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twitterCITY HALL:
Mayor keeps prostitution legalization debate going
He suggests prostitutes could be treated very well
Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 | 2 a.m.
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- Under consideration: Tax brothels, consider legalizing prostitution in Las Vegas (1-22-2009)
- Brothel industry says ‘tax us;’ state says thanks, but no thanks (12-21-2008)
- Not even prostitution is immune to economics of supply, demand (12-14-2008)
- Letters of sorrow and need (12-7-2008)
- Hawking erotic services? Craigslist now has your number (11-29-2008)
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Mayor Oscar Goodman insists he’s not in favor of legalizing prostitution in downtown Las Vegas. He just wants there to be an open discussion of the topic.
But his argument is clear as a July afternoon in the neon desert: Most everyone — even locals — seems to think prostitution is legal here, so why not formalize it and make hundreds of millions of dollars from the enterprise?
That’s why Goodman floated the idea publicly in 2004, again to an appalled New York Times columnist in 2007, and, this month, discussed the idea with an unidentified state legislator and people “in the industry.”
Goodman had a great deal to say on the topic at his weekly news conference Thursday.
He acknowledged that some will have “very legitimate” moral objections, arguing that women are debased by prostitution and that the state should not profit from it.
“On the other hand,” Goodman said, “I’ve met with folks from that industry who make a very compelling argument that it could generate 200 million a year in tax dollars, and that would buy a lot of textbooks, pay for a lot of teachers.”
Legalizing the trade would get prostitutes away from abusive pimps, or “exploiters,” as he said he prefers to call them.
Goodman spoke of the humane way in which the city’s new red-light workers would be treated.
He said they — presumably brothel owners high on the idea — are talking about a “sort of an acculturation type of program for employees where they could get education, they could receive child care instead of leaving their kids in a latchkey situation, classes on self-esteem, those kinds of things.”
State Sen. Bob Coffin raised the issue this week when he said he would grant a hearing on proposals to legalize and regulate prostitution in Las Vegas and other urban areas of the state.
Prostitution is legal in most of Nevada, but state law prohibits it in counties with populations of more than 400,000. That means it is illegal in the state’s largest cities, including Las Vegas, Henderson and Reno.
Critics of legalized prostitution maintain it not only dehumanizes women, but that the women are often coercively trafficked into the field by organized criminals, frequently from overseas, and sometimes are forced into the business as children.
According to a 2007 study by prostitution researcher Melissa Farley, more than four-fifths of the 45 legal prostitutes she spoke with in Nevada wanted to leave the business — but were prevented, often physically, from doing so.
Soon after Farley’s report was released, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert weighed in, claiming that Goodman’s talk of legalized brothels in Las Vegas had set a tone for the “systematic, institutionalized degradation” of women.
Yet the debate is far from one-sided, even among women’s activists and academics.
According to its most recent position paper on the issue, the National Organization for Women supports the decriminalization of prostitution — so long as the women are adults and not trafficking victims — “in support of a woman’s choice what to do with her own body.”
UNLV sociology professor Barbara Brents, who has conducted about 50 formal interviews with Nevada prostitutes for her research, notes that legal brothels are “far, far safer places to work than illegal ones.”
Brents says that if the business were legalized here, Las Vegas would have an opportunity to “do it right, to be even more respectful of women, to give them more rights.”
Surely, music to Goodman’s ears.
Discussion: 17 comments so far…
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I'm for legalizing the oldest profession and making it, truly, a profession!
Of course, no one wants to see anyone exploited - especially children!
So, we write the law in such a way that the business is regulated and protections are put into place to wipe out the criminals - and we raise tax revenues!
This IS doable!
If we have stiff penalties and enforce the law we can keep the exploiters at bay and allow adults to pay and play!
Not only would the taxes be good for the state, but tourism I bet would spike up and the police could spend their time on other things than going after sex between consenting adults. Whether legal or not, it's still going to happen so let's make it safer and make money off it.
Of course it is always old men who think it is a good idea to pay for sex with young women..."it's not exploitation, it's economics".
Recently had the opportunity to visit a middle school where the 8th graders had made posters of their futures. Many girls wanted to be veterinarians, doctors, attorneys, school teachers....odd, I did not find a single one wanting to become a whore!
