It has to butt hurt California Republican assembly representatives that they have virtually little to no power. Case in point, OC State Rep. Travis Allen who penned an editorial for the right wing Washington Examiner that Democrats in the California State Legislature have legalized child prostitution.
Except they didn’t.
From Allen’s piece:
Beginning on Jan. 1, prostitution by minors will be legal in California. Yes, you read that right.
SB 1322 bars law enforcement from arresting sex workers who are under the age of 18 for soliciting or engaging in prostitution, or loitering with the intent to do so. So teenage girls (and boys) in California will soon be free to have sex in exchange for money without fear of arrest or prosecution.
This terribly destructive legislation was written and passed by the progressive Democrats who control California’s state government with a two-thirds “supermajority.” To their credit, they are sincere in their belief that decriminalizing underage prostitution is good public policy that will help victims of sex trafficking. Unfortunately, the reality is that the legalization of underage prostitution suffers from the fatal defect endemic to progressive-left policymaking: it ignores experience, common sense and most of all human nature — especially its darker side.
The unintended but predictable consequence of how the real villains — pimps and other traffickers in human misery — will respond to this new law isn’t difficult to foresee. Pimping and pandering will still be against the law whether it involves running adult women or young girls. But legalizing child prostitution will only incentivize the increased exploitation of underage girls. Immunity from arrest means law enforcement can’t interfere with minors engaging in prostitution — which translates into bigger and better cash flow for the pimps. Simply put, more time on the street and less time in jail means more money for pimps, and more victims for them to exploit.
Laughable.
Except the right wing noise machine went nuts. Tweets from right wingers and pick ups in “reputable” pubs like WorldNetDaily carried the news as fact.
Wonkette, that snarky website run by Commie Girl, posted this.
“An op-ed written by California state Assembly member Travis Allen in the Washington Examiner is getting a lot of traction in the Wingnut-O-Sphere today, perhaps because the headline of said op-ed is “California Legalizes Child Prostitution.”
WOAH IF TRUE! Man, that sure sounds terrible! Why does California want all the children to have sex for money? That is for sure a terrible thing, it is very surprising that someone would want that! One would just think that child sex-trafficking would be something that we could all agree to be universally against!”
….
Additionally, this measure actually helps fight child sex-trafficking, and takes away the leverage pimps and sex-traffickers have to keep these minors in line — the “If I go to jail, so will you” leverage — and may result in trafficked minors seeking help from the police rather than avoiding them for fear of going to jail. Ta-Da!
This legislation is the result of a combined effort from the McCain Institute and the Human Rights Project For Girls, the “There’s No Such Thing As A Child Prostitute” campaign, designed to put the blame where it belongs in cases of child sex-trafficking, treating the pimps as criminals and the minors as the victims of sexual abuse that they are.”
Allen’s story isn’t so much a criticism of a bill that passed the legislature, but a dog whistle to the Alt-Right crowd. I’m surprised he didn’t call Democrats “social justice warriors” or “special snowflakes.” And the dog whistle worked especially on Twitter and social media.
Perhaps Allen ought to pick up a copy of OC Weekly, review the classified sections, and work with local officials about doing something about prostitution and massage parlors in his district that should be dealt with.
This guy is channeling Pedroza- aka el Pederasta!
I’m sure Henry Lipton would like to know more about this subject