The World’s Oldest Profession!

[Guest Zenda]

Kia Ora,

This thread is open to all M2Fs, F2Ms & cisgender

A few years ago [along with legalising civil unions] the old Labour government [here in Aotearoa] legalized prostitution, prostitutes now pay tax and are protected under the law…So far so good there not been any increase in the number of prostitutes and things have not gotten out of hand as many conservatives believed would be the case…

It’s a well known fact many transgender girls/women end up as sex workers-for the most part it’s the only kind of work they can get…Many young one because of their feminine nature[mannerisms and behaviour] had been ‘bullied’ out of an education-leaving school without basic work survival skills, plus been kicked out of home by unsympathetic parents whilst some older ones were deemed ‘unemployable’ for the main stream work force…

I know earlier on at the beginning of my transition ‘prostitution’ did cross my mind [even though I’m asexual for me this doesn’t mean that I would not have sex, it just means I have no interest in sex no sexual desires], but fortunately friends took me in put a roof over my head and I was eligible for unemployment benefit…Since then I’ve managed quite well even though I have no full time work, I work part time as an urban pestologist plus I’ve been doing voluntary work…So I can fully understand where some sex workers are coming from…

I’m sure ‘prostitution’ has crossed the minds of some members here-some no doubt have partaken or still partake in the profession…

I neither condemn nor condone prostitution…For many it’s a life line until something better comes along[some do it to earn the money for surgery]- for others it might just be that they are highly sexed and it’s a way to release their sexual desires and get paid for it…It might not be my ‘cup of tea’ but what right do I have to condemn another’s choice of making a living - as long as one is not harming nor forcing something upon others I can’t see any problems with it…But in saying that, sadly it’s certain sections of society who actually ‘force’ many trans-women into prostitution…

If one cares to think outside the square, for the most part we are all ‘prostitutes’ ‘selling our bodies/skills’ to our employers for money-some just ‘go the extra mile’ so to speak…

Personally I don’t feel that a person should be punished for doing something that they are[in many cases] forced by society to do to earn a living ‘survival money’…Plus it’s a ‘supply on demand’ service, where men ‘demand’ it and women ‘supply’ it…Stop the demand[castrate all males ] and the supply will 'dry up'[but where would that leave those trans-women who can’t find work in main stream society???]…

Over the years I’ve voted YES to civil unions YES to legalising Marijuana and YES to legalising prostitution and why did I vote YES…Because I believe in ‘freedom of choice’…When it comes to how an individual should live they life I believe we all should have a choice…After all who am I to judge!!!

When it comes to legalising prostitution in your state/country would you vote YES or NO?

Food for thought…

Metta Jendar

[Guest Joanna Phipps]

Why not, then treat it like any other business, licensed, bonded, insured, medically inspected and of course taxed. Think of the revenues, it wouldn't wipe out street walkers but it might help make sure that STD's were under some form of control.

[Sally]

It is not only legal in Amsterdam but it is thoroughly regulated by the health department and taxed rather heavily, it is conducted like a business not on the streets but in storefronts along side the section by the canal where you see all of the tourists smoking pot and doing any sort of drug they have managed to buy.

It seems to be more of a tourist thing because for many it is the thrill of the risky behavior not just the act of sex that draws them to prostitutes and the fear of being arrested has been taken away along with the fear of being rolled by the pimp - so the thrill is greatly reduced.

I could not vote for it because I still think that it is a last resort for woman and legalizing it would move it up on the list for some but I could not vote against it because prohibition never solves a problem so I will abstain and hope that it does not become the 'lofty' goal for any young girls.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Donna Jean]

Yo, Jendar....

Let me go somewhere that you like.......

In essence, aren't we all prostituting ourselves in the strictest sense?

On a daily basis?

Prostitutes trade time with their body for compensation.....

Don't we all trade minutes of our life for compensation?

Work receives 40 hours of our precious life per week in return for a monentary reward...

Don't we all trade pieces of ourselves, on a daily basis, for compensation......?

