Prostitution: Why Is It Illegal?

Legalized Prostitution (liberator.net)

Should prostitution be legal? (prostitutionprocon.org)

W.H.O.R.E (Women Helping Ourselves to Rights and Equality!)


Back again for your blogging convenience, dear readers.

This Eliot Spitzer scandal has made me want to write about prostitution. Now I'm not going to defend him, because he clearly can't be trusted and he cheated on his wife, not to mention his hypocrisy. But as far as the actual thing that brought him down, I just don't understand why it's illegal. I certainly wish we lived in a world where such things weren't necessary. It doesn't make me happy that human beings feel that selling their bodies for sex is something they need to do.

But we do live in a world where some people are willing to pay for sex for various reasons. And we do live in a world were some people feel it's a good way to make money. Who am I to tell them it's wrong? If two consenting adults want to make a transaction of money for sex, why shouldn't they be allowed to do so? I certainly would want it to be regulated, and I'm not in favor of prostitutes standing on the street corner or having sex in cars on the streets.

I would like to eliminate the pimps from the equation and make it as safe as possible for all. Regulation would provide a way of ensuring the health and safety of these people while they provided a service that is obviously required by human beings. it would also let them save money for their future career, whatever that might be, as obviously no one would be doing this as a lifelong career. Locking people up for this is simply ridiculous.

And the argument that this would lead to the breakup of families is demonstrably false. Legalized prostitution wouldn't suddenly mean that it is okay or acceptable to cheat on your spouse. But if they are bound to cheat, wouldn't it be better that they didn't bring home a deadly disease and pass it along to their unsuspecting spouse? And if your spouse is going to cheat, wouldn't you prefer that they go to a prostitute that they would have no emotional attachment to, as opposed to having an affair with someone and becoming emotional involved with them just because they were too scared to visit a hooker because of the fear of jail? It doesn't take a genius to recognize that someone that is bound to cheat will find a way to do it one way or another.

I think we simply need to look at the rest of the world where prostitution is legal and regulated to see the difference. That's not to say that vigilance wouldn't be required to keep legal prostitution from sinking into a cesspool. You would always have to guard against people trying to skirt the rules, or guard against the industry being co-opted by the Mafia and such things. But right now, all you have is a mess where drug-riddled and diseased prostitutes are walking the streets, when they aren't being abused by their pimps. They take all the risks, along with the spouses that unknowingly engage in risky behavior because they don't know that their spouse is bringing home a disease with them.

Whether or not we will ever become enlightened about this is hard to say. I think it will be a matter of how much influence the religious will have in this country, because they can't see past their own insufferable self-righteousness. And unfortunately I don't see much hope for this because America is lamentably a very religious country. The religious will have to explain one day why they choose a pedantic, misogynistic worldview in this case. They are the ones that have made a purely natural act seem dirty and unseemly, which has lead to the present situation. And lets face it, prostitution is just barely this side of fucking someone that you met in a bar, or took out on a date. Only our sophistical sense of propriety allows us to make a distinction.

The religious have infected this world with a malediction for the crime of not agreeing with them on everthing. This malediction of hate and intolerance may one day plunge us into darkness that may be inescapable. They simply can't be bothered with facing reality and helping their fellow human beings live decent lives, because they've got a world to conquer. But thankfully there are many people on this planet that get it.

Gay Marriage and Homosexuality in Nature

Homosexual Animals Out of the Closet (Live Science)

Homosexual Activity Among Animals Stirs Debate (National Geographic)


So hello again. Well, after all the bigoted nonsense from the religious loonies in this country that are trying to pass amendments to ban gay marriage in the various state constitutions, and even the U.S. constitution, I felt a need to write on the subject. Many bigots have gotten their wish, which will be to the shame of their descendants whom will have to live with the shame of this latest form of man's discrimination against his fellow man. It sickens me and saddens my heart to be living in a time when this is happening.

There is absolutely no reason for this. What harm can come from allowing gay couples to marry? The proponents of this insanity say they are protecting marriage. I think we all know that this is merely a smokescreen for the real agenda, which is to punish anyone that believes something different from them, because they live in fear of anything they can't understand. This is common amongst those that do not have the intellect or self-confidence to accept anyone that they see as different. Fear is their main motivation, along with the attendant hatred. But I digress.

