Turn off the blue light is a sex worker led association that is stringently campaigning against those that want to criminalise the purchase and the right to purchase sex. They also stand for safety, sexual and physical health and as well as labour and civil rights of sex workers in Ireland

They are opposed to the “turn off the need light”(TORL) campaign run by a group of organisations who want to end sex trafficking and prostitution with  “the solution” of make convicts of the purchasers of sex. (TOBL) believe that (TORL)’s real agenda is to push through their own ideology on sex approved as law. (TOBL) believe if further criminalisation were to happen it would drive the sex industry underground hence increasing its dangers fro everyone. Their priority is the not any moral agenda but the safety of people in sex work thus their opposition to the TORL campaign.

Why is criminalising the purchase of sex wrong?

Making the purchase of sex a crime on the premise that the feminist propaganda that the sex industry or prostitution is advocating Violence against women is wrong .

All sex workers whether they be male female or transgender have the right be in or out of the sex industry as it suits them and use their bodies however they want. They don’t want others religious beliefs to be forced on them or labelled as victims.

There is a belief that all or definitely most in the sex industry are being forced into this line of work is nothing but false propaganda. What is not considered is that a lot of sex workers take a certain heir work and have have a job satisfaction. There are those that do it for the money which is their choice.

When you make the purchase of sex it will only drive it further underground. Policies of suppression for those in the sex industry or the clients of them will have nothing but negative consequences for those who engage in the practice of  trading sex.

Prostitution is known as the worlds oldest profession and would continue regardless of the law criminalising the purchase of sex was passed. However for sex workers the terrain would become much worse. The industry would become client-led as opposed to sex worker-led. Crimes and violent attacks would be less like to be reported to the Gardai. Sex workers would also be harder to reached by any health initiative.

A gross infringement of civil liberties would be happening if prosecution of adults paying privately and gaining the consent of other adults for sex. Homosexual activity was decriminalised as late as 1993, now is not the time to take a huge step backwards. The government should not have the right to intervene with their agenda on consenting adults and their sex lives.

There has been the Criminal Justice (human trafficking) Act 2008 which deals the act of buying sex from those that are trafficked. So there is already a law to ward against paying for sex from someone who is trafficked.

People involved in sex trafficking have no regard for the law. So it would make no difference to their business. Only those that it affects are sex workers and decent sex worker clients.

The organisations who are lobbying for paying for sex ti be made a crime are proposing an outrageous bill that would only serve to harm the sex worker that they are claiming to want to protect. Magdalene Laundry was closed as recently as 1996 and sex workers in Ireland don’t want another Magdalene