Lions Beauty Queens, Inc.

The mission of the Lion’s Beauty Queens is to reach, empower, and provide hope and restoration for women in the sex industry and at risk of human trafficking by offering authentic love, faith-based support, and community resources.  In 2004, the US Department of Justice found 70 percent of females who are trafficked are trafficked into the commercial sex industry. Victims of sex trafficking can thus be found forced and coerced to live and perform in porn films, massage parlors, and strip clubs. Melissa Farley, author of “Prostitution and Trafficking in Nine Countries: an update on violence and PTSD,” discovered that 89 percent of women in the sex industry said they wanted out, but they had no means to do so. Part of this is due to the pimps and managers who control all aspects of their lives. Other reasons are due to the chains of alcohol and drugs which are used to cope with their reality. While women in the sex industry are not the only individuals who use drugs, their existence within that reality greatly increases their odds of using illegal substances which leads to the increased chance of permanent damage and death.  This is not a new problem to our home in the Greater Kansas City area. In 2013, a study conducted by the Office of Sex Trafficking Intervention at Arizona State University monitored responses to sex advertisements in 15 cities over the United States. Within a span of two weeks, 106,624 Kansas City men responded to online sex ads causing Kansas City to have the second highest response out of the 15 cities monitored. Men were able to order women as if they were ordering pizza.