Las Vegas; leading America in the "lowest common denominator".
Everybody does it, why can't we make it legal and mainstream?...it'll be good for the economy...gawd people, my mom was right when she said "if Tom jumped from the Empire State Building, would you?"...
2zero, your myopic observations are tired. Who when they were young said I want to be a janitor? Garbage collector, waitor/waitress, secretary, middle management cubicle mouse, etc. There's a lot of jobs that no one thinks about when they are young, but when they get older have different ideas. Also who says people want to promote and turn girls into it. It just happens.
Legalize prostitution and marijuana in Las Vegas/Clark County...the billions generated in taxes would be incredible and eliminate the state's financial problems. Like it or not, it's the truth. Drinking and driving kills and so do abusive pimps and unchecked STDs caused by casual sex. So why not? Would you rather have Las Vegas become a ghost town? If things continue without some type of new income revenue stream or federal government intervention, this is what will surely happen.
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2008/10/02...
Redferret; no one is going to take away your right to take a Viagra, get online teen porn and spank your monkey!
First I'm probably younger than you. I don't have an AARP card, have no need for "help" down there, and teen porn really isn't my taste. As for what else I do is none of your business. You seem to be one of those folks who doesn't like sex and is hellbent to make sure no one else enjoys themselves. So take your attitude and stay home and shut up.
....he doest contest too much.
I highly doubt that legal whorehouse hookers are exploited. They voluntarily walked into the establishments and solicited work. They are not being held there against their will. They can turn down a trick if they so desire, and they can quit whenever they want without fear of getting a beating from an angry pimp.
If anyone has ever seen a legal whore being interviewed, they are proud and happy with what they do.
It's protest too much. If you quote Shakespeare, do it right. Also you are the one instigating.
Jonathan_A, vegasj, vegasgurl, redferret -- I'm with you guys on this.
The moralists' obsession with demanding approval on what the rest of us do in private is abhorrent, as it always has been to lovers of freedom.
Buffoons like 2zero aren't worth paying any attention to. But enduring them is the price we pay for free speech.
An additional point -- the laws are already in place for other parts of this state, so it seems to be more a matter of repealing a part of those laws rather than making it all from scratch. The precedent of what has worked and not worked are also there. So what's the problem?
Look at parts of the world where prostitution has not been outlawed, like Amsterdam, and look at the rest of the picture ... that's a part of the world where there are few limits on porn, where the age of consent is much lower than here (12), and so on, yet our teen pregnancy rate is about 4x higher. It's evident that monarchy trusts its people with their liberties as opposed to here, "the land of the free ..."
It just seems like opponents of the issue can't materialize real objections to the issue. Most of the time they just fly off into some bizarro scenario saying we'll be promoting this stuff to kindergarteners or that Vegas will slide into moral decline. I mean who the hell are these people kidding?
2zero "Las Vegas; leading America in the "lowest common denominator".
We are what we see. That being the case, you cannot imagine how glad I am not to see what you see. Phew!
"...it is always old men who think it is a good idea to pay for sex..."
This is too funny for words! Haven't considered seeing a pro since I was 22. The only people I know who might actually do that are young. That was a long time ago for me.
Older men who want sex that way are generally swingers, not Johns. But I'm guessing you probably have something derogatory to say about swingers too.
"It's evident that monarchy trusts its people with their liberties as opposed to here, "the land of the free ..."
HA! Free Schmee!
Watching this debate shows how little we know of the rest of the world. Our country is so prudish and afraid of sex that it astonishes me.
I would encourage anyone who really wants to know, to visit a swingers club or one of those places out in Pahrump (Cherry Patch??) and see what actually happens. Not participate. Just go with eyes open and see for yourself.
That last time I went to Pahrump was to see it for myself. I was amazed. In the diner/lounge area of this place, local grandmas and grandpas were sitting and chatting with some of the girls over dinner. John's would come and go, so to speak, and nobody cared. It is a regular and matter-of-fact as can be. It felt like a spa. Okay, a special spa, but really, just like a regular place.
vegasbd -- Are you really that ignorant??
Prostitution isn't called "the world's oldest profession" for nothing.