Pornland, portlands dark side.

Portland, or as reporter Dan Rather (1) refers to it “Pornland”, is a huge hub for child sex trafficking, so much so the numbers may make you sick. Pornland, known for its large numbers of porn shops, exotic dancing clubs, nude clubs, massage parlors, and lingerie modeling studios. People want to believe Portland is known for its eco-friendliness, vase nature parks, hiking trails, local pubs, breweries, and its “keep Portland weird” attitude; but as citizens of Portland, we can no longer believe this is someone else’s problem, no longer turn a blind eye to the ugly facts, its in our own back yard. Portland’s legal sex industry surpasses larger cities like, Seattle, WA., Dallas, TX., and even sin city itself, Las Vegas, NV. According to a report by The Washington Times, (2) published July 2010, Portland has more than 50 all nude strip clubs, 35 adult shops, and 21 lingerie modeling shops (2) ,As ugly as it is, the fact is, these places couldn’t stay in business if they didn’t have customers. This problems is greater and more profitable than the drugs running our streets. Portland is considered high to moderate for human trafficking in a report by the Polaris Project (3) , the study looked at numbers from 2007-2013, in the 72.89% of all the human trafficking in Oregon was sex trafficking, and 36% of them were minors. The numbers are sickening to say the least. We are coming to a place of progress, awareness, understanding, and healing. The Polaris Project, for a world without slavery, helps all victims of human trafficking and modern day slavery. We all have a right to be honestly FREE. Sex Trafficking is nothing new to Portland, the numbers are just getting too big to ignore. It’s starting to be our friends and family members, people we actually know. There were 469 know child sex trafficking victims from 2009-2013 in the Portland area (4) .The victims average age was just 15.5 and the youngest, an 8 year old girl. Unlike some epidemic, child sex