“Political tricks may not be the only ones turned during the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August. The sex and adult entertainment industries are expecting a boom in business when an estimated 35,000 visitors descend on the Mile High City for the presidential nominating bash. At the Pepsi Center, the focus will be on a single nominee. But outside the event, the choices available to the delegates, journalists and others are unlimited, giving new meaning to the term ‘conventional sex.’ More than six months before the convention comes to Denver, the offerings already online range from Claudia the ’she-male porn star’ to Erin the ‘adorable college cutie,’ whose $300-an-hour services are guaranteed to ‘leave you breathless…’ Too bad for [local sex works] that Denver didn’t land the GOP convention instead, said Carol Leigh, a San Francisco prostitute ‘over 50′ who has traveled to previous Democratic conventions in Los Angeles and Atlanta. ‘It would be a lot better for the sex workers if it was the Republican convention,’ she said. ‘We get a lot more business. I don’t know if they’re just frustrated because of the family values agenda,’ she said.” — Rocky Mountain News (US)

It’s not a matter of politicians or their hangers-on being particularly decadent. An influx of 35,000 conventioneers of any sort will doubtless have an influence on the local sex trade. If only one in a hundred of those conventioneers dabbles with the local skin, that’s an extra 3,500 clients at something like $200 per hour. That constitutes almost a million dollar injection for the local (sex) economy — and that’s a conservative estimate. Probably the convention will bring in two or three times that.

The irony is that some decent portion of these law-breaking johns are either lawmakers or people with influence on lawmakers. Of course, they’re probably hypocrites too. But rather than resolve their hypocrisy by ceasing to patronize sex workers, why not legalize sex work already? Prostitutes are, like models, people who earn a living from their appearance. (Witness the guy quoted in this article. When asked why he expects to be busy during the DNC, he replied: “Because look at me. I’m cute. I’m sexy and I deliver it all.” Right on.) Prostitutes are, like athletes, people who earn a living from physical performances. Prostitutes are, like many other professionals, people who earn a living providing customer service. What should it matter that any of this involves sexual pleasure?

True, there are counterarguments about the “inherent” degradation of having to peddle one’s ass for a pimp. But does that degradation derive from the nature of the work or from the financial want that drives some people to it? If a person freely opts to sell his body to another — because, say, he finds it better to earn $200 for a roll in the hay than to spend 20 hours earning the same serving hamburgers somewhere — who’s to say he’s committing a crime? After all, you can imagine plenty of situations where it’s more degrading to be a waitress than a hooker, and nobody is attempting to criminalize waitressing.

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