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The legality is addressed in the article: > You can in fact get issued an escort license in some cities (e.g., San Francisco or Grand Chute, or Jefferson Count

The legality is addressed in the article: > You can in fact get issued an escort license in some cities (e.g., San Francisco or Grand Chute, or Jefferson County, WA). I don’t know if this is a good idea, neither I nor anybody I know has applied for this, though I seriously considered. It’s possible it might grant you some legal protection, but also possible it might give you some legal issues, as it puts a lot of information about you in a government file that clearly states you are in fact an escort. Based on that, from an escort viewpoint, the legal protections are not a worthy tradeoff for privacy. Ultimately, in the context of the country/culture, legal protection is a progressive position, but it's not sufficient, unless complemented by a degree of anonymity. Not sure how that could work, though!

hzay 5y ago
> Ultimately, in the context of the country/culture, legal protection is a progressive position, but it's not sufficient, unless complemented by a degree of anonymity. Not sure how that could work, though! Legal, non-anonymous and socially respectable escort services used to exist, you know. It existed in south india as a practice for hundreds of years before the british came.
- pizza234 5y ago
  Yes, this is why I've mentioned "in the context of the country/culture". Surely in the country you mention, or I suppose others (e.g. Netherlands) there is no social stigma, but in the USA, there is, and it needs to be taken into account.
- bollu 5y ago
  What was it called, the practice in south india? I live there and I've never heard of this!
  - hzay 5y ago
    Devadasi system :) but it's erased history at this point and I also didn't know about it growing up. For historical sources I'd recommend Domingo Paes's book on Vijayanagara empire and Chola inscriptions in the Tanjore temple. You can also look up Bangalore Nagarathnamma, Veena Dhanammal, Mylapore Gowri ammal, Coimbatore Thayi, Balasaraswathi, Muddupalani. Some of them have books written on them. If you'd like more sources, plz let me know -- I'll send some book titles your way.
- lenkite 5y ago
  "before the british came." More accurately - before Islamic conquerors came. The Vijayanagara empire was utterly destroyed by the Sultanates. Devadasi as an institution was shattered first by Islamic invaders - who even record this in their journals. In-fact most Islamic historians explicitly declaim this as liberation of women in India and how Islamic conquest uplifted backward society in that era.
  - hzay 5y ago
    Could you give me a source for your claims please? Until mid 1800s, my understanding is that the system was working fine.
  - mistrial9 5y ago
    the English wikipedia article 'Devadasi' is not in synch with this story?
- denton-scratch 5y ago
  > Legal, non-anonymous and socially respectable escort services You can still hire no-sex escorts to accompany you to an event - such as a work event, or anything where you don't want people to think you're a saddo who can't get a girlfriend. I can imagine a closet queen employing such a service.
lazide 5y ago
That’s quite misleading though? It seems clear to me anyway that what she was referring to is a similar trap marijuana growers have here in CA and other legal states. Namely that just because SF gives you a permit doesn’t make it legal (in that everyone who could come arrest you would not), and it may actually make it worse by putting you in a database of ‘known offenders’ for the next higher level of law enforcement to come after you. The state of California doesn’t recognize any permit in SF, and neither do the Feds, and if she crosses state lines in her work, the feds could go after her for it. Would they do that right now? Probably not. Would some future different administration? Possibly. And, since it’s required to use legal names and the like, and these records are permanent, it could be a decade or whatever in the future when politics have changed, or there could be a records leak and now your real legal name and occupation and home address or whatever is all over the Internet, and who knows when or if something weird happens. Gun owners recently started having their records shared with various universities for instance, which include home addresses, names, and what they own - and have no legal recourse near as I can tell.
KaiserPro 5y ago
> the legal protections are not a worthy tradeoff for privacy. I don't think it really conveys any meaningful legal protections. I suspect it allows you to operate, but it won't mean that you will be treated with the same respect that a non escort would have got. They are still not allowed to use normal payment providers, they cannot form companies, they cannot operate their own premises, with security (as that would border on prostitution, which is a stupid distinction) Think of it as the police allowing pot dealers, even though it was still illegal to posses.

hzay 5y ago

> Ultimately, in the context of the country/culture, legal protection is a progressive position, but it's not sufficient, unless complemented by a degree of anonymity. Not sure how that could work, though! Legal, non-anonymous and socially respectable escort services used to exist, you know. It existed in south india as a practice for hundreds of years before the british came.

pizza234 5y ago
Yes, this is why I've mentioned "in the context of the country/culture". Surely in the country you mention, or I suppose others (e.g. Netherlands) there is no social stigma, but in the USA, there is, and it needs to be taken into account.
bollu 5y ago
What was it called, the practice in south india? I live there and I've never heard of this!
- hzay 5y ago
  Devadasi system :) but it's erased history at this point and I also didn't know about it growing up. For historical sources I'd recommend Domingo Paes's book on Vijayanagara empire and Chola inscriptions in the Tanjore temple. You can also look up Bangalore Nagarathnamma, Veena Dhanammal, Mylapore Gowri ammal, Coimbatore Thayi, Balasaraswathi, Muddupalani. Some of them have books written on them. If you'd like more sources, plz let me know -- I'll send some book titles your way.
lenkite 5y ago
"before the british came." More accurately - before Islamic conquerors came. The Vijayanagara empire was utterly destroyed by the Sultanates. Devadasi as an institution was shattered first by Islamic invaders - who even record this in their journals. In-fact most Islamic historians explicitly declaim this as liberation of women in India and how Islamic conquest uplifted backward society in that era.
- hzay 5y ago
  Could you give me a source for your claims please? Until mid 1800s, my understanding is that the system was working fine.
- mistrial9 5y ago
  the English wikipedia article 'Devadasi' is not in synch with this story?
denton-scratch 5y ago
> Legal, non-anonymous and socially respectable escort services You can still hire no-sex escorts to accompany you to an event - such as a work event, or anything where you don't want people to think you're a saddo who can't get a girlfriend. I can imagine a closet queen employing such a service.

lazide 5y ago

That’s quite misleading though? It seems clear to me anyway that what she was referring to is a similar trap marijuana growers have here in CA and other legal states. Namely that just because SF gives you a permit doesn’t make it legal (in that everyone who could come arrest you would not), and it may actually make it worse by putting you in a database of ‘known offenders’ for the next higher level of law enforcement to come after you. The state of California doesn’t recognize any permit in SF, and neither do the Feds, and if she crosses state lines in her work, the feds could go after her for it. Would they do that right now? Probably not. Would some future different administration? Possibly. And, since it’s required to use legal names and the like, and these records are permanent, it could be a decade or whatever in the future when politics have changed, or there could be a records leak and now your real legal name and occupation and home address or whatever is all over the Internet, and who knows when or if something weird happens. Gun owners recently started having their records shared with various universities for instance, which include home addresses, names, and what they own - and have no legal recourse near as I can tell.

KaiserPro 5y ago

> the legal protections are not a worthy tradeoff for privacy. I don't think it really conveys any meaningful legal protections. I suspect it allows you to operate, but it won't mean that you will be treated with the same respect that a non escort would have got. They are still not allowed to use normal payment providers, they cannot form companies, they cannot operate their own premises, with security (as that would border on prostitution, which is a stupid distinction) Think of it as the police allowing pot dealers, even though it was still illegal to posses.