The Case Against Legalized Prostitution

Prostitution is a practice that arises from the historical subordination of women and the accompanying patriarchal right of men to buy and exchange women as objects for sexual use.

Canadians embrace and respect the worth and dignity of every person and our Courts have confirmed that respect for human dignity is an underlying principle upon which Canada is based. However, the practice of prostitution is an assault on human dignity.

In 1949 Canada signed the United Nations Convention to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking In Persons which included this statement:

“Prostitution and the accompanying evil of the traffic in persons
for the purpose of prostitution are incompatible with the dignity and worth of
persons and endanger the welfare of the individual, the family and the community.”

While Canada has chosen not to criminalize prostitution itself, our criminal law provides that communication for the purpose of soliciting, living off the avails, and common bawdy houses or brothels are illegal.

The argument to legalize these prostitution offences is based on the notion that, if legal, women will be safer; they will be able to communicate and screen their potential customers; they will be able to hire bodyguards and assistants; and they will move from street soliciting to brothels, which are safer.

The trouble with their argument is that countries that have legalized prostitution for those same reasons have learned the hard way that the gains they hoped to achieve for women in prostitution have been illusory.

The best example is the State of Victoria, Australia, home to capital city Melbourne, where prostitution was legalized in the 1980′s in order to minimize harm to prostitutes.

Their worthy goal was to eradicate the criminal element, guard against unregulated expansion of the practice and combat violence against prostitutes.

Instead, according to noted expert and social scientist Dr. Janice Raymond and others working in the field, legalization led to a massive expansion of prostitution, where ironically, the growth was mainly in the illegal sector where unlicensed brothels proliferated.

The legalization of brothels did not empower women to work as independent businesswomen in their own organized brothels because, not unexpectedly, large brothel operators dominated the brothel industry making it difficult for individual prostitutes or even small groups of women to compete against the huge money and marketing of commercial brothels.

Street prostitution did not disappear simply because women who work outside have a host of social problems including homelessness, addictions, are under-age, or are unwilling to register with the government. Women in these situations were not able to be employed by brothels by the nature of their lifestyle.

The law, while intending to eliminate organized crime, brought with it an explosion of human trafficking by international crime syndicates. Finally, the legalization of brothels legitimized pimps and procurers as business men.

While prostitution will always be with us, do we want our streets, not just the back alleys, to be strolls for working girls, who can linger as long as they choose when the communication law is struck? Do we want our neighbouring homes and apartments to be commercial legal brothels? Do we want to change the social fabric of Canada by endorsing prostitution?

You ask if there is a solution? Many are recommending the approach taken by Sweden where their legislators recognized that prostitution causes serious harm to individuals and society as a whole, that it is associated with crime, violence, and human trafficking, but that at its core it is the victimization and oppression of women.

The Swedish model criminalizes the purchaser of sexual services, but not the women who engage in prostitution. The government reports that street prostitution has been reduced by 50%, but more importantly, the practice of prostitution is not condoned and is seen for what it is: a form of violence against women.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

Anti-Gay Bill in Uganda Resurfaces

When you live in a country where human rights and the equality of every man and woman is revered, it is difficult to comprehend a society where Parliamentarians debated and considered imposing the death penalty for people who are gay, lesbian or transgendered.

Uganda’s gay agenda, introduced in 2009, made international headlines in 2011 with the murder of Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato, who was bludgeoned to death in his home in Kampala.

Mr. Kato was one of a large group of gays and lesbians “outed” by the Ugandan newspaper, Rolling Stone (no relation to the American publication) in October 2010. The headline read: “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Homos Leak”. The article contained Mr. Kato’s name and home address. It also identified venues frequented by gays and lesbians. Its subheading read “Hang them”.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda and imprisonment of up to 14 years may be imposed. However, it was a bill introduced by politician David Bahati in 2009, and recently resurrected, that has upped the ante for Uganda’s gay population.

The original Anti-Homosexuality Bill imposed the death penalty for serial homosexual offences; for sexual activity with persons under the age of 18 or the disabled; and for sexual activity where HIV is passed to another.

