Free Republic

At the polling booth this year, Berkeley residents will have a unique voting choice: Yes or no to the decriminalization of prostitution. Decriminalization means the repeal of measures that outlaw prostitution, soliciting, pimping, pandering, and brothels. Although the vote will take place only in the city of Berkeley, the decriminalization campaign's ultimate goal is the repeal of California state laws on prostitution and related offenses.** Decriminalization is a more extreme measure than legalization. Legalization would mean the regulation of prostitution with laws regarding where, when, and how prostitution could take place. Decriminalization eliminates all laws and prohibits the state and...

Local News Anchor Charged With Prostitution Fri Oct 15, 5:09 PM ET Local - WJXT News4Jax.com A local television news anchor was arrested on prostitution charges Thursday. Darryl Tardy was arrested at Westside Regional Park. Police said the arrest was part of their normal undercover work to eradicate prostitution. Officers said they chose the park because of complaints from nearby residents. It has also been the site of prior prostitution arrests. According to a police report, Tardy asked an undercover officer if he was a cop and demanded that he prove that he was not. Tardy was reportedly arrested after...

LOS ANGELES, September 27, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Democratic Presidential candidate, John Kerry, granted an exclusive interview to the national homosexual activist magazine, The Advocate, on September 16. In the preamble, Advocate writer Chris Bull describes Kerry as "an ardent gay rights supporter." "One of the original cosponsors of legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation," he continues, "Kerry has achieved a nearly unblemished voting record on the issue. In 1996 he was the only senator up for re-election to vote against the antigay Defense of Marriage Act. Three years earlier he went before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify...

ADAMS STREET — A former Democratic district leader Anabil Ortiz was sentenced yesterday to two-and-a-half to six years in prison for sexually assaulting his fiancé’s 13-year-old sister. Anabil Ortiz, 41, was convicted in June of second-degree sodomy, a class-D felony, which carries a maximum sentence of three to seven years.Ortiz’s victim testified that he showed her a porno movie and then performed oral sex acts similar to those depicted in the movie, until she told him to stop. Later Ortiz told her he loved her and that she should call him if she ever wanted to do it again, the...

DALLAS - The arrest of a 12-year-old boy on charges that he molested a 4-year-old girl at a fast-food restaurant playground may point to a growing problem of sexually aggressive children, child-abuse experts say. The boy was arrested Wednesday in suburban Houston on charges of indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault. Police would not discuss in detail what happened to the girl, other than to say her mother said she'd been touched inappropriately. The arrest came a week after the Dallas Independent School District expelled two first-grade boys after one performed a sex act on another during class....

Last Sunday, I picked up a copy of Boston Magazine while sitting in the green room at the Fox News studios in Watertown, Mass. Leafing through the publication, I came across an article titled "Confessions of an Ivy League Callgirl," written by Jeannette Angell, a university lecturer with a master's degree from Yale. The fact that she was a Yalie caught my eye -- as a Harvard Law student, I've already adopted our communal animosities -- and so I read the piece.  Apparently, Angell began trading sex for cash after receiving her doctorate in social anthropology. But what was shocking...

CLAYTON, Mo. -- Hookers are using the Internet to keep tabs on undercover cops. Police departments have used computers for years, but now the oldest profession is going high-tech. St. Louis County vice-squad commander Rick Battelle said he was shocked to find his cell-phone number listed on a hookers-only Web site. Undercover police use mobile phones to set up sting operations. But some of those phone numbers were listed in the database. The hookers' computer files also included the names used by undercover officers and details about their unmarked cars. St. Louis area officers discovered the hookers' Internet database on...

Strippers and pole dancers should be banned from performing in stretch limousines, according to a British report. Councillors from the mountainous Welsh county of Gwynedd said many limousine hire companies were providing the erotic dancers as entertainment for clients, but in-car striptease was an "inappropriate" activity. "Lately, stretch limousines have been used more and more," said the report, released on Tuesday. "Some operators are providing entertainment to clients within the vehicle which may involve inappropriate activities such as lap dancing, giving rise to concerns about indecency." The new proposals recommend a blanket ban on striptease, lap dancing, pole dancing and...

<p>A Utah man with five wives is in court fighting to get his bigamy conviction overturned on the basis of the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling that decriminalized homosexual relations.</p> <p>The legal action by polygamist Tom Green in the Utah Supreme Court seems to confirm predictions of a Republican lawmaker and other social conservatives who warned that the high court's decision would open the door to attempts to legalize other sexual activities that historically have been outlawed by states, such as bigamy, polygamy, prostitution, adult incest and even bestiality.</p>

Think back: How long ago would you have scoffed at the idea of two men getting married? Or the Supreme Court endorsing sodomy? Or "domestic partners" enjoying the same rights and benefits as married couples? Or network television featuring shows with gays and lesbians? Or companies such as Avis announcing, "Domestic partners are automatically included as additional drivers. No extra fees charged. No questions asked." Or even that you would take the term "sexual rights" seriously? It wasn't that long ago. The forces for perversion have subjected us to a propaganda campaign of such intensity that most Americans have surrendered...

