Taiwan Legalizes Prostitution

Half a world away it’s surprising to see what it takes to make a government take action. Taiwan, which only outlawed prostitution 11 years ago, just decided to bring it back. Because prostitutes asked them to.

It’s something of a numbers game in Taiwan and that makes it all the more amusing when contrasted with North American prostitution. One of the quotes in a recent article on the topic was that “It's something the public has wanted for 12 years.” The internet tells us that there are about 84,000 full time sex workers in America, based on various estimates, though arrest figures would indicate it’s over 100,000. 15% of men in America, according to a survey, have admitted to paying for sex, meaning in actuality you have to assume that number is higher. How high does the number have to be in America for prostitution to qualify as something the public wants?

No matter what people say, what argument there is against prostitution, it’s all amazingly wasted breath because, for everyone with eyes and ears, you’re not fooling anyone. Prostitution is in every major city in the country. It has been here since the country was founded.

Back to Taiwan a moment. The government, for a time, had made it illegal for prostitutes but not their clients, a law that is reflected in other places around the world as well, either through act or omission on the part of lawmakers. Rather than rolling it back to make it illegal for the customers as well, lawmakers are going ahead and decriminalizing it across the board as it’s not really justifiable to punish one party to an act but not the other.

Along with decriminalization comes the desire to actually build specific red-light districts in some parts of the country, a move which will arguably increase tourism to those parts and will ruffle the feathers of everyone who’s positive that sex equals evil.

The funny thing about prostitution, from its origins until now, is that there’s never been a real concrete argument against it. We’re not talking sex trafficking, or child prostitution, or violence against women, or drug use, we’re talking prostitution. Those other things happen when something is forced underground because it’s illegal and like felons sharing tips on how to commit crimes, illegal activity tends to breed illegal activity. However, in Las Vegas brothels, or New Zealand and German brothels, you almost never hear about that kind of thing. Because it’s legal and controlled and monitored. Barring a crooked brothel owner, who wouldn’t stay in business for long if it were something being monitored by the government, you wouldn’t be seeing rampant drug use, or violence and certainly no child prostitution.

People are against prostitution based on personal morality. It’s not really a criminal issue, a public safety issue, or anything like that. Any argument against prostitution should be equally as valid against sex in general but no one can go that far. The closest argument would be against promiscuity with no safety controls – rampant pregnancy and disease spread, both of which can be controlled by responsible people who think ahead.

So Taiwan has made a bold move, recognizing that those who buy and sell sex are not, in fact, contrary to the norm. People want sex. We do it to survive and there’s nothing wrong with doing it recreationally as well. Will that ever change here? Give it time. You never know.