Thank you for the critically important work that you are doing on the issue of human trafficking, Lee. As a former victim of it in my own home, via my own parents, this subject is one that I am. Beginning to speak more openly about as others pave the way. I’ve spoken openly for decades about the sexual abuse I endured, but the trafficking aspect has been one that caused such deep shame (largely due to the shaming my foster mom inflicted when it became known that my father bought and “loaned” me to others as a child. This happened during my father’s criminal case). But it’s getting easier to speak about it now because, as I said in my own comments to Sec. Clinton’s piece, I was not the criminal — I was the victim and have nothing to hide. I once spoke of it briefly in a rewrite of my 1987 Washington Post re-write for a book, but merely referenced it as “a brief involvement in Prostitution” and that was after I aged out of foster care and worked to put myself through school — and got revictimized at my place of employment (a hotel). I couldn’t bring myself to speak of what my own father and mother did to me….. And I blamed my

Ironically, when I worked as a political event photographer on Capitol Hill, I avoided doing work for people I deeply respected for fear that my past would be revealed and would somehow hurt them. You know how the headlines read — ”Clinton employs ex-hooker” (hypothetically, of course). I even spoke to a few friends high up at the DNC for advice and they told me it would be wise to keep this aspect of my youth as hidden as possible as to not harm a candidate. A simple Lexus-Nexus search would have been all it took to see my admission to “a brief involvement in Prsotitution.”

The work that you and others are doing is taking the shame out of this issue and is helping people put their lives back together. Sec Clinton’s proposals will go a long way in addressing the problem and advancing real solutions. It heals my heart to hear her speak so non-judgmentally. I shouldn’t have feared photographing events that she appeared at for fear of somehow harming her reputation.

I hope this all makes sense. Clearly there is a backstory with much more detail that’s impossible to disclose here. But if you search the term “Judicial Betrayal Trauma” you’ll find Ankara review article about my father’s criminal case, and the public apology I received two years ago for how it was handled.

Many blessings to you.