Guayaquil – A group of underage kids, looking like a childish, are the new “owners” of some streets in downtown Guayaquil, such as May Day, in which prostitutes.
In the evenings and early mornings, the place is full of “clients” which are usually adult men looking to satisfy their sexual whims. Predator prey on the economic needs of adolescents and subject their aberrations by a few dollars.
Dianne Rodriguez, president of the X Silhouette Foundation, said the “problem is a result of the marginalization that society still exists against sexual minorities.”
Captain Luis Collao, the Dinapen said that children and adolescents who are found on the streets are rescued and taken to the offices of the entity to identify their parents. “Society, bad policies, laws and sometimes the family driving to these adolescents and young gay or trans street looking for sex work,” said Collao.
The Testimony of Minors
The traditional May Day Avenue is known because it was the headquarters of many transsexuals. Now, this street is also used by a group of self-identified underage gay and trans. The boys took a space between the street and avenue Garcia Moreno Army to wait for customers to pay for their services. Nervous, looking from side to side, trying to dodge the rescue workers and take them to their homes or a protection center.
While performing this report, seven teenagers avoided the dialogue group, but two agreed to tell their stories: “I tell the Smurfette” says the boy. Dress gray shirt, black jeans and worn very close to the body and pink sneakers. Her hair is dyed and her face free of impurities. Just 16 years old.
Nights on the streets
“For three months we worked with my friends in this place for a living,” says “Smurfette.” He and his friends decided to leave their homes to become independent and able to find a way to prostitution to survive.
As they spoke, several vehicles were parked next to them to request their services. A man dressed in black came up to the boys and hired two boys to take them to a dark doorway of a nearby house. On site, the client required them oral sex.
“We were just a friend and did not do anything wrong,” replies “Dennis” when asked about their activity. Another member of the group wearing tight clothing. He has blond hair neat, clean nails and does not say a word about what he does.
His partner of 17 years admits that prostitution to earn a few bucks and eat. In angry tone said that he and his friends can only aspire to this kind of life “because there is more job opportunities.”
“Smurfette” yearns to travel to Spain with his mother because his father refuses. He says that in the Iberian country is devoted to study veterinary medicine and they will feel more free in a more tolerant society. “My mom knows about my situation. I told him I had been raped to accept me as I am. Now just waiting to take me with it,” he exclaims with optimism and a female voice.
When the interview ended, police officers arrived at the site and moved the children to Dinapen, there will surely be returned to their families. How long may be off the streets? They are the ones who have the answer. “They believe that there is no other way to survive”
The activist Dianne Rodriguez, who studied psychology at the University of Guayaquil, he argues that, based on a study done in 2010 called psychosocial risk factors in young trans 15 to 29 years engaged in sex work in Guayaquil, “the 51 % of trans respondents were engaged in sex work because they were driven from their homes or flee the physical and psychological abuse.”
He argues that the 70.97% is still doing sex work “because they are offered another way of living. It is a stereotype and this is because society and the family rejects them in adolescence. This rejection causes low self-esteem in them and look for the easy life, having no support from anyone, in order to survive.”
Ecuador said that lack of information about trans people. “This is clearly seen when a parent receives the news of his son who says, ‘Mommy, I’m girl and woman want to be, just the physical and psychological abuse,” he said.
Rodriguez said that if you sum the societal discrimination and the law “creates an existential crisis in this child and as an alternative for a quick exit to that pressure. These outputs are the stereotype of trans sex work following the same scheme and adding no possible alternative.”
Need a Center
Rodriguez believes that everything would be different if the authorities seek an alternative to trans issues. “They just discriminate and repress, but never give a solution that is not detrimental either to society or the cross.”
“In Ecuador need the National Center for Sexuality, an institution devoted to the issue of gender mainstreaming and gender at all levels of the country (education, employment, housing, health, safety, etc..), Similar to the Cenesex in Cuba, “he said. “You have to watch for those seeking their services”
The doctor in clinical psychology, Gregory Garay, a professor at State University of Guayaquil, says the issue of prostitution of minors (gay or trans) is a sociocultural problem.
“Society does not accept sexual minorities and so are forced to make unsound practices such as prostitution,” said the specialist.
When you are younger and are not accepting their sexual orientation, they will end up in the streets. “While the Constitution protects sexual diversity more inclusive policies are needed to effectively enforce these minorities. If they are teenagers or children they should be drawn from these practices and provide them the rights that every person deserves, such as education and decent work,” he says.
He adds that only looks at young people in prostitution, but not those who require services. “We must proceed in a more efficient, to track children until they know all their rights.”
Indicates that there are only judicial or police eyes, “but there is no acute research of experts for an answer and a real solution to social problems. In our country there are only patches based solutions marches. Solutions must be sought more intense as working with families and the community,” he says.
Children are Rescued
Captain Luis Collao, the Dinapen, said police generally treated equally to all persons without discrimination. According to him, minors who are found wandering the streets at night are rescued and taken to the Dinapen. Then give them to family after family-oriented discussions on the Code of Childhood and Adolescence. He said that if a young person has no relatives is taken to a place of protection for being at risk.
(JM) (GS) Writing in Guayaquil
Source – Extra.ec
Translated from Spanish
