February 2003

Valerie's plea.

Tia's post.

Broken Wing's threat.

I think this is funny!

LadyBear berates Dennis Hof.

How do you get a hold of Dennis Hof?

A newspaper article about the proposed tax.

ExoticSyren's answers.

The thread "Telling other about your LPIN experience" is interesting reading.

Beepath's advice.

Happy Hooker on blowjobs.

What happened between sportsman and Sheri's Ranch and the Chicken Ranch?

Say good-bye to The Mustang Ranch.

An amusing thread about GP.

A short recent report about which Eastern Nevada brothels are open and their status.

Dennis Hof blowin' his own trumpet.

Is this post about The Cottontail Ranch real?

Brother Flyfisher on steelhead trout fishing.

Skoonj was on the Howdy Doody show?

EDITORIAL #008 :

Last week I discussed the issue of professional standards of ethical conduct for pimps (the legal Nevada brothels). This week I'll discuss the same for the sex workers themselves.

To my knowledge there has never been a codified list for ethical conduct for prostitutes, although years ago I did see a proposed list that I have not now been able to find. I will not now propose such a list, primarily since I believe it should be created by the working girls themselves, but I will address issues that the codified list must cover for a society based on that code to be effective.

Ethics for all professions have this one central ingredient - they are designed to protect the interests of those that are paying for the professional service. Physicians must protect the interests of their patients, and the same is true for the clients of attornies. Consumer protection is the key to ethical conduct. How a codified standard of ethics for prostitutes would do this is not for me to say - as I've said before I'll now say again, this standard must be written by prostitutes themselves.

There needs to be a professional society for prostitutes, composed only of prostitutes, that represents prostitutes before the state and before the brothels. I am not blind to the fact that this will probably be difficult to put together for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the usual request for anonymity that prostitutes want. Can such a professional society work if those on its governing board are anonymous? I doubt it. Also, the short turn-over rate for prostitutes working within the legal Nevada brothels will cause an obvious problem.

Just as the professional societies for physicians and attornies are to a large extent self-regulating, with the ability to revoke the license for one of their members and otherwise discipline them, so too must this proposed professional society of prostitutes. Membership in the society will be mandatory for a license to work, and the decisions of the board of directors, all of whom will be prostitutes, will be binding on the members. The society will have teeth, the same as medical and bar associations have. How this society of professional, legal prostitutes works is up to them, but it will have the ability to revoke the license of any unethical prostitute. And just as any physician or attorney who tries to practice their profession without a license is breaking the law, so too for any unlicensed prostitute.

On the other hand this professional society of legal prostitutes can be the ultimate ally of all working girls, able to bring grievances on behalf of the legal prostitutes before the state and county and city governments, and the brothels. It would not only internally police their members, but support them. I am hardly the first person to point out the need for such an organization to champion the interests of the working girls. It could even lobby the Nevada state legislature on their behalf.

For years I've been a member of a mailing list maintained by various prostitution rights activists, most of whom are themselves either active prostitutes or retired prostitutes. There was once a discussion about a news story about a prostitute (in a state other than Nevada) who had stolen from her client. One member of the list, a rather famous prostitute's rights activist, wrote that although she would never herself steal from a customer, she would not condemn any prostitute who did so. I am not mis-quoting her on this since I questioned her quite narrowly on this very point. She was not willing to criticize another prostitute, even an unethical one who was a thief. I felt that her position was terrible, with the "us-against-them" attitude that I work hard to avoid. I am just as willing to denounce an unethical customer as I am an unethical prostitute. I would have it no other way.

I have seen this type of attitude elsewhere from time to time, and the best paraphrase I can make of it is that until prositution is legal everywhere it is pointless to even think about a codified standard of professional conduct for prostitutes. I do not know what percentage of legal Nevada prostitutes feel this way, but I hope it is a small percentage because in Nevada there exists a unique opportunity within the United States to prove what I already know, which is that prostitution can be an honorable profession that those who chose of their own free will, uncoerced, to participate within can lead lives as normal and happy as that of any other class of citizens.

Prostitutes need to create a professional society that will protect their own interests. They will benefit enormously from it.

Be seeing you.

Bashful