One really good reason not to legalize prostitution

[scaeagles]

I had never even thought of this happening should prostitution be legalized, but this is scary.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...30/wgerm30.xml

Yikes.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Damn, that's messed up.

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Oh my Christ. As I'm on the "it should be legalized" bandwagon (healthcare benefits, std tracking, protection, etc.), I find this REALLY distrubing and upsetting. Where does one even begin to write letters about this. Or something. Oh my Christ, this is awful.

[Ghoulish Delight]

It seems it would be fairly easy to control here. If I remember correctly from my stint on unemployment, the "you must take an offered job" rule only applied to jobs that were within your industry. As long as they don't do something stupid like classify prostitution as simply "service", it shouldn't be an issue. Actually, as I think about it, how do they currently handle "exotic dancer" as a job option here? It doesn't seem to be a problem.

[wendybeth]

This is beyond messed up, and I can't imagine where the hell their brains are. It's going to be interesting to follow this.

[BarTopDancer]

That's horrible!!!!!! The part that really gets me is they were going to exclude brothels but decided they were to hard to distinguish from bars. Yea. Ok. How hard is it to distinguish a brothel from a bar? One serves alcohol and one provides sex.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Actually, as I think about it, how do they currently handle "exotic dancer" as a job option here?

Were you considering Chippendale's as a career option?

[NirvanaMan]

Haha...it's funny, but I'm with GD on this. There has to be a way to make exceptions...as we do with dancers and the like today.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by article

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

Apparently their government is missing some logical thinkers...

Lets see how hard this would be...

"All persons looking for employment must accept any job offered to them except when that job requires sexual services."

Ooo my brain....

It also appears that the brothel can sue the job center for both not accepting their advertisment and not referring people to them.

Ok, I can see that. If the brothels are paying taxes like every other business they should be allowed to advertise like every other business. However an acception should be made to be required to work in one. I think that's right up there with sex slaves and blackmail. You either work in a brothel against your will or you lose all your benifits.

[Ghoulish Delight]

It ocurrs to me that there's a certain logical leap in one of the quotes in the article that I don't quite agree with...

"The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs cannot be turned down without a risk to benefits."

Hmm, no, I'm pretty sure the regulations say that working in the sex industry is not illegal anymore, it says nothing of morality. And that's the way it should be. If it's againts one's own personal morailty, than they should be able to choose not to do it (which is the problem with the way things are set up in this case, it seems things are written poorly and denies the right to personal moral choice), but the government shouldn't dictate morality.