Rael: 'Take The Economist Online Poll and Make Your Voice Heard to Legalize Prostitution!'

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After learning of an ongoing poll at the online arm of the British magazine "The Economist" concerning whether or not to legalize prostitution, Rael, founder and leader of the International Raelian Movement, answered emphatically in the affirmative.

"Of course prostitution should be legal," he said in a statement released this morning.

"It's already legal in many countries, and it's the freedom of all individuals, not only of women, to do whatever they want with their bodies."

After adding that it's not the business of any government to interfere with that freedom, he went on to state that many other activities done for financial gain constitute prostitution.

"There's no difference between selling your hands for a factory job, selling your brain for an intellectual job or selling your sexual organ for a pleasure job," Rael explained. "All of these things mean selling a part of you for money, so they are all prostitution. Making a distinction between sexual prostitution and manual or intellectual prostitution is the fruit of primitive prejudice created for society by the monotheistic religions of the Middle Ages. They are always creating guilt about pleasure and sex. I ask all Raelians and everyone else to vote yes in this survey! Our opinion matters!"

The poll is to be found at: http://www.economist.com/debate/debates/overview/182.

As of Sept. 9, 78 percent of respondents have voted to legalize prostitution. An ongoing debate is still under way at the Web site, where people can read pros and cons on the issue as well as vote.

Rael has discussed the issue of prostitution in some of his publications, as well as in speeches, seminars worldwide. He had this to say in 2005:

"Some societies criminalize activities like prostitution because they were shaped by Judeo/Islamic/Christian values that describe sex as bad. I prefer to see a woman selling her body for sex than see a scientist selling his brain to the weapons industry. Selling knowledge that can kill millions of people is far worse than selling physical pleasure. Protected sex doesn't kill anybody. As long as the sale of sex is the free will of independent adults, we must respect their freedom to make money the way they want to."

Further, he said there is another kind of prostitution that is well accepted by the public both morally and socially.

"Many women marry rich men only for the money," he said. "But whenever you have sex to get something in exchange, it's prostitution. That's true even if all you get in exchange is the comfort of being the wife or husband of a wealthy person."

SOURCE Raelian Movement