"See, this is why..."

It's a quote I say often, triggering an eye-roll or an instant tune out from my friends.  It infuriates me. It infuriates me that not enough good people care that everyone is not free.

This is why I write the book. Short synopsis: A West Point cadet was caught distributing pornographic videos of young boys.   If you're horrified by the article, just wait until you get to the comments.  That's right, a comment in defense of the perpetrator.  Not a word, not a thought, not a single tear for the boys in the video?

Not one of those boys had a choice.  By legal definition children cannot agree to sex.  That's what "age of consent" means.  

The men who buy sex are deliberately deluding themselves.  After all, the fantasy is part of what they are buying.  They don't want to hear that woman was kidnapped, smuggled across an international boarder and locked in a room when she isn't with him.  They want to believe she is happy, sexually liberated and of her own free will is choosing to be with him.  She isn't.  99 times out of 100 she is not free.

What we are doing to curb the demand for sex as a service is not working.

"What if it she's being held prisoner and doesn't have a choice?" is not working.

"What if it was your daughter?" isn't working.

Apparently, "What if it was your underage son?" isn't either.

We need a different strategy, a new approach.  See, this is why my book is a shout in the face of the men who defend sex buyers.  My book asks the question, "What if it was you?" 

It's a good question, because more often than you would think, it is. In a recent study in New York by John Jay College of Criminal Justice, up to 50% of sexually exploited children were boys.  

I've disappointed some feminists in my beta-reads.  Not satisfied with the four (yep, count them four) strong female characters, without each of with my protagonist would have died long before achieving any of his goals, I am under fire for "placating the patriarchy" by having a male protagonist.

Real gender equality is not a female author writing a book with a female protagonist and getting praised for it. Real gender quality is a female author writing a book with a male protagonist and not getting condemned for it.

I am not sorry about the gender of my protagonist.  I was not a victim of the system.  I didn't not feel pressured to create a male lead to increase my chances at publication or expanded distribution.  I made a deliberate choice.  I guess I'm the 1%.  There is no secret pimp in my shadows pulling my strings.

If only the 16 to 26 million sex trafficking victims in the world could say the same.

Photo Credit: The photo is my own.

Not in My Hometown

The Human Trafficking Law Blog recently posted a NY Times article reporting on the sentencing of two human traffickers recently convicted and given life sentences.  Here's the link. While this is an obvious victory for justice, the case hit close to home for me - literally.  The ring was operating on a side street on my way hope from work.  People were enslaved just blocks from a place I work, five houses down a side street I drive past several times a week.  

This nightmare doesn't just happen on the other side of the world, it happens on our commute home.

The clock in my dusty dashboard reads 9:17 am as I cruise past, too afraid to stop.  The dented street sign reads ‘Rose’ but nothing is blooming.  Sparse grass sprouts stubbornly from thin cracks in the littered sidewalk.  An orange cone balances precariously on the edge of the road, as if I needed a warning to be careful here.  Swarthy men lounge beneath a brightly colored billboard encouraging them to shift their priority to faith.  Which of them knew, which were involved and which are as horrified as myself to find out what's been happening here? It's hard to tell from inside my car, but I am too afraid to stop and ask.

Photo Credit: The photo is my own.

What Heros Look Like

Last Thursday, 11/17/11, I attended the 21st annual Covenant House candlelight vigil in Times Square for Homeless Youth.  What a humbling experience.   I stood in the middle of time square, surrounded by hundreds of people, corporate CEOs standing shoulder to shoulder with homeless teenagers, all holding candles and standing in solidarity together.  Kevin Ryan, director of Covenant House welcomed a very special speaker - a resident of Covenant House New York.  We stood transfixed, forgetting the cold as Diana bravely stood in the middle of Times Square and told her story to thousands .  A year ago she was homeless on the cold streets of New York, a city new to her.  She now works two jobs and is going to college to be an accountant.  When my dad retires, I plan to ask this woman to take over doing my taxes.

Ricky Gervais is right.  New York is the greatest city in the world.  Like all cities, it has its share of hungry bellies, scarfless necks and dark alleys.  But it also has love and hope and people who care enough to reach out to others who are just looking for a chance.  Kids like Diana aren't looking for a handout, but for a path to self sufficiency, for an opportunity to gain the skills they need to survive, to heal and eventually, to help another.  Being a victim is a horrifying, sometimes unavoidable state to be in, but it never has to be a permanent one.

I love New York, and the people who live in its buildings and on its streets.  The vigil was a beautiful start to an amazing transformation, whose completion requires you.  Romain Rolland said that a hero is someone who does what he can.  Diana is a hero because she is doing what she can.  If you do what you can, you can be a hero too.  Help me fill the bellies, help me make a scarf, help me light the alley.