Free Republic

Kolkata: A group of organisations have launched a campaign against a move by UN Women, a United Nations organisation dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, to decriminalise pimping, buying sex and brothel-keeping. "Such a move will fuel huge sex-trafficking as those who buy and sell women will get off scot free," Ruchira Gupta of Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an anti-sex trafficking NGO, told reporters here today. More than 1,000 individuals and organisations representing victims and survivors, women and dalits have signed a petition that the NGO would submit to UN Women in Delhi on January 7. The...

OTTAWA - Canada’s Catholic bishops will maintain their opposition to prostitution despite the Supreme Court of Canada’s Dec. 20 ruling striking down Canada’s prostitution laws. “The bishops of Canada and the CCCB will continue to teach Catholic values on the sacred role of sexuality in building a committed, loving relationship between husband and wife,” said Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops media relations director Rene Laprise in an e-mail. “As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains (no. 2355), prostitution injures the human dignity of all those engaged in it. Furthermore, it reduces human persons to instruments of profit and sexual...

The latest allegations against a New York state assemblyman could find ladies of the evening joining alongside a growing number of Democratic officials calling for his resignation. Just days after three women filed a similar claim, a fourth woman said she was sexually harassed by Democratic state Assemblyman Dennis Gabryszak. Caitrin Kennedy filed the complaint, which included a statement that Gabryszak said “if workers in the sex trade were to unionize, he would no longer be able to afford their services.” So much for the Democratic mantra of uplifting the middle class.

Dennis drawn to North Korea by his Rodman: report Staff Reporter 2013-12-26 08:55 (GMT+8) Retired NBA great Dennis Rodman loves visiting North Korea not just to train local basketball players but to enjoy the sexual services laid on for him by his pal, the country's supreme leader Kim Jong-un, reports Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po. The Hall of Famer departed from North Korea on Monday after training local players for an exhibition game against former NBA veterans scheduled for Jan. 8, Kim's birthday. This was his third visit to the country in the past year. Known for his wild...

Something interesting happened in Canada this week, and for once it had nothing to do with Justin Bieber or Captain Kirk. Their Supreme Court effectively struck down the nation’s laws involving prostitution, though the definitions of the specific laws in question aren’t as straight forward as the title might suggest. The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down the country’s major prostitution laws, saying that bans on street soliciting, brothels and people living off the avails of prostitution create severe dangers for vulnerable women and therefore violate Canadians’ basic values. Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, writing for a unanimous court, stressed...

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's highest court struck down the country's anti-prostitution laws Friday, a victory for sex workers who had argued that a ban on brothels and other measures made their profession more dangerous. The ruling drew criticism from the conservative government and religious leaders. The court, ruling in a case brought by three women in the sex trade, struck down all three of Canada's prostitution-related laws: bans on keeping a brothel, making a living from prostitution, and street soliciting. The ruling won't take effect immediately, however, because the court gave Parliament a year to respond with new legislation, and...

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada struck down all current restrictions on prostitution on Friday, including bans on brothels and on street solicitation, declaring the laws were unconstitutional because they violated prostitutes' safety. The sweeping 9-0 decision will take effect in one year, inviting Parliament to try to come up with some other way to regulate the sex trade if it chooses to do so. Prostitution is technically legal in Canada but most related activities have been illegal, including living off the avails of someone else's prostitution, but the court found that the provisions were overly broad or grossly...

MOUND HOUSE, Nev. (CBS Las Vegas/AP) — President Barack Obama has at least one segment of America behind his health care law: the legalized prostitutes at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch. The girls who work at the Bunny Ranch tell KRNV-TV that it was nearly impossible for them to get health insurance before because of their profession. “Having this profession, we aren’t exactly offered group health insurance,” Taylor Lee said. “It’s hard because I do have a pre-existing condition so I really support Obamacare. I’m excited.”(continued)

President Hamid Karzai’s government is considering bringing back stoning for adultery—and imposing 100 lashes (which is a death sentence) for unmarried people who have had sexual relations. Thus, Afghan men can marry female children, keep male children as sex-toys, maintain four wives, and visit prostitutes from dawn to dawn. But it is a capital crime if an Afghan man dishonors another Afghan man by having relations with his female “property;” and, if he has raped the poor wife, she is also to be stoned. Worse yet, if two young Afghans meet and fall in love on their own and have...

Some 131,000 people were newly infected with HIV in Europe and nearby countries in 2012, an 8 percent rise from a year earlier and a worrying reversal of a recent downward trend in AIDS cases in the West. Michel Kazatchkine, the United Nation's HIV/AIDS Special Envoy in Eastern Europe, told Reuters in an interview this month that HIV epidemics are becoming more concentrated in marginalized groups such as sex workers, drug users and gay men, and could defy global attempts to combat AIDS if no progress is made in turning them around.

