Sex in Budapest vs. the New York Convention

This site presents and ranks clubs closely related to the sex industry, hence the name. For diverse reasons we cannot publish which of these are the ones that provide sexual services as well. One of the reasons is we’re not always sure ourselves. Another is that in Hungary sexual services are considered a forbidden fruit, therefore all activities facilitating it are punishable by law. This is why we don’t publish comments describing having actual sex in a club, because we’re not here to get anyone in trouble due to something that happened or supposedly happened in a club.

But we don’t want to seem prudish either and we don’t want to create the impression that Budapest still lives in the last century and has the Spanish Inquisition after everyone who tackles this taboo. Things aren’t like that. As we all know, there is a New York Convention that Hungary has joined, making operating a brothel legally impossible. Well, we think this convention is an unenforceable and outdated fossil, but governments still don’t dare to terminate Hungary’s involvement. What they choose to do is turning a blind eye to businesses that are in connection with this segment of the sex industry, but are probably operated entirely in a business-like manner without dealing with criminals or drugs and they pay taxes after the profit they make. On one hand this is good, but as all half measures, it also results in a very unstable situation. Neither the businesses, their employees, nor the clients enjoying their services can be sure that they are completely safe. All it takes is a concurrent influential person or club and all the beneficial tolerance you’ve been enjoying is gone. Double standards cause a lot of problems in Hungary today even in the areas governed by law. There is judicial precedent that shows that the applicable laws can be interpreted in completely different ways in very similar situations. You can only imagine how the same thing works in such a murky area as the sex industry.

Much unfazed by all this, there are over ten thousand prostitutes advertising themselves in Budapest, according to our estimates. They do it with photos attached, including their faces and contact details. This is a rather curious phenomenon in a country where this is theoretically (and in practice) prohibited by the law. It is true that prostitution itself is not considered a felony anymore, only a minor misdemeanour, but as such it is still not allowed. There have been many initiatives to solve this problem, but they all failed. These were promoting the creation of so called zones of tolerance, set up by municipalities themselves in areas where there are no schools and churches in the vicinity and where such a zone would not have disturbed the public. Of course nobody ever got around to actually setting up a zone like this. Here prostitutes could have worked, but they would have been expected by authorities to issue a proper receipt after each session so that they pay their taxes. Ridiculous. Together with this they would have been required to have a recent doctor’s certificate. How would that have made sense in a truck parking area where they can’t even take a shower??

So this is what the honourable gentlemen in our parliament could come up with after years of study and research, while operating brothels continues to be illegal. Brothels, which could be totally controllable in terms of finance, health, hygiene and all the rest.

The mind boggles.

So, like everyone else, all we can do here is beat around the bush, be secretive and use double speak in a country that is considered a porn paradise and for decades has had a reputation for being one of the most popular destination for sex tourists from around the world.

Should you have a related story, please, tell us!

Write your story:

Name:
Comment:
Verification code:

Share this page!