CBC: Don’t mix up sex work and sex trafficking, advocates for workers say
‘Sex work is consensual. Human trafficking is not,’ one advocate says․
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NBC News: U.N. Report: Vatican Policies Allowed Priests To Rape Children
The United Nations heavily criticized the Vatican on Wednesday for what it said was a systematic adoption of policies allowing priests to rape and sexually abuse tens of thousands of children.
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REUTERS: Trump signs law to punish websites for sex trafficking
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed legislation aimed at penalizing website operators that facilitate online sex trafficking and chipping away at a legal protection for the technology industry.
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International Day for the Abolition of Slavery 2 December
Facts and figures:
- An estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery, including 24.9 in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage.
- There are 5.4 victims of modern slavery for every 1,000 people in the world.
- 1 in 4 victims of modern slavery are children.
- Out of the 24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, 16 million people are exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture; 4.8 million people in forced sexual exploitation, and 4 million people in forced labour imposed by state authorities.
- Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors.
NEW AMERICAN: Drag Queen Who Read to Kids at Houston Library Is Convicted Pedophile
According to KHOU, which was informed of the story by a group of pro-family activists calling themselves MassResistance, “A media spokesperson for the library confirmed one of the program’s drag queens, Tatiana Mala Niña (Tatiana “Bad Girl”), is Alberto Garza, a 32-year-old child sex offender. In 2008, he was convicted of assaulting an 8-year-old boy.” He was sentenced to five years’ probation and community supervision. The Texas Sex Offender Registry says Garza is at “moderate” risk of reoffending.
“In our review of our process and of this participant, we discovered that we failed to complete a background check as required by our own guidelines,” library officials said in a statement. “We deeply regret this oversight and the concern this may cause our customers.”
“We assure you that this participant will not be involved in any future … programs,” the officials added, saying they “are taking the appropriate action to ensure that the status of every participant in every program throughout our system is verified.”
Of course, the very fact that the library — and countless others across the country — is hosting Drag Queen Storytime belies the officials’ professed concern for their patrons. As MassResistance points out:
Any reasonable person would see that “Drag Queen Story Hour” is a train wreck waiting to happen. It’s a program whose goal is to make children feel comfortable about LGBT behaviors. It features cross-dressing homosexual men in garish make-up and costumes who seem obsessed with reading “gay” themed books to very young children. These same men lead bizarre lives as “adult” sex entertainers. What could possibly go wrong?
Indeed, a drag queen participating in a similar program in another city bluntly stated that it’s about “the grooming of the next generation.”
Last October, MassResistance filed a lawsuit against the library and Mayor Sylvester Turner, alleging that Drag Queen Storytime is a violation of the First Amendment because it promotes the religion of secular humanism. KHOU reported:
“It’s not about acceptance, love and tolerance,” [MassResistance’s Chris] Sevier said. “It’s really about indoctrinating children to the ideals of secular humanism.”
Sevier believes homosexuality is a choice and something like Drag Queen Storytime could lead to homosexuality.
“Sure, it could totally indoctrinate them into it. Just like if you attended a Billy Graham rally you could be led down the path of coming to know Christ, for example,” Sevier said.
A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in January. Undaunted, MassResistance did its own research into the Drag Queen Storytime participants and — no thanks to the city, which denied their requests for public information — dug up 163 pages’ worth of what it called the drag queens’ “lurid activities.” It delivered this report to the city council and mayor, who called the drag queens “role models” for the community.
During a press conference Friday revealing Garza’s sex-offender status, MassResistance’s Tracy Shannon declared, “Most parents would not allow that individual to sit in this library and be held up as a role model to our children. Shame on you, Mayor Turner!”
Shannon also reached out to those who favor Drag Queen Storytime but were appalled by the revelation. “We might not all agree that having adult entertainers is the right way to entertain young children or promote literacy, diversity and acceptance and inclusion,” she said. “But we can all agree that it’s inappropriate to have a … sex offender entertaining children at the library.”
MassResistance isn’t content with just an apology from the library, nor with the fact that Drag Queen Storytime has been moved to — of all things — a church while still being promoted by the library and funded by city tax dollars. They say they have another 500 pages of “very graphic and repulsive” material on the drag queens that they plan to deliver to city officials.
