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Prostitution in Hawaii: Opportunity for travel and tourism?

Prostitution in Hawaii: Opportunity for travel and tourism?

It’s part of the travel and tourism industry, but not many like to talk about it. It’s legal in many parts of the world, illegal in many other parts of the world. It’s the oldest job in the world.

In Europe it’s business like usually in the red light district, in the United States exceptions to make prostitution a recognized and legal profession is only the case in some counties in the State of Nevada today.

This may change in the Aloha State Hawaii.  For many seen as a tourism paradise, Hawaii lawmakers are considering decriminalizing prostitution in the state after the speaker of the House introduced a bill that would also legalize buying sex and acting as a pimp. It would mean visitors could not only enjoy the white sandy beaches, the great food, shopping, but also they could buy sex in paradise.

The proposal also would end a state law that says police officers cannot have sex with prostitutes in the course of investigations.

Transgender activist Tracy Ryan said she is trying to convince state lawmakers to pass the bill because transgender women are overrepresented in the sex trade and therefore disproportionately affected by criminalization laws.

House Speaker Joseph Souki said in an interview with a local newspaper, that he does not have a position on the bill and he introduced it as a favor for Ryan.

Hawaii has an unusual history with prostitution investigations. Until 2014, it was legal for police officers to have sex with prostitutes as part of investigations, but state lawmakers changed that after The Associated Press highlighted the loophole in a story.

Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney Keith Kaneshiro said the bill would make it harder to address global sex trafficking because “it would be more difficult to find the bad actors, more difficult to get witnesses to make cases.”

Michael Golojuch Jr., chairman of the LGBT caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, said transgender women are overrepresented compared with other women in the sex trade because the discrimination they face leads some to feel it’s the only kind of work they can get.

Golojuch personally supports the idea of decriminalizing prostitution, but he said he and the caucus had not yet taken an official position on the bill.

The bill and another to decriminalize marijuana may be part of a push to reduce the prison population, House Majority Leader Scott Saiki said.

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