In responding to a lot of bad arguments against legalization, I’ve neglected the good ones. Here’s Tracy Quan in an interview she kindly granted me a while back:
Reason: What’s the ideal legal framework for prostitution? Do you support complete legalization?
Quan: What I would support is more nuanced. The U.S. is out of step; the laws are very backward. We need to learn from the way other countries deal with prostitution. I think it would be unrealistic to just say that you want wholesale legalization across the board—too sudden. There is a distinction to be made between what legalization means to people and what decriminalization means. If legalization means that you’re going to be regulated in a way that is unfamiliar to the currently working prostitutes, there is going to be a lot of resistance from prostitutes themselves.
Reason: What regulations in particular concern you?
Quan: Zoning. Zoning can be helpful, but it can also be abusive. We’ve seen how corporations have colluded with government in New York City, in the kind of zoning crackdown. That was all to the benefit of a few huge corporations, not to the people living in those neighborhoods. There were small business owners who were completely railroaded by eminent domain laws. It has nothing to do with public good. Have you looked at Times Square lately? It’s a gigantic scam on the population. Times Square is much more vulgar and offensive looking than it was before. Architecturally it’s a disaster. It’s completely wrong and unnatural. I don’t know who would go there. What person would want their children to be exposed to this sort of thing? It’s really vulgar.
Obviously, legalization does put sex workers at the mercy of legislators who will zone them out of certain areas, require them to submit to health checks, and likely ban the use of pimps. Given the moral panic that follows in the wake of any woman willing to sell sexual services, it’s likely that the requirements will be overzealous and difficult to comply with. Women may well keep from registering in the first place.
People have a fair amount of trouble distinguishing between moral and legal sanction, which is part of why I worry that prohibition contributes to stigmatization. (This is not to say that sex work does not carry a stigma in countries where sex work has been made legal.) Sex work bans add to a generalized fear of sex work–a fear which, in the event of legalization, may lead to oppressive regulations. I’m not sure how to get around this–certainly the furtherance of prohibition isn’t the answer– but perhaps an intermediate period of decriminalization would do something to quell the panic.
I’m going to try to exit this conversation, but anyone interested in this issue should be reading everything Melissa Gira, Juhu Thukral, Amber Rhea, and Audacia Ray write.
Sorry, but “fear of zoning” is not a good argument against decriminalization. If so, intersection flower sellers and taco van proprietors would need pimps, too.
While there is little doubt that many municipalities would attempt to de facto re-criminalize prostitution with unreasonable zoning laws, those running afoul zoning laws are issued citations, not locked up. This is an enormous improvement over the current situation, if only for the cultural signals of such different treatment.
Her descent into an anti-consumer culture rant didn’t contribute anything to her argument.
[...] Kerry Howley » Blog Archive » Good Arguments Against Legalization “People have a fair amount of trouble distinguishing between moral and legal sanction, which is part of why I worry that prohibition contributes to stigmatization.” (tags: law sexwork Spitzer) [...]
I saw Ray give a reading from her new book in NYC last year; it was very interesting.
You might also enjoy reading the perspectives of many sex workers on Bound, not Gagged:
http://deepthroated.wordpress.com/