Poll: No More Legalized Brothels

According to a recent poll in Clark County Nevada, residents do not want legalized brothels or legalized marijuana. I’m not so stoked about marijuana remaining illegal, or at least not decriminalized since it has so many health benefits for people but my attention is more focused on the brothels. According to an article humantrafficking.com, 64% of residents did not want legalized brothels. Interestingly enough, they are not in opposition because of any human rights issue but rather because of the economy. The fact that so many people oversee the human rights issue in selling humans as sex toys upsets me. The fact that so many people are more concerned with money over people really bothers me – I’m glad people are standing up to the prostituting of women but I wish they would see that it’s not just about money or the economy.

Many supporters of legalized prostitution claim that it will actually pump money into the local economy and all will be well, but this isn’t true. University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor Bill Thompson claims that,

If legal prostitution has the economic impact proponents claim it has, then visitors would be flocking to the towns in Nevada where prostitution is legal, not to Las Vegas, where it isn't. Legal brothels in other parts of Nevada have been subject to the recession as much as other industries, why would they be any different in Las Vegas?

The professor is correct, but there are more issues surrounding prostitution than just money like I mentioned previously. A major issue that arises from areas where prostitution is embraced or legalized is human sex trafficking or sex tourism. The sad truth is that so many women and girls get sold into the sex trade and are passed through easily because of legalized prostitution. In fact, the article states that,

Child sex trafficking is already a significant problem in the city, with almost 1500 child victims identified so far, most of whom are between 12 and 14 years old. Trafficking of Asian women and girls into brothels that hide behind massage parlour fronts is also a booming industry in Vegas. A popular argument against legalization of prostitution has been that legal markets create a larger sex tourism industry, which increases demand for women and girls. And when that demand outstrips voluntary supply, sex trafficking flourishes.

We all know how popular these so called “massage parlours” are, not just in Vegas but all over North America. I know of several of these places in many major Canadian cities, where most people think sex trafficking does not even exist. Sex tourism happens all over the world – even in the rich, developed nations. This is a huge problem – thousands of children are being forced into sexual torture and slavery because some dudes feel they have a right to buy and use women. Prostitution has a lot of facets that need to be examined; there’s more to it then purchasing human beings for sex, there is an entire foundation that needs to be deconstructed and critiqued in order to save these women and children.