In Hungary, sex workers are now part of the tax-paying population:
Hungary Gives Permits to Prostitutes
Legalization is such a complicated issue.:
Hooray for sex workers getting some more equal rights as people who work in other professions. Hooray for some sort of recognition of sex workers.
Though I understand that sex work is not for youth consumption, the ways in which it sex workers are limited in where they can work (which rings of former New York mayor Giuliani’s re-districting laws), and the ‘regular medical check-ups’ can be degrading. Hooray for health-care, and access to health care, but when one is required to get regular check-ups when others are not, it can be problematic. And there is also the cultural question of why don’t the clients get tested? Complicated yes, for those clients to get tested, but maybe if one group is required to get tested, the whole community - that is everyone who is sexually active can be required to get tested. Besides, sex workers are often the leaders in safer sex education - they probably know more than the doctors who are poking them with needles.
While there are problems with legalization - in that it only supports a portion of the sex worker population (what about immigrants, what about other marginalized populations where their relation to sex work is more complicated, and an issue of not being able to find other work, if they wanted to?), the second-wave feminist link of sex work to human trafficking is tiresome. While trafficking is an issue, and definitely a problem, NOT ALL SEX WORKERS ARE FORCED INTO THE TRADE AS SLAVES! Trafficking and sex work are not the same thing.
The article points out, “Human Rights groups have said legalization and decriminalization of prostitution and the sex industry does nothing to address the violence of prostitution and does not help prostitutes”
SOME human rights groups say this. Yes, it is true that legalization does not solve all the problems facing sex workers. However, it does address some of the violence against sex workers, by legally removing some of the stigma from the work.
But arguments against the second-wavers can go on forever.
Let us return to the fact that Hungary has taken a small step towards the cultural need to recognize, honor and respect people who are working in the sex industry.
What on earth do you want? You don’t want legalization or decriminalization. You don’t want us to misunderstand you, but you don’t want us to talk or think about you. You don’t want to get tested but you want someone to care.
It seems you want to be invisible except when you want something from us.
Well screw that. Stand up and be a citizen. You don’t get to be the only person in america who conducts business but with no laws around the business.
You are going to have to decide. This weird limbo place of “just leave me along” doesn’t work when you start to engage in commerce. Here in america we regulate commerce.
So which is it?
Hello.
Thanks for chiming in.
Answering this question is not easily done simply.
Personally, I believe in decriminalization of sex work. In the current socio-political climate, this is, in my opinion the best thing that can happen. Until some basic social justice issues (such as equal access to employment, housing, health care, immigration status) are resolved, then I do not believe it is fair or just to criminalize sex work.
Many people choose sex work because it will allow them to pay their rent, pay for raising a child, or pay for higher education, etc. Some people have little choice in other work that will pay for certain needs. Some people have troubled getting hired because society does not accept them: many people who are transgendered, many people who have a history of incarceration, many people who are fighting for immigration status, and more. Until society is truly just and egalitarian, sex work should be decriminalized.
I do think that legalization is potentially a step in a better direction, but I could also see the government becoming the new pimps. The government is just as capable of being exploitative as many of the people in the role of pimp, and in fact already do it on a much larger, more devastating scale. Look at whole the US government, through its laws and systems allows for the exploitation of the environment, the exploitation of the poor, and the exploitation of indigenous peoples. Look at the unnecessary war in Iraq, look at our horrible health-care system which is basically run by greedy pharmaceutical companies.
How is the government, whose USAID policy requires NGO’s to sign a pledge not to support sex workers in order to receive funds for HIV/AIDS prevention, going to make fair, just, respectful policies that include sex workers?
I feel that legal recognition and acceptance of sex workers could be an improvement, but I also fear that it would include the legalization of degrading, and alienating practices.
And let me make it clear, that I think it is very important to get tested, and to have equal access to quality, non-judgemental health-care. I fear that required testing could easily fall into the judgemental sort of health care - which can do much more harm for one’s health.
I think if sex workers are required to get regular testing, then EVERYONE in the sexually active community should be required to get tested. IF a sex worker transmits an STI, who was it who gave it to them? Research available on the st. james infirmary website (the free clinic for sex workers and their partners) shows that risky behavior tends to happen with personal partners, not with clients. That tends to go the same for people who are not sex workers.
If sex work were decriminalized, and de-stigmatized, and access to safer sex supplies and safe supportive community increased, sex work would be an even safer trade.
Until some pretty huge changes occur, I do not foresee legalization as the best option. And until there is a more just society, I do not necessarily believe that sex work (which is a commerce of the individual) should necessarily be taxed. Not all sex workers feel this way. This is my opinion. But if this government and society does not respect, support, and care about sex workers, then in my opinion, this government does not deserve their hard-earned money.
Besides, many sex workers have other jobs for which they are taxed. Clearly their other jobs are not enough money to survive in this society.
Federal minimum wage is currently 5.85. It is scheduled to be $6.55 by next summer, and in two years it will be $7.25.
How much money do you make? Could you live off of less than $8.00 an hour? Could you live off of less than $10.00 an hour? Depending on where you live and the cost of living there, could you live comfortably off of $15.00 an hour?
I am happy for sex workers in Hungary. Conditions will hopefully improve for them. I do not live there, therefore I cannot truly give an adequate analysis. I can speak for conditions here, and hypothesize about how Hungary’s policies would affect sex workers here. I can also support positive steps, while being critical of what still needs to happen, or work for even better ways of making things happen.
As a citizen, and concerned for my community, I am doing this work.