We have always held that what people do in the privacy of their homes, or in places where their behaviour does not impinge on the rights of others, ought to be their own business.

So, despite Prime Minister Bruce Golding's self-declared role as the centurion at the ramparts of morality, we insist that the state has no role in the behaviour of consenting adults, who engage in homosexual acts.

Nor do we believe that it ought to be criminal for consenting adults to trade in sex, or, to put it bluntly, for prostitution to be illegal or criminal. There are a number of good and logical reasons for this, some of which, were, fortuitously, put back on the agenda last week by Dr Kevin Harvey, a senior officer at the health ministry, whose portfolio covers sexually transmitted diseases.

Hopefully, Dr Harvey's intervention, at the launch of the new study on the attitudes and beliefs around sexual health issues, will ignite renewed, serious debate in the issues. Not least of the matters to be addressed is the hypocrisy that surrounds prostitution and the blatantly gender-biased attitudes, including from officialdom, towards prostitution.

Some implications

Indeed, insofar that anyone is victimised in the business of sex as business, it's women. For whatever the letter of law, society is predisposed to allow the usually male clients of prostitutes a pass, with the proverbial nod and wink. Female purveyors of sex are often harassed and arrested. Sex workers face a paradoxical hostility and stigma, with potentially significant consequences to the society.

Dr Harvey, in his remarks last week, focused on some of the implications for public health because of the attitude. The illegality of prostitution pushes sex workers underground, away from accessing public health services. Therein lies the danger for the spread of HIV/AIDS and other preventable STDs among sex workers and their clients, especially at the lower end of the socio-economic strata, where sex workers are less able to negotiate their own solutions to health and safety. Indeed, the health ministry suggests there is already a high incidence of HIV/AIDS among this group.

Breaking the cycle

We agree with Dr Harvey that decriminalisation of prostitution will help to break the cycle of deception and deceit, allow for health interventions, and help to create an environment that lowers high-risk behaviour in this group.

But such change will only come with bold leadership and a willingness of the Government to confront official hypocrisy and its long-standing failure of pragmatism: an acceptance that prostitution will not just dissipate. And while it may go underground, it won't be policed out of existence.

Health sector officials like Dr Harvey and Dr Peter Figueroa, who previously, in the middle of the decade, placed the matter of decriminalisation on the agenda, have shown clear understanding and the necessary courage. They have been let down by those with power to effect meaningful change.

Three years ago, a parliamentary committee suggested that the position of the health officials on homosexuality and prostitution was worthy of debate. But the legislature dithered. There are no signs that it has developed the necessary backbone to go further.