A Letter on the Structural Invisibility of AAPI Women Sex Workers

The following is a letter from an anonymous survivor and her baby who are deeply loved and cared for. May she and her little one continue to thrive, grow, and learn. More life.

Hello,

I hope you are well. I am a survivor of gender-based violence and my child and I are survivors of domestic violence. I read about your work on your website.

I recently spoke out in school and therapy about the intersectionality of my identities as a mixed AAPI immigrant woman, single mom, sex worker, and survivor of gender-based, sexual, and domestic violence. One piece of my journey I don’t share as openly is with regard to the intersection of sexual violence and the risk of human trafficking for AAPI and women of color in sex work. I became a sex worker after I fled my abuser (also my child’s father), and was unknowingly targeted by a Romeo pimp while I worked at a club.

I remained virtually and silently enslaved to this person while I battled my child’s father in court, endured the pandemic, went to school and worked full time, and saw my sister battle cancer. It wasn’t until I obtained trauma-informed care and services by women of color practitioners of therapy, psychiatry, and the law that I realized I was trauma bonded to this person and found a way to safety. As it turns out, this person had targeted me and my son from the beginning. He worked in the same industry as my child’s father and met him some years prior to finding me in a…