Thank goodness for MAGA politicians or how would a straight-laced fellow like me find out about some of the things that go on in this world? According to The New York Times, the website Matt Gaetz's friend used to round up young sex partners for himself, Gaetz, and some of their fellow overaged fraternity bros is called "Seeking Arrangement." The site, the Times reports, "describes itself as a place where wealthy people find attractive companions and pamper them 'with fine dinners, exotic trips, and allowances.'" In other words, the site is a kind of high-end pimp. The sugar daddy members pay a monthly fee to join and advertise; the sugar babies who don't mind being "pampered" can join and advertise for free. Seeking Arrangement markets to debt-ridden college students by offering "free upgrades" if, when signing up, you use a .edu email address. The terms and conditions of the membership agreement prohibit sexual transactions, which is apparently enough to get on the right side of the law.
I'm shocked that there is gambling at Rick's and sexual commerce between Seeking Arrangement members!
The Times, however, did a story about a sugar baby, Chandler Fowles, and it appears that not all members slavishly follow the terms of the membership agreement:
Legal issues were far from Ms. Fowles's mind when she went on a few dinner dates with a man she met on SeekingArrangement.com, who told her he was 37 years old. "He was Jewish, so we had to go to kosher places," she said. Without any prior discussion, he would hand her $200 or $500. There was no sex.
Then there was another man who took her to dinner in Midtown, after which they got a room at the CitizenM hotel. (He liked that hotel, she said, because you can book a room online and then check in at an unmanned electronic kiosk.) "It was very natural and it felt like a normal hookup, except he gave me money after," she said. Nine hundred bucks, to be precise.
The Times's reporter interviewed Brandon Wade, the founder of Seeking Arrangement, and asked about the possibility that his website was a vehicle for prostitution. As you might expect, he hung his hat on the membership agreement:
The terms of service, he said, prohibit transactions for sex; the site simply seeks to bring the role that money plays in mating out in the open. "We want to drive people to talk honestly on the first date about who they are and what they expect to gain from a relationship, just like you discuss in any business relationship and any business arrangement," he said.
"I'm not a whore, I'm a gold-digger," might be an example of the honest talk Brandon's business acumen promotes. Seeking Arrangement is the kind of enterprise that should make the attractions of the monastic life apparent to heretics of all stripes. On the other hand, it's hard to be against a guy who's rolling well-dressed sleazebags like Matt Gaetz.
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