Kamala Harris calls for the decriminalization of prostitution
March 4, 2019
With candidates endorsing reparations for slavery, legalized pot, and the Green New Deal, there seems to be no idea off-limits to 2020 Democrats struggling to stand out from the competition.
But with her vocal advocacy to legalize prostitution, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) sticks out from the bunch.
The former tough-on-crime prosecutor became the first candidate last month to call for decriminalizing humanity’s oldest profession, and in comments this week, she doubled down on her position.
Harris endorses prostitution
Speaking with the Root this week, Harris said she had no problem with legalized prostitution between “consenting adults” as long as hookers are protected from trafficking and exploitation.
“But when you are talking about consenting adults, I think you know, yes, but we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed,” she said. But she hedged, “I think that we have to understand, though, that it is not as simple as that. There’s an ecosystem around that, that involves crimes that harm people. And for those issues, I do not believe that anybody who hurts another human being or profits off of their exploitation should be…free of criminal prosecution.”
Attitudes toward vices have become more lax in recent years, with a majority of voters now saying that they support legalizing marijuana. Legalized prostitution remains a little beyond the pale, but it’s not as far down the slippery slope as some think, with some polls indicating support as high as 49 percent for legalization.
While other Democrat candidates have been timid about embracing Harris’s position, she’s not alone. Lawmakers in New York have introduced legislation to legalize prostitution with an argument similar to that employed by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) against the war on drugs: that criminalizing prostitution unjustly harms vulnerable groups of people (in this case, hookers, rather than people of color), and that police would be better off fighting “real crime” rather than an industry that will never go away.
A curious change of heart
The Democrats’ embrace of prostitution seems to follow the same trajectory of the “slippery slope” which Democrats denied existed for several years. In the last decade alone, the Democrats have gone from ambivalence on gay marriage and legalizing drugs to dogmatic support of LGBT rights and across-the-board endorsements of legalized pot. That transition has also put some Democrats who used to have more conventional attitudes on moral issues in an awkward spot, including Harris.
Not all legalization advocates are convinced by her transformation, with activists pointing to her support of the 2018 Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which targeted Backpage.com and similar sites that sex workers use to find clients. Sex worker advocates regard the legislation as a disaster for the safety and rights of prostitutes, saying that Backpage helped hookers vet clients, but the site was also found to facilitate sex trafficking, including child sex trafficking.
“Backpage was providing advertisements for the sale of children, of minors,” Harris told the Root. “And so I called for them to be shut down. And I have no regrets about that.”
Activists were calling to meet with Harris on Wednesday to learn more about her position, with some advocates saying that Harris has not actually called for full decriminalization, but something called the “Nordic model,” which targets those looking to buy sex rather than sell it – still harming sex workers in the process.
“It is not possible to police clients without policing people who trade sex,” said Cecilia Gentili, a transgender advocate. “The Nordic model constantly polices, surveils and harasses people who trade sex for information about our clients.”
Harris also called a 2008 ballot imitative to decriminalize prostitution “ridiculous” and that it would “put out a welcome mat for pimps and prostitutes.”
Prostitution has become an important issue to the left in recent years, with “sex workers’ rights” becoming an impassioned point of debate. Like her recent support of marijuana legalization, Harris’s endorsement of prostitution appears to be another attempt by Harris to rebrand herself as being “with the times,” particularly in contrast to her rather tough record as attorney general and district attorney in California.
Maybe Harris will have learned a lesson here about pandering to radicals. If Harris fails to win over sex worker advocates with her prostitution gambit, just who is it that she’s convincing?
https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/conserv...tution.htm
March 4, 2019
With candidates endorsing reparations for slavery, legalized pot, and the Green New Deal, there seems to be no idea off-limits to 2020 Democrats struggling to stand out from the competition.
But with her vocal advocacy to legalize prostitution, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) sticks out from the bunch.
The former tough-on-crime prosecutor became the first candidate last month to call for decriminalizing humanity’s oldest profession, and in comments this week, she doubled down on her position.
Harris endorses prostitution
Speaking with the Root this week, Harris said she had no problem with legalized prostitution between “consenting adults” as long as hookers are protected from trafficking and exploitation.
“But when you are talking about consenting adults, I think you know, yes, but we should really consider that we can’t criminalize consensual behavior as long as no one is being harmed,” she said. But she hedged, “I think that we have to understand, though, that it is not as simple as that. There’s an ecosystem around that, that involves crimes that harm people. And for those issues, I do not believe that anybody who hurts another human being or profits off of their exploitation should be…free of criminal prosecution.”
Attitudes toward vices have become more lax in recent years, with a majority of voters now saying that they support legalizing marijuana. Legalized prostitution remains a little beyond the pale, but it’s not as far down the slippery slope as some think, with some polls indicating support as high as 49 percent for legalization.
While other Democrat candidates have been timid about embracing Harris’s position, she’s not alone. Lawmakers in New York have introduced legislation to legalize prostitution with an argument similar to that employed by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) against the war on drugs: that criminalizing prostitution unjustly harms vulnerable groups of people (in this case, hookers, rather than people of color), and that police would be better off fighting “real crime” rather than an industry that will never go away.
A curious change of heart
The Democrats’ embrace of prostitution seems to follow the same trajectory of the “slippery slope” which Democrats denied existed for several years. In the last decade alone, the Democrats have gone from ambivalence on gay marriage and legalizing drugs to dogmatic support of LGBT rights and across-the-board endorsements of legalized pot. That transition has also put some Democrats who used to have more conventional attitudes on moral issues in an awkward spot, including Harris.
Not all legalization advocates are convinced by her transformation, with activists pointing to her support of the 2018 Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which targeted Backpage.com and similar sites that sex workers use to find clients. Sex worker advocates regard the legislation as a disaster for the safety and rights of prostitutes, saying that Backpage helped hookers vet clients, but the site was also found to facilitate sex trafficking, including child sex trafficking.
“Backpage was providing advertisements for the sale of children, of minors,” Harris told the Root. “And so I called for them to be shut down. And I have no regrets about that.”
Activists were calling to meet with Harris on Wednesday to learn more about her position, with some advocates saying that Harris has not actually called for full decriminalization, but something called the “Nordic model,” which targets those looking to buy sex rather than sell it – still harming sex workers in the process.
“It is not possible to police clients without policing people who trade sex,” said Cecilia Gentili, a transgender advocate. “The Nordic model constantly polices, surveils and harasses people who trade sex for information about our clients.”
Harris also called a 2008 ballot imitative to decriminalize prostitution “ridiculous” and that it would “put out a welcome mat for pimps and prostitutes.”
Prostitution has become an important issue to the left in recent years, with “sex workers’ rights” becoming an impassioned point of debate. Like her recent support of marijuana legalization, Harris’s endorsement of prostitution appears to be another attempt by Harris to rebrand herself as being “with the times,” particularly in contrast to her rather tough record as attorney general and district attorney in California.
Maybe Harris will have learned a lesson here about pandering to radicals. If Harris fails to win over sex worker advocates with her prostitution gambit, just who is it that she’s convincing?
https://www.conservativeinstitute.org/conserv...tution.htm
