Editor’s note: This letter is by Carol Gross, of Jericho.
This letter is a message for all Vermonters, no matter your party affiliation, faith, economic level, race or gender. The proposed state legislation and actions by some local governments regarding decriminalization or legalization of prostitution will affect us all in some negative way.
Some people want us to believe that there is nothing wrong with this idea and that legalizing prostitution will empower women because it is an act of consent. However, the real data says something different. According to an abstract by Melissa Farley, PhD, and her colleagues, 89% of those involved in sex trade did not choose this lifestyle and were forced into it, starting with sex trafficking. (See: Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: An Update on Violence and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Journal of Trauma Practice: Vol 2, No 3-4)
Some of you may think there is little or no sex trafficking in our state, which is also a myth. Check out the website neersagainstsexualviolence.org (a regional organization exposing sex trafficking in New England) to hear the real stories and understand this is a region-wide problem.
Before the Vermont Legislature is House Bill H.268, which proposes a committee to develop legislation which will allow prostitution to become legal while — theoretically — keeping trafficking illegal. What this would do in reality is provide a wide swath of grey area that will allow sex traffickers to better hide their abuse behind their victims’ now legal activities, and more effectively thwart law enforcement from intervening.
Prostitution is not a stand-alone crime. Drug addiction and abuse are typically used to entice young people to sex trade, keep them performing and keep them from leaving it. Additionally, there are cases of women prostituted by boyfriends or even husbands, which is inherently abusive. Sex traffickers will not easily give up their profits or control whether legal or not. We shouldn’t pass legislation that will empower traffickers of all types and foster expansion of sex trafficking in our state.
I urge you to take action. Stop this bill from passage. Contact your state representatives before the new session begins in January and tell them so.
Very sincerely,
Carol Gross
Jericho, Vermont
Carol Gross is right here. It appears to me that this initiative is not the pursuit of a citizen consensus. It’s just another bizarre agenda from some special interest group. Come on sensible Vermonters, resist the destructive nonsense of folks who don’t represent you.
See this is an easy get for the VTGOP, they either don’t understand or are complicit in the take down of the family and social structure.
Yes it’s one of the oldest professions, sin has been with us from the beginning. Maybe the prostitutes in Montpelier are lonely and want more company?
If the VTGOP comes out and says we can’t have taxes on prostitution, you no clearly at that point you’re dealing with Uniparty right.
It all started with the legalizing of abortion.
If babies are not called human in utero, then why give the woman any kind of status at all? If a woman’s womb is not essential to nourish a baby until it can nourish itself, why should a woman’s body be worth anything? Stop the legalization of prostitution.. Stop using women’s bodies as test laboratories.
I know that Burlington has some smart, conscience people living there. How come only the marginally functional, brain dead, progressive fools get elected to positions that can do serious damage to the city and the people? That brand of stupidity is starting to seep out into the rest of Vermont, and needs to be stopped…
Because woke, non-resident uvm students vote, and now non US citizens too.
I agree with Carol Gross, legalizing prostitution will open the doors of Vermont to more drug abuse, more trafficking, more prostitution, more crime, and more danger on the streets for adults and children. There are plenty of women and men that have been rescued from the sex trade, some of them called in and warned the city council on Monday night not to decriminalize prostitution. Why aren’t they listening????
Why would any elected official think that ” legalizing Prostitution ” is going to keep these women
safe, I assume no pimp will be involved ” sure “, but it’s their body…. give me a break, and where
are all the ” Pink Hat ” women libbers on this issue……….crickets !!
Yes, prostitution has been around since day one, and give me one, just one instance where these
women were treated with respect and not treated like trash ….. just one.
Now in 2021, the gaggle of fools in Burlington’s City Council think this proposal will uplift and
protect women of the night, It sounds like to me some on the council are looking for a job, and
these are the same clowns that wanted to defund the police, hell what could go wrong with this
proposal ??
Wake up people, you voted these fools in, Burlington and the state is going to be the” Sodom
and Gomorrah” of the North East…….. Liberals in charge, this is what you get foolishness !!
No ” red flag” action is needed here, just wait until one of these women end up in the news all
bruised and battered pretty sad, and didn’t get paid …… pretty pathetic.
We only need to demonstrate what they are really saying, their own words shall do them in. They’ve messed up on two big ones.
1) They are saying it’s just a service (sex), so there is no rape, only theft of services. Theft of a product. There will be no more rape by their definition.
2) They are saying its just a produce of conception. So the little person in your womb is not a baby, it’s not a baby until fully out, what they are saying is it’s not worth any medical treatment prior to “becoming a baby on exit and declaration from god (mother) it’s baby.
They will be brought down by their own words and actions, should any group expose them properly.
This would be one hell of a way to empower women.
The cost to society is immeasurable, yet some people see this as good. They are severely mistaken.
November 2022 is coming quickly, careful choices at the polls will help eliminate foolishness such as this.
The body is the temple of the soul. Defile the body; defile the soul.