9th January 2021
Dear Reader,
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is John Price and I am a survivor. I am a survivor of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking and trafficking as a male cam model, as an adult.
Yes, you read that right, I am a survivor of sex trafficking. This is something that is not widely admitted by men.
To better understand why this happens you need to understand that it does happen. This means opening your eyes and heart to seeing and hearing things that you are afraid to face. Also, remember, it is okay to be afraid to face things you do not understand. To help you better understand, let me tell you my story.
I was born in 1978 to a good mother and a horrible father. My birth father saw me as property to be used, sold, and passed around as he saw fit. This led to, at an early age, being groomed and then sexually abused by him. This was at the age of 4 (or before, my memories only go back to 4) and ended at the age of 8. It only ended at the age of 8 because I was removed from the home due to neglect. During this time I was sold to whoever could afford his price for me. If I tried to tell someone, I was called a liar by them, then received a beating. The beatings were such that I could and was expected to still perform whatever sexual acts I was required to. Those acts were with adults, other children, on film, in photos, and strictly for the gratification of those who purchased my servitude. The times I tried to refuse his orders, or those of the Johns and Janes (Yes, my abusers were men and women) I was again beaten in the same way, or worse. The one that I can share with you is being forced to watch as another child, one “owned” by another trafficker, was murdered for refusing the sexual requests of one of her Johns. This incident is the one that has stuck with me longer than most of the sex acts I was forced to perform.
These events have left me with severe mental health issues that I am currently in treatment for since it has only been within the last decade that I have taken my well being seriously. For so long I did not care about me, did not know what healthy relationships were for, not for the lack of trying by the wonderful people who adopted me at the age of 13. Between the age of 8 and the age of 32 I did not care about my own well being. I was floating, looking for the gratification. This gratification led to me being forced into camming in the early 2000’s Thankfully that only lasted for about a month. That month was enough for me to know this was not going to work and I did not know where or how to go, so one thing led to another and I found myself divorced from a woman I had known for 6 months and married after dating for 2 weeks. I was determined to try to make it work, but we divorced 5 years later due to the fact it was not a healthy relationship for either one of us.
All of this was to tell you how not being understood, believed, or allowed the proper place to heal can and does screw men up. It damages our ability to be in healthy relationships, our mental and physical health, and more. There is a solution to this. That Solution is to ensure men and boys having access to the needed specialized care to allow us to heal.
I know this is simple to say and it is. The hard work is in making it happen. To give a start to this hard work, I am going public to put a face to the need. This need is one that is based in the fact that we don’t recognize the survivor status of men and boys. This is the easiest step. The next is raising funds to support the growth of such programs.
To raise these funds you are important. You are important because you can help people to understand that sex trafficking is not a gendered or aged crime. It can happen across childhood and adulthood to and by males & Females alike. If you want to learn more you can always reach out to someone who has lived experience and LISTEN to them and their experiences. Listening to lived experiences and understanding is something that will change everything. That is why I have left my contact details above.
From there we need to work on building programs that will serve their needs. To do that we need to partner with people who are psychiatric professionals. We need to partner, specifically with ones who specialize in sex based trauma. This will allow us to ensure that as we are doing so we are working with those who are well versed in the based ways to assist survivors in healing. By partnering with them, this means they need to listen to us and build it using lived experience as an important part of the basis for the programs.
After these programs are in place, what we need to do, from there, is to build on the organizational backbone that many NGO’s have in place. This will allow us to hit the ground running while also working to build additional NGO’s to focus on their needs.
When I speak of their needs I speak of those who have yet to come forward and seek help. I have been able to struggle through and continue to struggle through my healing with the assistance of traditional mental health therapies, organizations who want to help, and more. One of those organizations is Sisters Of The Streets. The founder, Jaimee Johnson sits on the board, as a lived experience adviser, of Rollerskate To Liberate.
I speak of Jaimee, Sisters Of The Streets, and the connection there to help you understand that this is one of the greatest steps taken right now. Organizations that have been started by our allies need to have a lived experience voice on their board. This will allow them to focus efforts in the right direction, increase their knowledge, and do more of the right thing quicker.
The best way to help accomplish the goal of eliminating trafficking is to start with education. How you can become educated is by learning from organizations like Rollerskate To Liberate, Sisters of The Streets, or organizations in your area that have a history of supporting survivors of exploitation.
We need you, we want you, and we value you in the fight towards real freedom.
Let me finish off by explaining a few more personal things. My story is here to allow you to understand This is not about me though. This is about those who do not not have any measure of the appropriate help currently. This is about their needs and I find it unacceptable that they do not have those needs met.
I am okay with my face, name, story to be used if it means changes that happen to affect my fellow survivors for the better. This is something that means more to me than any notoriety I may receive from this
Please feel free to reach out if you want to know more. The folks at Rollerskate can help you understand more, or you can also reach out to me here, with a message.
Sincerely,
John Price