It has now been reported that after world-wide criticism, including from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the death penalty provisions have been abandoned in favour of life in prison.

However, government fervor behind the bill has not faded. In November 2012 the Speaker for the Ugandan Parliament announced that the amended bill would be passed before the end of 2012 as a “Christmas gift” for Ugandans, which has support from 96% of the electorate. Fortunately, this deadline passed with no new law, but law makers are expected to vote on the legislation this month.

Some media outlets report that Bahati’s bill came to fruition after he spent time with certain evangelical christians who came to Uganda in 2009, espousing family values and denouncing homosexuality as a sin. Barack Obama’s inauguration “Pastor”, Rick Warren from Saddleback, California, has been named as a Christian leader who influenced Mr. Bahati and other high-placed politicians.

Warren’s mega-church has focused considerable charitable efforts in Africa, including Uganda, however, Mr. Warren has forcefully denounced the death penalty bill, while adhering to biblical standards concerning sex outside of marriage and the sanctity of marriage, between one man and one woman.

A leading evangelical group in Canada, Crossroads Christian Communications, has also come under fire in recent days. Crossroads receives over $500,000 in funding from the Canadian government to bring aid to Uganda by building wells, latrines and promoting good hygiene.

Critics, however, decrie the organization’s public stance against homosexuality and it is reported that Crossroads funding will be reviewed in light of this position.

What cannot be overlooked, however, is that while many world religions consider homosexuality a sin, discrimination against gays, lesbians and the transgendered is a human rights issue and unlike the hateful Westborough Baptist Church in Kansas, there is no evidence to suggest that Rick Warren or Crossroads support human rights abuses. To the contrary, these organizations are bringing hope and change to Uganda.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

Do Male Jurors Discriminate Against Fat Women?

Researchers at Yale University recently conducted a study with 471 mock jurors. Each of them was given a hypothetical criminal case of cheque fraud, together with photographs of four fake defendants.

The four accused consisted of a portly man, a slender man, a svelte woman and an overweight woman. The jurors then assessed each accused’s guilt on a scale of five, based on their appearance.

The study results showed that male jurors consistently found the fat woman to be guilty, and the bias against overweight women was even greater if the male juror was a thin man. Curiously, this weight bias did not apply to male jurors assessing the guilt of overweight men and female jurors displayed no discrimination against fat people.

Natasha Schevey, who led the research, concluded that weight-based stigmatization is now on par with rates of racial discrimination. In other words, overweight people are vulnerable to bias and discrimination similar to racial prejudice, based on stereotyping that depicts overweight people as “greedy, lazy, unmotivated, and lacking in self-discipline and will power”.

The results of this study are no surprise to researchers who specialize in obesity. Similar studies at Yale have shown that the medical community holds disdain for fat people under their care, even in cases where the physicians themselves specialize in obesity.

Other studies have shown that young people choosing partners would prefer a disabled partner rather than an obese one, and employment research indicates that overweight people are 37 times more likely to suffer employment discrimination.

What is shocking is that gender, disability, sexual orientation, and racial bias is protected by law, but weight discrimination has no legal protection. The victims of weight bias suffer in silence. Is it even possible to change public opinion?

In 2004 there were 7 million overweight people in Canada and 4.5 million obese people.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

Looking Back: The Law in 2012-Part 2

The last six months of 2012 did not disappoint as far as provocative legal stories, from Judge Lori Douglas to Warren Jeffs, with a smattering of Halle Berry and bad boy Dennis Rodman. Here are the highlights:

July 2012- The Lori Douglas story was at a full boil throughout the month of July as the Judicial Inquiry into her knowledge of her husband’s recruitment of his client as a sexual partner for her, provided the salacious details behind the judicial robes.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also took a heavy hit when a large group of female officers spoke out about sexual harassment and discrimination in their workplace. It was a body blow the force did not need, coming at the same time as the details of RCMP incompetency in the Pickton investigation came to light.

August 2012- Halle Berry’s personal life was on display as she battled for custody of her daughter in full press legal combat, while it was difficult to determine if Dennis Rodman deserved censure or pity when the details of his out-of-control life became apparent amid allegations that he owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid child support.

