I first of all wanted to Thank Martin for his posts.  This is an issue I have stayed away from commenting on except in this thread, because of post #9 (I still can't figure out how to go to particular posts) - I quoted it in it's entirety below.

The reason that I have stayed away from this is that it is a very emtional issue for me and if people want to argue about my post go ahead but after this post I will not be replying back to negative feedback because it would upset me to much.

When I was a teenager I was abused at home, thankfully not sexually but abuse is abuse.  I was given an out.  When I was sweet talked I was smart enough to see past the promises and knew what leaving meant - I would become a prostitute.  My immediate response wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no either.  It was a tough decision.  Stay and be abused or leave and become a prositute.  It was like a rock and a hard place.  I ultimately made the decision to stay because of one reason and one reason only - I knew that if I wanted a future I would have to stay and take the abuse, if I went I would also be abused but with no future.  This is the reality of the prostitution industry today and in fact this includes strippers and porn stars as well.

After I escaped and started going to college I met two friends, both were prostitues, one on the street and one had started in stripping and doing porn but ultimately very shortly ended up in prostitution.Both of them had backgrounds similar to mine filled with abuse, fear and pain as well as neglect.  It was a long hard road for them to even get to college and one of them didn't make it, dropping out after the first few months.  They reflected everything that trishabaptie said in her post in the above thread.

Martin has a very good point when he says that it is nice to talk in what if and what could be's but the reality of the situation is that most of the women involved in prostituation right now are being revictimized everyday and even if you improve working conditions it doesn't take away the pain, the scars and the torture that brought them to the place where they had to make that decision to sell their body for sex or for porn and the constant revictimization of each women dealing with the pain, scars and torture of the past and the new pain scars and torture of the present.  The industry is one of the worst things in our society in the way that it not only allows but encourages and rewards the victimization of women who are involved.  Making it so that women can get workers comp or hire security is not going to help these women, they need on the ground support, they need to be taken out of the situation where they are allowed to see themselves as dirt, as worthless and as expendable.  Once that is accomplished maybe then we can start talking about building an industry that is about the freedom of womens sexuality.  But right now support of the industry is not support of the women it is encouraging and rewarding the victimization of the women who are involved.