Trafficking/Prostitution

Archive for the ‘Holly Austin Smith’ Category

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Spending July 4th as a “Child Prostitute” — or Victim?

In Holly Austin Smith, Tina Frundt, trafficking, trauma on 2012/07/05 at 9:54 pm

holly austin smith, tina frudt, human trafficking, sexual slavery, prostitution

Powerful survivor/advocate and Founder of Courtney’s House Tina Frudt, has said, pimping and trafficking is one and the same.”  Brilliant survivor/writer Holly Austin Smith has written an exceptional post which shows how building a false separation between the idea of being pimped and the idea of being trafficked harms girls and women who are or have been in the life.  Here’s an excerpt of Holly’s tour de force:

Not only does the word prostitute imply choice but it carries with it centuries of stigmatization.  At 14 years old, I began to believe that I was a prostitute.  I couldn’t understand that I was victimized because I believed I must have chosen to be a prostitute.  I initially refused to testify against my traffickers because I believed they were now the only people who accepted me.

“[The trafficker] might beat you, he might sell you…but at least he accepts you,” stated Rachel Lloyd while explaining the mindset of a victim, “society doesn’t have a lot of empathy for girls who have been in the life.”

Rachel explains that traffickers will tell young women and children that the police won’t believe them, that their family will no longer want them, and that nobody will treat them nicely.

And, unfortunately, this is often true.  This is the reason why many girls, including myself, chose to return to the traffickers; I felt shunned by society.

The answer to this problem is to stop labeling child victims as prostitutes!  These children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and child sex trafficking.

“When you talk about a young person being trafficked or exploited,” explained Rachel Lloyd, “the edon the end makes it something that was done to that person; it’s not who they are.”

For nearly 20 years I carried a sense of guilt and shame with me, and I can trace it back to one single word: prostitute.

Read the rest of this moving article here.

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Desperately Needed: Services for Trafficked Boys

In boys, Holly Austin Smith, sex work, Tina Frundt, trafficking, trauma on 2012/07/04 at 5:32 am

Brilliant sister survivor Holly Austin Smith has a written an important post about the desperate need for services for trafficked boys.  She discusses the issue with amazing survivor Tina Frudt,  a pioneer who founded Courtney’s House, one of the very few providing services to both trafficked boys and girls.  Here’s an excerpt:

As celebrations for Gay Pride Month come to a close, I’d like to take a moment to point out a troubling gap in services for gay and transgender youth who have been commercially sexually exploited.

In March of this year, Project Q Atlanta reported that Atlanta drag queen personality Pasha Nicole received a 14-year prison sentence for “forcing a transgender teenager into prostitution,” among other offenses related to trafficking.

Nicole, known legally as Christopher Thomas Lynch, was charged alongside her 35-year-old roommate and gay bar go-go dancer, Steven Donald Lemery.   WSBTV reported the following pending charges against Lemery:  five counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of human trafficking, child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, and pandering by compulsion.

What’s most troubling in this story is the trauma inflicted on the victims.

The Georgia Voice reported that Lemery used social networking sites to lure teen boys to his house, and then he would not allow them to leave.  Furthermore, it is alleged that Lemery did not feed the victims and that he kept them locked in a closet.
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Let’s Empower Teachers to Fight Sex Trafficking

In Holly Austin Smith, sex work, trafficking, trauma on 2012/05/09 at 5:38 am

sex work, human trafficking, teachers, virginia, holly austin smith, prostitution, child sex trafficking, ptsd, suicide, help

Amazing survivor Holly Smith has a fantastic editorial online at  the Washington Times.  Here’s an excerpt:

Traffickers specifically target school-age boys and girls not only because children are preferred by the buyers but because children are deemed easier to manipulate and control.  I know this because I was once one of those kids, lured away from home at age 14.

In the summer of 1992, just after I graduated eighth grade middle school, I ran away with a man I had met at the mall.  I was lonely and angry, and this man reached out to me.  This stranger, who gained my trust over several phone conversations, turned out to be a manipulative and intimidating pimp.  He took me to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and he forced me to prostitute.  By the time police spotted me on the street, I had been trafficked over half a dozen times.

Besides immediate family members, the only people to visit me in the hospital were my middle school science teacher, Mr. Steele, and two guidance counselors, Ms. Jackie Somma and Ms. Carol Turano.  They drove over an hour to see me.  Mr. Steele brought science textbooks because I loved biology.  Ms. Somma and Ms. Turano sat close together on a couch and encouraged me the best way they could.  I don’t remember anything they said.  I just remember them being there for me.