It's nothing new...everyone does it....we just place rules on what one can trade and what one can't....

Just saying.....

Donna Jean

[Guest]

Legalizing it and putting it in a storefront getting off the streets would eliminate a lot of problems. Most places though it is still illegal and dangerous.

I’m sure ‘prostitution’ has crossed the minds of some members here-some no doubt have partaken or still partake in the profession…

I neither condemn nor condone prostitution…For many it’s a life line until something better comes along[some do it to earn the money for surgery]- for others it might just be that they are highly sexed and it’s a way to release their sexual desires and get paid for it…It might not be my ‘cup of tea’ but what right do I have to condemn another’s choice of making a living - as long as one is not harming nor forcing something upon others I can’t see any problems with it…But in saying that, sadly it’s certain sections of society who actually ‘force’ many trans-women into prostitution…

Even from the avalanche of the email I've received I've never had a letter from a happy prostitute. I have though received letters with horror stories from those in the profession. Beatings, forced drug addictions and being the victim of robberies and violence though was commonplace. Pimps are not wonderful people and treat their girls more like slaves than human beings. Your life is not your own. Some did this to save money for SRS only to be robbed. Not one in the letters I received obtained SRS and got out of the profession.

I wouldn't recommend this life for anyone. It should be avoided like the plague. I do understand why people try it and I don't judge them. In my opinion its setting yourself up to be a victim and you aren't likley to achieve your goals.

Laura

[Guest Edu]

My opinion, brief and clear: prostitution on itself is not something "evil" or "wrong", and banning it makes no sense on any modern democracy. However, it is a fact that this sector stands among the ones more affected by issues like slavery, person-trafficking, precarious work conditions, and so on. While I am fine with prostitution on itself, I think it deserves much more attention by governments and administrations, and they should strike with the full force of laws against anyone engaging in human degradation practices, be them related or not to prostitution (the point is that they are too often related to that sector).

I live in a country (Spain) where prostitution has been legal and regulated for many years. This, however, hasn't helped too much to solve the related issues: prostitution on the streets is an every-day reality here, most prominently on big cities. Again, I want to insist, the issue is not with prostitution itself, but with many problems around it: children shouldn't be exposed to this (I was once offered sexual services by a street prostitute when I was just 16); there are no guarantees on the hygienical conditions of the places where these persons provide their services, they work entirely unregulated (so they don't pay taxes and can't benefit from unemployment wages, temporal incapacitation aids (such as having some income to cover for needs when they get sick), jubilation, etc), and on too many cases these persons are forced to work on this by person-trafficking mafias.

There is a lot to be done on this area: traffickers should be prosecuted rather than avoided or ignored, people working on the streets should be given an appropriate place to work (that may be quite hard with the current recession, but heck, these problems have been there far before the recession began), and safety inspections should take place with more frequency and rigor.

A few months ago, two brothels near Barcelona were shut down after an inspection, because of hygienic and precarious work conditions. These places had been operating for years. Had they suddenly and simultaneously switched their way to operate, or have they been operating in such conditions for all these years? In any case, since the shut down there has been a significant amount of sex-workers in the area working on the streets. This is quite an example of how much work needs to be done on the sector before sex-workers can do their job in reasonable work conditions.

Regards,

Ethain

[Guest angie]

My current roomie is a street prostitute and has been for most of her adult life.

Been busted twice since I have known her,missed one sting because she stayed

with me that weekend instead of going out(Walking).And being a nonop,with the M

still as her marker,was harrassed and almost thrown in with the general population.

I could not even imagine the distress that would cause not to mention the danger.

Legalizing prostitution would turn this age old profession into a legitimate job.

Getting girls off the street,out of harms way,hopefully get insured and cut down on the

spread of sexually tranmitted diseases.Plus it would have enormous benefits for the

state of a womans mental health.

Angie

[Guest Zenda]

Kia Ora,

Like Angie I too have friends[people I've met at Human rights meetings] who are prostitutes...

