Some good news regarding prostitution...

Regarding prostitution in Massachusetts: some good news - a proposal designed to stiffen the punishment for prostitution and solicitation of a prostitute in Springfield has overwhelmingly failed 12 to 1:

"...On Monday, City Councilor Jimmy Ferrera proposed that the city move to a one year mandatory sentence for prostitutes and those who solicit them if caught.

The measure failed 12-1.

Right now, most who face prostitution or solicitation charges pay only a $500 dollar fine and serve no jail time.

After a sting on Friday, the police department made 4 arrests within just a few hours.

Margaret Pilon lives in Springfield and wasn’t big on the idea of the one-year mandatory sentence, either.

She said, “I really don't believe in mandatory sentences, but I believe that if the prostitute is punished, so too should the john, it should be both.”

A group of protestors showed up at the City Council meeting to oppose the mandatory sentence.

Ellen Graves is with "Arise for Social Justice". She thinks prostitution should be legal. She told 22News, “Going after prostitution is going after people who are poor and also usually drug users. There should be rehab centers, there should be training centers where they could learn a skill. The money they're spending on putting people in jail is huge.”

Ferrera says the measure is dead, and will most likely not be brought up again."

While this is not the most progressive news - since I believe adult prostitution should be totally legalised - this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Children Of The Night

Today, it has become all too common for sex workers' rights advocates to wax poetic about the so-called "glamour" of prostitution and to make wild, unsubstantiated claims that all prostitutes are just so happy to be on the game. Some of these pro-sex worker activists are in total denial about the dark side of prostitution: parental abuse and juvenile runaways.

Let's clear this up: Prostitutes - myself included - do not have 'power' over clients and/or money. That's simply a romanticised myth, and in any case, that's not what we're looking for. Most women who are prostitutes - again, myself included - had been abused as children, oftentimes sexually abused. In fact, the dysfunctional family has oftentimes been referred to as the 'training ground' or 'boot camp' for a life in prostitution. While it's true that not all little girls who have been victims of incest grow up to become hookers, most women who are prostitutes had been victims of sexual molestation when they were young children. (And yes, this applies to me.) Little girls who have been molested learn to develop the mentality of quid pro quo: the human body and sexual activity are bartering tools for services rendered.

In Los Angeles, there is an excellent outreach organisation which rescues underage runaways from the streets and prostitution: Children Of The Night. Founded in 1979 by Dr. Lois Lee, Children Of The Night is a private, non-profit, tax-exempt organisation dedicated to assisting children between the ages of 11 and 17 who are forced to work as prostitutes on the streets for food and a place to sleep. All of their programs are provided with the support of private donations.

children of the night

Red Light District Of Amsterdam

Recently, there has been a lot of gentrification in Amsterdam's red light district; within the past two years, in an effort to combat organised crime, Amsterdam's city council voted to halve the number of brothels and marijuana shops in the city's red light district and surrounding areas; many of the brothels have been converted into artists' studios. "Money laundering, extortion, and human trafficking are things you do not see on the surface, but they are hurting people and the city. We want to fight this," said the mayor. "We can still have sex and drugs, but in a way that shows the city is in control."

As of January 2010, a proposal has been launched to raise the minimum age of prostitutes from 18 to 23 and to close down the red light district in the Wallen area between 4:00 and 8:00 a.m. One of the aims is to strengthen the position of the women who work in the sex industry. To quote one of the city's councilors: "We recently saw the escape of a people trafficker who used extreme violence to pressure very young girls who were far from home into prostitution in the Wallen area."

Additionally, the international recession has hit Amsterdam's red light district: "Some days, there are just no people,", according to one brothel owner.

My opinion: While I do understand the concern of Amsterdam's authorities regarding organised crime and violence towards the city's prostitutes, I fully support the continuation of the brothels; after all, we prostitutes should have the right to work when and where we choose.