Rescuing the Superbowl Sex Slaves

by Amanda Kloer · 2010-02-08 11:00:00 UTC
Topics:

Friday, I loaded the backseat of a car headed to Miami with giant packs of condoms, bottles of hand sanitizer, and snacks. Was this going to be the best Superbowl party ever? No, it was part of a massive outreach effort to the child sex trafficking victims who are expected to be brought to Miami this weekend to service men attending the Superbowl. Last year, they found at least 24 kids trafficked to Tampa for sex. And this year, they predicted even more.

Why does the Superbowl mean an uptick in the amount of sex trafficking in a given city? It's because sex trafficking, like all forms of modern-day slavery, are driven by consumer demand for a product. And when large numbers of men gather in a city, especially without their families, some of them demand commercial sex. Pimps know that demand for prostitution will be higher in Miami this weekend because of the number of out-of-towners flying in for the big game. So they'll ship the women and girls who they sell to meet the demand and make them the highest possible profit. It's the exact same business model other entrepreneurs who will travel to Miami use. Except instead of selling hot dogs or t-shirts, they'll be selling children.

Fortunately, this year advocacy groups were prepared. A team of hundreds of outreach workers from organizations both local to Miami and national were on the streets, perhaps even in greater number than the pimps and traffickers, looking for trafficking victims, armed with outreach supplies like condoms and business cards with subtly scripted hotline numbers. And the volunteers have been trained to recognize that even the girls who are smiling and flirting may be women and kids forced into prostitution by a pimp.

Whether you rocked a blue pony hat or some black and gold Mardi Gras beads this Sunday, just remember that we're all cheering for at least one team. And that's the one standing on the street corner, throwing a Hail Mary pass to the girls they see. And unlike the boys on the field, these folks are actually hoping for a safety.

Photo credit: Ed Yourndon

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
PREVIOUS STORY:
Teen Dating Violence Is a Doorway to Trafficking
NEXT STORY:
Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, how are you going to take action?

COMMENTS (0)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.