CaptRenault, you are just way, way more of an optimist than I am about limiting those regulations if decriminalization were ever to occur in North America. If there were true decriminalization with no regulation, it would be the only business where that were true. That is what I meant by no business in the U.S. is decriminalized.
I agree that there are few or no businesses that operate completely free of regulation. But the word "decriminalized" does not have the same meaning as "unregulated." To decriminalize prostitution means that the act of paying for sex is not
per se illegal, just as the act of paying for a glass of lemonade is not
per se illegal. There are very few commercial transactions that are defined by the law as
per se criminal. Prostitution is one of them and I don't think it should be defined as such. However, I'm
not optimistic that decriminalizing prostitution will happen anytime soon in either Canada or the U.S.
...Personally, I simply detest any ad stating that a provider does not see black men, or discriminates in any such manner. That subject is occasionally broached on merb, and when it is discussed, the majority of posters declare that any provider has the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. I respect their opinions, but the U.S. has spent decades making damn sure that if a black guy walks into a restaurant with enough money for food, he better damn well get the same service as a white guy or someone is going to get his ass kicked. I agree with that concept and struggle with how any regulation could be drafted to be fair to both parties. In a criminalized system, she can put out an ad that falls just short of soliciting sex, she can say what customers she wants to see, and I can choose not to see her if I find her ad objectionable. That is one example out of many. The ability of a sex worker in a decriminalized system to openly advertise her services at all is an even bigger dilemma...
This is an extreme example. While it's probably true that
U.S. race discrimination laws would theoretically prohibit a brothel from refusing entrance to a client based on race, I don't agree that race discrimination laws would
force an escort to service a client whom she did not want to service. i think the courts could find a way to interpret the laws to not require escorts to service any and all clients. And escorts could easily find a neutral reason to avoid servicing clients they don't want to ("Sorry but your penis is too big for me."
)
I continue to think that decriminalization just won't work in the U.S., or even Canada. As I have said many times, I think that bringing the Bedford case was a mistake. I think that even the Canadians, a less repressed and more libertarian people than their neighbors to the South, couldn't even figure out how to deal with full decriminalization. We ain't New Zealanders and the legal situation in Europe is more fucked-up than you concede in your post..
There is no such thing as the "legal situation in
Europe." There is only the legal situation in
individual countries. In France and Sweden it is fucked up, as you say, but in Germany, Switzerland and Austria things work fine. You have visited FKKs in Germany, haven't you? In general, I think they're great. What do you find objectionable about them? What about other places where prostitution is decriminalized and lightly regulated like Brazil and Colombia. I have never been to those places, but I have read interesting reports about them on MERB.
I agree that i
n hindsight the Bedford case consequences did not work out well for escorts and their clients. But I agree with the principles underlying the decision of the Bedford case.
True, Canadians have in the past been less hung up than Americans about commercial sex, but that is unfortunately changing. It was Canada that passed a nationwide Nordic model law before any U.S. states did. True, it's generally not enforced in Montreal but it has been enforced in other parts of Canada. And don't take for granted the present enforcement regime in Montreal. If radical feminists get their way, there could one day be a brutal crackdown on the escort industry in Montreal. It could happen sooner than anyone here imagines.
Sure criminalization with sporadic law enforcement places those who pay less (and often, but not always) earn less in a more precarious position, but it would be wrong to think that is limited to commercial sex transactions. A person can be arrested for loitering in a bad neighborhood, while that same activity would be completely ignored in a better neighborhood. I have some trust for the wisdom of the police, although that trust is not absolute. It makes more sense for law enforcement activity in this area in the U.S. to focus on $100 transactions originating from anonymous Backpage transactions than from $400 transactions involving a provider with a website who screens and has reviews.
You and I will have to agree to disagree on this subject. I acknowledge that there is little chance that we will see decriminalization of prostitution in Canada or states in the U.S. But my belief in decriminalization is not based on a purely practical assessment of the matter. My belief in decriminalization is based on my belief in the principles of liberty enshrined in documents such as the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Liberty is not a right that is granted to citizens by a government. As Judge Andrew Napolitano wrote in
a column this week at Reason.com, liberty is our
natural right.
What if the Declaration of Independence states that the purpose of government is to protect our natural rights? What if natural rights are the freedoms we enjoy without neighbors or strangers or government interfering? What if those freedoms are listed in part in the Bill of Rights? What if the government is supposed to keep its hands off those freedoms because they are ours, we have not surrendered them and we have hired the government to protect them?