“Perla”
Survivor of Sex Trafficking; Clothing and Jewelry Designer
Suffering sexual assault by a family member as a child in Mexico, Perla was first trafficked as a fourteen year old, primarily to ‘service’ men seeking transgender women for sex. Although Perla managed to escape from her traffickers in Mexico by fleeing to the United States, she was again forced into prostitution by a new set of traffickers, after her passport was confiscated by them, and often obliged to have sex with as many as 30 men a day. Finally able to escape “the life” once and for all, Perla learned English, studied design, and today is a happily married designer.
“Young transgender woman should not enter the sex trade even if it’s their only choice to supporting themselves. You carry the trauma from that exploitation your whole life. Men physically abuse you and the police don’t believe you, or demand sex themselves. I was forced to go through a sex change to please men who wanted sex with a transgender woman. People commit suicide rather than take the abuse that is part of the sex trade. It’s just wrong to buy and sell people.”