of decent-paying jobs for the workingclass, which capitalism cannot provide. Indeed, it needs a reserve army of unemployed to keep wages down so as to maximize profits, the primary law of capitalism.
And there is no point in playing the color or immigration card in the Sunset anymore. Half of the population of the Sunset is Asian-American and either immigrant or one generation away from being an immigrant. They have exactly the same outlook as do all other property owners, regardless of color or place of birth. The name of the game is money in a capitalist society. The primary law of this bankrupt society is maximization of profit, profits being the stolen labor of workers.
As to reaching out to the residents of the Sunset, where the latest prostitution ring was busted, you will find this writer to be radical compared to that reactionary neighborhood, better known as a high-voting neighborhood. They do not want to hear any justification for prostitution and should anyone be stupid enough to put the issue on the ballot, it will experience a resounding defeat, even if you make the distinction between legalizing being a prostitute versus legalizing promotion and soliciting of prostitution. All of the phony anti-crime measures in recent years passed in San Francisco, including one in 2000 promoting the death penalty. What they care about are their property values and protecting their children from organized crime, which is what runs these prostitution rings.
The capitalist mouthpiece, the Chronicle, not only reported the property values and children issue concerns of the Sunset property-owning middle class residents of $500,000 and up homes, but also that the prostitutes were not charged with anything. They were merely being held by the immigration for being illegal immigrants. This whole bust sounds contrived at best, more likely it involves some political game, as it usually does.
And there is no point in playing the color or immigration card in the Sunset anymore. Half of the population of the Sunset is Asian-American and either immigrant or one generation away from being an immigrant. They have exactly the same outlook as do all other property owners, regardless of color or place of birth. The name of the game is money in a capitalist society. The primary law of this bankrupt society is maximization of profit, profits being the stolen labor of workers.
As to reaching out to the residents of the Sunset, where the latest prostitution ring was busted, you will find this writer to be radical compared to that reactionary neighborhood, better known as a high-voting neighborhood. They do not want to hear any justification for prostitution and should anyone be stupid enough to put the issue on the ballot, it will experience a resounding defeat, even if you make the distinction between legalizing being a prostitute versus legalizing promotion and soliciting of prostitution. All of the phony anti-crime measures in recent years passed in San Francisco, including one in 2000 promoting the death penalty. What they care about are their property values and protecting their children from organized crime, which is what runs these prostitution rings.
The capitalist mouthpiece, the Chronicle, not only reported the property values and children issue concerns of the Sunset property-owning middle class residents of $500,000 and up homes, but also that the prostitutes were not charged with anything. They were merely being held by the immigration for being illegal immigrants. This whole bust sounds contrived at best, more likely it involves some political game, as it usually does.
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