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10/26/2005 Organization Rescuing Male Street Prostitutes to be
Featured on National Broadcast CHICAGO, Oct. 26 /Christian Wire Service/ -- The nation's
most widely listened-to Christian radio program will profile the work of
Emmaus Ministries, a national urban outreach to male street prostitutes, on
November 3 and 4. Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family daily radio
broadcast, reaching an estimated seven million listeners weekly, will
explore the According to statistics, approximately 3,000 men are arrested for street prostitution each year in Chicago alone. Nationwide, men now account for nearly 45 percent of all prostitution arrests. Between violence, illness (HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and tuberculosis), and drug addiction, most male prostitutes do not live past age 40. "These men are among the most broken in our nation's cities and a population that's marginalized and abused, even within the homeless community," says Emmaus Director John Green, who founded the organization in 1990. Emmaus has found that most male prostitutes or "hustlers" blend in with the homeless population and urban landscape. Male hustlers often suffer from learning disabilities, illiteracy, mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, and homelessness. They typically come from backgrounds filled with physical and sexual abuse (including parents who prostituted them), neglect, generational welfare, poverty, and criminality. Green notes that the majority of male street prostitutes don't identify themselves as homosexual, but engage in homosexual acts in order to feed drug and alcohol addictions, or in exchange for food and shelter. "Emmaus is often the last hope of redemption for these men," said Green. "Hustlers are frequently victims of violence, whether it's the random violence of the streets, or the more focused brutality of abusive customers or sexual predators." Serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer frequented Chicago bars where Emmaus teams do their outreach. The work of Emmaus has been featured in newspapers, magazines, television, and radio including Christianity Today, Focus on the Family's Citizen magazine, The 700 Club, Moody Radio, and the current issue (November) of Charisma Magazine.
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