I have a good friend[trans] who was 'once' a 'call girl' she's now married her and her husband own a small farm, her husband knows of her past but for him 'the past is the past' it's who she is now that counts....

Story time...

Back in the early 1970’s I spent some time in Singapore, I was on my way back to the UK from Australia [ Oh the memories, at the time it cost me $199 Aus which included a cruise ship from Perth to Singapore [6 nights] then around a week in Singapore before jetting off to London, Boy those were the days]….Anyway before I allow any mind tripping to take hold- In Singapore most of my time spent was with the local transgender community in what was then Singapore’s hub of entertainment ‘Bogie Street’…

This was my first close up encounter with people like me= ‘transsexual’ people-they were Malay, Indian and Chinese[which make up the bulk of Singapore’s population-Chinese being the majority] but also some of African and Arab descent… After getting to know some of them I was made aware of the possibility of Hrt and surgery, most that I spoke to were ‘only’ doing ‘it’ to get money for surgery… They were very open and friendly, wanting to talk about their lives and not just focused on turning tricks…[singapore was also my first encounter with ‘ganja’ when sitting at a table at a street side café a trans-lady offered me a toke on a ‘joint’ -you could say I was hooked in more ways than one]…

Some had boyfriends who were sea men[ Bogie street was a hang out for merchant sea men and foreign military personnel]…Many of the Tgirls would talk about what they were going to do ‘after’ surgery-much of which was about marrying, settling down and leading a ‘normal’ life...

So as you can see my first encounter with people like myself was with ‘prostitutes’[ordinary people doing extraordinary work, who had dreams and hopes for a better life]…

Singapore was also the first time where I felt like throwing caution to the wind and being true to myself[affirming my gender] but thoughts of family friends and fear of the unknown block my path [as they so often do]…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I don’t see how legalising something which provides a person with the freedom to choose [and is strictly governed/policed by laws and regulations] would be a form of slavery- slaves are forced against their will to partake in work…However, corruption runs rampant in many ‘businesses’ [this fact is true in many ‘legit’ businesses] and unscrupulous people will continue to be so and will not think twice before exploiting fellow human beings for personal gain-

To legalise something is to bring some form of control and order and in this case ‘protection’ for these who find themselves ‘having’ to do this kind of work and with the possibility of reducing corruption and exploitation …When things like prostitution [which is prevalent in most societies] are not legalised they tend to be governed by ‘rogue’s rules’...

I don’t expect everybody to be in favour of prostitution[personally I feel we all would be better off without people ‘having’ to do 'it' for a living]but it's stood the test of time 'supply on demand'- been around for ever - So before one criticises the oldest ‘profession’ in the world, think about this “Who or what creates prostitutes?”...

"Weird" An interesting thought comes to mind... 'Prostitution' as far as the bible goes seems to be the only profession an unmarried woman could have...

Metta Jendar

[Guest doodle]

No, no, no. They hook because getting a job is very very hard. In Amsterdam they are almost all are women of color. The real answer is fighting for full inclusion for all gender varient people. Equal rights in a safe and good education , employment, housing and health care that pays for trans folks needs. The reason that we have all these problems is the binary gender system which makes trans people non-persons. When a person can't get a job and support them selves they lose their self esteem and gradually slip downward toward doing things they may not have thought they would have done. Many t-girls wind up using drugs to deal with the stress of hooking. Also many times the t-girl may feel that the attention, being treated as a female, she gets from her tricks is the only good thing in her life. When know one cares about it is easy to not care about yourself. Legalizing prostitution is legalizing our own oppression.

kelly

[Guest angie]

From my observations of my friend and actually being out there

on the streets with her a few times...(myself as a stunned observer)

It is a deep personal need that some of them have to have the attention

and adulation from men.Hear how desireable she is, how pretty,how exotic,

how whatever.It is this attention from total strangers that they rail against,

but is what drives some beyond the drug habit,to go (walking) time and again.

Filling that void that a mundane(normal)life can not seem give them.

