Blind to the obvious

In this provocative op-ed for the NYT, John Miller, former State Department ambassador, goes after the Justice Department for its apparent failure to back up the President’s agenda to combat sex trafficking both in the US and internationally.

The whole piece is worth reading, but one section in particular stands out:

A culture clash, I suspect, is the real reason for the Justice Department’s opposition. This isn’t the usual culture clash of right and left, religious and secular. In this case, the feminist, religious and secular groups that help sex-trafficking survivors are on one side. And on the other are the department’s lawyers (most of them male), the Erotic Service Providers Union and the American Civil Liberties Union — this side believes that vast numbers of women engage in prostitution as a “profession,” by choice.

I covered the issue of sex trafficking a bit during my work in DC. The tremendous work of the various people in both governmental and nongovernmental organizations was inspiring, especially since the President’s agenda really did unite people across a variety of ‘aisles’. Clearly, people of different beliefs, religions, political parties and genders (sexes) can agree. Miller’s note that most of the department’s lawyers are male suggests that their sex impedes their ability to recognize the real victims. The coalition that has developed to addres the crisis of sex trafficking clealy demonstrates that this is not the case, but it is a sad commentary when a group of mostly one sex cannot see the obvious victimization of the other sex.