During LGBTQ+ Pride Month, we gather and celebrate with our queer and trans loved ones and with allies. We resist the forces that tell us we should hide and feel ashamed about who we are. Instead, we embrace each other, looking back at how far we’ve come for justice while still recognizing that the struggle to end harm continues. With the ongoing attacks on transgender people’s rights, attempts to deny access to education about marginalized groups, and threats to marriage equality and reproductive justice, we know we must stay alert and active.  

The commercial sex trade, for example, is a nexus of injustice that we cannot turn away from. Following the leadership of LGBTQ+ survivors who are speaking about its realities is key. They’re guiding our laws and policies toward support and understanding, and away from harm. As survivor-leader Cristian Eduardo makes clear, “the sex trade is rooted in homophobia, transphobia, police violence, racism, capitalism, [and] patriarchy. Profiting off sexual abuse and exploitation cannot be normalized.”  

LGBTQ+ and Other Marginalized Youth in the Sex Trade 

Too often, LGBTQ+ youth face difficult circumstances that make it easier for abusers to target them. Being rejected by their family and forced to leave home are two of the most common. It leads to them being 3-7 times more likely to be forced into “survival sex” to meet their basic needs like housing and money for food. Tina Frundt, a survivor-leader originally from Chicago and founder of Courtney’s House, notes that between 50 and 90 percent of the young survivors served by her non-profit are LGBTQ+.  Many trafficked children remain in the sex trade into adulthood. 

A 17-year-old youth experiencing exploitation doesn’t become any less exploited the day they turn 18. “Black and brown LGBTQ boys and girls need to know that the trafficking they disproportionally suffer is not their fault. They need services now, not later. They shouldn’t have to wait a decade to get the help that they need, as I did” writes survivor-leader Jose Alfaro. Research shows that child sexual exploitation grows in places where the sex trade is fully decriminalized. That’s why survivor-leaders like Tina Frundt passionately advocate for “laws to protect U.S. boys, girls, and transgender kids from child sex trafficking.” 

Trauma and Oppressions Fuel the Sex Trade 

LGBTQ+ survivors report on the harms of the sex trade, which include sexual assault, violence against children, economic exploitation, and being fetishized. Survivor-leader Esperanza Fonseca describes her experience as a form of “economic coercion.” She needed money to live and was unjustly forced into the industry. Esperanza has written about the repeated harms she faced at the hands of buyers and pimps: “sex buyers dehumanized me and treated me like a fetish and commodity. Pimps threatened me. I wanted to leave prostitution but, like most in prostitution, couldn’t.” It’s no wonder mental health declines for people who sell sex and experience trafficking. They commonly develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, dissociation, and substance abuse issues to cope. 

We cannot escape the fact that the sex trade makes gender-based violence, including against LGBTQ+ people, seem acceptable. We must see and call out the systemic oppressions that push vulnerable people into this industry. Poverty and lack of job opportunities, housing insecurity, and discrimination based on gender, sexuality, race, and immigration status fuel the sex trade. Because our society continues to marginalize and target LGBTQ+ folks, they are disproportionately impacted by these issues. In turn, more queer and trans people enter the sex trade in comparison to their cisgender and heterosexual peers. 

Follow the Leadership of Survivors 

Supporting survivor-led approaches to the harms of the sex trade means advocating for partial decriminalization, also called the Equality Model. The goal is to end the arrest of people who sell sex, and instead offer trauma-informed services and safe ways to leave the sex trade. 

Survivor-leader Esperanza Fonseca explains that “the ‘equality model’ decriminalizes people exploited in prostitution and provides exit services. And it still holds pimps, brothel owners, and sex buyers accountable. Expanding the rights of those who profit and benefit from our exploitation won’t make us safer. Decriminalize people exploited in prostitution, not the people exploiting them.” 

LGBTQ+ survivors who support partial decriminalization are clear on the harms of the sex trade and how we can act to create a world free from sexual exploitation. We must listen to, stand with, and follow their lead. 

CAASE published this piece on June 10, 2023. It was authored by CAASE’s Public Policy and Advocacy Associate Tayler Mathews with assistance from CAASE’s Communications Manager Hayley Forrestal and Public Policy and Advocacy Director Madeleine Behr. Learn more about our staff here.