(Originally posted on Daily Kos)
Suppose you were in a position of power and given the opportunity to improve living conditions for millions of people within your jurisdiction. Would you do it? What if this proposition would also control the spread of disease? Would a proposal that would also protect your people from abuse be welcomed? The charges would be minimal, with most costs being covered by the revenue generated by the plan itself. This scheme would also curb a good percentage of street violence, without rescinding any person’s civil liberties. The proposition I write about is the legalization of the work of Adult Service Providers – including prostitution.
“Adult Service Providers” is a blanket term, referring to escorts, erotic entertainers, adult film stars, prostitutes, brothel managers, and adult website managers. Treating this variety of work like any other business would enable the same standards to apply to the sex industry. If a legal adult chooses to become an Adult Service Provider, often known as a “sex worker”, he or she would have the right to do so. Just like other businesses, professions with sex workers would be subject to strict health regulations and standards. This factor would likely lead to a sharp decline in STI/STD and AIDS rates among sex workers (and, of course, among their clientele). Since sex workers and their executives would be under the same laws as other companies; verbal, sexual, and physical abuse laws would now be able to protect millions of men and women from said abuse. As a result of these adult oriented institutions now being subject to strict regulation, persons or institutions that traffic humans or illegally take advantage of minors would be discovered and punished easier.
The current laws against the sex industry are unacceptable, because, rather than attempting to actually fix many problems, they pretend that prohibition will actually end an industry known colloquially as “the world’s oldest business.” It has been well over 100 years since most laws prohibiting prostitution were enacted, laws that have stood only to clutter our judicial system and overfill our jails – while doing nothing to protect the freedom of Americans. In other words, these laws have not ended human trafficking, they have not lowered STI or AIDS rates among sex workers, nor have they prevented minors from being used in sexual exploits.
Furthermore, most harmful pieces of legislation prohibiting the work of Adult Service Providers are “feel good” laws – enactments that serve little purpose other than to seem favorable. The success of keeping traditionally scorned-behavior – prostitution, the use of recreational drugs, etc. – illegal is irrelevant because said laws are not measured by actual success, but by how “safe” the laws make most of its citizens feel – even if millions of Americans suffer in the process. These laws, in essence, take away adults’ rights to their own sexuality, privacy, and freedom. Furthermore, as the American Civil Liberties Union wrote in a 2007 explanation, “Such laws [against prostitution] have traditionally represented one of the most direct forms of discrimination against women. The woman who engage[s] in prostitution is punished criminally and stigmatized socially while her male customer, either by the explicit design of the statute or through a pattern of discriminatory enforcement is left unscathed.”
Unfortunately, conservatives and many liberals actually staunchly support these “feel- good” laws, instead of the commonsense solution of legalization. Among liberals, feminists are debatably the most divided on this issue. Older feminists tend to disagree with the notions behind many sectors of the sex industry, due to its sexist tenancies, and are fine with its inadequate prohibition. However, many younger feminists (“third-wave feminists”) recognize that the government should respect a sex worker’s choice in his or her own line of work. On the other side of the political spectrum, some libertarians have come out in support of legalizing the work of Adult Service Providers, but most self-identified conservatives want no change of the status quo. While President Obama has never addressed the issue, due to his repeated actions of backing-away from socially liberal views, one can guess that he would be no more progressive on this issue than Glenn Beck.
Americans need to ask themselves if they are ready to let go of their idealistic world view and start fixing the country. At the end of the day, the sex industry is not going away. We can either embrace it, therefore making America a safer place for all, or we can continue allowing this failed system to waste more time, money, and resources, while simultaneously destroying countless lives. The choice is up to us; for the sake of the nation, I hope we pick the right one.
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