September 2012- While America’s Election consumed the media and was the subject of a story on Lawdiva, closer to home the tragic situation befalling the children of Bountiful, British Columbia made the news, as six ex-communicated FLDS fathers of 42 children successfully obtained court orders to see their children.

October 2012- The guest post of Agnes Jimenez on “Cyberbullies” was prescient coming mere weeks before the tragedy of B.C. teen Amanda Todd’s suicide.

November 2012- Halle Berry resurfaced in November when the family court ruled that her application to move to France with her daughter, Nahla, was denied. A few weeks later her former partner and the father of Nahla, Gabriel Aubry and her boyfriend, Olivier Martinez engaged in fisticuffs during an access transfer of Nahla at Ms. Berry’s home. Lucky for both, no charges were laid.

December 2012- Only in California, you say? The issue of gay therapy for children who wish to overcome homosexuality hit the news when the California legislature enacted law that would prevent therapists from employing “gay aversion” therapy. A short time later, a California judge struck down the law. Undoubtedly, 2013 will see further court hearings on the issue of gay therapy.

Lindsay Lohan was a regular newsmaker throughout 2012, culminating in charges being laid in both California and New York for assault, reckless driving, and obstruction of justice. Her comeback role as Elizabeth Taylor in a television movie was not the success she hoped for as critics slashed her thespian efforts. More to come in 2013, to be sure.

Bye-bye to 2012…Welcome to 2013!

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

Looking Back: The Law in 2012- Part 1

There were dozens of legal issues that fascinated me in 2012 and many of my subscribers and drop-in readers must have felt the same way, because they read the stories and made their comments, both on Lawdiva and on my Facebook page.

2012 highlights include:

January 2012- Heidi Klum and singer Seal separated, in spite of their public annual renewal of vows. Apparently, their annual recommittment to one another meant as much to them as their original “until death do us part”.

Two other stories captured my interest and yours, namely, the story of the Russian orphan returned to Russia by his American adopted mother and of course, same-sex divorce became a reality falling on the heels of same-sex marriage.

February 2012- A group of concerned citizens in Sarnia, Ontario initiated Canadians for Family Law Reform and held rallies and peaceful protests about the state of family law in Ontario.

As well, a family lawyer stateside who mistakenly released a child’s passport to her mother, only to have the mother flee to Spain with the child, was ordered to pay damages of $950,000 to the child’s father, for his inadvertent assistance in the child’s abduction.

March 2012- Canada was introduced to transgendered Miss Universe Canada Jenna Taleckova and the Ontario courts were asked to strike down the laws criminalizing prostitution, a case that will now go to the Supreme Court of Canada.

April 2012- A Public Sex Offender Registry was established in Calgary, Alberta, while in British Columbia, serial murderer and sex offender Robert Willy Pickton’s horrendous crimes became the focus of an inquiry that got off on the wrong foot and never quite made it back on track.

May 2012- The story of Madam Justice Lori Douglas went viral when the Canadian Judicial Counsel commenced their Inquiry in May. You couldn’t make up a more titillating tale of power, prestige, and sex.

June 2012- The sudden split of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes saturated the media and Lawdiva readers lapped it up. The second biggest story in June was the announcement of British Columbia’s new Family Law Act, legislation intended to tranform family law from an adversarial model to “court as the last resort”, introducing family law arbitration as a way to resolve family law disputes.

Tomorrow will focus on the highlights from July 2012 to December…Happy New Year

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

Gay to Straight Therapy Banned in Calfornia

Controversial “gay conversion” therapy will no longer be used in California to treat children 18 and under who seek to change their same-sex attraction to heterosexual attraction.

Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a Bill prohibiting state licensed therapists to engage in treatments intended to assist gay and lesbian kids to change their sexual preference, a law that comes into effect on January 1, 2013.

Proponents of the new law argue that therapies designed to alter a minor’s sexual orientation have been scientifically shown to be ineffective. Homosexuality as a psychiatric diagnosis was completely removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health in 1986, and in 2005 the American Psychiatric Association rejected the proposition that therapy could be useful for those who wished to “go straight”.

