In May 2024, we warned subscribers in an email alert that some state lawmakers and left-wing activists were preparing to push legislation to legalize prostitution in the Land of Lincoln. Equality Illinois, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ lobbying organization based in Chicago, is one of those groups that hopes not only to pass this proposal to “protect bodily autonomy by ending government interference in adults engaging in consensual sex,” but also establish “a sex workers bill of rights.”
The bill was introduced earlier this month by State Representative Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago) and State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Chicago).
A coalition of current and former “sex workers,” as they call themselves, some of whom self-identify as LGBTQIA, has been organizing this effort for years as the Sex Worker Advisory Group. According to an article by WTTW News, proponents include Brave Space Alliance (a black, trans-led LGBTQ+ Center in Chicago) and the Chicago Abortion Fund, whose mission “is to advance reproductive autonomy and justice for everyone… and by fostering partnerships for political and cultural change.”
According to this article, proponents contend that legalizing prostitution
“would allow sex workers to vet their clients and allow individuals to report abuse or sex trafficking without fear of prosecution or stigma.”
Thomas Hampson, a former Air Force Intelligence Analyst, Chief Investigator for the Illinois Legislative Investigating Commission, and Chicago Crime Commission board member responds to these claims.
These claims of how legalizing sex work will improve the lives of sex workers are preposterous. This one especially is laughable, ‘Removing any criminal penalties would allow sex workers to vet their clients and allow individuals to report abuse or sex trafficking without fear of prosecution or stigma.’ A prostitute is going to conduct a background check on a prospective client? Really? Sex trafficking will increase if sex work is legal and more children will be drawn into the trade. It’s that simple.
Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your state lawmakers in the Illinois House and Illinois Senate.
- Ask them to uphold basic standards for sexual morality and not further contribute to the coarsening of our culture.
- Ask them to reject policies that foster broken families and community discord.
- Ask them to repudiate policies that would increase rates of crime, addiction, depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders – not to mention human exploitation and sex trafficking.
Urge them to oppose the legalization of prostitution, HB 3518 and/or SB 2391.
Illinois’ Cultural Decline
Taking advantage of the super-majority in both chambers, these Democrat sponsors want “private choices” about the use of one’s body to be a civil right protected by law. Their flawed thinking will increase incidents of rape, assault, and murder.
Prostitution is inherently immoral. It objectifies and exploits those involved as consumable products. Moreover, it empowers the criminal underworld, fueling the demand for more sex-trafficked victims – including children.
At a time when sexually transmitted infections (STIs) like syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia are increasing, state lawmakers are foolish to promote an industry dedicated to sexual promiscuity. For two years in a row now, public health officials have issued warnings about monkeypox, the sexually transmitted virus predominantly spread among gay and bisexual men. Are HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B, and HPV no longer a concern? Prostitution will exacerbate these diseases.
A chief task of our legislators is to promote public health. Legalizing prostitution would undermine this priority by spreading disease and fostering a culture that objectifies human beings as mere sexual outlets to be purchased. Sadly, it will also contribute to rising rates of family dysfunction and breakdown.
We must reiterate what we’ve said before: legalizing “sex work” will only further sabotage social and ethical barriers to sexual immorality. Many people who would not have risked purchasing sex in the past may come to see prostitution as morally permissible. Prostitutes will then become nothing more than sexual commodities to be used, abused, and discarded.
Prostitution not only perverts our view of God’s gift of human sexuality (which is intended for marriage), but it is antithetical to God’s command to love one another and consider others more important than ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40; Philippians 2:3). In fact, this will lead to more family dysfunction and breakdown, and a greater reliance on Big Government.
The wisdom and instruction available to us in the Word of God are inexhaustible. It would be wise if we heeded straightforward imperatives that instruct us to:
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body,
but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
1 Corinthians 6:18
It is simple: “flee sexual immorality.” Yet some of our state lawmakers are embracing it. The policies they want to set will ensnare, infect, and disable many of our neighbors, including within the Church. Left-wing activists think they know better… but they are extremely foolish.
