You're welcome, and thank you as well. I'm glad to have a discussion on this issue with a reasonable person. The issues of civil rights and harassment I think of as being more related to the institutional structure of how the job is done than anything else.
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For example: it is already illegal to harass anyone. You can't stalk a waitress at a restaurant and you can't follow your accountant home. Maybe sex workers have more risk of this because of the nature of their work, but it is a readily solvable problem. Good OpSec solves it.
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good OpSec is something that is more easily facilitated in a legal, above-ground environment where institutions to train and protect workers (like a trade-guild or union maybe) could exist.
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the civil rights issue I think needs to be deconstructed a bit. non-consensual sex (aka rape/assault) is already illegal. we don't extend a civil right to ANYONE to demand that a worker does something illegal on the job. this seems like a moot point on those grounds.
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but the grey area in terms of discrimination is maybe more interesting? can a sex worker withhold consent based on race, class, gender, or creed? I don't have a clear answer here but I'd lean on yes, a sex worker can withhold consent for any reason at all.
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my legal argument for this is that there is no reasonable expectation that sex work is a kind of commons. simply, it isn't open to the general public. there is and ought to be exclusion from access to sex workers. this isn't analogous to a clothing store or restaurant.
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I'd use an analogy to other professions that perform bespoke services. a lawyer in private practice is a good example. is a lawyer compelled to accept as a client any person who walks in the door? I think not. they have quite a lot of ability to discriminate in this respect.
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however this is immaterial to whether or not we ought to legalize sex work. suppose we do want to allow sex workers to be sued for racial discrimination based on their client selection. ok, fine. let the suits happen. we can't generalize. settle on case-by-case basis.
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my position is that it's a weak argument to advocate for continued prohibition based on shaky hypothetical problems that already have existing legal statues and remedies available in analogous situations. just end the prohibition and handle the cases as they arise.
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