In 2007 Professors Stanton Hope from the prestigious Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois and Mark Yarhouse from Regents University in Virginia Beach joined forces in a study to test the APA’s theory that therapy was of no use.

Thirty-five of their original 98 participants dropped out almost immediately, leaving 65 research subjects at the conclusion of the study. The data was obtained through the organization called Exodus International, a Christian group whose mandate is to give homosexuals “freedom through Christ”.

Drs. Hope and Yarhouse published their results, finding that 23% of their group reported no change, 30% opted for celibacy, 20% embraced their orientation, while 23% reported they were “cured” with no harmful psychological aftermath.

However, critics say their lack of scientific rigour suggests their research is flawed and unreliable. Others say that their results do show behavioral changes, which are different from changes in sexual orientation.

What exactly is conversion therapy? It has been described as encompassing intrusive aversion treatments, drug therapy, Christian informed psychoanalysis, and spiritual intervention. Critics say the treatment brings on shame, grief, and anxiety causing patients to suffer depression and increased suicidal tendencies.

Critics of the new law have already filed lawsuits challenging the legislation on the basis that it breaches constitutionally guaranteed rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion. They say the law is a disgusting abuse of government powers and a tyrannical interference with parental rights, who alone should determine how to help their child.

Until the law is overturned, a result that I believe is highly unlikely, therapists who continue to practice “gay to straight” therapy will be disciplined for unprofessional conduct.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

The Latest Gender Phenomenon

As medical experts dig deeper into the world of sexual orientation and gender identity, their research expands this field of knowledge in ways that are nothing less than bizarre. Case in point is the work of Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran, Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego, who claims to have discovered a new gender which is neither male nor female, but bi-gender.

The condition identified by Dr. Ramachandran, called “alternating gender incongruity” or AGI, occurs when people involuntarily switch between male and female. Individuals with AGI experience phantom breasts or genitalia of the opposite sex, according to the highly respected neuroscientist.

His study considered 32 people who registered on an online bi-gender forum, 11 women and 21 men. One-third of the group said their gender switching was predictable; a majority switched weekly while 14 others said they switched once or more daily.

Dr. Ramachandran said that his findings to date indicate that between the extremes of male and female is a “spectrum of a poorly understood and poorly studied group of ambiguously defined sexual identities that are very much part of the human condition.”

He did, however, caution that his results are suggestive, but not conclusive of his theory, and that he still needs to rule out multiple personality disorder or role-playing by his research subjects and ascertain whether there are biological indicators present, such as fluctuating hormone levels.

His research also revealed that those with AGI had a tendency to ambidexterity and bipolar disorder. Nonetheless, while admitting that more work is required, scientists are pushing for a new category of transgender or neuropsychiatric condition.

The medical exploration of strange phenomenon is nothing new for Dr. Ramachandran who earlier investigated “synaesthesia”, a condition affecting millions, where one’s senses are intermingled; people can taste words, hear colours and feel sounds.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

Miss Universe Canada Opens Transgender Dialogue

Why are we so afraid of our transgendered sisters and brothers? I think it’s because we live in a society that has refused to acknowledge them. We have kept them cloistered and far away from our world. We have tried to ignore them; refused to educate ourselves about them; and confused them with cross-dressers, drag queens and other assorted gender-benders. If we ignore them, they don’t exist.

It seems the media only reports on transgendered people when they are prostitutes who end up in the press for cavorting with well-known actors, like Hugh Grant and Eddie Murphy, or when they are famous like Chaz Bono and Renee Richards. Some of us think they are mentally ill. Most of us don’t really know what they are all about, and don’t want to know.

This week’s news that Miss Universe Canada, Jenna Talackova, was removed from the Donald Trump Miss Universe pageant, brings home all the issues we are afraid to talk about.

Are men and women who transition to the opposite sex, gay or lesbian? What does sexual orientation have to do with gender identity? Are people really “born in the wrong body” or is their perception skewed by childhood sexual abuse or other traumatic events?

