Column: Give sex-trafficking survivors the ability to leave the trade

I have spent the last five years serving sex-trafficking survivors on Oahu, and I have lost count of the number of survivors who said they have no choice to leave the sex trade.

One survivor was forced to stay in the sex trade for seven years. She was required to earn $1,000 a day from prostituting. She shared that she has always wanted to be a nurse and every day her trafficker told her, “Soon baby, soon.”

Each rape only earned her about $100. The math is daunting. Being raped by 10 men a day to meet her quota diminished any hope. If she chose to leave, she knew she would have no options, and this canceled any thought of freedom. Day by day and year by year, she was losing hope. Eventually she was even losing hope to live. She became focused on how to stay alive. She questioned, “Should I just die?”

Sometimes people say the sex trade is consensual because “she chose this.” Some people in prostitution even say, “I chose this!” But this statement is very different from, “I had other options and I chose this.”

Most people in the sex trade are given only two options. One option is to leave and have nothing. The other option is to stay and endure violence. Are these really options? The two options are between hopelessness and hopelessness.

For survivors of the sex trade, the question comes down to the availability of options, not just a simple choice of whether or not to stop or start “prostituting.” Without options, choice and consent are pretty meaningless. Options are possibilities to choose from. We must give survivors options to leave, by passing Senate Bill 3347, which would create a small guaranteed income pilot project to those struggling to break free.

Taxpayer dollars to prostitutes? Why doesn’t she just leave? You may be thinking that people trying to leave the sex trade should turn to family, friends and lenders, not the government. We have to remind ourselves that these “common” options are not as widely available as we think.

In an alarming number of cases, family members are the exploiters or the reason why someone was pushed into the sex trade. Turning to family while struggling through past sexual victimization at their hands is not a real option.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. People in the sex trade report that they immediately face pressure to contribute in exchange for someone’s help exiting.

Constant requests to contribute to bills or even to pay rent for sleeping in a corner on the floor means there is no grace period for someone to heal. This essentially traps a survivor in an unstable situation.

Staying with friends is not realistic either. Life in the sex trade is lonely, and exiting is often undertaken in complete isolation.

Personal loans, credit cards and banks lending money are also potentially disastrous options. Most people in the sex trade do not know people who have money to lend and very few people will lend money they know they won’t get back. Mostly, no one trusts someone who probably has mismanaged their own money.

Lastly, and most importantly, debt is a door wide open for re-exploitation and returning to the sex trade. Re-exploitation is another common thread in the lives of survivors.

There is money to fund this program this year. So let us support the Legislature and Department of Human Services to pass SB 3347. This is a small price for second chances to women and children in Hawaii who have suffered beyond our comprehension.

Victoria Roland is a lived-experience expert in the sex trade, working with nonprofit agencies serving marginalized communities and fighting sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.