Gathering Places
Gathering Places
I am a 17-year-old girl who met the wrong people at the wrong time and was lured into the sex trade two years ago. With the help of the right people at the right time, I was able to escape, to turn my life around, and to try to help protect other teen-agers from being exploited like I was. Luring teens into
sex trade warrants
much harsher penaltyAt the age of 15, I had a baby. Shortly after, I was introduced to a bouncer at a strip club who became what I thought was my friend. He told me I was pretty and that I could make a lot of money by working at the club. He told me I could make a good life for my baby. I thought those adults were trying to help me.
They gave me sexy clothes and a lot of attention but then things happened very fast. Before I realized it, I was up on a stage and told to take off my clothes. Nobody warned me I would feel so ashamed and awful. I started taking drugs to "numb out" as men old enough to be my dad gave me dollars. My value as a new mom was based on how many dollar bills those men would give me.
In the end, I got arrested and went to jail for more than 11 months, had eating disorders, and was an emotional wreck from having been sexually exploited. Those adults took every last drop of my dignity, pride and innocence and put it on sale for their own benefit.Then I met Kelly Hill who helped me escape from the sex trade and to find a new life. She is the executive director of Sisters Offering Support. I helped draft a bill for the Legislature intended to protect other girls and to criminalize the people who profit from exploiting kids. There are about 10,000 minors in the sex trade in Honolulu.
This bill, which did not pass, would have made commercial sexual exploitation of a minor a felony. That would have included paying minors to do nude dancing or to give erotic massages. If someone was convicted, he could forfeit property or have his business license revoked. There is no penalty for such an offense now. It would have been a tough law.
During the Legislature's session, I was a lobbyist for the bill. I made numerous phone calls, visited legislators in their offices and wrote letters asking for their votes. I also testified before a committee, sharing my personal experience, which was very hard. I did all this in hopes of passing a law that would have protected other teens from being exploited. It would have been a law that would have given me justice, something all minors have a right to.
That bill would not have stomped out commercial sexual exploitation but it would have put a big responsibility on pimps, businesses and perpetrators for putting kids under 18 out in the big world and taking advantage of them.
Sen. David Matsuura was kind enough to say that my testimony about my personal experience was compelling -- not just an abstract. Unlike most lobbyists, he said, I came unpaid and committed to this bill. He said what I did it took a lot of courage.
A majority of the lawmakers on both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees supported passage of this bill. Despite that majority, the House Judiciary chairman, Eric Hamakawa, and vice-chairman, Blake Oshiro, killed the bill at the last minute.
(Editor's note: Hamakawa is a Democrat from South Puna-Hilo; Oshiro is a Democrat from Halawa Heights-Pearl Ridge).
We were all pretty disappointed that the bill got killed. But, as with anything in life, you learn a lot along the way. We had so much support but still some lawmakers seemed just to be pushing the problem under the rug -- not taking responsibility for the harm that's happening to kids in the sex trade.I wish excuses could protect our children. There are a lot of teen-agers like me who need this protection in the law.
SOS and I are not giving up so easily. We will be back at the Legislature next January to lobby for the bill again. I am not just an excuse or problem to be pushed under a rug. I will return next year to pass this bill.
Shannon Mar is now a peer educator at Sisters
Offering Support, counseling other teens.
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