Great article Lyle!

Identity: Catholic male of three score plus, with five lovely daughters making their way in the world.

My primary concern for girls in prostitution is abuse. Where there is no love in the sexual exchange there is no respect. This is evidence by the significant number who succumb to drugs and alcohol.

The only winners in the prostitution industry are the moguls who are only interested in ‘meat on the table’ and a pocket full of money.

The Queensland experience is following closely that of Victoria where legalization was supposed to make the industry ‘clean’ but has produced a surge in brothels. And the same ‘wiseheads’ are claiming we need more relaxation in other areas.

From bitter experience the Sweeds have come up with a practical solution. Make prostitution an offence and fine the males for using the girls.

Keep up the good work Lyle. When the world has gone to the extreme and can no longer get any ‘kicks’ it may find some interesting ideas in Christianity – especially treating others the way we want to be treated.

Pat. H.

Scoop,
I think that tightening up on prostitution laws in some European countries has not really solved the problems, but simply transferred the problems elsewhere. Some countries such as Denmark have a high trade in prostitution, and people from other countries simply go there, if prostitution is not available in their country.

In the UK, marriage rates are at their lowest levels in 200 yrs, but they are now finding that rates of bachelorhood and spinsterhood are at there highest levels in 60 yrs. Many men and women are simply not getting married or even forming de facto relationships. They are living alone, (and this trend is also increasing in Australia), and I know that many men in the UK, (and possibly women) simply cross the channel to go with prostitutes if they want sex.

Going to a prostitute is high risk, but for men in particular, forming a relationship with a woman is also high risk, and this is mainly related to family law systems.

So prostitution would be just one aspect of a whole set of other social problems that are occurring.

Also disagree with Ruby that women go into prostitution because of unemployment. Many studies have shown that the majority of prostitutes in countries such as ours are involved in prostitution for money. They can get employment, but it doesn’t pay as much.

Sister churches to where I attend have special equipt vans by mature womens teams for support to troubled street girls. The girls love and respect them and look foward to a hot chocolate and a chat; and express they want to get out of prostitution but their drug habbits control them. So I suggest that pastoral care in a Christian Church has its exciting rewards when a girl is finally free of her addiction and is able to find a dignified and wholesome life outside of both addictions.

Congratulations Lyle on a brave piece of journalism, exposing what happens in the prostitution industry.

I am a long-term youth and family counsellor (28 years' experience), who has established two counselling centres and I have been the supervisor of other counsellors over the years. Some of these counsellors and I have seen the devastation on individuals and families that has happened when children (and especially youth) have discovered that their mothers are hookers.

These youth have felt betrayed and have manifested severe acting-out behaviour to rebel against this blight on the family’s and their mother’s reputation. How do you help a 12-year-old who is going berserk in the household over his mother's prostitution?

Sex workers have come to me, wanting help to get out of what they describe as a “demeaning and violent” profession that eats into their souls. They have found it difficult to leave the industry, not only because of the financial rewards, but because of the power of sex. The psychological damage done to these women is something that politicians would need to see to fully appreciate what this profession does to people.

This Qld. Government needs to send a strong message to the Qld. community: we do not want to continue to advocate a profession that debilitates individuals, families and society. The fact that this government has liberalised the laws on prostitution is further evidence of a culture on the skids.

Since Queensland has legalised brothels and prostitution, it has approved of one of the most severe ways of degrading women.

When the Canberra Brothels had an open day in November 1992 (I was living in Canberra at the time), the Canberra Times published a photograph of a brothel “mistress” showing visitors some of the sex aids in the brothel, that included “whips and chains” [“Woman with the whips talks shop with Canberra’s curious,” The Canberra Times, 29 November, 1992, p. 2]

I commend the work of Linda Watson, an ex-prostitute and ex-madam, who is helping women come out of prostitution in her "House of Hope" in Perth.

A couple of simple points:

* Prostitution isn't called the 'world's oldest profession' for nothing - prohibition wouldn't stop it, but put it back under the control of criminals instead

* 3 out of 24 condoms breaking? Now I'm no great stud, but over the years I've used more condoms than... 24 anyway, and none of them have ever broken. Maybe that prostitute needs to invest in some lube as well?

The following facts and figures provide statistics that are just as alarming in the twenty-first century as they were in the late 1980s on condom effectiveness. The Westside Pregnancy Resource Center, USA has some statistical information on condom breakages -- I picked up these stats in 2002 (see: http://www.wprc.org/11.19.0.0.1.0.phtml ) Please understand that these are USA figures. Would it be different Down Under?

In preventing pregnancy, condoms have a standardized failure rate of 15.7 percent over the course of a year. [Jones & Forrest, 1989, p.103.]

For persons under the age of 18 who have used condoms for at least a year, condoms were found to fail 18.4 percent of the time. [MD Hayward and J Yogi, "Contraceptive Failure Rate in the US: Estimates from the 1982 National Survey of Family Growth," Family Perspectives, Vol 18, No. 5, Sept/Oct 1986, p. 204.]

Among sexually active teenage girls aged 12 to 18, 30% contracted an STD over a six month period, including condom users. [LM Dinerman et al, Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Med, 149(9):967-72, Sept. 1995.]

For unmarried minorities, the condom failure rate is 36.3 percent, and for unmarried Hispanics, the failure rate is as high as 44.5 percent. [Jones and Forrest, 1989, p. 105.]

Among married couples where one partner was HIV-positive, 17 percent of the uninfected spouses contracted the disease, despite the use of condoms. [Contraceptive Technology, Hatcher et al, 1990, p. 173.] That is a rate greater than one in six. For the uninfected, one would be better off playing Russian Roulette.

Only 7 percent of HIV positive persons voluntarily notify their sexual partners. [New England Journal of Medicine, Jan 9, 1992.]

More recent statistics indicate: "Although condoms will reduce your chance of infection, compared to having sex without any form of protection, one in three AIDS victims will contract the disease from an infected partner despite 100% use of condoms. One study found that among married couples where one partner was HIV-positive, 17% of the uninfected spouses contracted the disease, despite the use of condoms. The best way to prevent AIDS is abstinence."