Apparently they want to have a ballot referendum on easing prostitution laws in Berkeley, California.

"This is an idea whose time has cum!"

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ballot26jan26,1,3498705.story

Here is the text:



THE STATE
Putting Sex to a Vote
A Berkeley group begins a drive to qualify a city ballot measure easing prostitution laws.

 
   By John Geluardi, Special to The Times


BERKELEY — A group advocating greater rights for strippers and prostitutes has launched a drive to put a measure on the city's November ballot calling for the decriminalization of prostitution.

The Sex Workers Outreach Project submitted a text of the proposed measure to the city earlier this month and is preparing to train 50 volunteers to collect the 2,100 voter signatures needed take the measure before the voters, said Robyn Few, the group's executive director. "This is an idea whose time has come," she said. "The public is tired of prostitutes being treated as second-class citizens."


If adopted, the measure would not change state prostitution laws, but it would make related offenses a low priority on the local level. The measure also would require the city to encourage decriminalization statewide.

Few, a 45-year-old former prostitute, is serving a six-month sentence under house arrest after pleading guilty to a federal charge stemming from her involvement in an interstate prostitution circuit. It was after her arrest in 2002 that Few started the outreach project, modeling it after an Australian organization with the same name. She said decriminalization would make it easier for prostitutes to go to the police when they are victims of violent crimes.

Councilman Kriss Worthington said he thought the measure had merit. "I believe most people in Berkeley think it's unfair that it's primarily the women who get arrested when they are trying to survive and their male clients typically are not," he said.

But Councilwoman Betty Olds disagreed. She said that collecting enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot would be difficult. "I think it's just foolish, and people in Berkeley won't vote for it," she said.

Melissa Farley, a clinical psychologist, said it was a myth that decriminalization would make prostitution safer. "Decriminalization would increase sex trafficking to the region and make it a magnet for pimps looking to exploit women," she said.

Dr. Davida Coady, executive director of Options Recovery Services, a Berkeley-based drug and alcohol recovery program, said decriminalization would be a disaster because most drug-addicted prostitutes frequently seek help after they have been arrested.

But Few said that the problems that result from decriminalizing prostitution could be worked out. "Decriminalization won't be perfect, but it sure would be better than what we have now," she said.



-- Modified on 1/26/2004 2:32:31 PM

-- Modified on 1/26/2004 2:33:23 PM