‘This is human behavior’: Sheriff candidate wants to legalize prostitution in Miami-Dade

Former Miami Dade College Police Chief Jeff Giordano just unveiled a titillating policy proposal in his bid to become Miami-Dade County’s first Sheriff in decades: He wants to legalize prostitution.

The world’s oldest profession isn’t going anywhere, he said, so it should be safe, legal and regulated to help eliminate “street-corner prostitution rackets” and increase testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

“Why are we wasting our time on the streets (arresting) men, picking up women, (when) we should be addressing real crime and real human trafficking?” he said in a Friday video posted to YouTube.

“We’re not all born with penises. We’re not all born with vaginas. We all have our needs, whether you’re attracted to men or whether you’re attracted to women. Prostitution is not going to go away. We might as well legalize it like we did with marijuana. Let’s legalize it. We’re all human.”

Giordano, a Republican and one of 17 candidates running for Sheriff, said the sex trade feeds a natural human urge and that many high-profile Americans have either spoken about or taken part in it.

As examples, he cited Donald Trump, who infamously paid hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, and Bill Clinton.

“When you look at Donald Trump when he was running back in 2016 and they caught him saying things about girls and women on his reality show, what did they call it? Locker room banter. And everybody was like, ‘Ooh. Aah. How can they say that?’ Come on. If you’re a man, (are you not) going to say, ‘Wow, look at that hot chick’? Or if you’re a woman (are you not) going to say, ‘Look at that guy. Huh. He’s got nice abs,’ on the beach? I mean, this is normal,” he said.

“Look at Bill Clinton. When he admitted (in a) deposition that he had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, did people run away? ‘This character, oh my god.’ No. They said, ‘My God. He’s normal. He’s one of us.’ … And then they even went a step further. He said he took his cigar and twirled it around Monica Lewinsky’s vagina. ‘Oh. Is Jeff Giordano saying this?’ No, Bill Clinton said this (in) a deposition. What happened after that? His popularity soared.”

Giordano said Clinton launched a trend in which cigar smokers dipped their stogies in women’s vaginas.

“Men weren’t reaching out buying cognac to dip their cigars in. They were dipping their cigars in vagina. That was, like, the in thing back then, when he came out with this. The brand that he mentioned that he used as a cigar, their sales soared,” he added.

“This is human behavior. Let’s not hide behind the facts. If we legalize prostitution, we can regulate it and we can provide a clean environment, and we can go after the real illegal prostitution, such as human trafficking.”

Sex workers in Miami made headlines last year when they organized a demonstration to call for legalizing prostitution locally. An associated group called Decrim 305 has advocated for the cause since 2020.

But aside from not enforcing Florida’s long-standing prohibition on prostitution — which might invite a removal from office by the Governor — there is little a Sheriff can do to decriminalize prostitution and similar activities.

The Miami-Dade Commission could pass an ordinance allowing prostitution by citing the county’s Home Rule Charter, which grants the local government power in certain areas to adopt its own rules and laws. The Legislature has eroded that power for years.

A Sheriff could also advocate for the change with state lawmakers directly. According to Giordano, however, there are “lobbyists trying to keep prostitution becoming legalized throughout the states and keep it in Las Vegas.”