Prostitution is illegal, but not harmful

There's a rapist on the loose in The City. He makes dates with professional women, invites them into the house where he lives with his mother, straps them down to his bed and rapes them. He never even pays them.

"He's really angry against women, " said COYOTE (Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics -- a prostitution rights group) member Zoe. "He can vent his wrath on 'someone who deserves it' but ultimately, that's going to spill over onto any woman."

Although his description, address and even his phone number are well-known, nothing is being done by the authorities. Nothing is being done because the working women he's raping are members of the world's oldest profession: they're prostitutes.

The alleged rapist has made the number one slot on the list of bad "Johns" -- called the "dirty tricks" list -- compiled by the San Francisco-based COYOTE.

The man's victims remain in a helpless double-bind. Because the women are prostitutes, they call themselves by various titles -- "whore," "call girl," "sex worker" and "erotic consultant," -- they remain not only outside the protection of law, but subject to its prosecution. They inhabit a dusky no man's land between victim and criminal.

Prostitution is a crime of consent; both parties agree to an exchange frowned upon by the law. Prostitution, unlike rape, is a victimless crime; each party gets out of it what they want and no one is hurt unless one or both parties is prosecuted by the law. Prostitution is a profitable crime; practitioners can turn $75 to $400 in untaxed revenue in an hour.

It is high time the reasoning that makes sex-for-money- a crime is called into question. Poll after poll has shown the majority of women and men in this republic favor abortion; the right of people to control their own reproductive lives. That right of control implies both the cognizance to make rational decisions and the liberty of adults to engage in consensual sex -- with anyone, behind any door, for any reason.

COYOTE's Carol Stuart says it best when she proclaims that people "have the right to have sex for any reason: for love, for money, for I don't give two fucks in hell what for!"

Prostitution should be decriminalized, regulated by its own professional organizations and taxed like any other business. It's a minor sin we can tolerate. But rape is rape and a rapist should be locked behind bars.

[ Golden Gater Online December 5, 1995 ]

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