Now this is just my observations and theory,but I have met a few of these woman,

and heard them gripe about men in one hand,while the other is saying Hi Handsome

to a complete stranger in a passing vehicle the very next second.It is a void

that because of a lack of stability and love that drives some to seek it from strangers.

Angie

[Guest AllisonD]

From my observations of my friend and actually being out there

on the streets with her a few times...(myself as a stunned observer)

It is a deep personal need that some of them have to have the attention

and adulation from men.Hear how desireable she is, how pretty,how exotic,

how whatever.It is this attention from total strangers that they rail against,

but is what drives some beyond the drug habit,to go (walking) time and again.

Filling that void that a mundane(normal)life can not seem give them.

Now this is just my observations and theory,but I have met a few of these woman,

and heard them gripe about men in one hand,while the other is saying Hi Handsome

to a complete stranger in a passing vehicle the very next second.It is a void

that because of a lack of stability and love that drives some to seek it from strangers.

Angie

I actually get that, what you have described. It is fundamentally why I transistioned in the first place, to be attractive, to be perceived as I needed to be. I never transitioned for sex (I transitioned a decade before having SRS!), I did it for what sounds like the exact reason these women friends of yours hook. Except I didn't "rail against" it, I lived for it. Still do. Not that I wanted to be touched by men, but I was driven to compete with other women to attract my love interests (butch women) and the rewards of THAT LOOK from boys/men as well as my natural love interests were as nourishing to me as food. I have certainly spent my life working harder for that look then I have putting food in my belly.

I suppose if I had thought I could have made a living as an escort to those I wanted to attract I would have considered it, but then the women I want are not usually wealthy and I was far too practical to think such a life would ever be financially secure. I might have easily thought it glamorous though, in the right circumstances. Yet, I know I would also have fallen in love with the clients too easily. Not a good thing. Instead, I actually left Davis (high school lover/savior - essay here somewhere about her) behind 'cause she couldn't keep up with my aspirations for a professional career (eventually engineering). My heart had led me to transition already by the time I left her. My brain insisted I needed a university degree to be able to survive, so I had to go.

I have avoided several potentially disasterous choices in my life. Your comments and Jendar's thread makes me see that I might have come close to this less desireable choice if my circumstances were slightly different. I'll chalk it up to one more time that the goddess, or luck, or clear thinking, or whatever, pointed me in the right direction.

Allison

[Guest mia 1]

Getting girls off the street,out of harms way,hopefully get insured and cut down on the

spread of sexually transmitted diseases.Plus it would have enormous benefits for the

state of a womans mental health.

Angie

Unfortunately with today's right wing media blitz's about anything related to sex, gender, health care and insurance and legalizing anything not condoned by the evangelicals. this will most likely not happen.

But we can remain hopeful, and work for the changes needed to keep people healthy and alive...

[Guest]

Often the ones who scream the loudest about morality turn out to be the ones cheating on their wives. Rev Ted Haggert used to scream about the sanctity of marriage and gays from the pulpit then had a relationship with a gay man while married to his wife. I hate hypocrits.

Laura

[Guest Zenda]

Kia Ora,

You are right Laura “Hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue!” …Over the years I’ve written quite a few letters to the local newspapers, one in particular comes to mind [and Angie hit the nail on the head when she spoke of her roomie who walks the streets ] I wrote that for many trans-females, prostitution is the only ‘female’ recognition they get from men, during the day many face rejection and physical and verbal abuse from sections of main stream society, but on the streets of a night things are different, men who use their services [quite possibly the same men who abuse them of a day] reassure them of their feminine qualities…

For those who think it’s in society’s[including Tgirls] worse interest to legalise ‘Prostitution’ –It’s has been around for centuries[i’m just stating the obvious here] and for the most part it’s been illegal but being made illegal has done NOTHING to curb the practice, in fact I believe it has only fuelled the fire so to speak, and it being ‘underground’ as contributed to unsafe sexual practices and the exploitation of vulnerable men women and children …As someone mentioned earlier when it comes to prostitution, prohibition DOESN’T WORK!

