Houston, we have a victory!
Just yesterday we posted a blog explaining how the TEXXXAS pornography expo was scheduled to occur in Houston, Texas, next month. We reached out to Hilton executives to inform them about the harmful nature of this sexually exploitive event.
And Hilton Worldwide cancelled its arrangement with the pornography expo!
Along with Hospitality Ventures Management Group (HVMG), a third-party management services provider, Hilton Worldwide decided to no longer host this harmful event, and we want to thank them!
This event had the potential to facilitate an increased demand for prostitution, and sex trafficking, in the local area. This would have partly resulted from the demand for commercial sex both at the expo and surrounding after parties at local strip clubs.
I am so grateful to Hilton Worldwide, because within 48 hours of being informed of the exploitive consequences of the TEXXXAS expo, Hilton cancelled the event.
Hilton executives displayed laudable principles of conscious capitalism through these actions. I hope that they will codify these decisions with a brand-wide policy to not host sexually exploitive conferences or events of any kind, and that the entire hotel industry will follow suit. I urge all other hotel chains to refuse to host this TEXXXAS expo in favor of community and guest safety.
In a communication informing NCOSE of the cancellation, a Hilton representative stated:
“Hilton is committed to respecting human rights and preventing sexual exploitation and we continuously review our policies to ensure we provide a welcoming environment for guests, employees and members of our communities.”
This is building on tremendous momentum for dignity in the hotels.
Last year, Hilton Worldwide adopted a policy to no longer sell on-demand pornography due to the brand’s desire to provide guests with a safe and sexploitation-free environment.
Hilton’s leadership preceded the decisions by several other hotel chains—Hyatt, Starwood, and Intercontinental Hotels Group—to also stop distributing pornography, worldwide.
This is important, because while guests may still choose to access pornography on their cell phones or laptops, these hotel chains are no longer profiting from, or facilitating the normalization of this harmful material. Research shows that pornography is linked to increased sexual violence against women, increased sexual dysfunction, and decreased brain matter in regions for impulse control. Any hotel that refuses to promote pornography is therefore a safer, and more family friendly, environment.
Be encouraged, together we are making a difference in the movement to end sexual exploitation!