These teachers wanted to help me; they just didn’t know how.  Within days of my rescue, I attempted suicide.

Earlier this year, I testified in Richmond, Virginia, before the Senate Education Committee in support of SB 259 which had been introduced by Senator Adam Ebbin.  This legislation, which passed unanimously and is being signed by Governor Bob McDonnell today, will require the Board of Education and the Department of Social Services to provide awareness and training materials for local school divisions on human trafficking, including strategies for the prevention of trafficking children.

As a survivor and advocate for child trafficking victims, I encourage other legislators and states across the country to follow Virginia’s lead.

Read more

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The Anti-Trafficking Movement Needs Survivor Voices: Why Are We Ignored?

In Aboriginal Women's Action Network, Educating Voices, Holly Austin Smith, LaCLES.org, SexTrade101 on 2012/04/01 at 9:26 pm

human trafficking, survivors connect, holly austin smith, prostitution, sex work, bedford case, canada, ontario, ptsd trauma, sextrade101, rachel lloyd

Sister survivor Holly Austin Smith has a great new post on her blog, titled The Importance of the Survivor Voice.  She discusses an issue that’s central to most  of us:  Why aren’t more survivors being uplifted to lead the anti-trafficking movement?  Sister  survivor Rachel Lloyd is a splendid exception to this rule, as are  Vednita Carter and Kristy Childs.  But so many of us our ignored and discarded after we’ve been used by anti-trafficking organizations once or twice to tell our story.  No one knows more about the sex industry and human trafficking than we do.  No one knows more about recovery from trafficking/prostitution than us.  The absence of  survivor leaders  in most  major anti-trafficking organizations creates a hole in the movement.   Much more would accomplished much faster if we were given the chance to lead.  Because so few of us are empowered to lead,  so much time is wasted — so much knowledge and insight lost.

What’s especially troubling is that even when survivors find ways to lead on our own we’re ignored or talked through.  Our Canadian sister survivors in the Aboriginal Women’s Action Network, Educating Voices, LaCLES, and SexTrade101  have been valiantly educating the public about the harms of the Bedford ruling — which upholds the criminalization of prostitutes on the street — who are crime victims– while it empowers and legitimizes their predators, the male and female pimps and traffickers who own brothels and escort services.  While some of the major anti-trafficking organizations have commented on the ruling or written documents concerning its issues, there’s been precious little support and acknowledgement of the brave work of these Canadian survivors.

The 34 members of Survivors Connect recently voted to issue a statement of support for our Canadian sisters against the Bedford decision.  34 prostitution/trafficking survivors joining our voices  in political action is a big deal.  It was a historic moment, and marked a big change in how survivors participate in the movement.  But there was no response by the big anti-trafficking organizations.  A  few wonderful women within these large anti-trafficking organizations  have reached out to me — there are great people in these groups, of course.  But in general survivors are ignored, not uplifted.

What can survivors do about this situation?  What we’ve been through in the sex industry unites us.  We must remember our voices are powerful, form survivors groups where there are none, and join existing survivor groups.  Sometimes nonprofit organizations become competitive and don’t work together.  We can’t afford this.  It’s important that our different survivor groups work and flow together as one so that our voices aren’t fragmented.

Survivors Connect is an international online leaderless network.  We already have 34 survivor members, and we’ve only been around for two months.  We joyfully welcome new sister survivor members. Here’s how to join us.

In response to the need for survivors’ voices,  Holly Austin Smith has started a speaker’s bureau called Survivor Strong.  Here’s an excerpt from her brilliant post on the subject:

 I am in touch with survivors from around the world: new survivors, empowered survivors, educated survivors, struggling survivors, and scared survivors.  We unite under these umbrella organizations to offer each other support, guidance, and empathy and to work together on survivor-inspired projects.

There is a particular topic which has been surfacing lately on many of these forums and that is the lack of survivor invitations to participate in local and national conferences, symposiums, workshops, etc.  Often, survivors are requested to recount the details of their testimonies, and then they are excused from further participation.  This is baffling to me.  If there is to be a discussion regarding the prevention of human trafficking and the protection of survivors, shouldn’t there be a survivor’s perspective present?

Please realize I recognize that many organizations involved in such events are survivor-informed; however, I still believe that empowered survivors whom are able to attend the event should be invited to participate.  What better way to convey to new survivors that their futures hold promise but by providing a place and by lifting the voices of survivors who are ready to come forward?

Read more.

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