If protecting marriage is their goal, then why wouldn't they want to allow gay couples to get married? What could make the institution of marriage stronger than a million gay couples getting married? And let's be honest, despite our fantasies about heterosexual marriage, there isn't anything pretty about it. The evilest, stupidest person on earth can get married and produce a nest of ignoramuses, hate-filled bigots and misanthropes--but we need to protect this glorious institution from those evil gay people. You can have a thousand divorces on your dossier, and yet you can marry someone you met in a bar that night. And do we really need to discuss the beautiful institution of marriage and it's failure rate? The "sanctity of marriage" that they speak of is a steaming pile of bullshit.

Yes, they want to protect marriage, they want to protect their version of it so that they can feel superior to gay people, a group that most religionists absolutely hate with an unquenchable hatred. And they also think that by hating gay people, they will gain favor in the eyes of their evil, non-existent god, thereby reinforcing in their minds the rightness of their hatred. They use many arguments to try to marginalize and demonize homosexuals; all done so that the religious loonies can justify their hatred. And one of their favorite arguments is the idea that homosexuality is somehow unnatural.

I wonder, how can something that occurs in the animal kingdom be unnatural? Homosexual behavior is fairly ubiquitous amongst many different species. You can't get more natural than nature. I think it is clearly obvious that human beings are natural creatures that are only exhibiting behavior that is seen in nature's other creatures. To say that "God" didn't make mankind that way is an empty statement. Clearly the only assumption that can be made is that if there was a god behind the creation of life, homosexuality was included as a natural part of that life. I mean, it is part of the natural world, no one can deny that. I ask you, dear reader, can an animal choose to rebel against "God" and "sin"? Obviously not. Animals only do what comes natural to them. There is a HUGE contradiction between a god that considers homosexuality an abomination, and one that saw fit to make it part of it's creation. Only the credulous believers of the various religions could twist logic enough to be able to believe that such a being exists. But since we can see clearly, we have no such predilection. We can safely eliminate any god from the equation.

We are therefore left with the question of whether it's unnatural or not. Look, I don't completely understand it myself. Women are so soft and smooth, and sex with them makes more sense to me; I can't imagine not being attracted to women. But let's be honest, in reality there's nothing all that glamorous about heterosexual copulation. You're putting your dick in some lady's pisser and blood issuing canal. And by the way, that's some seriously fucked-up "perfect design", isn't it? And it's just a fact that some men just aren't wired that way. My own brother is gay. And trust me, he was born that way. And I say that even though he has three kids, because he had them while he was still very young. When he came out, I was not the least bit surprised. It was so obvious. It's societal and family pressures that make gay people do things that they probably shouldn't be doing.

I think any intelligent person would have to conclude that it is perfectly natural. And that takes away one of the weapons of the religious in their bigoted fight against homosexual marriage. And the only other argument that they can use is that it would somehow take away the rights of heterosexuals, or would give homosexuals special rights. Of course the nutty religionists like to say if you let gay people marry, then you have to let people that practice bestiality, pedophilia, and other abnormal (and those truly are abnormal because you don't see them in the animal kingdom) sexual behaviors get married. To which I would say yes, if you can get Bessie the cow to sign a marriage license and give her consent to marry farmer Joe, then by all means, have at it. Only a dunderheaded religionist would make such asinine conclusions. No, letting gay people get married would not undermine the institution of marriage, but it would allow two consenting adults make the ultimate expression of love for one another. And that's hardly asking for anything special, nor is it taking anything away from heterosexuals.

One things is for sure, love between two gay people is a natural thing, as natural as the sex act itself, and denying the gay community the right to marry is an abomination that Adolph Hitler would be proud of. Sure homosexuality is a little off-putting for many, but that's our problem and we need to get over ourselves. We're all human animals, and we are equally important in the balance of the natural world. It's our our man-made prejudices that keep us from acknowledging this. I have no doubt that there are many factors as to why homosexuality exists in nature; science is still working on an explanation for it. The articles that I have posted go into that a little bit. I do know that "sin" isn't one of them, and I know that it undeniably exists.

We will one day regret what is being done in this country, and the damage may be irreversible. One can only hope that future generations will come to their senses and end this reprehensible bigotry, just as future generations ended slavery and segregation.

I've got a man crush on these guys and I'm not ashamed to admit it!

Hello again. Here are a couple of videos from a 2-hour confab of four gentlemen that I consider bulwarks against ignorance and hate. Messrs Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens engaged in a lively debate, that despite what one might expect, is not a ego-fest. It is instead a serious discussion of the place of the rational person in today's world--amongst other subjects. I rather enjoyed it. I didn't always agree with what they said, and I would have liked to have seen the conversation get more into science, but it was nice to see four active minds engage in a discussion like this.

Buy the DVD here at RichardDawkins.net