• The D.C. Council has approved a bill that recognizes same-sex marriages performed in states where it is legal. The legislation is considered the first step toward allowing gay marriages to be performed in Washington, but it's unclear how the bill will fare in Congress, which has final say over D.C.'s laws. • The Maine House of Representatives has approved a bill that would allow same sex couples to marry in the state. Now the bill will go back to the Senate, which voted last week to support the bill. Gov. John Baldacci has not said whether he will veto the bill or allow it to become law. • The body of a man believed to be homosexual has been dug up twice in Senegal because people don't want him buried in the Muslim cemetery. The second time his body was exhumed it was left outside the family home, and it is believed that he is now buried on the property. Homosexual acts are illegal in Senegal, a majority Muslim country, and anti-gay sentiment has been on the rise since a court overturned the conviction of nine people for committing homosexual acts last month. • Greece's only two same-sex marriages, one male and one female, have been annulled by a court. The couples used a loophole in the law that did not specify gender in civil weddings to marry. • A judge ruled that 20-year-old University of Colorado student Abby Toll will be allowed to stay at her mother's house this summer with her dog, even though she is accused of taping her boyfriend's dog to a refrigerator. Police say Toll bound the 2-year-old shiba inu's legs, snout, and tail with packing tape, then stuck him upside down to the side of the refrigerator. Toll is charged with felony aggravated cruelty to animals and drug possession. The dog is at the local Humane Society, and will be put up for adoption. • Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his wife Veronica Lario have chosen their divorce lawyers. She has chosen Maria Christina Morelli, who is famous for winning the right for a woman who had been in a coma for 17 years to be removed from life support. Following the verdict, Berlusconi launched an unsuccessful effort to change the law and keep the woman alive. • Berlusconi went on state-run television today to deny that he had an affair with an 18-year-old and repeat that his wife should publicly apologize for embarrassing him and admit that she was wrong. • A front-page editorial in the official newspaper of the Italian Catholic Bishops Conference said Berlusconi's behavior is "worrying" and said Italy deserved a Prime Minister who was a "mirror of the country's soul" and called on him to be more "sober and sombre". • In a study of 6,437 children from the age of 7 to 12, British researchers found that pre-teens who were bullied as children have twice the risk of having delusions, hallucinations, and other psychotic symptoms. The scientists said bullying may even trigger people who are genetically predisposed to schizophrenia. • Mia Metzgers of New York is suing a woman who outed her as a dominatrix in a sexual harassment lawsuit against Metzger's boyfriend. Metzger says the revelation ruined her nursing career. • Dozens of women are suing the company that manufactures ObTape, a vaginal sling that is surgically inserted under the urethra to prevent urine leaks. In one case, several months after the surgery, a patient developed a painful, bloody, vaginal discharge, and pieces of the tape started working through her vaginal wall. The product had been cleared for sale by the FDA. • Disney has eliminated the "image screening positions" at its parks. The employees used to check photos taken during certain rides to censor photos in which women purposely flashed their breasts, in hopes that they would be put on the photo preview for everyone to see. Disney says anyone who exposes him or herself on a ride will still be ejected from the park. • 44 people were killed at a wedding in Turkey, including the bride and groom, by masked men armed with assault rifles and grenades. The men are believed to be from a family feuding with the bride's family. They were angry that a relative had been rejected as the groom. • A survey of 400 men who attend church by a UK men's magazine found that 60 percent don't like flowers and embroidered banners in church. Nearly 60 percent said they enjoyed singing, but preferred "proclamational hymns" to emotional love longs. 72 percent said their favorite part of the service is the sermon. • A Kansas State University researcher Kay Ann Taylor says that poverty is rooted in the U.S. education system because, "Far too many schools continue to endorse a curriculum of the absurd that encompasses 'heroification' of primarily white males, while the contributions of women and people of color appear in pop-out format in textbooks," and laws like the No Child Left Behind Act and military recruitment in low-achieving schools leave poor students at a disadvantage. • Denis Hof, the owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel featured on Cathouse, may offer Drew Peterson an apprenticeship after Rod Blagojevich turned him down. Hof said, "He doesn't have an old lady now; at least they can't find her. He might as well be on my show and have some fun with the girls." • A fight broke out in an Oregon bar after a man slapped a woman's butt while she was singing karaoke. Her husband confronted the man, which led to a 12 person fight involving beer bottles and chairs being used as weapons. • The towns of Newton and Wellesley in Massachusetts have released a list of their most popular names for dogs. Bailey is most popular in Wellesley and Lucy is most popular in Newton. Several dogs in each town are named for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. • The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to ban the trade of seal products across Europe. • The hand-cranked device in this video reenacts the "Don't Tase Me Bro" incident with mechanical figures. •

But according to Professor Roger Matthews, the life of a prostitute is anything but glamorous. "It's abuse and a life of hell," Matthews, a professor of criminology at London's South Bank University tells the Guardian. Matthews has been studying street prostitution for almost two decades and has just published a book called Prostitution, Politics and Policy, outlining his arguments against so-called "liberal" approaches to the sex trade. The "liberal" approach, explalins the the Guardian, "is to think of the trade as simply another form of work, to be 'non-judgmental' in dealing with it, and to set up areas, such as 'tolerance zones', where women can work without fear of arrest."

Matthews disagrees with this viewpoint because he believes that it continues to encourage johns to buy sex and that prostitution, no matter what, is a lose/lose scenario for almost all the women involved. "The women involved in prostitution - particularly street prostitution - are not only among the most victimised group in society, but many of them are multiple victims. If the term 'victimisation' is to have any meaning, then those involved in prostitution must be prime candidates," he argues. He's even against brothels like the Bunny Ranch, because, "When governments are seen to be endorsing prostitution, it leads to a massive expansion of the trade, both legal and illegal." Adds Guardian writer Julie Bindel: "Women working in legal brothels in Nevada, for example, have spoken about how prostitution under such a regime feels like 'legalised rape', and that no laws can remove the stigma of selling sex."

So what does Matthews suggest governments do in order to help prostitutes? He wants to decriminalize prostitution for the women, make consequences worse for the johns, and fund programs to help women find jobs so they can leave hooking behind altogether. He also wants to start studying the men who pay for sex, about whom very little is known. ("The available research indicates that the motivation of many men is relatively low, and that in the vast majority of cases it would not take much to deter them from paying for sex," he says.) Regardless of the available research, I have a hard time believing that prostitution will disappear, no matter what kinds of legislation is passed. While decidedly unglamorous in its gritty reality, prostitution still retains that odd patina of glamor, and sometimes people [men and women alike] want no-strings-attached nookie. It ain't the oldest profession for nothing.

Whorehouses And American Nostalgia [Economist]
'It's Abuse And A Life Of Hell' [Guardian]