Welcome Truth Seekers!
January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month. As we move into the Super Bowl where we'll see a slight uptick in sex trafficking, I wanted to start this newsletter off with a story often left out of the discussion.
Imagine that you’ve just been kicked out of your home by your parents. You’ve got some friends, but either they have really unhealthy homes or their parents don’t want your "behavior to negatively influence" their children’s lives. You’re a minor, so homeless shelters are far and few between.
A guy you’ve been talking to on snapchat asks you how you are. When you tell him, he immediately says he’s so sorry that has happened and tells you how awful your parents are being.
Then… He offers you a place to stay. You say you don't have any money for a hotel. He tells you not to worry about it, that you two will "work out a deal" ... After being there a few days, he asks you for a favor. He says he is short on cash for the hotel, but if you just "hang out" with this guy he owes some money to, the guy will let him off the hook for what he owes.
This is an example of "Survival Sex," a form of prostitution which is most often the unseen violence in the horrific slave trade happening today.
Survival sex is when a person receives shelter, food, clothing and safety in exchange for "sex" or "sexual acts" whether to one specific person or several.
Roughly 41,000 youth ages 13 - 24 are experiencing homelessness in the United States. About 9% of non-LGBTQ youth acknowledge having to trade "sex" or "sexual activity" for shelter, while 29% of LGBTQ identifying youth acknowledge having to trade "sex" or "sexual activity" for shelter.
For so many of us, we think about terms like "prostitution" and "stripping" as synonymous with terms like "choice" and "freedom." In fact, rarely do we even think about prostitution when we hear the words "sex trafficking." This is exactly what the traffickers and pimps want us to do.
In order to eradicate this issue of sex trafficking, we must become aware of the truth that this $9 billion industry wants us to ignore.
The truth is that over 4.1 million people are forced into selling their body for basic items most of us take for granted.
It's time for us to shine a light on the lies this industry has fed us. To recognize the harm done to every single person involved in the sex industry - including those who pay for "sex," so that we can truly see a world free of slavery.
With Truth,
Jess
Survival "Sex" is Sex Trafficking