Sally mentioned Amsterdam in The Netherlands- For many years the Dutch people has been thinking ‘outside’ the square and are I believe world leaders when it comes to reform…They decriminalised prostitution and ganja use and are pretty lenient when it comes to a number of things [including transgender rights] By doing so it has not lead to more crime and more drug use…Compering apples with apples the US as more of a drug and prostitution problem then The Netherlands and in the US it's illegal[they spend billions of dollars just to maintain it's illegal status] money I feel could be better spent on education...Education seems to be where the Dutch government spends their Euros...

When it comes to those righteous upholders of social morals ‘halos’ only need to drop a few inches to become ‘nooses’! as is often the case-[Laura’s good with the hammer too ‘Rev Ted Haggert’]…

I can think of a number of professions that I personally find more abhorrent than prostitution, for example…

Many societies are proud of those soldiers who go to war and ‘kill’ and think nothing of those people who design weapons of mass destruction nor those who choose to work in ammunition factories…

The list goes on = cigarette and alcohol manufacturers…

But they believe a person who makes a ‘living’ by selling ‘their’ body is a bad person -that prostitution is sinful and should be banned– where’s the logic in that???

I not advocating that prostitution is a profession Tgirls should get into- far from it - all I’m saying is it’s been around for centuries [illegal for the most part] and banning it as done NOTHING to stop it, so why not think outside the square a little =live and let live!!!

A definition of 'insanity' "Continuing to do the 'same' thing over and over again each time 'hoping' for a different result!"

Metta Jendar

[Guest Jean Davis]

I think that it should be legalized, I saw two shows (Tyra and Oprah) where a legal prostitute (appearantly there's a town in Neveda that prostitution is legel) said that she likes her job. She works in a brothel and has routine physicals and a room that she rents. She considers herself a private business owner and chooses her clients and times she works. She also claims that most of her clients are regulars and take her to dinner, shows and other events (more like an escort) like friends. She also said though that she doesn't want to have it as a life long career and plans on useing the money to futher her education. So I think if it was legalized nation wide that the profession could be vastly improved and quite possibly enjoyable for some.

Jean

[Guest angie]

Not that I wanted to be touched by men, but I was driven to compete with other women to attract my love interests (butch women) and the rewards of THAT LOOK from boys/men as well as my natural love interests were as nourishing to me as food. I have certainly spent my life working harder for that look then I have putting food in my belly.

Allison

It is That Look,a whistle,a honk of a horn,a shout out,the doors being opened,the smile on their face.

I eat it up with a secret smile on my lips.Compare myself to women constantly,seeing if I size up,or if can I get a dressing,or hair styling tip from her.Yes I look at it like competition also,as I look at women like I never have before.

Angie

[Guest Sarinah]

I dont think I have a right to tell anyone else what to do with their body as long as they arent useing it to hurt someone else. I have many personal ethical issues against prostitution but I dont believe in putting my own ethical issues against others. If I am not mistaken however prostitution is largely illegal in many places because the uniquely close relationships between individual creates highly emotionally charged situations which have a substantially higher risk of danger. Also prostitution wether its been legalized or not often has associations with abuse, slavery, and a higher occurance of narcotics. I could be wrong on some of these points but this is the way I understand it.

[Guest again]

Yo, Jendar....

Let me go somewhere that you like.......

In essence, aren't we all prostituting ourselves in the strictest sense?

On a daily basis?

Prostitutes trade time with their body for compensation.....

Don't we all trade minutes of our life for compensation?

Work receives 40 hours of our precious life per week in return for a monentary reward...

sounds terribly simplistic!

there are things that are very distructive that can bring compensation---but in the end will suck away our souls---and prostitution is one of them---some minutes of our life for compensation are actually a very positive trade off---prostitution is not! let's send the right message to our young people to keep away from this form of slavery & to show that we have self-respect!

