Queens is about to get a heckuva lot more pervert-friendly, and parents, some current and former sex workers and rank-and-file Democrats are seeing scarlet.
Scaring the stuffing out of a wide swath of residents of a borough already plagued with an enormous number of working girls, boys and transgender individuals is the apparent Democratic primary victory this week of Tiffany Cabán for district attorney, which pretty much makes the self-described “queer Latina’’ and BFF of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a shoo-in.
Problem is, the 31-year-old democratic socialist is so enamored with the world’s oldest profession, she promised to stop arresting not only ladies and dudes of the evening, but the pimps and johns who exploit them.
In fact, she’s vowed to send a memo ordering prosecutors to quit messing with pros, their customers and promoters on “Day One.’’
Her critics say this ploy will transform Queens into one gigantic brothel.
“Queens is going to be the borough for sex tourism in the city,” Laura Ramirez, a program coordinator for the Coalition Against Trafficking Women, told The Post. “That’s the only thing that can happen. It’s just open season.”
Unbowed, Cabán told us: “When you criminalize customers, what you actually do is, you’re cutting off economic access for folks who don’t have any other way to support themselves.”
Let that sink in for a minute.
The former public defender is not pushing for education programs, job training or anything else that might help Queens’ largely Asian sex workers, many of them immigrants, remove themselves from dire situations. Nor is she working to combat the sexually transmitted diseases, drug use and depression that often infect denizens of cathouses.
(snip)
This official cop-out effectively appears to give up on sex workers while normalizing hooking. Isn’t Cabán just enabling troubled people to make unhealthy and risky career choices?
Cabán’s pro-prostitution stance comes at a time when state legislatures around the country, including New York’s, and several Democratic presidential hopefuls (though not Mayor de Blasio) are supporting the decriminalization of sex work.
Meanwhile, Teen Vogue, the publishing world’s authority on impressionable pre- and post-pubescents and the pervs who love them, has diverged from its core mission of pushing fashion and celebrity tidbits, and is urging youngsters, some as young as 13 or younger, to dump their professional goals, risk their physical, mental and moral well-being and give the exciting world of sex-selling a try.
Forget about growing up to be a doctor, a lawyer, a politician. Why bother getting an education — or even changing out of your bathrobe?
Why get out of bed at all?
In a deadly serious piece, a medical doctor who specializes in carnal disorders not only makes a spirited argument for the worldwide legalization of prostitution; she also seeks to remove the shame that’s long protected kids from being used.
Sex work, writes Dr. Tlaleng Mofokeng, the South Africa-based founder of Nalane for Reproductive Justice, can be fun, profitable, physically and spiritually satisfying — and the ultimate expression of radical (and Looney Tunes) feminism.
“I am a doctor, an expert in sexual health, but when you think about it, aren’t I a sex worker? And in some ways, aren’t we all?’’ she writes in a column titled “Why Sex Work Is Real Work.’’
She calls criminalizing prostitution a form of violence — by governments. Silly me. I thought violence is caused by, you know, pimps and buyers of human flesh.
“I believe sex work and sex-worker rights are women’s rights, health rights, labor rights and the litmus test for intersectional feminism.’’
I may not know everything about hooking, but feminism, “intersectional’’ or couch sectional, does not strike me as a valid reason for hanging on the street, the boudoir or the pole.
All over the world — people like the apparent incoming DA, the doctor, people who should know better — are, in effect, promoting prostitution. This fad has got to end.
Sex-for-profit is a dangerous and soul-crushing pastime. Forget the feminist bunk. It puts people, particularly the young and vulnerable, in great peril.
*see full story by New York Post