<p>It's "Back To School" time again, and here's the first pop quiz. No, it's not for the kids. It's for parents, and they have to answer only one question: Do you know what your children are learning in sex-education classes?</p>

"Sexually Inclusive Christians" Celebrate Victories, Push for More Mark Tooley August 22, 2003 When arguing for church acceptance of homosexuality, most advocates talk about monogamy. But others are bolder. “I am a strong ally of those in healthy, polyamorous relationships,” declared Debra Kolodny. She argued that having multiple sexual partners can be “holy.” Kolodyn was leading a workshop at the WOW (Witness Our Welcome) 2003 convention, an ecumenical gathering for “sexually and gender inclusive Christians.” Hundreds of homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual people gathered under the “queer” banner in Philadelphia August 14-17 to urge religious acceptance of non-traditional sexual behaviors. According...

<p>I am a 15-year-old sophomore at D.C. Everest Senior High School, and I am writing about the Aug. 13 editorial regarding student dress codes because my mom always told me I am not to complain if I am not willing to take action.</p>

Left-wing "comedian" Al Franken got tripped up by some big fat lies this week. He's sorry he got caught, but smugly silent about making fun of countless American kids who have taken abstinence vows.Thanks to Court TV's Smoking Gun Web site (www.thesmokinggun.com), we now know that the Saturday Night Live leftover abused his position as an "academic fellow" (now that's funny) at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy in a puerile attempt to trick Attorney General John Ashcroft into publicly sharing his personal experience with abstinence.Franken urged Ashcroft to share...

When an Oak Creek woman found her 14-year-old daughter nude in the woman's bed with a 14-year-old boy, the teens didn't strike her as being overly concerned. "They both freely admitted that their intention was to 'have sex,' " records quote the woman as saying. They "were confrontational and remorseless." The teens even "challenged" the woman to call police. So she did. Now, the couple's would-be sexual encounter in October has both of them facing serious criminal charges. Their case takes a course through the intersection of morals and law, a bustling crossroads at a time when sexuality has become...

TEN YEARS AGO, I WAS ARRESTED AT MY HOME IN BEVERLY HILLS for pandering, which the dictionary defines as acting as "a go-between in sexual intrigue." In other words, I was a madam. After a jury convicted me of three counts of pandering, the verdicts were thrown out, but the government didn't give up. It made me the Al Capone of prostitution. I spent three years in a federal penitentiary in Dublin, Calif., for conspiracy, tax evasion, and money laundering. But it was the sex that got me in trouble. When I was a Hollywood madam, I had between 20...

Our either-or cultural template has come to an unattractive head during the recent Gay Moment, as these days are being dubbed. Of course we've already named it. We can't just let an epic or a decade or a moment slip by without a title. A label. A category. Labeling, in fact, is one of our favorite things in compulsive, either/or America. As in, you're either for us or against us. You're either from Mars or from Venus. You're either pro-gay marriage - or you're a right-wing, fascist, dogmatic homophobe. Well, no, not really. Sometimes you're not a homophobe, but you...

<p>Aug. 18 issue — Like many teenage girls in Minneapolis, 17-year-old Stacey liked to hang out after school at the Mall of America, Minnesota’s vast shopping megaplex. Cute, blond and chatty, she flirted with boys and tried on the latest Gap fashions. One day last summer, Stacey, which isn’t her real name, says she was approached by a man who told her how pretty she was, and asked if he could buy her some clothes. “He was an older guy, dressed really well,” she recalls. “He said he just wanted to see me in the clothes.” Stacey agreed, and went home that night with a $250 outfit.</p>

<p>NEW YORK, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the last year, local and federal law-enforcement officials say they have noted a marked increase in teen prostitution in cities across the country, reports Assistant Editor Suzanne Smalley in the August 18 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, August 11).</p> <p>Law-enforcement agencies and advocacy groups that work with teen prostitutes say they are increasingly alarmed by the trend lines: the kids are getting younger; according to the FBI, the average age of a new recruit is just 13; some are as young as 9. And, while the vast majority of teen prostitutes today are runaways, illegal immigrants and children of poor urban areas, experts say a growing number now come from middle-class homes.</p>

A new USA Today /CNN /Gallup Survey suggests there is a backlash of public opinion against homosexuality after the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Texas' sodomy law. It's not surprising. The decision was widely seen as a judicial push for the agenda of homosexual political activists eager to see their lifestyle not only accepted nationwide but promoted by government and major cultural institutions. Defenders of the Texas law had contended the ultimate goal of the case was not to end sodomy laws, but to advance the "ambitious agenda" of homosexual activists. Justice Antonin Scalia, in a scathing dissent, agreed. "The...