[Guest Zenda]

Kia Ora,

There're pros and cons to both arguements[no pun intended] But by bringing prostitution to the surface[legalising it] makes it easier to monitor -When underground who knows what goes on...

There an old saying "Better the devil you 'know'!"[and can regulate]

After all isn't 'Honesty is the best policy'!

Metta Jendar

[Guest ChloëC]

I personally think that prostitution should be made legal, regulated, health checkups be provided and all the rest.

I also don't think that legalizing it will eliminate all the problems surrounding it. Gambling is now legal in most states and I'm sure there are still illegal activities surrounding it. And anyway, robbery, murder, and a whole bunch of other activities have been declared against the law in most civilized countries and they still go on. Legalizing prostitution will not make crimes go away, it will just help law enforcement groups to focus on true crimes and not time wasting ones.

I think by keeping prostitution illegal, that we are basically marginalizing the people who are in it. I don't doubt that most are forced into it for one reason or another (and remember, while prostitutes are mostly women, it is not 100% that, there are both sexes in it.) We make it illegal, there will always be 'johns' who are willing to pay for sex they can't get elsewhere, so somebody is always going to try to cash in on the business. Rather then treating prostitutes like chattel or slaves, they should be treated like any other worker. OSHA should be responsible for conditions, state and federal laws involved for the most part. Get the police looking for criminals that actually create victims, rather then have them waste their time locking up and releasing prostitutes over and over and publicizing their customers' names in hopes that shame will keep them from doing it again. Both are stupid. Neither the 'john' nor the prostitute are the real criminals here.

But, of course, like so many other problems in society, it really comes to attacking and solving the cause, not the result. We need to make education and training available for a lot more people at a lot less out of pocket costs than is currently done. Society as a whole has a complete responsibility for making sure as many people are educated and trained and given the tools and the hope to be as successful as they want to be. As well as providing education to understand the choices and different outcomes of those choices, as well as whatever is needed to make a choice (you all should know what else I am alluding to). And I feel we are all shirking our responsibilities rather then as a whole, demanding change, because we are afraid of 'higher' taxes, more government control, socialism (horrors!!!!), all of which cloud the real issues. Society is too large, there are too many problems to hope that someone or some volunteer group, or some underfunded organization, or just saying 'No' is going to solve all of our problems. We can give billions to bankers to make sure they can keep their yachts, we just don't seem to want to give any to the people who really need it.

Basically, we spend as a society way too much money, time, effort, fighting and trying to change outcomes and not get at root causes.

But that's just my opinion.

Chloë

[Guest Nekomata]

Denis Hof could make a Moonlite Transgender Ranch and put it next to his Bunny Ranch.

[Guest angie]

Legalizing it and putting it in a storefront getting off the streets would eliminate a lot of problems. Most places though it is still illegal and dangerous.

Even from the avalanche of the email I've received I've never had a letter from a happy prostitute. I have though received letters with horror stories from those in the profession. Beatings, forced drug addictions and being the victim of robberies and violence though was commonplace. Pimps are not wonderful people and treat their girls more like slaves than human beings. Your life is not your own. Some did this to save money for SRS only to be robbed. Not one in the letters I received obtained SRS and got out of the profession.

I wouldn't recommend this life for anyone. It should be avoided like the plague. I do understand why people try it and I don't judge them. In my opinion its setting yourself up to be a victim and you aren't likley to achieve your goals.

Laura

My roomie told me that she would (get me out there).My response was in one word...Wrong.

Since I have known her she has been beaten up once,arrested twice,and robbed once.

She has in the past had a gun pulled on her,a knife stuck to her throat and escaped from

a deranged psyhcopath through luck.Sooooo,no,I would not recommend prostituting for anyone.

You are putting your life into a strangers hands every time you get in a vehicle,or go to a motel.

Not to mention the diseases out there.My roomie said she does it for her trach shave.But to date,

I have seen no money saved.The worry about being busted again keeps her at home,for now.

