Can you Imagine? Guys wanting sex? And they're willing to pay for it? Right here in Tallahassee? "Arrest them all," you say.
Get real, people. Aren't there enough violent crimes in Tallahassee to keep the Tallahassee Police Department and Leon County Sheriff's Department busy? With budgets higher than they've ever been and law enforcement asking for extra "for the jail" and "for the communications equipment," can you taxpayers continue to pay to monitor the moral decisions that adults make?
Most states have repealed so-called "morality laws" against sodomy, oral copulation, and other sex acts between consenting adults in private. Yet we cling irrationally to our "sex for money or other consideration" laws and jail women who dare to charge for the same sex act that she can give away for free.
Why and how can Willie Meggs' office be both out of my bedroom when there is no monetary transaction and yet crawl out from under my bed when money appears?
Laws regulating adult human sexuality are difficult to enforce unless law enforcement utilizes selective prosecution - a semi-illegal tactic in which the guy is granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony to be used in prosecuting and jailing the woman involved. Two of my employees were charged with multiple counts of prostitution based on a man's statement that a sexual act was exchanged for money.
One woman lost her regular job and both are still in debt to attorneys and the court, not to mention the indignity of being hauled through the court system - a first for both of them.
Not one of the men who arranged dates through my escort service suffered any legal penalties.
My own legal penalties included not only jail time and a stiff fine, which was to be expected, but the seizure of my car, my home and even my daughter's checking account. My daughter earned her money waitressing at a local restaurant. Why the legal system decided to punish my child is beyond my comprehension. I am the one who allegedly broke the law, not her.
Most people involved with prostitutes' rights are in favor of decriminalizing prostitution rather than legalizing brothels. A brothel, in states where prostitution is legal, imposes on the woman a large number of restrictions that would be intolerable if required of other women professionals.
For example, women who work in brothels are not allowed to live in the same area where they work, nor are their families allowed to live there. They are not allowed in local bars or casinos, nor can they be seen in the company of a man on the street or in a local restaurant.
In some Nevada communities, there is a curfew on brothel employees. The women generally are required to work 14-hour shifts, on three-week tours of duty, seven days a week. The brothel is under the direct supervision of local law enforcement - in other words, she's working for The Man.
Most importantly, a brothel employee has little or no right to refuse a customer. I always told my girls, "If you simply can't, go home. If he's got food stuck in the crevices of his teeth and he smells like the bottom of a hamster cage, make apologies and leave. I will understand." Never was coercion used.
I can't get through a talk show (and I've appeared on six so far) without someone asking about AIDS. "Aren't you afraid of AIDS?" as a gay male in Maury Povich's audience. "Of course I am. Aren't you?" I replied. Statistics indicate that prostitution contributes little to the spread of venereal disease and HIV. Unless a woman is also an intravenous-drug user or has a partner who is a bisexual male, she is at no more risk than other women who are not engaging in commercial sex.
The issue is not prostitution, but rather the health status and safe-sex practices of the prostitute.
One of my regulars reported to me that a new girl he had just seen had not wanted him to use a condom. Being in the health industry himself, he insisted.
I had my young business partner counsel the young woman, but the same thing occurred on the next date, and I let her go. I figured something had to be seriously wrong with the self-esteem and common sense of a person who would put a gun to her head and pull the trigger. The horror of this true story is that she's still out there, engaging in sex for free, without protection.
Is prostitution a degrading or demeaning occupation? A lot depends on the individual involved and on one's view of sex. Most prostitutes think of sex as a positive act between two people. Whether it is given out of love or done as a service, as long as it is a consenting act between two adults, it's still a positive act.
With so much murder, rape and torture going on in this world, it is hard to imagine that making another human being feel good (giving them an orgasm) could be degrading or demeaning - whether or not it is done for a fee.
Be careful how you condemn me, Tallahassee. My co-workers in the sex industry included a divorced state employee living in a trailer on the south side of town, a manicurist employed by a posh hair salon, the daughter of a black attorney, a judge's stepdaughter, a legal secretary, a nurse, a waitress, a journalist, a FAMU student, an FSU co-ed, a law student, the girl who takes your Wendy's order and a 19-year-old mother with a baby whose husband was away in the army and had "forgotten" that his new bride and child needed grocery money.
Condemn us and you condemn your sister, your girlfriend, your favorite secretary, your next-door neighbor, your new wife and yes, even your mother.
Times are hard and jobs are difficult to come by in Tallahassee, especially decent-paying jobs for women. Not one woman I interviewed for a job chose to do this "as a lark." Over and over I heard, "I need the money to buy groceries . . . pay the light bill . . . fix the car . . . pay tuition . . . take my kid to the doctor."
The cops had been led to believe they were hot on the trail of a big drug bust. All they busted were women trying to make ends meet.
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