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Ed Shadid wants to decriminalize prostitution…

2:49 PM EDT on September 2, 2015

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Back when The Oklahoman launched the great "Ed Shadid Smear Campaign of 2013," one of the allegations they uncovered in the councilman's unsealed divorce records was that he really liked to party and once freebased cocaine with a male prostitute in San Francisco. Ed said the claims were "outrageous and completely untrue," which I believe, but The Oklahoman really didn't care because Ed had momentum in the mayor's race and they wanted to do their part in ensuring a victory for Mayor Cornett. It was all a big success.

Anyway, I bring this up because I needed an introduction paragraph for this post and I didn't want some angry Internet commenter accusing me of playing favorites. In case you haven't heard, Ed Shadid recently lobbied the Oklahoma City city council to legalize prostitution.

Via KFOR:

Second Ward Councilman Ed Shadid said he wants the city to consider legalizing - or at least decriminalizing - prostitution.

"I know to this council it's going to seem far out there, but it's not," Shadid told the council at Tuesday's meeting. "I think we should stop criminalizing sexual behavior."

Shadid spoke during a discussion of a 'Disorderly House' ordinance, which expanded the definition of an "open lot disturbance violation" to include drugs and prostitution.

The ordinance passed, but Shadid said criminalizing prostitutes is not the way to solve the city's problems.

Ed Shadid is right on this. If an adult wants to pay for sex, and another adult wants to voluntarily accept payment for sex, why should the government care? If prostitution was legal, we could regulate it, tax it and make it safer for both parties involved. Plus, we wouldn't have to worry about a crazed "Commercial Activist" flying a drone around town filming people having sex in cars. It makes rational and logical sense, which is why it vehemently opposed by the moral police who run this state.

Check out what some of the other councilman had to say about the issue:

The councilman's unexpected comments turned heads at the end of Tuesday's three-hour meeting.

"I was totally shocked and saddened," said Third Ward Councilman Larry McAtee. "I happen to be a Christian and believe in the Bible, and my interpretation clearly calls prostitution a sin and not something that we should see about legalizing."

First Ward Councilman James Greiner had never heard pro-prostitution arguments before but said it didn't take long for him to know where he stood.

"There's a difference between sexual freedom and legalizing someone getting paid to have sex with someone," Greiner said. "There's clearly a difference between those two."

That's cool. It's good to see Larry McAtee applying the time-honored Oklahoma political tradition of imposing his own personal religious beliefs on all the citizens he represents. Also, can Jame Greiner please clarify the clear difference between "sexual freedom" and someone voluntarily (keyword: voluntarily) getting paid to have to sex with someone. They seem pretty damn similar if you ask me.

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