No More Sex Tourism, We're Stuck With Disney Land

"AN ACT Relating to prohibiting sellers of travel from promoting travel for sex tourism; adding a new section to chapter 9A.88 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 19.138 RCW; creating a new section; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that the sex industry has rapidly expanded over the past several decades. It involves sexual exploitation of persons, predominantly women and girls, including activities relating to prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and other commercial sexual services. Prostitution and related activities contribute to the trafficking in persons, as does sex tourism. Therefore, discouraging sex tourism is key to reducing the demand for sex trafficking.

While prostitution is illegal in developing nations that are the primary destination of sex tourism, sex tourism is a major component of the local economy. The laws target female workers rather than the male customers, and economic opportunities for females are limited. Developed nations create the demand for sex tourism, yet often fail to criminalize the practice, or the existing laws fail to specifically target the sellers of travel who organize, facilitate, and promote sex tourism." ~SB 6731

I'm really at a loss as to why this would be of any concern to anyone in our state government. If a guy or gal wants to go to some distant country and get his or her rocks off, I fail to see where it's any business of our state government. As I see it, no crime has been committed until the money's been paid for you-know-what... and if the would-be vacationer is still standing on Washington soil, there's been no crime committed yet. If a crime is committed, it would have to occur in the country where the sex act happens and they would have original jurisdiction. You can go here to read the bill. What a waste of time and money!

On a side note, the Seattle Times carried an article about this. At the end of their article was this blurb:

"On Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruled that Americans caught paying children for sex in foreign countries can be prosecuted in the United States.

Ruling in a Seattle case, the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Congress' constitutional authority to regulate commerce with foreign countries allows for the prosecution of Americans on underage sex tours abroad because they pay for sex. The ruling upholds a 2-year-old law criminalizing such behavior."

Isn't it nice to know that the authority of the United States government encompasses the globe. You know what this means, don't you? No more going to Amsterdam to get high. If they can prosecute you for having sex with kids in Thailand, they can just as well prosecute you for taking a bong hit in Amsterdam, too!

(...and, no, I don't condone kiddy porn, etc. My point is to show our government sticking its nose into business where it has no authority.)