EJF Newsletter — The World's Oldest Profession

Issues The Equal Justice Foundation Deals With

| Courts, Veteran Courts, & Civil Liberties | Prohibition & War On Drugs | Vote Fraud & Election Issues |

March 19, 2026

Whether legal or illegal, workers in the world's oldest profession can be found nearly universally around military installations, seaports, in cities large and small, in resorts and hotels, bars, massage parlors, dating apps, chat rooms, and elsewhere wherever they can turn a profit.

When legal, these workers commonly work and sometimes live in a bordello that provides comfortable rooms and sanitary facilities where they are protected and provided regular health checkups. Such houses commonly include a bar and other amenities, pay taxes, fees, and are licensed as any business does. The workers have access to banks, shopping, and eating facilities.

However, quite the opposite is true when their profession is illegal. Then they commonly work the streets, bars, hotel lobbies, massage parlors, etc. to find clients. They have little or no protection and police are often their worst enemies. As a result they are commonly assaulted, beaten, and robbed of their earnings. Often lacking sanitary and health facilities these workers are frequently a virulent source of disease in a community. Because their profession is illegal they are often associated with other crimes and criminals, notably drugs.

But even the most draconian efforts to eliminate the world's oldest profession have failed except locally, and even then at least part-time prostitutes can usually be found by clients.

Since legalization would reduce the spread of venereal diseases, reduce crime, notably rape and other sex-related crimes, reduce sex trafficking and slavery, improve public safety and reduce legal costs; logic suggests that it is clearly in the best interests of a society to make prostitution legal and regulate it. Other likely benefits of legalization include fewer abortions and fatherless children, reduced number of suicides, fewer divorces and an increased birthrate, and improved military readiness.

Given these benefits, Colorado Senator Nick Hinrichsen, an Army veteran from Pueblo, courageously introduced a bill, SB26-097, to legalize prostitution in Colorado in 2026. His bill would require the statewide decriminalization of commercial sexual activity among consenting adults. It also declared that decriminalizing commercial sexual activity among consenting adults is a matter of statewide concern and expressly preempted statutory or home rule city, town, city and county, or county ordinances, resolutions, regulations, or codes criminalizing commercial sexual activity.

Hinrichsen's bill would repeal the state criminal offenses of prostitution, soliciting for prostitution, keeping a place of prostitution, patronizing a prostitute, and prostitute making display. It also would repeal the offense of pandering when it involves knowingly arranging or offering to arrange a situation that permits a person to practice prostitution. The bill would maintain current state criminal penalties for pandering that involves menacing or criminal intimidation and for pimping, but it changes terminology in those offenses by replacing “prostitution” with “commercial sexual activity.” The bill also makes various conforming amendments, including those related to: Reporting requirements, immunity, affirmative defenses, and criminal conviction records in human trafficking cases; public nuisances; certification by the peace officers standards and training board; and the regulation of escort bureaus and massage parlors. The bill would also eliminate a court program for persons charged with certain prostitution-related offenses.

However, Puritanism dominates much of American “thinking” and, in their blind moral code, prostitution is an unthinkable sin and must be outlawed. And feminists, who are often puritanical, hate the competition. In the face of such opposition, Senator Hinrichsen has sadly asked to postpone his bill indefinitely, effectively killing it, rather than advance to a contentious hearing where “...supporters, including sex workers, feared harassment and public exposure.”

Bills seldom get passed the same year they are first introduced so there is hope for the future. But Puritanical Blue Laws are popular, particularly among feminists, and take time to repeal, as witness alcohol and Prohibition, while doing much damage.

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Issues The Equal Justice Foundation Deals With

| Courts, Veteran Courts, & Civil Liberties | Prohibition & War On Drugs | Vote Fraud & Election Issues |