Law Protecting Against Racial Bias Repealed By GOP Lawmakers
Republican Official Targets GOP Candidate In Racially…
NEW ORLEANS -- In their neighborhoods, they are sometimes taunted with dirty looks and jeers. Their pictures hang on the walls of local community centers where their children and grandchildren play. And their names and addresses are listed in newspapers and mailed out on postcards to everyone in the neighborhood.
Landing a job or even finding a landlord willing to give them a place to stay is a challenge.
These women wear a scarlet letter -- rather, 11 letters -- spelled out on their driver's licenses in bright orange text: SEX OFFENDER.
They aren't child molesters or pedophiles. Most are poor, hard-luck black women in New Orleans who agreed to exchange oral or anal sex for money. In doing so they violated the latest version of Louisiana's 206-year-old Crime Against Nature law, which carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and registration as a sex offender.
Opponents of the law say it is discriminatory and targets poor women and the gay and transgendered community who engage in what they call "survival sex." In March, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of nine anonymous plaintiffs against the state, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and a host of state agencies, calling the law unconstitutional.
"There are a number of absurd things in the Louisiana laws, and this is one of the more absurd," said R. Judson Mitchell, a law professor at the law clinic at Loyola University in New Orleans. "There are crimes against nature happening at strip clubs on Bourbon Street every single night. The difference is we are dealing with women that didn't have a fancy strip club to go to."
Indeed, New Orleans has long been a historic bastion of sex and vice, synonymous with food, jazz and the lore of Storyville, the fabled red-light district that clinched the city's reputation for high-class prostitution more than a century ago. Any night along the city's seamy side streets and in hotels that dot the French Quarter, tourists and locals pay for a variety of sexual pleasures.
Read more at The Huffington Post.
Comments: (16)
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By: SAY WHAT! on 5/06/2011 9:37AM
The "Sex offender" label should be for those who commit sex crimes involving force or with minors under the age of consent.
What 2 consenting adults do may be against the law for good reason, but we need to keep the term isolated to the real creeps so that society can know the difference.
Talk about a blatant example of stupidity.
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By: Theresa K on 5/06/2011 11:51AM
I agree with the above poster. But at the same time, it is the law. As crazy as it may seem, it is the law and there are punishments for it. Honestly, it isn't a racial thing to me. If you violate that law, you know what the consequences are, so don't do it!!!! I have no sympathy for prostitutes. So what that they are mostly black and it seems that the law is against them. Prostitution is illegal anywhere. Maybe I'm being cold hearted today, but I have no sympathy for people who break the law and then want to screem out about racial biases. How about this? Don't commit the crimes, plain and simple. Seems to me that most of them aren't doing that great at it anyhow seeing that they still tend to live below the poverty level. Hell, just go work at McDonald's
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By: pimpinperry2 on 5/06/2011 4:52PM
The punishment does not fit the crime. In addition the law is outdated. We are all aware that prostitution is illegal in most states..Nevada does have legalized prostitution, however to penalized one for oral and anal sex is actually targeting a specific group - which is mostly those who walks the street.
As the article stated the same acts happens in the strip clubs of New Orleans yet those dancers / prostitues are not charged or targeted in the same way. WHy? Because they're somewhat protected in a strip club.
Also if these young ladies wanted to get out of the life the label of "sex offender" follows them just like the men who gets labeled which makes it hard for them to re-integrate into society. With out hope or options many see no way out and then they are stuck in that life. So don't be so hard on them.
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By: RAYWIL3 on 5/09/2011 11:21AM
I guess you're on the side of the customer. Why not try them and if found guilty, let them be listed as sex offenders. It takes 2, last time I checked.
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By: carlostjones on 5/09/2011 10:05PM
It is leagal in Las Vegas. And if you think that discrimination is not a factor in some arrests then do me a favor and "WAKE UP"! I feel the same about "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" but what do you say to those who even McDonalds want hire?
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By: F Dat on 5/06/2011 12:23PM
Laws vary from state to state. If I live in a state where smoking a cigarette in public is considered mass genocide and can get me multiple attempted manslaughter charges, I shouldn't be smoking around people.
If it's that real, go sell dope or steal stuff and get lesser charges. If not, wear the title you earned for tossin it up for cash in a city with low tolerance for it.
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By: carmeld45 on 5/06/2011 1:41PM
Isn't exchange money for sex called dating? I see know difference. I know plenty of woman and men who exchange sex for money. Have you been out on a date lately. What do you think the ultimate goal is after the money has been sent..Please
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By: SAY WHAT! on 5/07/2011 10:04AM
@ carmeld45
I would like to offer a little help with your warped perception
Dating: When 2 people agree to go out with one another in order to get to know each other.
The self respecting ones rarely take it to the next level on a first date. Any money exchanged is for food and other non-sexual activities.
Prostitution: When 2 people agree to exchange money for a sexual encounter.
The ones involved have absolutely no respect for themselves or the other person.
When the pro's and joe's get busted by the cops they say they're on a "date". Pros will say anything to get out of being arrested.
To sum it up...Sounds like you've never been on a "date".
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By: Jackie on 5/06/2011 2:36PM
Carmeld45, we can tell you're a male. Theresa
mostly black town you get mostly black pro-
stitutes. White towns you get mostly
white prostitutes. Most are drug addicts I
suppose, and that's why they won't rise
above the poverty level. A sexual offender
is someone who has sex with anyone forcibly,
or a minor. I wonder what other back woods
laws are on the books !
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By: john on 5/06/2011 4:09PM
I support the law. If I walk up to a car an offer to sell you some crack, etc. I am guilty of solicitation. Do the DEA/police have a right to arrest me? Finally, a city that goes after the prostitutes in an effort to stop prostitution. Normally, they attack the johns. Which is like attacking the drug user rather than the drug dealers. To me, prostitutes and pimps are the drug dealers and johns-the drug users.
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