A performer who pays for good reviews from critics usually isn't any good, and that would seem to be the case for Obamacare, too. Except that it is the taxpayers, not the performer laying out the bribe money, and the magnitude of the bribe dwarfs even the most lavish junkets offered by Hollywood. The Washington Times has a blockbuster exclusive story: Two months before enrollment began in the Obamacare exchanges, the administration's top health care official heaped praise on WebMD for launching an online resource to help Americans navigate the complex law. The consumer health care site had the occasional...

A burlesque dancer dressed as a nurse taunts her co-performer with a toy syringe, dangling the medicine seductively in an act that's meant to reflect the cat-and-mouse game of U.S. healthcare. They shimmy and eventually end up topless. The risqué performance was part of an Obamacare registration drive last week in San Francisco, dubbed the "Healthy Ho's Party." Organized by "Siouxsie Q," a Bay Area sex worker, the event was meant to encourage other sex workers to enroll in the new insurance exchanges. It was a rousing success: Nearly 40 men and women attended and almost all of them...

In some poor Indian villages, girls are trained from birth for a life of sexual servitude in order to feed their families.Like many Indian girls, Suchitra was taught her future profession by her mother. In her village, there was only one path. Even before she’d reached puberty, Suchitra had learned different sexual positions and other ways to please a customer. At age 14, a man she had never seen before showed up one day at the family’s house near Bharatpur in northern India. At her mother’s urging, Suchitra got into his car. Six hours later they reached their destination. It...

Ithaca, NY — An inmate in an Ithaca jail was named as part of a Central New York sex trafficking ring arraigned today. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Tuesday the arrest and arraignment of three people involved in a ring which operated in Ithaca, Syracuse, Watertown and elsewhere. Eric Oliver, 30, of Syracuse, is alleged to be the leader of the ring. He was assisted by Tirra Pate, 19, also of Syracuse and Jessica Moro, 19, of Cicero. The New York Attorney General alleges Oliver contacted Pate and Moro in Ithaca and Watertown jails. “The sex trafficking ring was so...

<p>Federal agents arrested 13 suspects in connection with an alleged sex trafficking ring in Houston that prostituted underage, undocumented girls from Mexico for up to $500 an hour, according to an indictment unsealed Friday morning.</p> <p>Federal prosecutors allege the ring operated out of several Houston bars and brothels and the suspects charged "premium prices" for sex with underage girls. The girls were locked up and beaten and charged for condoms, the indictment alleges.</p>

Proposed legislation may outlaw paying for sex in France while giving prostitutes who are victims of sexual violence easier access to legal support. The preliminary text does not enjoy universal support. … “We are going to turn the law on its head,” said Socialist Member of Parliament Maud Olivier, who authored a report that will be the basis of the bill. “Prostitutes are victims and should not be treated like criminals.” “The law is intended to reduce violence towards prostitutes and to get it into the general mindset that paying for sexual services is not acceptable. We need to destroy...

A Senate Republican requested an ethics investigation of Democrats who hinted they may use his personal scandal to fight his effort to defund part of Obamacare. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., has been demanding a Senate vote on a proposal to repeal federal contributions to help pay for healthcare coverage for members of Congress under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The provision was included in the 2010 legislation by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Detroit Teachers Moonlight As ‘Sugar Babies’ To Offset Wage Cuts DETROIT (WWJ) - It’s back-to-school season and many Detroit teachers are struggling in the wake of budget cuts and overcrowded classrooms. According to the National School Supply and Equipment Association, the average teacher spent at least $485 on school supplies for their classroom last year. So, what are some Detroit women doing to offset their struggles in the classroom? Well, they’re becoming “sugar babies” of course — seeking financial assistance from wealthy men online. In the Detroit School District alone, 201 teachers are moonlighting as sugar babies to offset wage...

They look like shelters for hikers in a national park, but these wooden sheds in Switzerland have a rather less innocent purpose – they provide a discreet location for men to have sex with prostitutes. The drive-in "sex boxes" as they are being called, will be officially opened on August 26, as part of a drive by authorities in Zurich to regulate prostitution, combat pimping and improve security for sex workers. The nine garage-style structures, located in a former industrial zone in the west of the city, have been organised with typically Swiss precision. Drivers will have to follow a...

They look like shelters for hikers in a national park, but these wooden sheds in Switzerland have a rather less innocent purpose—they provide a discreet location for men to have sex with prostitutes. The drive-in “sex boxes”, as they are being called, will be officially opened on August 26, as part of a drive by authorities in Zürich to regulate prostitution, combat pimping and improve security for sex workers. … The site is only open to drivers of cars—pedestrians and men on motorbikes are not allowed—and will operate from early evening until 5 a.m. each day. …