Should hookers have to have sex with African-Americans if they don't want to?

Great Debates
1

I was having a discussion about Janet Jackson with a guy across the hall and the discussion turned to morality imposed by law and I said that prostitution should be illegal. He said I was incosistent and hadn’t thought it through, for example, he said, a restaurant has to serve anyone, they can’t discriminate on the basis on skin color.

So if prostitution was legal, would that mean that a working girl would have to accept anyone even if she didn’t want to? He was thinking of a girl that just (for whatever reason) didn’t want to have sex with a black man. I said that fine, there are plenty of girls that would only care about the green. But then he said so why is it different rules for a restaurant than a prostitute?

So I am depending on you guys to arm me with some good arguments for when we talk again.

2

Well, a restauraunt is a public place of business. A vagina isn’t.

3

Restaurants don’t have to serve everybody. Most all reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.

4

In places where prostitution is legal they can refuse any client for any reason. To make it any other way would be to legalize rape.

Why do you think prostitution should be illegal, btw?

5

My first thought was “WHAT THE F***”!?

But you do have a point. AFAIK restaurants and other buisnesses can serve who they like, except that some discrimination law stops them serving only white people. Does anyone have an cite, or do I need to go find out.

For that matter, are they allowed to discriminate based on sex? That would be a can of worms here…

Anyway, I suspect it would be difficult - it looks suspicous if a restaurant refuses to serve a lot of people because the manager ‘didn’t like the look of them’ (so pretending to have a different, obscure, problem with people who just happen to be black doesn’t work) but that’s eminently reasonable for a prostitute (so she’d probably get away with it).

Or maybe it would be covered under some loopholes. For instance, I think it’s legal to cast films based on skin colour and sex. It would be reasonable to extend this protection to prostitutes.

6

Please tell me that someone is going to use that for there sig!

7

Prostitution is legal in Australia and the working women have the right to refuse any customer they like. If your eyes are too close together, if you remind her of uncle Jack, if she doesn’t like your taste in clothes - you’re out of luck.

Mind you I will now be eagerly waiting for the case where some guy sues a prostitute for not being willing to put out for him. That’s a man with enormous ego resources.

8

Do you have anti-discrimination laws for other buisnesses?

9

Of course. When I interview for jobs I have to include questions about Equal Employment Opportunity, the Ethnic Affairs Priority Statement, Cultural Diversity and Ethical Practice.

10

Correction: I said it should be LEGAL. He said it should be illegal, and that me saying it should be legal meant I hadn’t thought it through, That’s when he brought up the discrimination thing.

I completely think it should be legal, but I also think it should be legal for a restaurant owner to do whatever he wants with his restaurant, including serving or not serving anyone for any reason.

11

It would vary as what anti-discrimination law this would fall under, but usually some things can not be used(race, age etc) and others can(height,weight, body odor).

Also there are exceptions to the laws. A private club like the Masters golf club can refuse female members and if it ever came to it, the Catholic Church might someday deny priesthood to child molesters.

So if the service was provided by some religious cult to members only, or a private “hooker of the month club”, it might be OK.

12

That has nothing to do with the question that was asked. You are talking about employee laws, the question was about customer laws.

Haj

13

I would think this would be analogous to providing any other personal service. A self-employed massuse doesn’t have to take all comers (omg, sorry about that :smiley: ), nor does a lawyer, doctor, roofer. Simply engaging in a legalized business does not mean you have to take on anyone and everyone who asks to be your customer.

14

This is a mostly unresearched, uncited speculation on my part, so take it for what’s it’s worth.

Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that "[a]ll persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodation of any place of public accommodation … without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, or national origin.

Title III identifies twelve categories of entities that are defined as public accommodations provided their operations affect commerce. These entities include:
• places of lodging;
• places serving food or drink;
• places of exhibition or entertainment;
• places of public gathering;
• commercial sales or rental establishments;
• service establishments;
• stations used for specified public transportation;
• places of public display or collection;
• places of recreation;
• places of education;
• social service center establishments; and
• places of exercise or recreation.

Now, these sections do not apply to specific people, but rather to businesses that meet certain minimal guidelines, IIRC the place must employ 15 employees.

With these things in mind, I would say that it would be fine for a prostitute to refuse to have sex with a person who they don’t wish to. Your average working girl on the street is not bound by the anti-discrimination laws, and should have the choice in who her partner is.

The only time it may become an issue is in Nevada with brothels that have more than (again, don’t quote me on this) 15 people. If such a brothel is considered a “service establishment,” which I think it would be, it would be considered a violation of the Civil Rights Act for the brothel to refuse to service people on the basis of race (or for that matter, gender, religion, etc.). Thus, it would appear to me, that the brothel must have at least one worker who is willing to service anyone who might be discriminated against.

So, my off the cuff response would be that it is fine and dandy for prostitutes to discriminate on the basis of race, but a large enough brothel cannot.

*insert legal disclaimer here.

15

My apologies. It had never crossed my mind that some countries have to legislate which people have to be served. As far as I know, other than prostitutes, every business serves whoever turns up (although some clubs and restaurants have dress regulations).

16

Very informative post, Hamlet.

Not to stir up trouble, but I wonder what the reaction would be if a brothel owner fired a worker, citing her refusal to sleep with certain of the business’s clients. In other words, he may say, “Hey, I’ve got to have at least one worker willing to do this, and if you won’t, then I’ll have to let you go in favor of one who will.”

I can’t begin to offer a legal analysis on whether that termination is lawful, although I suspect it is, but I wonder if there’s a gut-feel type reaction from the reader here – is such a firing justified? Should the girl be able to say, “Look, I want to keep my job here, but I don’t want to sleep with Asians, blacks, or Republicans.”

  • Rick
17

Easy. The madam just has to split up the business so that each “company” employs less than 15 workers. Happens all the time, I’d expect.

don’t ask, would the Ethnic Affairs Priority Statement, Cultural Diversity, or whatever mean an Aussie prossie can’t refuse to blow an Abo?

18

“Look, Miss, Mr. Woods is a very wealthy man, and we need his business!”

19

Would you support this tactic at a more traditional business, such as a lawn care company that didn’t want to provide lawn care service to Asians? I agree it’s legal, but it’s also a way to dodge the public policy of businesses being race-neutral in who they serve.

I don’t have a strong feeling myself one way or the other, but the whole discussion intrigues me.

20

Is it the legal consensus that a whorehouse employing more than 15 people can refuse customers based on race?

Then when I consider the implications of outlawing discrimination based on sexual preference, my mind boggles. Does that mean that whorehouses cannot charge more (or less) for oral sex than for intercourse? Or can a customer not refuse oral sex performed by a male instead of a female, because you can’t have employment discrimination based on gender?

Never occurred to me before. Now that it has, I am not sure what to think about it.

Regards,
Shodan