Bill will license massage parlors in city
Share with others:
Joined by residents already working to stamp out sex trafficking, two Pittsburgh City Council members Monday unveiled legislation to eradicate massage parlors that they say force women into prostitution.
The legislation, sponsored by Doug Shields and Natalia Rudiak, would require annual licensing of the massage parlors. Applicants would have to provide character references and detailed information about their owners, including photographs and fingerprints.
Individual employees also would have to be licensed and provide character references, proof of age, a photo and fingerprints. Licenses would be denied to anyone with a record of prostitution or similar offenses.
The initial licensing fee for each business and employee would be $100, and renewals would cost $50.
Mr. Shields said the bill is designed to eradicate a "despicable trade" that involves kidnapping of women overseas and their impressment in U.S. cities.
"This is a story that needs to be told," he said.
Ms. Rudiak said the sex trafficking is occurring "in many cases within blocks of our homes, within blocks of our schools."
Brenda Schuck, a Downtown resident and president of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association, declined comment, except to say the state already licenses massage therapists.
Proponents said the legislation will place no burdens on legitimate massage businesses.
Jessica Dickinson Goodman, a Carnegie Mellon University student, has helped to identify 15 massage parlors in the city and seven in the suburbs that she believes are fronts for brothels that may be employing sex slaves. Her findings are based largely on customers' graphic Internet postings about the business and their employees.
Such operations often hold women against their will, pay them next to nothing and force them to have sex with as many as 10 men a day, said Ms. Dickinson Goodman, a former fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Polaris Project, which works to combat human trafficking.
The Pittsburgh-based Project to End Human Trafficking and the Path to Justice, a coalition of local nuns, offered its support. "This issue shows contempt for the inherent dignity of persons and exploits especially those living in poverty," Sister Jeanette Bussen, a Sister of St. Joseph, said.
First Published April 19, 2011 12:00 am
