Pro-trans group funds campaign to keep use of prostitutes legal

[IwantToRetire]

A pro-trans group has funded a campaign against men being punished for hiring prostitutes, it can be revealed.

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation gave nearly £580,000 to a charity lobbying Scottish parliamentarians to oppose legislation that would make it a crime to buy sex, documents show.
National Ugly Mugs, a charity supporting prostitutes, is campaigning against a private members bill currently making its way through Holyrood.

At present, while soliciting in public and brothel-keeping are illegal, paying for sex is legal.

The reforms, spearheaded by <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/VJX4r/www.telegraph.co.uk/ash-regan" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ash Regan, the ex-Alba member for Scottish Parliament, would decriminalise the selling of sex and fine those who buy it up to £10,000. It could also give them possible jail sentences as part of a wider approach described as the ‘Nordic model’.

The bill has been <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/VJX4r/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/19/police-scotland-msp-bill-decriminalise-se/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">backed by Police Scotland and – in principle – SNP ministers, who say it needs more work before they will give it parliamentary support.

But it can now be revealed that Ugly Mugs, the group which has campaigned against the bill, is being funded by one of the UK’s largest progressive foundations.

Since 2017, the charity has received £578,200 in grants from the Esmée Fairbairn foundation.

Article continues at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/12/15/pro-trans-group-men-hire-prostitutes-no-punishment/

and at https://archive.is/VJX4r

(I am sure there is an existing thread about the bill but cant find it sorry. If you know it please paste into this thread to redicrect posters to that one.)

Spoken like a true punter, completely ignoring the huge numbers of trafficked and coerced women of course, you even forgot in your excitment to pay lip service to that, like most manage to do.

Well surely that's because they're not going to be making any money any more if they can't sell themselves - and as a very high percentage of women who work on the streets are also drug users they are going to have to find another way to fund their habit.

Of course they're going to want to be able to continue to prostitute themselves, they don't feel they have any other real options.

Ah yes all those women out there prostituting themselves for funsies.

Consent can't be bought, exchanging money is exploiting a vulnerability, if someone is only doing something out of financial desperation then they are not truly consenting. How many of these women were abused or suffered trauma, turned to drugs to cope and then ended up in prostitution to pay for their habit? What percentage grew up in care? What percentage have a boyfriend turned pimp who profits from it and who they believe loves them because they've never been loved or cared for in their lives?

Lots of answers here if you care to have a look - including that 80-95% of women involved in street prostitution are problematic drug users

https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/64627/html/

But yeah of course there are lots of them just doing it because they love it.

Prostitutes vary more than you might imagine. I've known one who decided to do it as she didn't have qualifications to fund the life she wanted for her and her daughter, she was a single parent. She bought a house for cash and sent her DD to the most expensive school in the city. I knew many who did it occasionally when money was short. Yes I knew some who were funding drug habits. I knew a family where mum was a prostitute dad was a pimp and their daughters became prostitutes with their son being a pimp. Just the family business to them. There were also girls groomed and pressured into it. It isn't as straightforward as you think.

Sounds to me like the girls in the “family business” were also groomed into it.

What exactly was the contribution of the father to that “family business”? Disgusting man.

Well he was a pimp, he did what pumps do. I think, from talking to them, they got jobs after school and decided working with mum was easier and better paid. Not a job I'd choose but then I wouldn't choose to work in an abattoir or a sewer. We aren't all the same and prostitutes aren't all the same either.

Just to add I've seen some incredibly heartbreaking cases with girls who definitely needed saving but it isn't always easy to do. Doesn't change the fact that for some it's a choice.

I've never read so much utter shite. 😡

I wondered why this old thread has been re-opened, and it seems to be the same person, who doesn't agree with feminism.

Why is anyone responding.

There is no obligation to respond.

I have been away a few days and nearly all of the so called "active threads" are the same person pushing our buttons.

Dont indulge them!

Every moment you spend responding to someone who clear has not real interest in feminism is a moment you could instead be engaging with positive and proactive discussion.

That does feel very uncomfortable to me - if selling sex has been normalised in your family growing up, I can understand seeing it like that, but at the same time I can't see how having sex with randoms each day would seem easier. What other options did these girls have?

I do agree that a woman choosing to sell sex to earn more money isn't forced/paid rape as some people on here argue all prostitution is. I wish there were better options though if they wanted to earn more money.

The one woman I referred to made sure her DD had choices. A good education at an expensive private school, money put away for university. She paid her taxes as well, she was bright but she felt it was her best choice. I can't judge, I haven't always made the most sensible choices.

There was a drama about one of the Yorkshire Rippers victims. Ordinary housewife who wanted to provide for her kids. She very much reminded me of some of the women I met. Not all done were on drugs or being used by a pimp.