Deconstructing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender victim of sex trafficking: Harm, exceptionality and religion–sexuality tensions

Abstract

Contrary to widespread belief, sex trafficking also targets LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) communities. Contemporary social and political constructions of victimhood lie at the heart of regulatory policies on sex trafficking. Led by the US Department of State, knowledge on LGBT victims of trafficking constitutes the newest frontier in the expansion of criminalization measures. These measures represent a crucial shift. From a burgeoning range of pre-emptive measures enacted to protect an amorphous class of 'all potential victims', now policies are heavily premised on the risk posed by traffickers to 'victims of special interest'. These constructed identities, however, are at odds with established structures. Drawing on a range of literatures, the core task of this article is to confront some of the complexities and tensions surrounding constructions of LGBT trafficking victims. Specifically, the article argues that discourses of 'exceptional vulnerability' and the polarized notions of 'innocence' and 'guilt' inform hierarchies of victimhood. Based on these insights, the article argues for the need to move beyond monolithic understandings of victims, by reframing the politics of harm accordingly.

Transgender People and Human Trafficking: Intersectional Exclusion of Transgender Migrants and People of Color from Anti-trafficking Protection in the United States

“…Law enforcement "filtering" of who is determined to be a victim was reported as a major barrier by anti-trafficking organizations. Social service providers recounted feeling discouraged from providing assistance to trans individuals during anti-trafficking operations because police said the services were "only available for victims," consistent with previous research highlighting law enforcement refusal to file reports on the trafficking of LGBTQ persons (Boukli & Renz, 2018). According to Attorney Leigh Latimer, advocates "have to work harder to prove trans migrants are trafficked" because there is a misconception that trans people like sex work and cannot be exploited.…”

“…The state of empirical research on trafficking involving trans people is weak and relatively new. To date, only three citations for peer-reviewed publications indexed in Google Scholar have titles that include the words "transgender AND trafficking" (Boukli & Renz, 2018;Tomasiewicz, 2018;Wolfe, 2018), and none present new empirical data gathered with trans people. Alternative search terms for "transgender" (e.g., "trans," "transwomen," "transmen," "genderqueer," "non-binary," etc.)…”

“…Major constraints limiting research on trans people and trafficking include underreporting and gender misclassification by researchers and law enforcement agencies that do not disaggregate data beyond assigned sex at birth or legal sex on identity documentation (Farrell & Reichert, 2017). In exceptional circumstances when trans people are included in research on trafficking, they are often excluded from final analyses due to small sample sizes or assumptions about "exceptional vulnerability" (Boukli & Renz, 2018) and perceived lack of generalizability of their experiences to other victims (Hickle & Roe-Sepowitz, 2017). Existing research demonstrates that LGBTQ people and particularly young trans people of color who experience sexual exploitation are commonly denied anti-trafficking protections and tend to be regarded as offenders rather than victims (Boukli & Renz, 2018).…”

“…Despite these research gaps, there is widespread agreement that marginalization from family and consequent high rates of homelessness among trans peopleby some estimates as high as 30% (Grant et al, 2015) contribute to the overrepresentation of trans individuals within street-based sex work economies (Fletcher et al, 2014;Kattari & Begun, 2017). Scholars have also linked pervasive employment discrimination trans people commonly face to engaging in sex work as a survival strategy (Boukli & Renz, 2018;Van Schuylenbergh, T'Sjoen, & Motmans, 2018). Furthermore, trans people report experiencing violence in sex work at three times the rate of cisgender people (Grant et al, 2015), yet they rarely have access to anti-trafficking services available to cisgender women in the sex industry.…”

Gender punitivism: Queer perspectives on identity politics in criminal justice

“…However, the fact that (certain agents within) the state decides to include an individual case in the realm of victimhood does not necessarily imply that either that person or their community will be protected by the state more broadly. As discussed above with the concept of ‘sexual citizenship’, the different institutions that compose the state have their own preconceptions of what demographics are best fit for their support, and target certain populations accordingly (Boukli and Renz, 2018; Gilson, 2016; Sánchez, 2012).…”