While definitive data on the country’s sex trade doesn’t exist, a growing number of anti-trafficking advocates say the number of victimized boys and young men is vastly underreported.Ī 2016 national study by the New York-based Center for Court Innovation found that more than a third of young people who sold sex for something of value were boys and young men, and 85 percent of the youth were Black and brown. He was worried about where he could go he was afraid of being hurt. The first massage he was shocked to learn he needed to undress - but he felt he had no choice. Alfaro says he looked even younger than his age. Gandy took photos of the diminutive, muscular youth without his shirt and posted them on Craigslist. Gandy told him he should earn money in his massage business, and he needed to lie about his age. “What else did I have to lose?”Īlfaro quickly learned he had much to lose. “I figured I had nowhere else to go,’’ Alfaro said during a recent interview with GBH News. Gandy offered to pick him up and bring him to his Houston apartment. From there, he met Gandy on an internet chat room. His family discovered that he was gay by reading his telephone text messages, he says, and he was presented with an ultimatum: Attend conversion therapy or leave the family home.Īlfaro fled to the home of a friend who said he could stay overnight. ‘I figured I had nowhere else to go’Īlfaro’s story started in the small town of Navasota, Texas, about 70 miles northwest of Houston. In Massachusetts, Black youth are more than 4 times as likely to experience homelessness compared to the overall youth population Latino youth are nearly three times as likely, according to a 2019 state report.Ī simple search for missing boys in Massachusetts on a website run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reveals mostly Black and brown faces. Suggs says a disproportionate number of children in the child welfare system are people of color.
“ You're going to see greater numbers of kids who have experienced sexual exploitation,” Suggs said. “You have kids that are alone, hopeless, don't have a natural support system, don't have a family, and that makes them at risk to trade sex for food, shelter, love, care,’’ said Lesli Suggs, president of the Boston-based Home for Little Wanderers that works with vulnerable youth. But there’s a growing consensus that too often boys, young men and trans females are not being identified as victims, and a disproportionate number of these missing and runaway youth at risk are Black and brown. It’s a problem across the gender spectrum. Unseen, part 6: Survivors drive efforts to help male victims of the sex trade Unseen, part 5: 'An easy target': Sex traffickers prey on drug-addicted young men
Unseen, Part 4: Trans Female Youth Face Greatest Risk Of Sexual Abuse And Exploitation Unseen, Part 3: Popular Gay Dating App Grindr Poses Exploitation Risk To Minors Unseen: The Boy Victims of the Sex Trade Pt.