Sex, crimes and videotapes

OPINION:

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Is OK for a child to be prostituted because his parents’ failed to pay the “coyotes” who “escorted” him into the United States across the border with Mexico?

Should young women who conscientiously prostituted themselves to pay for college or Pampers be prosecuted?

How about deep-throated porn stars who lay down with married men, hoping to establish themselves as artists?

To hear D.C. Council member David Grosso tell it, online sex trafficking and the sex trade itself are practically victimless.

“Due to the great risk of violence faced by street-based sex workers, our government needs to take bold and urgent action,” Mr. Grosso said in a press release Monday. “I call on Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham and U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu to temporarily suspend arrests and prosecutions of those involved in commercial sex unless the individual has caused violence or coercion.”

You know why he said that, right?

His comments were in response to the Justice Department shutdown over the weekend of Backpage.com, the website whose classified sex ads encouraged hookups on the supply side and the demand side.

Of course, Mr. Grosso doesn’t refer to those on the supply side as ’hos, hookers or streetwalkers. He calls them sex workers.

What he doesn’t say is that not all sex workers are adult men and women who break the law, voluntarily or involuntarily, to ply their trades.

He doesn’t even admit that children and teens — through no fault of their own and regardless of their country of origin — become sex workers because adults decide their fate, “working” conditions and environments.

And those pink hat-wearing gals of the anti-Trump inauguration march? Well, a reasonable person would question whether their headgear had suffocated their sensibilities.

Now this from the feminist-driven Women’s March, which claims the FBI’s actions would spawn “an absolute crisis.”

“The shutting down of #Backpage is an absolute crisis for sex workers who rely on the site to safely get in touch with clients,” the Women’s March tweeted. “Sex workers rights are women’s rights.”

Uh, hello. Rape, abuse, sex-related health and prostitution are not the sole domain of men.

It’s a two-way, and for some participants, a three-way street.

What these liberal points of view fail to acknowledge is the fact that children, even babies, are exploited in this apparent anxiousness to push the female agenda.

And what about transgender “sex workers” who often are viciously assaulted with any object that’s handy because the assailant misjudged the cover of the book?

Or schoolchildren who are videotaped and filmed by school teachers and other adults?

Or young people whose innocent photos appear on the electronic devices of the supposedly “nice” gym teacher?

Look, no one in their right mind these days would say they oppose women’s rights. And if they are really smart, they might even say, “Sure, hon, you want me to drive you to the rally?”

But this notion that the sex trade is a bona fide, legit business practice is baloney.

In most states and cities, prostitution is illegal. In most nations kidnapping and human smuggling are forbidden or illegal. And when wee ones are sexually assaulted in the name of sex? Off with their hands, shoulders, knees and toes.

Enough with lies and half-truths and sex crimes.

The Harvey Weinstein, sex-trafficking and Backpage.com cases speak volumes about what’s really at stake — and it’s not a pink thing.

• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.