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LGBTQ Youth and Vulnerability to Sex Trafficking

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Human Trafficking Is a Public Health Issue

Abstract

This chapter uses a socioecological framework to explain that self-identified lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender experienced or questioning (LGBTQ) children experience a higher rate of vulnerability to sex trafficking. This vulnerability stems, in part from, family rejection, abandonment, or emotional and physical abuse arising from homophobic or transphobic reactions of guardians. Systemic discrimination, in the education, mental health and health care, and justice systems, exacerbates risk. If these vulnerabilities are left unaddressed, rates of LGBTQ children experiencing sex trafficking will worsen as the overall problem of child trafficking grows.

The authors of this chapter include an Asian American, lesbian-identified, masculine-presenting victim advocate; and a mixed-race Native Hawaiian, heterosexual, feminine-presenting pediatric psychiatrist, who both work directly with sex trafficked youth; and a white, gay, masculine-presenting emergency medicine resident physician.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Choose Up: the process in which one or more pimps force a person, who is independently engaging in commercial sex, to “choose” to be owned by a specific pimp.

  2. 2.

    Stable: the group of people, controlled by a pimp, who are engaged in commercial sex.

  3. 3.

    Breaking In: the process in which one or more pimps subject a person to fear, torture, and various forms of sexual, mental, and spiritual abuse to force compliance in commercial sex. This highly traumatizing period may last from a few days to a few weeks.

  4. 4.

    Cisgender: denoting or relating to a person whose affirmed gender conforms to the gender they were assigned at birth; not transgender.

  5. 5.

    Epigenetics: refers to heritable changes in gene expression (active versus inactive genes) that does not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence; it is a change in phenotype (appearance) without a change in genotype (genes). Epigenetics is also the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself.

  6. 6.

    Microagressions: Microaggressions are the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership. In many cases, these hidden messages may invalidate the group identity or experiential reality of target persons, demean them on a personal or group level, communicate they are lesser human beings, suggest they do not belong to the majority group, threaten and intimidate, or relegate them to inferior status and treatment [45].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery, 4348 Waialae Ave. #248, Honolulu, HI, 96816, USA

    Kathryn Xian

  2. Department of Psychiatry, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, 1356 Lusitana St., 4th Floor, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA

    Shaylin Chock M.D.

  3. Icahn School of Medicine at Beth Israel Mount Sinai, 10 Nathan D Perlman Pl, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Dustin Dwiggins

Authors
  1. Kathryn Xian
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  2. Shaylin Chock M.D.
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  3. Dustin Dwiggins
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Correspondence to Kathryn Xian .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Makini Chisolm-Straker

  2. Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Hanni Stoklosa

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Xian, K., Chock, S., Dwiggins, D. (2017). LGBTQ Youth and Vulnerability to Sex Trafficking. In: Chisolm-Straker, M., Stoklosa, H. (eds) Human Trafficking Is a Public Health Issue. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47824-1_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47824-1_9

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