D.C. Could Be The First U.S. City To Decriminalize Sex Work.

[Azihayya]

Apparently, you have all the answers. I've just got the life I lived.

See, I was brought up in the Children's Aid, after being a battered and (thus) very disturbed child. The Children's Aid had no authority nor money to help me after I turned 17, and so there I was, on the streets of Toronto with 3 months bed and breakfast (at the YMCA) paid for, and then, "so long and good luck."

I'm also a gay male. So guess what I did for a while? And truly, it helped me get through. And one of the men that I met that way was a minister in the United Church of Canada who, in fact, helped me a great deal, and without the demand for any more than that first encounter. He's a man I still thank often in my thoughts, though he's been dead for many years.

Eventually, with his help, and some growing up of my own, I found my way, and I found work with a growth path. I took an accounting designation at night, and once I was working as an accountant, I went to university at night. Was working too hard to get all the way to a degree, however.

But eventually, I got into Information Technology, and was eventually elevated to Vice President of IT for a major international financial firm.

So just to my point -- I was speaking a truth that I lived. And I never felt exploited.

I certainly don't want to invalidate your personal experience. But I think that it's failing our people to say, "You're struggling? Hey--we've got a job for you--and it's prostitution!"

If older people are feeling like they are neglected and lonely, then that's a generational problem that they should be solving. Not placing that expectation on and exploiting young people to provide them with intimacy.

My greatest heroes are people who were selfless and who have endured great suffering, and have done so with grace. I don't think that it's noble to pass off the burden of your suffering and loneliness to someone else simply because you're more privileged than they are.

Money is not a replacement for humanity. Yet that is exactly what money is used for; we lack common faith, so we've put money in between us to account for our lack of trust, communication and common cause. For me, sex is about trust, communication and commonality. The only justifiable cause for a young woman to have a relationship with an older man, to me, is because they want to--money should have nothing to do with that.

 

[Estro Felino]

If I think that until 1952 we used to have state brothels called " houses of tolerance" with health inspectors, fiscal duties and so on...

It was the leftists who suppressed them..

 

[Earthtank]

so DC is looking to legalize prostitution?

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I certainly don't want to invalidate your personal experience. But I think that it's failing our people to say, "You're struggling? Hey--we've got a job for you--and it's prostitution!"

You seem to persist in seeing what I was talking about as organizational exploitation, rather than simple, individual decisions by ordinary folk. "Saying 'we've got a job for you--and it's prostitution'" makes a direct allusion to trafficking in people. That is not what I have been talking about.

If older people are feeling like they are neglected and lonely, then that's a generational problem that they should be solving. Not placing that expectation on and exploiting young people to provide them with intimacy.

It's so easy for you, isn't it. Just "go solve your problem." What, rent a family? I'm sure you've never heard of such a thing, but there are people who have no families. There are people who are shy, who lack self-confidence, who have all sorts of issues.

And when you say, "placing that expectation on and exploiting young people," you have made a grave error. I was not exploited -- I freely chose. No pimps involved. And this is very often true -- "it's a business doing pleasure with you" is quite often just a simple choice between people who each want different things, and the things they want can be traded, just as you might make any other good faith trade deal.

My greatest heroes are people who were selfless and who have endured great suffering, and have done so with grace. I don't think that it's noble to pass off the burden of your suffering and loneliness to someone else simply because you're more privileged than they are.

It's hard for me to see why you would make heroes of people who endure suffering with grace, but don't actually do anything to try to alleviate that suffering, which seems to me the better and more practical option.

Again, if I agree to provide a sexual encounter with someone who strongly desires it, and who agrees to simultaneously give me money which I strongly desire -- which of us is being "exploited?"

Money is not a replacement for humanity. Yet that is exactly what money is used for; we lack common faith, so we've put money in between us to account for our lack of trust, communication and common cause. For me, sex is about trust, communication and commonality. The only justifiable cause for a young woman to have a relationship with an older man, to me, is because they want to--money should have nothing to do with that.

So, you say "the only justifiable cause" -- TO YOU. Do you allow for others to have their own opinions about such matters?​

 

[Subduction Zone]

so DC is looking to legalize prostitution?

Decriminalize. That goes beyond legalization. It would no longer be a crime to sell one's sexual services. Legalization often includes licensing and oversight, and there are legitimate arguments against that.