First of all, not all people who identify internally as the opposite gender transition to a new identity, however, the ones that do are called transsexuals. Transgendered people are just like the rest of us: they can be heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian. Their sexual orientation is not linked to their internal genetic identity.

While the American Psychological Association refers to a condition called “gender identity disorder”, not all transgendered people have this disorder, only those who are psychologically impacted by their situation resulting in severe stress, anxiety, depression or other anti-social behaviors.

Medical researchers posit various theories on why some people are transgendered. We know that our gender is based on chromosomes: XX for women and YY for men. We also know that some people are born with both male and female genitalia.

Other medical experts opine that fluctuating hormones during pregnancy may affect gender; others link gender identity to brain structure. No one in the medical community believes that transgenderism is a chosen behavior.

Jenna Talackov is a beautiful woman who began her gender journey at the age of four, when she realized she was a girl. At fourteen she began hormonal treatments and had surgery five years later. She competed with 65 other women and won Miss Canada. That she fits the Trump beauty queen mold is unquestionable.

Like other genetic anomalies, such as Downs syndrome, education is the key to understanding. Can you imagine a pageant contestant with Downs syndrome being ushered out the door? Never. We must look discrimination in the face and affirm it has no place in our lives.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

Children With Gender Identity Disorder

A debate is brewing over the treatment of children who are confused about their gender. Picture a little boy in a pink tutu, fairy wings and ballet pumps. Now imagine that five-year-old boy being treated with hormone-blocking drugs in a clinic established to diagnose and treat children who believe they were born in the wrong body.

Gender Identity Syndrome, first identified by the American Psychiatric Association in the 1990’s, has spawned a new industry, one where children as young as five, are receiving puberty suppressing injections, despite a paucity of research with respect to the side effects or medical dangers that may accompany these treatments.

At Tavistock Clinic in the United Kingdom over 165 children are being treated by the clinic’s team of social workers and child therapists. Seven of these children are under the age of five, despite Tavistock’s own research that indicates that up to 80% of these children will change their minds about living in the wrong body, once they reach adolescence.

Nonetheless, proponents of hormone therapy believe the treatment is worthwhile to prevent the mental distress these children will experience as their bodies mature. The treatment is also said to be beneficial to those children who will eventually have gender-changing surgery. Others say the treatment reduces suicide and self-harm rates.

Contrary opinions abound. Professor Russell Viner, a hormone specialist at London’s Institute of Child Health believes the impact on a child’s developing bones and brain has not been ascertained and warns of the potential danger. He notes the drugs definitely reduce a patient’s fertility level.

Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a world authority on gender issues, has a children’s clinic in Toronto and is opposed to hormonal treatments for children. He says:

“Suppose you saw a black kid that wanted to be white. Wouldn’t you try to understand what was happening…You certainly wouldn’t recommend skin-bleaching.”

He is of the view that gender confusion is an issue of nurture, not nature and believes dysfunctional families or cultural backgrounds play an important role.
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Expert Dr. Donald Drescher of the New York Medical College also favors a “wait and see” approach and decries the use of hormone therapy for young children.

The medical and ethical issues of prescribing intrusive treatments on vulnerable children certainly requires more intense scrutiny than it has received to date.

Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang

Two Confused Husbands…Or is it Wives?

Paul and Alan were both married to women. Paul was married for 30 years and Alan had two failed marriages, one lasted seven years and the second ended after 20 years. Between them they had five children.

Paul and Alan both left their wives and families to engage in a gay relationship with each other. Shortly thereafter both Paul and Alan began to live as lesbians, both of them dressing as women. Still later, Paul decided to have surgical assistance with his gender switch and had a breast augmentation and facial surgery to appear more female.

Paul and Alan, now Jenny-Anne and Elen, were recently joined together in holy matrimony as husband and wife, going through a civil service where Elen had to play down her femininity so as not to upset the government officials.

Later Jenny-Anne and Elen’s marriage was blessed by their church. In media reports the happy couple expessed great joy at their new lives together.

There was not a word said about their broken families or the aftermath of their decisions on their five children. No, it was all about them. Congratulations, I guess….