Angie

[Guest AshleeB]

My opinion you ask? WELL i personally am completly non-sexual so my vote for YES would simply be because i believe most who go into this profession would only do so because of DIRE need for money or because they literally feel they cannot do anything else. Im not saying that they are incompitent. im just saying that most who do a job like this probably dont have the best self esteem... i dunno. but i think it should be legalised. esspecially since its such a popular service =D

My 2 cents are now your 2 cents. DONT SPEND THEM ALL IN ONE PLACE!!

Lots of love

Ash <3

[Guest cjnoble71]

Often the ones who scream the loudest about morality turn out to be the ones cheating on their wives. Rev Ted Haggert used to scream about the sanctity of marriage and gays from the pulpit then had a relationship with a gay man while married to his wife. I hate hypocrits.

Laura

Let us not forget Larry Craig or Mark Foley.

I honestly cannot understand where people feel the need to legislate the lives of others. Yet we can live in a country where so many in need go without so a very small handful can live like the grandest emperors of history. It is all a shell game. Get people worked up over things that are none of their business so you can rob them blind.

Christine

[Guest Edu]

It seems that there are two separate discussions going on together on this thread, and I'd like to clearly share my viewpoint on both.

Transgendered people relying on prostitution as their only option:

This is not the problem. This is just a symptom of a far deeper issue. Well, actually it is the intersection of two huge issues. It's quite normal that discussions on this site focus on transgendered issues (that's what this site is for, isn't it?), but this is far broader than a transgendered issue, and it only happens to hit the transgendered community especially hard.

The first issue here is forced prostitution on itself. It is a blatant form of slavery. To get some estimate, I just did a search for "sex slavery" on Google News: it returned over 900 results, only from the last month. This means that, on average, there are 30 cases a day that make it to the media. These figures are quite horrifying, and still only cover for those cases that get echoed on some digital publications. It makes me shudder to think how many other cases there are out there, without any of us knowing.

An important collective among forced prostitutes are transgendered people, who engage in this profession for different reasons (most often, to save for transition expenses, like SRS, or just to survive because they are denied access to any other job). I insist, it's quite natural that these cases will be the ones standing to attention on a place like this; but don't forget that there are other collectives suffering the same exploitation, like immigrants, disabled people, minority ethnic groups, and so on.

The second issue is global xenophobia. Again, most people here will be more concerned about homophobia and trans-hate, because it is what it affects us most directly. But that'd be just a small chunk of the big picture. Racism hits immigrants and minority ethnicities just the same way homophobia hits us; neo-fascism quite often strikes against anyone with liberal ideas; and so on.

This isn't a battle against homophobia alone, this is a full-scale war against hate on its broadest sense. And we are losing it.

It is that xenophobia what shuts doors to anyone different, sometimes to the extreme of persons having to rely on prostitution (or worse things) just to survive.

Legal status of prostitution:

Does it really matter? I already told you about the situation in Spain, where prostitution is covered and regulated by laws, and still most of the sector is working out of the law. Even places of renown that were supposed to be working within the law were shut early this summer because of abusing their employees, promoting illegal immigration, and, according to some media speculation, serving as outlets for drugs distribution.

Legalizing is a basic step to actual regulation and protection, but it's only the first step. It takes a lot of work to enforce these laws, and authorities (at least here in Spain) do not seem to be doing any significant effort to enforce them.

After all, why would they care? The victims are always immigrants, or trans-people, or whatever. The victims are always different. So the average citizen won't feel identified with them. Police here would react more swiftly (roughly 10 minutes) to a prostitute on the street just trying to earn some money to feed her children rather than a whole mafia involving slavery, person trafficking, and drug dealing (several years); even when they have far more evidence of the later (detailed reports and sightings) than the former (an anonymous phone call). The difference is that the "victim" in the first case (the citizen that feels offended and calls the police) is someone the average citizen will identify with, while the victims in the later (the immigrants, trans, and others forced into sex slavery) aren't. So they "don't matter".

Sorry for the rant, but I'm seeing this everyday, everywhere, and just had to take it out.

Regards,

Ethain