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A Washington, D.C. city councilmember has introduced a bill that would decriminalize prostitution:
D.C. Councilmember David Grosso is behind a bill that would decriminalize prostitution, arguing it's in keeping with his advocacy for human rights and marginalized communities. "We basically criminalize too many activities," Grosso argued in a recent news conference. "It is time for the District of Columbia to reconsider the framework in which we handle commercial sex work, and move from one of criminalization to a focus on human rights, health and safety."
Grosso says he worked with the Sex Worker Advocates Coalition, and followed recommendations from a variety of human rights organizations from around the world as he drafted the bill. "The bill is quite simple, really," argues Grosso. "It repeals a number of laws or parts of laws that criminalize adults for exchanging consensual sex for money or other things of value." "By removing criminal penalties for those in the sex trade, we can bring people out of the shadows, help them lead safer and healthier lives, and more easily tackle the complaints we hear from communities about trash or other nuisances."
If passed, D.C. would become the only city in the U.S. to decriminalize prostitution:
While prostitution has been legal in some parts of Nevada in the form of brothels for more than a century, what's often called "the world's oldest profession" remains criminalized in the rest of the United States. An effort to decriminalize prostitution via referendum in San Francisco failed in 2008, after heavy criticism from city officials at the time. Kamala Harris, then the city's district attorney and now a rising star senator, said the measure "would put a welcome mat out for pimps and prostitutes to come on into San Francisco."
But in the near decade since then, there's been a shift in perspective alongside a growing international movement further popularizing the policy change that sheds stigma in favor of pragmatism. The idea is that if sex workers don't fear arrest, they'll be able to access healthcare and other services. One 2014 study from The Lancet found that decriminalizing sex work could "have the largest effect on the course of the H.I.V. epidemic."
Reducing Criminalization to Improve Community Health & Safety Amendment Act of 2017
Also at Reason. Grosso press release at Scribd. HIPS.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RedBear on Wednesday October 11 2017, @08:30AM (2 children)
I have to say I'm so traumatized by watching America march backwards over the last year that I initially misread the title as "D.C. Bill Would Criminalize Sex Work". It was very disheartening for a moment.
Watch out, if we decriminalize sex work we might reduce sex work related crime, exploitation and abuse, reduce the spread of disease by enabling sex workers to get easier access to protection and testing and medical treatment, and bring in billions in tax revenues. And then we might go on to do other crazy crap like decriminalizing, regulating and taxing all controlled substances which could take the wind out of the sails of the drug gangs that are behind the majority of gun homicides and other organized crime.
It'll never happen. It makes too much sense.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 11 2017, @10:49AM (1 child)
A few hundred years ago prostitution in Germany was controlled by the Catholic Church. They viewed it as a public health measure for pretty much the same reasons as this bill proposes. Also they thought it would reduce other crime by giving men a sanctioned outlet for their passions.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @04:39PM
Now they only sanction pedophiles' passions.