Prostitution may soon be okay in San Francisco

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By Kathleen Davis

What if on November 4, Election Day for those of you under rocks, a vote was offered on prostitution – basically, should it be decriminalized or not? In San Francisco that was the case. Proposition K was up for voting along with the presidential election. Proposition K, according to CNN, would decriminalize prostitution. This would not necessarily make it legal as it would still be illegal by state law, but it would change how local officials handled prostitution. Under the new law, local police officers could not investigate or arrest for prostitution. It would also allow prostitutes to organization themselves, get rights, and stay safer.

A heated debate has been underway in San Francisco over the issue. Key officials in the city are opposed. The mayor, district attorney, and the police department are openly against the change. They think it will disrupt investigations involving human trafficking and drugs. Capt. Al Pardini, head of San Francisco’s vice unit, said to the Associated Press, “It’s pretty rare that we get a call that says: I’m a victim of human trafficking.” Women are brought into the country all the time forced to be prostitutes. So, while Proposition K would help women who decided to become prostitutes and have made it their life work, it would keep a forced sex slave in danger. Also the San Francisco Chronicle printed an editorial against the bill. They said it would make the city “a magnet for prostitution.”

There are supporters though. The Democratic Party in San Francisco has endorsed the change. Also, groups like the Bay Area Sex Workers Advocacy Network are openly campaigning for it. A story from the Associated Press introduces a woman who sells sex on the Internet, Patricia West, from Texas who moved to San Francisco to help in the campaigning. West says this about Proposition K, “It will allow workers to organize for our rights and for our safety.”

There are already two places where certain types of prostitution are legal. In Nevada brothels are legal, while in Rhode Island consenting adults can sell or pay for sex privately. Proposition K, though, would make the stereotypical prostitution on the street legal. If passed, San Francisco would be the first place in the United States to have so few restrictions on prostitution.

Originally Published: Issue 711 - November 5, 2008

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