Prostitution Law Reform

This may be a done deal but in the lead up to the election I’ll be looking closely at the right wing parties to see if any are going to take a stand on this nasty piece of legislation. Back in 2003 the law was passed making it legal to work in a brothel but not on the streets.

?New Zealand should be proud of this day by making such a progressive and brave decision,? said Ms Bradford, the Green Social Services spokesperson.

Sorry, Sue, but proud isn’t the word for it. I totally support anything that helps the girls that work as prostitutes but that support should have one goal, getting them out. And they shouldn’t be prosecuted, we should killing the demand, not the supply.

My making prostitution legitimate we’re saying that it’s OK for our sons and daughters to earn a living through sex. That it’s OK for sex to be transactional.

It would be naive to say that people don’t use sex as negotiation tools, or as a weapon, but that doesn’t make it right. Sex should be freely given and not expected, required, or paid for.

That the sex trade has existed as long as any other industry matters not. There are plenty of things which may have been appropriate in days gone by, but are no longer practiced in NZ – things like dowries, female circumcision, and arranged marriages (one hopes).

We make grand gestures that the current protection, for a child, from violence should be extended to include even the gentlest of smacks. Yet a mere decade later they are allowed to sell themselves? I’ll fight tooth and nail to ensure that neither of my children choose that profession.