September 9, 2021 by Maggie McNeill
Is it legal in New York City to meet a professional at a short-stay motel for the purposes of a BDSM session? The only sexual activity contemplated would be masturbation by me while naked. There's little point in concerning yourself with whether a consensual sex act is "legal" or not, because cops can and will arrest anyone they think they can get away with arresting, whether the supposed act they're arresting someone for is legal, illegal, or nothing more than a product of their own sick imaginations. The only relatively certain way to avoid arrest any time you step out of your front door is to avoid cops; when sex is involved, that means contracting with an established professional. If you see someone with a long and proven professional history, you're as safe as you are doing just about anything else involving sex (and much safer than doing the same thing with an amateur) regardless of the diktats of power-hungry busybodies; if you try to see someone without a reputation, there's no way to guarantee it isn't a cop and you won't end up in the paper under a headline that screams "SEX TRAFFICKING!" regardless of whether you did anything any sane person would consider wrong or criminal.
( Have a question of your own? Please consult this page to see if I've answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)