Spain Busts Rare Male and Transgender Sex Trafficking Ring

Spanish police busted a massive sex trafficking ring this week and were surprised at what they found: 64 men and transgender persons trafficked into commercial sex. And if you've ever doubted that a man can be raped or forced to engage in sex acts against his will, then this case proves an important point.

The men and transgender people were brought to Spain from Brazil by way of Luxembourg. A few of them knew they were traveling to Spain to work in the commercial sex industry, but thought they would be controlling their conditions. Most of the men, however, had agreed to take jobs as waiters or dancers. When they arrived in Spain, traffickers told them their travel had racked up debts of several thousand dollars, and they would have to pay that debt off through prostitution. The men were forced to be available for sex acts 24 hours a day. They were given Viagra and cocaine so they could perform sexually, well past the point of exhaustion. Their lodging was a tiny, cramped house where they slept up to six to a bed. And if they complained about any of this, the traffickers threatened to kill them.

The men and transgender people in this sex trafficking ring were raped by the men who bought them. They were force-fed sexual stimulants and threatened with death if they tried to leave. If 64 women had been in the same situation, there would be no question as to the nature of their abuse. But there is still a social stigma against the idea of men being victims of sexual abuse or in this case, sex trafficking. These men were forced into prostitution against their will, and it's impossible to describe what happened to them as anything other than repeated rape.

Despite the severity of this case, male sex trafficking rings are still exceedingly rare, and female victims make up the vast majority of sex trafficked people. When men and male-identifying transgender people are victimized in the sex industry, they are often minor boys. For such a large group of men, all of whom were reported to be over 20, to be trafficked for sex is actually unheard of. But that rarity doesn't diminish the experiences of the victims, which are outrageous no matter their gender.

Photo credit: urban_data