This campaign is another step towards creating an egalitarian society. We done this on countless issues that I don't need to mention. Just pick any group that has been unfairly placed at the bottom of the social strata in our history First we usually recognize "insert name of stigmatized group here" in familiar terms. This starts the dialogue where society explores the issues and pre-conceptions. Over time the general societal understanding of the stigmatized group increases, becomes more sophisticated, and the issue advances. The issue achieves political currency, celebrities align with it. Laws are changed, rights and privileges are extended, tolerance turns into inclusion, and after a few decades we look back and say "WTF were we thinking before?"
Of course, all people should be recognized as people. But, if that was the case, we wouldn't have the need for campaigns such as this. Canadian society has a pretty good track record overall in recognizing human rights and I guess I'm proud of this. However in some cases, we are very backward and still tied to our colonial roots. I think the good news is that we seem to adapt fairly quickly, we challenge our pre-conceptions, we try to right our wrongs and we are moving towards a more civilized, sophisticated society.
So, I think we should see this campaign as a starting line, rather than the finish. It will be a marathon for sure. But I note a few promising signs - the public's revulsion for Robert Pickton and the real empathy shown towards his victims and their families; Canadian municipalities licensing sex workers (positives and negatives about this for sure); the potential change in the prostitution laws in Ontario. These have all served to raise the issue of prostitution and provide opportunity for different points of view to be heard. Just lately we've seen a front page story in Toronto Life which was favourable. It seems that our society is starting to recognize (internalize) the humanity of this issue, from both the service provider and client points of view, which is an important hurdle in evolving the issue and making it mainstream.
Drawing a parallel between the on-going campaign to de-stigmatize mental illness where politicians, celebrities, athletes, everyday folk describe their experiences with this disease, I could see a day where our community leaders freely admit and talk about their experience as sex workers or as clients. Currently they only admit this when their mug shots are on the front page.
So today we have no real change yet, but it is coming. (sorry about this last sentence - I couldn't resist)
