"But this time I chose it, didn't I?"

My good friend co-founded this organization that fights sex trafficking and is committed to helping the victims in the process. Friends that want to donate or volunteer to help a non-profit, passionate, smart, committed organization should click on over and check it out. Or friend her on Facebook (Rebecca Olsen McHood) if you are up for reading posts like these but with more practical steps for how to help the victims of sex trafficking who may not be able to find their way out without more support and ethical laws.

Rebecca really does inspire me more than I can say. And she's super fun to be around. And I can't wait to see her again in March and take a picture with her in all our change-the-world glory that I should already have to put here. For now, this smile of hers will have to do.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/as-an-ex-prostitute-i-urge-all-the-political-parties-to-commit-to-the-sex-buyer-law-9810735.html

"...I eventually managed to escape my ‘boyfriend’. But afterwards I was a car-crash. I needed money to fund my addiction and I was completely messed up. I didn't know how to 'do' normal after years of what my therapist now describes as torture. I felt like I belonged on my hands and knees servicing men. So I went back to what I knew – prostitution. But this time I chose it, didn't I? In my experience, some cages are invisible.
 

Being in prostitution, the abnormal becomes normal. Sex acts became as mundane as making a cup of tea. All the boundaries I had taken for granted were demolished – like the ability to control what happened to my body and the right to say no. Goals shift and mine was survival. I did what I had to do: presented a smile when I had to, massaging egos as well as massaging much more. I started working in a brothel, thinking this might help to keep me safe. It didn’t. You can't make prostitution safe. A nice room and a clean bedspread changes nothing. The violence and hate are part of the transaction: if the johns valued you they wouldn't be using you simply as a body.
 

...The sex buyers didn't want me as myself - a human being with hopes and dreams and feelings. They wanted a living, breathing sex-doll. Someone that wouldn't complain if it hurt. Someone who would flirt and smile and moan orgasmically whatever they did. It wasn't personal. And yet it was so personal. They were touching me, looking at me, inside of me.
 

...What would the UK adopting the Sex Buyer Law mean to me? It would mean that the law would stand alongside me, not against me. It would recognise that what happened to me was abuse. The johns would be under the spotlight for once and held legally responsible for their actions. Exiting services would be put in place for women who are trying to get out - something that would have made a huge difference to me. I was lucky to get out - there was no help available. Even now I'm out of it, it's hard to heal when society's view of prostitution is that it's inevitable, that it's just ‘work’. Prostitution is not a woman's right - something to be protected. It is the end of women's rights. It is about men's power over vulnerable women and girls.
 

...So I hope all the political parties commit to the Sex Buyer Law and that whoever is elected to government in 2015 acts quickly to bring it in. It would mean the law recognising just how damaging prostitution is to the women it uses. After years of having my experiences dismissed - that would mean everything to me."