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

Abstract

Transgender (hereafter: trans) people are rarely included in human trafficking research. This empirical study presents narratives of trans individuals who report experiences consistent with the Palermo Protocol's definition of trafficking, access to anti-trafficking services for trans individuals, and attitudes of antitrafficking advocates and law enforcement toward trans people. Ethnographic fieldwork conducted for 30 months between March 2017 and August 2019 in Los Angeles and New York City included in-depth interviews with sex workers and trafficked persons (n = 50), of whom 26 were trans, and key informants (n = 17) from law enforcement and social services. Most trans participants who reported exploitation did not self-identify as victims of trafficking nor were they identified by police or anti-trafficking organizations as victims. Law enforcement gatekeeping was identified by anti-trafficking advocates as a barrier to meeting the needs of trans clients because they were viewed as "less exploitable" than cisgender women. Discriminatory law enforcement practices resulted in the exclusion and hyper-criminalization of trans migrants and people of color who were profiled not only by gender, but also race/ethnicity and immigration status.

Problematizing the Educational Messaging on Sex Trafficking in the US “End-demand” Movement: The (Mis)Representation of Victims and Anti-Sex Work Rhetoric

“…Bernstein (2010) coined carceral feminism , a term initially referring to the neo-abolitionist feminist activism built on the reliance on, and commitment to, punitive strategies (e.g., criminalization and incarceration) to solve sex trafficking and now expanding to critiquing different forms of feminist anti-violence work that collaborates with multiple carceral systems, such as police, courts, and correctional institutions (Kim, 2018). The carceral intervention paradigm against sex trafficking has not only directed increasing attention and resources to criminalizing parities in the sex industry but also, in reality, exposed sex workers and those profiled as involved in sex work (often people of color, migrant women, and/or sexual minorities) to increased policing and surveillance (Dank et al, 2017; Fehrenbacher et al, 2020; Global Health Justice Partnership, 2018; Kaye, 2017; Pickering & Ham, 2013). For instance, under the Trump Administration, in 2017, Public Law 115–164 (commonly referred to as FOSTA-SESTA), was signed by the then-President; while the bills intend to fight against “online sex trafficking,” they in fact impose criminal penalties on websites that allow sex workers to advertise online, making the workplaces of sex workers more dangerous, sending potential trafficking even more underground, and creating more barriers to conducting online rights activism among sex workers and activists (Blunt et al, 2020; Blunt & Wolf, 2020; Chamberlain, 2019; Russo, 2019).…”

Pregnant Migrant Latinas at the US Border: A Reproductive Justice Informed Analysis of ICE Health Service Policy During “Zero-Tolerance”

“…We acknowledge that not all pregnant and birthing persons identify as their gender assigned at birth. There is other existing research that addresses the ways in which border policies impact people who identify as non-binary, gender non-conforming, transgender, and/or Queer in similar and complicated ways (Fehrenbacher et al, 2020 ; Hubach et al, 2022 ; Jones, 2021 ). However, the case studies used in this policy analysis represent pregnant and birthing persons who are identified as female.…”

Anti-Trafficking in the Time of FOSTA/SESTA: Networked Moral Gentrification and Sexual Humanitarian Creep

“…Though framed in assistive terms, the effects of this kind of "carceral protection" carries collateral consequences, such as a criminal record that limits employment, housing, and educational opportunities (Musto 2016). Notably, cisgender and transgender women and people of color endure the bluntest force of punitive efforts pitched as protective (Fehrenbacher et al 2020).…”