With any luck, Houston’s Drag Queen Storytime will not drag on much longer.
THE GUARDIAN: In Iraq, religious ‘pleasure marriages’ are a front for child prostitution
I’m walking through the security cordon that leads into Kadhimiyah, one of Shia Islam’s holiest sites.
I’m in a queue, along with dozens of pilgrims who have come from all over the world to pay their respects to the shrine of Imam Kadhim. At the gate, a female security guard pats me down and looks into my handbag, a reminder that the story I’m reporting on here isn’t going to be easy.
As I walk around the market stalls surrounding the shrine, I notice the many “marriage offices” dotted around the mosque, which are licensed to perform Sharia marriages. I’d received tips that some clerics here were performing short-term mutaa [pleasure] marriages, a practice – illegal under Iraqi law – whereby a man can pay for a temporary wife, with the officiating cleric receiving a cut.
I was told that behind closed doors many of these clerics were using and abusing Sharia marriage laws to exploit women for profit. These men were grooming vulnerable girls and young women, trapping them into prostitution and pimping them out, all with seemingly total impunity.
For such a story, we needed to secure evidence on camera. We recruited a male undercover reporter who, over the course of our year-long investigation, met and secretly filmed several of the clerics running the Sharia marriage offices in the vicinity of the shrines. Meanwhile, I met and interviewed the clerics’ female victims, as well as some of the male clients who routinely used pleasure marriages.
First, our undercover reporter approached a number of clerics with marriage offices near the shrine of Kadamiya in Baghdad to gauge how many were willing to perform mutaa ceremonies. Out of 10 clerics that were approached, eight agreed to arrange a pleasure marriage for our reporter. “You can marry a girl for half an hour and as soon as it’s over, you can marry another,” one of the clerics, Sayyed Raad, told our reporter on camera, “even after half an hour, you can marry another,” he repeats.
We also caught on camera evidence supporting some of the victims’ claims that clerics often conspired with their male clients to deceive women. In a Kadamiya marriage office, our reporter, posing as a visiting businessman, was advised by the cleric to use deception when planning a pleasure marriage: “Take my advice, don’t tell her where my offices are in Kadamiya, so afterwards she can’t come looking for her rights. Trust me, it’s better that way.”
We found that teenage girls were particularly vulnerable to predatory men assisted by clerics, often paying the heaviest of prices for their misfortune. In Iraq, for a young girl to lose her virginity outside of marriage is widely seen as a scandal bringing shame on her family and tainting its honour. Such girls are often disowned and shunned by their families. In some cases, the girls are murdered.
In Kadamiya, Sayyed Raad offered to officiate a pleasure marriage between our reporter and “a young virgin”. He advised him not to take her virginity during their time together, adding that “anal sex is permitted”. “If I do take her virginity, God forbid, what do I do?” our reporter enquired. “Do [her family] know where you live?” Sayyed Raad asked. “No, they don’t,” our reporter confirmed. “Then you can just leave,” the cleric declared.
BBC: Nigeria police raid Lagos ‘baby factory’
Source: https://bbc.in/2ICK4Rs
Nigerian police have freed 19 pregnant women from properties in Lagos, which they describe as “baby factories”.
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BBC: Inside one of the world’s largest licensed brothels
Source: https://bbc.in/2pWtF3H
A BBC investigation has found children as young as seven are being groomed to sell sex in one of the world’s largest licensed brothels.
INDEPENDENT: China is killing religious and ethnic minorities and harvesting their organs, UN Human Rights Council told
Source: https://bit.ly/2MvpH9U
The Chinese government is harvesting and selling organs from persecuted religious and ethnic minorities on an industrial scale, the UN Human Rights Council has been told.
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The Washington Post: Trump administration cuts legal funding for victims of human trafficking
Source: https://wapo.st/2B4hmEJ
President Trump’s administration has mandated that federal funds used to help human trafficking victims clear their criminal records, often accrued while forced into prostitution or sex slavery, no longer be spent for that purpose. Read More