Hope to visit Amsterdam again real soon.  In the meantime, ran across this little factoid from the Stuff Dutch People Like website:

An early example of Dutch pragmatism towards prostitution can be seen in the 1413 decree from the city of Amsterdam:

“Because whores are necessary in big cities and especially in cities of commerce such as ours – indeed it is far better to have these women than not to have them – and also because the holy church tolerates whores on good grounds, for these reasons the court and sheriff of Amsterdam shall not entirely forbid the keeping of brothels.“

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That is interesting. I have never understood why the US doesn't just legalize it, and then are able to tax even the girls that don't want to pay taxes. It doesn't make sense to me. Consenting adults.

with the exception of a few TER moderators, LOL!
Actually, in fairness, I should admit we've been getting along better of late.  I just love the creative way they shut down threads

Preach it  sister

Sounds pretty well said to me.

I am all for the decriminalization of prostitution, but do you really want a whore house directly across the street from a high school?

"Adult" businesses need to be kept apart from "polite society" that's why we have zoning laws to deal with such things. In many/most countries where prostitution is legal they have "red light" districts or "zones of tolerance" where people like us can party to our hearts content, without doing so in front of children or soccer moms.

It appears the Dutch caught onto this concept centuries ago, kudos to the Dutch.

With you all the way, except for keeping the soccer moms away. SOME of them are pretty hot.

Three cheers for decriminalization!

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Does it mean forbid all brothels except for one teeny-weenie one?

That's what my wishy-washy comment was mostly directed to.

And yes, let's put the brothels right in the schools....don't want anyone to get hit by a car crossing the street

It means what it says, they admit to "needing" brothels, Good for them, I wish we could be so enlightened 600 years later.

They seem to realize what other countries over the centuries, except for ours of course, is that limiting brothels to a certain part of town makes it possible for prostitution to coexist even with the church in a country dominated by the church. It's the very same conclusion they seem to have reached in virtually all of Latin America, where the Catholic Church dominates the landscape, but where legalized prostitution co exists just fine. Unlike our country where we claim to have a separation of Church and State but we are quite Draconian where it comes to some of our laws regarding personal behavior between consenting adults

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Consider that for many years, churches used prostitution as a ritual to solidify the faith.

I'd get a lot more church going if those days came back, I'll tell you what