Human Trafficking: A Survivor Shares Their Story

by Alice Roberts

Quinn was only 16, a junior in high school, when they first became a victim of human trafficking. Stifled by the Roman Catholic community in which they grew up, Quinn wanted a way out. “In my early-mid teens, I was always surrounding my life around planning to get out of where I was raised,” Quinn says. “So, when I was in high school, I ended up starting to work at a strip club on the southside of Chicago.” As a minor induced in commercial sex, Quinn’s job was already sex trafficking under U.S. law. But Quinn’s situation only worsened with time. One night, Quinn’s high school teacher unexpectedly came to the club. Knowing Quinn was underage, he threatened to report the club owner if he wasn’t granted private sessions with Quinn every week. “What that teacher didn’t know at the time, though, was that this club was actually also a trafficking ring. They were trafficking people out of this club,” Quinn says. The trafficking ring, Quinn continues, was “basically city-funded,” as many police officers, city officials, and politicians were involved. In this system, Quinn was trafficked for over a year. They were only freed from the abuse when they attempted suicide and were admitted into a psychiatric hospital. Stories like Quinn’s are all-too-common in the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to be trafficked within the country every year. In Colorado, 176 human trafficking cases were reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2019, though many more cases go unreported. Labor trafficking, which occurs when an individual is forced, coerced, or frauded into performing labor services, is common, although most human trafficking cases are classified as sex trafficking. Homeless, LGBTQ youth are especially vulnerable to human trafficking, and especially sex trafficking. A study from the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership found that homeless, LGBTQ youth were more than three times as likely to engage in survival sex than homeless, non-LGBTQ youth. According to a study from Loyola University, homeless, LGBTQ youth were twice as likely to have been sex trafficked at some point than their non-LGBTQ counterparts. Quinn emphasized the complexities that exist within the sex trafficking sphere. As an adult, Quinn has consensually worked in the sex industry. They described how consensual sex work often exists on a spectrum of consent. “In one day, you can wake up in the morning, be consenting to sex work, be trafficked in the afternoon, and then be back to doing what you need to do,” they says. “I think trafficking gets this black-and-white picture sometimes … and that really isn’t the case for a lot of people,” they continue.

A deeply complex issue requires equally complex combatting tactics. At the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking (LCHT), a Denver-based, anti-trafficking nonprofit, the work against human trafficking is centered around training and research. The nonprofit’s anti-trafficking trainings reach thousands of individuals a year. “We focus on healthcare providers, those working with systems-involved youth, service providers, people working in the homelessness space, and even law enforcement,” says Kara Napolitano, research and training manager at the LCHT. The nonprofit also surveys community members on their perceptions of human trafficking to inform solution tactics. On the national scale, legislations like anti-transgender bills further marginalize already vulnerable populations and put more individuals at risk of being trafficked. Quinn, who is nonbinary, explained the necessity of blocking anti-trans legislation. “Trans folks are at such high risk of needing to be engaged in survival sex, or sex work, or experience trafficking of any kind,” they say. “So transphobia on a legislative level absolutely needs to be addressed.” Unfortunately, more anti-trans bills have been introduced to states this year than in any other legislative session. Many of the bills target trans-specific healthcare for children as well as trans participation in sports, jeopardizing trans kids’ health, safety, and well-being. For the victims and survivors of human trafficking, it’s essential to receive support that is sensitive to the trauma they’ve endured. “Trauma informed care is truly being able to meet people where they’re at,” Quinn says. “Calling someone a victim if they don’t identify as a victim, or calling someone a survivor if they don’t identify as a survivor, is really not that different than misgendering someone … You’re not meeting them where they’re at, you’re not being trauma informed.” They went on to emphasize that not only therapists and social workers are responsible for providing trauma informed care, but police officers, judges, and those working in nonprofits, too. At its core, human trafficking is a human rights issue. Antitrafficking work requires a firm belief in all people’s right to live freely. “To work and not be paid for your work, to not be free to leave, to be in love with someone and have them selling you in these ways, it’s just the ultimate injustice,” Kara says. And to Quinn, who has experienced the trauma of human trafficking first hand, creating space for survivors is crucial. “All survivors, or all people with lived experience, or however they identify, are worthy of support, of being believed, and also of leadership and autonomy.” Quinn’s name has been changed to protect their privacy.