[quote=harvey]Not just me – our society and every society that has evolved out of the dark ages, see sex as something “sacred.” That’s why rape and child pornography are treated as the most egregious crimes in our society. That’s why sex offenders are treated as a special class of criminals. That’s why there is so much debate about how and when we teach our children about sex.

Anything that involves the most intimate parts of a person’s body and that is hard-wired to our emotional state deserves special treatment. If we don’t consider sex to be “sacred,” then there would be no reason to consider rape as more serious than financial fraud or even burglary.[/quote]
We don’t need to resort to supernatural beliefs (i.e., “sacred”) to distinguish rape from financial crimes. Or are you saying that non-religious people should be OK with being raped because nothing is sacred to them? Rape is a monstrous crime, far more serious than financial fraud or burglary because a person’s intimacy is violated. There’s no need to bring religious or supernatural beliefs or invoke “sacredness” to characterize rape.

In any case, this makes clear that opposition to legal prostitution stems from religious beliefs. That’s fine, but you shouldn’t use the law to impose your beliefs on the rest of society.

Bringing rape, slavery, and human trafficking into this discussion only serves to cloud the real issues. But it also reveals the fact that religious people have been brought up to believe that prostitution (strictly speaking a victimless business transaction between two consenting adults) is so “wrong” and “evil” that they equate it with rape and human trafficking (which are obviously monstrous crimes). But they can’t be equated, one is a transaction, the other a horrible crime.