This Might Shock Some Of You…

However, we cannot go around with our heads buried in the sand…

7 Things to Know About the Underage US Sex Trade
By: Evie Pless
Care2 Make A Difference

1. It exists. Americans tend to associate sex trafficking of minors with distant countries and often don't realize the same problem is serious and growing within the United States.
2. The number of children forced into prostitution is high, and the average initial age is low. Within the US, more than 100,000 children are victimized through commercial sex and prostitution each year.
3. American street-kids are one of the most vulnerable groups. According to Kristof, "There's a misperception in America that "sex trafficking" is mostly about foreigners smuggled into the U.S.
4. There have been cases of human trafficking in all 50 states and D.C, and your favorite city could easily be a center for sex trafficking.
5. Your words matter. A new language is emerging that more accurately and sensitively reflects the realities of sex trafficking and prostitution. For example, popular culture has rendered the word "pimp" almost cool and, therefore, useless. Activists recommend it be replaced with the word "trafficker," and similarly, a person who is a "John" is better described as "a man who buys sex from young girls." Anyone forced into prostitution or exploited by traffickers is a victim or survivor.
6. Exploitation, not violent coercion or physical movement across borders, is the common factor between all cases of sex trafficking. This is according to an eye-opening report by Dr. Raymond and Dr. Hughes. Exploitation, and therefore sex trafficking, comes in many forms: subjection to physical coercion, harassment, or threats; an addiction to drugs; an inability to speak the local language; economic necessity; etc.
7. Every child involved in the sex trade is a victim. Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, any child selling sex in the United States is, by definition, a victim of human trafficking.

You probably figured, like I did that can’t happen here, well we are wrong.

Last week, I attended a meeting to discuss how the problem of kids between the ages of 17 and 18 can be helped out of this terrible evil here in Connecticut. Yes, there are kids who are being forced into prostitution here in Connecticut.

Also consider this, a 2006 report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute and the National Coalition for the Homeless found that

...according to the National Runaway Switchboard, up to 42 percent identify as lesbian or gay. Additional research has found that homeless youth also disproportionately identify as bisexual and transgender.

It is time for us to take our heads out of the sand. Read the whole article and the report then take action!