What’s going on in the Washington D. C. Metropolitan region? First, there was the D. C. Madam, Deborah Palfrey, who was purportedly running a clandestine prostitution operation under the name of Pamela Martin and Associates. Ms. Palfrey claims she was not doing anything illegal but, instead, provided a legal escort service that specialized in providing erotic fantasies and not sex. Known to her clientele as “Miz Julia,” and touting her agency as “undoubtedly the best adult agency around,” Ms. Palfrey maintained a phone list that allegedly possesses a listing of 10,000-15,000 names of men who, law enforcement authorities maintain, conducted business with her establishment in the form of customers paying $300.00 an hour for prostitutes. Though Ms. Palfrey acknowledges many high level and well known men frequented her business, she claims she did nothing wrong or illegal. Now, subsequent to her arrest and indictment, she is fighting charges of federal racketeering.
Recently, at the Venus Spa, advertised as Young’s Spa, in Northwest Washington, D. C., and following a raid by the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, three women were arrested on charges of operating a house of prostitution, solicitation for lewd and immoral purposes, and performing massage without a license. People who live and work in the upscale Glover Park neighborhood were upset with the notion that an illegal and clandestine operation of illicit sex was tarnishing their neighborhood, and they wanted the activities to cease. However, when the police tried to make an undercover appointment for services, they quickly learned that business at this bawdy place was booming. Posing as customers, the police had a challenge to get their foot in the door quickly and furtively.
Though Las Vegas is dubbed “Sin City” and is well known for its adult entertainment and activities, D. C. may be trying to proffer similar services in a different venue. The difference may be that Vegas coins the famous slogan, “What goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas” whereas D.C., undoubtedly, differs in that regard. What goes on in D. C. quickly becomes public and provides sensational news stories for the local and regional media outlets. What takes place in D. C. is no secret, no matter how determined the sexual entrepreneurs may be.
The shared commonality centers upon the obvious--business is booming. There are men galore who are seeking paid sex with strangers. Many are men already in committed relationships. Others are married men, with families, who tell their wives they are working, going to a meeting, or doing some other believable activity that their trusting wives won’t doubt. All the while, they are skulking around and believing they are outsmarting the ones they run home to and tell them they “love.”
When the ante is up, the cover is blown, and the word is out about the real happenings, as in the case of the D. C. Madam and now the bordello in Glover Park, the men start to quake in their boots. They begin to conjure up alibis, excuses, or suddenly bring heretofore non-existent religion into their lives. Or, just maybe, they confess, as did Senator David Vitter (R-LA), and acknowledge they sinned even if they didn’t do it in the famous sin city itself. All the while, they beg for another chance with their other half who, nine times out of ten, is in denial, refuses to see the forest for the trees, and takes her honey back. After all, what woman wants to believe that the man she loves and trusts is someone different from what she perceived and that he is actually looking for sex somewhere else from an impersonal, paid service provider? It’s a hard fact for a woman to swallow so she chooses not to.
Whether it’s Las Vegas, Nevada, Tampa, Florida (known as the Lapdancing Capitol of the East Coast),the Red Light District in Amsterdam, the prolific sex outlets in Scandinavia, or the bawdy houses in the region of the nation’s Capitol, the fact remains that sex is in demand and it sells. As history repeats itself, so does the controversy and debate that ceases to culminate in an outcome satisfactory to all.
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