A new report, based on the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (NTDS), advocates legalizing prostitution to help transgender hookers.
"Meaningful Work: Transgender Experiences in the Sex Trade" is a report from the Red Umbrella Project, the National Center for Transgender Equality, and the Best Practices Policy Project. The report analyzed 694 NTDS respondents who reported prostituting themselves and concluded that transgenders are discriminated against in the sex trade.
To correct sex trade discrimination, the report recommends decriminalizing prostitution.
"The criminalization and stigmatization of commercial sex can worsen the discrimination and marginalization that transgender people already face," the Windy City Times summarized.
Christopher Doyle, executive director of the Institute for Healthy Families, told LifeSiteNews, "While discrimination and prejudice is wrong and could certainly lead to depression and anxiety, to simply call for the legalization and de-stigmatization of commercial sex work as a viable solution to helping struggling transgenders is troubling."
Doyle continued, "There is a stigma associated with prostitution for a reason – it's degrading, inhumane, unhealthy, dangerous, and morally and spiritually corrupt."
"To call its legalization a 'best practice' is to essentially encourage more trauma for these individuals, when what they really need is love and healing," Doyle said.
Homosexual activists are joining Amnesty International and the World Health Organization in calling for decriminalization of prostitution on the grounds that criminalizing sex work prevents prostitutes from seeking help from police, needed services, and other employment and impedes HIV prevention efforts.
"It would be irresponsible as a licensed clinician to not condemn this recommendation," Doyle concluded. "It goes against everything the mental and medical health community stands for – Do No Harm. Let's be clear: the full legalization of prostitution will do a great deal of harm."
As LifeSiteNews reported, Amnesty International voted in August to urge the decriminalization of all aspect of the sex trade and said the new policy was based on input from the World Health Organization and U.N. Women. The vote sparked controversy among feminists, celebrities, and experts who warn that prostitution is fueling the rise of human trafficking around the world, and the policy primarily benefits pimps and johns.
In 2012, the World Health Organization declared, "All countries should work toward decriminalization of sex work." The U.N.'s Special Rapporteur on Health called for decriminalization of prostitution in 2011, and in 2013, U.N. Women affirmed a statement by UNAIDS calling for decriminalization. The prestigious medical journal The Lancet also advocated "accepting and embracing sex work."
Doyle, a former homosexual who says therapy changed his life, is a licensed psychotherapist. "In my clinical work with clients who experience gender dysphoria, a majority have experienced trauma, including sexual, physical, and emotional abuse," he explained.
"Oftentimes, unprocessed and unhealed trauma leads to lower levels of life satisfaction, unhealthy relationships, and may lead to many forms of addiction, including substance abuse and sexual risk-taking behaviors," Doyle stated.
On August 25, seven people associated with a multi-million-dollar homosexual prostitution website were arrested in a police bust.