On May 6, 2009, Georgia Online News Services (GONSO), Atlanta magazine and Paste magazine will sponsor a fundraiser featuring famed humorist Hollis Gillespie to raise money for the prevention of child trafficking in Georgia. The fund-raiser will take place at 7 P.M. at The Punchline Comedy Club in Sandy Springs.
Ms. Gillespie is a writer for GONSO, columnist for Atlanta magazine, as well as other publications, and book author. Her show at The Punchline is titled: “Hollis Gillespie’s Shocking Real Life – An Evening of Impropriety to Fight Child Trafficking in Georgia.” The host for the evening is comedian Jamie Bendall with musical guest TT Mahoney and the Standard 8. Admission is $30 and 100 percent of the ticket price goes to charity.
“Humor is always an effective way to address heavy subjects,” says Gillespie, “because while people have their mouths open laughing you can take that opportunity to shove in some food for thought.”
According to a U.S. Department of Justice study, over 300,000 children are victims to sexual exploitation every year and Atlanta is considered to be the number one city for child trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children in this country. Gillespie’s goal is to raise public awareness, support and outrage regarding this horrible fact.
In a recent article for GONSO Gillespie wrote, “Atlanta is one of the top child-trafficking destinations in the nation, where thousands of children are sexually exploited every year. They are abducted, stuffed into trunks and driven in and out of our state to be traded like cattle. They are drugged; imprisoned and raped repeatedly by people who fly here solely for that purpose … sexual trafficking of our children is our state’s biggest underworld tourism commodity…”
Gillespie recently spoke with Stephanie Davis, the policy adviser on Women’s Issues in the Atlanta mayor’s office, and Davis explained, with mortifying directness, the reasoning behind the upsurge.
“Pimps are businessmen,” Davis said, “and unlike a drug supply, which needs to be replenished after it’s sold, a prostituted child is a renewable resource to them. A child can be sold over and over again. Thirty times a night. And if you get caught selling drugs you go to jail. If you get caught selling a child you evidently don’t.” “With that said,” Davis continues, “the customers, or Johns, are the demand-side of this tragic business and they must be held accountable for their crime against society and against these children. Regrettably, they are rarely prosecuted. That must change.”
Davis is the founder of Angela’s House, now under the auspices of The Juvenile Justice Fund, a facility that provides treatment and rehabilitation to Georgia’s prostituted children. All proceeds from the May 6 event will be going to the Juvenile Justice Fund and the Dear John Campaign, which is a public-education campaign to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
“Hollis is one of the most authentic voices in Atlanta,” said John Sugg, GONSO’s executive editor. “She talks about life unvarnished. And nothing in this city deserves attention more than the plight of children. There is only one word for those who prostitute kids, and that word is ‘evil.’ We’re proud to work with Hollis on this project.”
Contact: Rick White
(404) 577-8900 x 221
