Zonta forum explores topic of sex workers

There are no clear-cut solutions when it comes to topics of legalizing, decriminalizing or regulating prostitution, but one theme sounded louder than others during a Saturday panel discussion hosted by the Zonta Club of Hilo: Empathy matters.

“The first thing you need to know about sex work is that each individual is unique with their own story,” said panelist Tracy Ryan, executive director of Oahu-based Harm Reduction Hawaii. Ryan has been an advocate for transgender and sex-worker rights for more than 25 years.

The five-person panel also included Hawaii County Prosecuting Attorney Mitch Roth, the Rev. Bryan Siebuhr of Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin, behavioral health therapist Zahava “Z” Zaidoff, and the Rev. Eric Anderson of the United Church of Christ’s Church of the Holy Cross.

The Zonta Club has chapters around the world and aims to empower women through service and advocacy. Hilo’s club was founded in 1950.

“Zonta wants to be the thought leader in the community with women’s issues,” said panel moderator Kathleen McGilvray, a Zonta member and executive director of the Hilo YWCA. “We know it (prostitution) is provocative (and) we all have a strong view, but I think it’s important to come together and discuss.”

Audience members — about 35 people attended — were asked to submit questions to the panel, which were answered during the hour and a half event. The forum did not address issues specific to Hawaii Island, but instead was a wide-ranging exploration of the topic.

Discussion of prostitution and what its legal status should be is difficult to separate from discussion of sex trafficking and the issue of minors who are prostitutes. It is also intertwined with gender dynamics, objectification, empowerment, abuse of power, choice, consent, historical context and social stigma, all of which were brought to the table Saturday.

The latter is the No. 1 obstacle to overcome, Ryan said. Earlier this year, she helped introduce a bill to the state House of Representatives that would have decriminalized prostitution.

Decriminalization, along with some form of regulation, was supported by almost all of the panel because, as Siebuhr said, “Those that leave this line of work can seek other employment without the added burden of a criminal record.”

In looking at the issues from a Buddhist perspective, Siebuhr suggested that prostitutes could be considered “bodhisattvas,” or people who set aside their own enlightenment for the enlightenment of others because they showed others “the futility of constantly trying to fulfill one’s desires. That is showing us our true selves, and perhaps that’s what makes us so uncomfortable.”

“Buddhism would advocate compassion for those who are in the sex industry,” he said.

Roth said he was not in favor of decriminalization but that law enforcement needed to do a better job working within the existing system.

“I think, first of all, I look at a lot of these people as victims because I think they are victimized,” he said.

Ryan disagreed with the idea of victimization.

“Some of them may be involved in survival sex work,” she said. “That’s not their problem; that’s their solution.”

Zaidoff stressed that it was impossible to talk about prostitution without addressing other factors such as more mental health services, training police officers and legislators to be more compassionate on issues, and “how to get people help so they don’t feel like it’s their only option.”

At the heart of the matter, she said, was the issue of choice: “I have zero interest in taking any choice away from anybody … my question is, is choice actually involved?”

“To my mind, that is the fundamental question in sex work: Is it truly consensual?” Anderson said. “If sex work were legal, eventually if not immediately, sex workers would have better access to the protection of the police and the courts, better access than they have now. … But again, if it’s legal, is it a transaction between equals? To (me), that argues at the very least for regulation to protect a group of people who are making themselves extremely vulnerable.”

In the Gospel of Matthew, he said, prostitutes are specifically named as being among the first people to accept Jesus for who he was.

“It wasn’t people in my position, the religious authorities,” Anderson said. He also pointed out “the Calvinist approach to sexuality is a pretty darn poor one. The discomfort of Americans with sexuality is legendary.”

Discomfort makes it harder to work toward solutions.

“I think it begins with speaking to everybody with dignity and respect,” Zaidoff said. “There is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’”

Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.