Elizabeth Nolan Brown with Reason Magazine wrote a great piece attacking the straw man arguments for continued criminalization of prostitution found in this article. (
https://reason.com/blog/2015/10/03/s...s-prostitution) She argues that slavery is abhorrent in all of its forms, from sex trafficking, to forced labor in New York nail salons, to the plantation system in the antebellum south, yet no one wants to ban manicures or agriculture, only prostitution. She further claims that the criminalization of consensual prostitution actually makes it more difficult to prosecute sex-traffickers, since sex-workers and their clients are less likely to report suspected cases of trafficking out of fear of having criminal action pursued against them for their own activities.
There is a ton of great journalism coming out of the Reason Foundation on topics related to sex work, from coverage of the closure of rentboy.com by the Department of Homeland Security, to organized attempts by sex-worker advocacy groups to legalize prostitution. I advise all escorts and their clients to check it out and educate themselves regarding these important issues of interest to the community. I believe that education on these topics is more important now than ever, because the political climate has never been riper for reform than it is today.
In the majority opinion of the 2003 Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned state statutes criminalizing homosexual acts, Justice Kennedy argued, “The petitioners [Lawrence and Garner] are entitled to respect for their private lives. The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.” It would seem that this same privacy logic should also apply to all sex acts among consenting adults, including prostitution. However, Justice Kennedy went on to explicitly state,
“The present case does not involve minors. It does not involve persons who might be injured or coerced or who are situated in relationships where consent might not easily be refused. It does not involve public conduct or prostitution. It does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter”
Twelve years later, in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark decision on gay marriage, the court ruled on the last point arguing that the right of homosexuals to marry is protected by the due process clause and the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. Perhaps a future court will argue that the right of consenting adults to engage in their choice of consensual sexual behavior is an unenumerated right protected by the 9th Amendment.
However, change does not begin in the courts. Change begins in conversations and debates at the dinner table and around the water cooler. Lawrence v. Texas did not become the law of the land until well after a majority of Americans opposed sodomy bans. The same is true of Obergefell v. Hodges and support for same-sex marriage.
That is why it is so critically important that we, as a community, rally against the logical fallacies contained in this article which are regularly trotted out to argue for the continued criminalization of prostitution. We need to make clear to people that prostitution among consenting adults has no more in common with sex trafficking than agriculture has with slavery. If we can change enough hearts and minds, perhaps we can create an environment in which we can achieve real change through the judicial system.
It is important to remember that legalizing prostitution is about so much more than my right to bust a sweet nut and the right of providers to earn a quick buck. It is about the rights of sex workers to justice against their unscrupulous customers who assault them, steal from them, rape them, and even kill them. It is about enabling sex workers and their clients to report suspected instances of trafficking without fear of legal reprisal. It is about the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
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