Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing Prostitution Laws here in the Kingdom of Thailand. I discuss this topic once in a while. Years back I went on, months back, whenever it was, I went on the Thaiger and we talked about this. It's kind of an odd topic and people often ask me: "You talk about it a fair bit and you end up talking about in a very academic context." Well from my perspective, I have dealt with it professionally quite frequently when we have dealt with what are called I-601 Waivers of Inadmissibility to the United States and prostitution is something that comes up abroad, and in Thailand it comes up, not as frequently honestly as people think. It really is not that big of an issue in the sense that I think there is, it's a weird reputation, I don't know what the right word is but Thailand has kind of gotten stigmatized that there is somehow more of this activity going on here than other places. I would argue in my opinion Thailand just handles it in a much more straightforward manner so it seems like that. Other countries have issues with prostitution and quite honestly I think their public policy on it is abysmal; I think Thailand has handled this a lot better and I think history has born that out. That being said, it is a concern, it is a major public policy concern. 

I thought it was interesting and I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Pattaya Mail, pattayamail.com, the article is titled: Pattaya is divided on whether prostitution should be decriminalized. Quoting directly: "Some politicians are showing interest in a Parliamentary Bill after finding out that paid sex could be taxable." Yeah, always interesting how Parliaments and Congresses and things, Governments find "it might be a good idea to put up a blue ribbon commission to look in to passing a law". They always seem to do that when they start seeing the possibility of tax revenue; it is always interesting that. Quoting further: "Cynics say the real issue, as in the legalization of casinos debate, is who gets to milk the cash cow?' Quoting further: "A transvestite prostitute who goes by the name Sunny Side Up, argued it's a myth that legalization dignifies sex workers." and this was interesting, "The whole idea is to copy Germany and Holland and to make money for the top people." A prostitute later admitted, "What's the point of changing the law on nightclubs when people prefer to use their telephones?" she wondered. Quite so madam."

Interesting insights for a couple of different reasons. One, yeah, much like the way Obscenity Law kind of fell by the wayside in the United States as a result of the creation of the Home Video honestly, Obscenity Law was once something that regularly came before the US Supreme Court in the United States and it went away primarily because video cassette tapes, which could be watched in the privacy of one's own home came about and it kind of got rid of sort of the public interest aspect of the Obscenity Laws that had come up to that point. As a result, again Obscenity Law kind of, you don't see a lot of Obscenity Law now or Obscenity Law opinions getting made because it's very private now. Especially cell phones, have changed or smartphones I should say. Again I think there is something to be said in the prostitution arena because again smartphones have radically altered how even at this point it is hard to say how even prostitution is precisely defined when you sort of bring in the internet and Tinder and all these apps and things; hard to sort of delineate. 

For those who are unaware, prostitution in Thailand is illegal as we have discussed many, many times and again, the law itself is in Thai but to kind of paraphrase it and again this is a translation for informational purposes, and to be clear I am not a Thai Attorney, I am an American Attorney of Thai nationality; I am the Managing Director of the firm but this has been vetted through the Attorneys here in the office and I have been involved in a number of cases involving US Immigration matters; again I-601 Waivers mostly in that arena, that deal with prostitution so I have some insight into this personally on a certain level. It is illegal in Thailand but there is a promiscuity element to both the crime of solicitation and pandering and all of this, there's an element of promiscuity or what I would call sort of 'open and notorious' in the Common Law vernacular which basically stipulates that look, if someone is not out there openly and notoriously engaging in or advertising prostitution services, what happens behind closed doors essentially between consenting adults, is between those consenting adults. Thai Public Policy and Thai Law is not out there looking to essentially arrest people all over willy nilly or have sting operations if you will, to arrest people for this, that's not the purpose. The promiscuity element again on a public policy level it is not considered a positive thing to have all that sort of out in the open, out in the street causing an impact on society but at the same time, I think Thai Public Policy and Thai Law has done a good job of saying "look we don't want this ruining society, but at the same time we are not going to sit around over-regulating consensual activity between consenting adults". For that reason, I think that Thai Law on this issue is rather sublime; it's quite effective at dealing with the issue in a very elegant manner and I think it is notable this person that was quoted in that article we brought up and again a lot of information in there, we urge you to watch that or excuse me read that article in detail, but again "what's the point?". It brings up a good point. As it sits right now, yeah it's kind of a legal gray area but there are questions as to whether or not major changes in terms of that policy would really have a positive impact on the folks who really need assistance most.