My mom brought me an article that came in at her office … “An Immoral Choice” from the Times and Seasons section of the May-June 2005 issue of The Lamplighter.
The London Telegraph recently reported that a 25 year old waitress in Germany was given the choice of either becoming a prostitute or losing her unemployment benefits!
Prostitution was legalized in Germany two years ago and brothel owners, who must pay taxes now like all other businesses, were granted access to official government databases of jobseekers.
Under Germany’s welfare reform’s, any woman under 55 who has seen out of work more than a year can be forced to take any available job — including one in the “sex-industry” — or else lose her unemployment benefit.
Merchthild Garweg, a lawyer from Hamburg who specializes in labor cases said: “There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being set into the sex industry. The new regulations say that working in the sex industry is not immoral any more, and so jobs in that industry cannot be turned down without risk to benefits.”
“No way this is true” was my first response. I started trying to find articles to prove me right and could not find much of anything either way. It now seems that I am half-right. This being a controversial issue by default, there are strong opinions on both sides and the validity of the implication is still unclear to me.
When I am writing a post that involves internet research, I open a new window so that that all the tabs in that window are related to the post. (Yet another reason to use Firefox!) This one set a record with 15 tabs, and that is just scratching the surface.
The article that “started” this latest debate in Germany’s legalization of prostitution is from the London Telegraph. The article in question is from January 30, 2005 entitled ‘If you don’t take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits’ and written by Clare Chapman.
The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.
When the waitress looked into suing the job centre, she found out that it had not broken the law. Job centres that refuse to penalise people who turn down a job by cutting their benefits face legal action from the potential employer.
With unemployment over 5 million, a record high, the German government is desperate to find people jobs. On the surface, the new welfare system of denying benefits to those who turn down valid jobs, is to do just that .. find people jobs and lower their rampant unemployment. A valid job now includes prostitution and any related job in the sex industry. So it seems logical to me that the same people who consider prostitution no longer immoral by law and that it is any like any other job … would feel the penalties for refusing that valid job should be implemented.
Canada is also considering legalizing prostitution much to the dismay of Daniel Timmons who is “Proud to be Canadian.”
The “world’s oldest profession” is merely a euphemism to disguise the dark truth. Prostitution has always been, and always will be, a sordid and pathetic practice. It diminishes the dignity and sanctity of the human body, where fleeting moments of carnal excitement are bought and sold.
Prostitution exploits the truly vulnerable, young women from broken homes and on substance abuse, for the selfish pleasure of men who betray their wives, dishonour their children, and disrespect themselves. To fully legalize prostitution wouldn’t control or curtail such disgraces, but rather sanction and expand them.
Going back to the original issue … there are a few sites that are claiming that while the penalty of refusing benefits is accurate … it will make an exception for those refusing to work in a brothel.
“And if a prostitute quits her job because she’s sick of it, she won’t face the penalties we usually impose on people who voluntarily give up work.”
~ reports the Washington Times. How nice of them! I am still not convinced that the penalties wound not be enforced and the ones saying that this claim is false are not all that convincing to me. Snopes claims its false because they “were initially skeptical about the literal truth of the version reported in the English press” and it points to a German article that “evidently” stated that the possibility was present and “Although it claimed there had been “isolated cases” of such, it did not provide any source or documentation to back up that statement.” So of course it does not happen! 
Another twist I had not considered … from JimG @ The Intolerable Banality of Evil
But there is a second element to this story that isn’t exactly from the liberal playbook. Reconsider the above quoted statement. “There is now nothing in the law to stop women from being sent into the sex industry.” (Emphasis added.) Why only women? I’ve been to Germany. It has a large and vibrant gay community. (And let’s face it, men are the primary consumers of the services of sex industry workers – male and female.) Imagine, even in liberal Europe, if an unemployed straight man was required to have sex with men or lose his benefits. The problem would be fixed - pronto.
Legalization of prostitution for all the “logical” benefits the supporters claim will occur … usually fail miserably. One benefit is to clear up police time to investigate other crimes and free up court time used to prosecute offenders. This is true, it would do that .. as it would when ANY crime is suddenly considered legal … car theft (you have insurance, why punish someone who needs a car), speeding (we all do it at one time or another, which means that it should be legal), name any crime and there is a illogical argument that seems logical to some.
“When it [Germany’s legalization] was set up there was much talk of securing proper contracts, proper health insurance, but a lot of this hasn’t materialized because of big holes in the legislation,” said Berlin’s Hydra prostitute advice center spokesman Marion Detlefs.
Sweden legalized prostitution and gave it a good try but none of the “benefits” that were supposed to happen ever materialized.
“The country [Sweden] - which legalized prostitution 30 years ago - recriminalized it in 1998, after complaints that legalization had solved few of the problems it set out to address.”
And here is a real thinker … arrest and prosecute offenders and crime goes down!
Sweden has found that much of the vast profit generated by the global prostitution industry goes into the pockets of human traffickers. In response, to fight human trafficking and promote gender equality, Sweden has aggressively prosecuted sex buyers, pimps, and brothel owners since 1999. Two years into innovative focus on punishing the traffickers and buyers, rather than the female victims, Sweden has seen a 50 percent drop in women used in prostitution and a 75 percent decline in sex buying.
I know Germany has struggled in defining their post-war identity. In the grand scheme of things 60 years is not a long time. This is no excuse to try to solve one problem (unemployment) by legalizing prostitution. The only people who would support legalization are the ones who can profit more from it and those who do not want to get arrested. I don’t think either group deserves any help from the government of any country.
RAHMAT GUL / EPA
