We've had a real problem for a few years now with "impersonations" of us in many ways. Here's a big one - Oprah did a two hour documentary featuring only Brenda Myers Powell, as the woman who was running our Chicago chapter of www.prostitutesanonymous.net at that time. We had been with her since she first entered the Genesis House program as a newbie, and then when she had some time under her belt, she started doing outreach and then started her own program for teens called Dreamcatchers. She also ran a PA meeting in the jail. I'm not revealing anything here as Brenda has talked about this herself during past interviews.
The second the show aired, I started getting these phone calls just ripping my throat out. I didn't understand why until I watched the show Oprah did with Brenda. First of all, she never said Brenda just ran the Chicago chapter of PA - she literally portrayed her as being the founder/leader. Now she never came out and EXPLICITLY said this, but it was sure implied she was. Especially since no mention was made of us being a NATIONAL program, nor that there even was a main headquarters and hotline I run, nor that we had groups in many other cities just like hers - so the way it was portrayed to the pubic was she was the founder, or me basically, and her group in Chicago was all there was to us. Now during her film, Brenda focused entirely on her street outreach with a lot of talk about violent pimps because of course working girls on the streets of Chicago are often going to have pimps crack their heads open to keep control of them on the streets. So the show also said nothing about our madam members, escort members, women who work in massage parlors or strip clubs, our male and gay members, our webcam performers, etc.
Now being I never expected Brenda to be put on an Oprah produced documentary, I never sat down with her and explained the rules when it comes to doing publicity for PA as a whole. Things such as we don't use our last names, or show where we live or work - anything that is "personally identifiable" in case some pimp comes looking for us 0and because it's a tradition to be "personally anonymous" when doing any type of press. So Brenda was showing her van, where she worked, using her last name and full face - and basically violating all the traditions. Not her fault because had I known this was happeing, I would have given her some press training beforehand.
Also, when doing any type of publicity for PA, I don't get into my personal opinions on sex work or laws or anything because that's a traditions violation as well. I instead state "we have no opinions on outside issues" and step around debates such as legislation, etc. Now when I've appeared as myself, THEN I will state my personal opinions. But this show was CLEARLY about PA, and therefore it should not have had Brenda going on and on against prostitution and even talking about pimps for that matter because if you've seen our Donahue, we have pimps who have come to us for help in exiting the sex industry - so her telling these horror stories about some of them on the show wasn't helping anything.
Now I've ALWAYS had good relationships with people like Joe Conforte, Dennis Hof, Dave Elms (founder of The Erotic Review), and many other "providers" or "madams" or "owners" as they are the ones who are right there in a position to be able to tell IF someone IS being trafficked and making a call to us about it. I also have been able to enlist them help when helping someone out of a situation. Once I got a call from a woman who her pimp threw her out of the car while it was going about 95 mph. She was pregnant at the time, so when I got the call it was from the ER after the ambulance had got her there to patch her up. She was also six months pregnant and clearly couldn't just go back home to this guy. We don't get grants or donations, and I was on disability at that time, so I didn't have money to pay for a room for her. I was living in a studio at the time with my daughter and three dogs - so it wasn't a good fit for her either. I knew Dennis had these big properties - so I called him and asked if he could help us out with helping her.
He said to bring her up to stay at the ranch. I laughed and joked I wasn't going to "get her away from one pimp only to replace her with another". He countered he was going to just look after her, and she would certainly be safe up there with his security the way it was. Which he did have armed security and a big gate - so she would be safe there. He PROMISED me he was going to just let her rest and she could stay there safely - and really not having a clue where else to put her, I dropped her off at the ranch. She would send me texts daily and I could see she was resting and being cared for well. The girls took her on a baby shopping spree even, and bought her everything she needed to move out once the baby was born. True to his word, she never did any "work" there while she was pregnant and recuperating from being thrown out of a car as she'd been.
Now this is a BIG difference between us and these "anti-trafficking" types of programs who would have viewed Dennis as "the enemy". We knew he wasn't "trafficking her" and he wasn't even having her work. He did however give her a safe place to rest and heal, and when the baby was born, they took up a collection and got her into a new apartment filled with all the baby stuff she needed to get on her feet in a different situation by that time. As for her pimp/baby daddy, what was the point of pressing charges she decided because in her case, she told me he had a lot of friends with Metro who would just protect him she felt. Which I've seen more than one case where the pimp IS a cop or sheriff, so I understood her position.
So upon viewing this Oprah show where Brenda was just bashing prostitution and bashing pimps - of course this strained my relationship with many of these people who actually provided us with our best tips as to who or where someone was who was in trouble, and helping us get the resources to get them out of that situation, and onto a safer one like her case. So hearing all these attacks on them like they were the enemy, when like Dennis did with this woman, they're the ones helping us - it got a lot of people angry and hurt so I spent a lot of time explaining I hadn't had time to work with Brenda for her to say these things, and I certainly wouldn't have said these things - so it really was like the Oprah people had kind of egged her on to say things that were not only damaging to our reputation, but also damaging to the reputations we had with many other people we had good relationships with before.
In this case, I sent a cease and desist demand letter asking that there be a small edit made to the show to explain Brenda was just a Chicago chapter, and we were national, and these opinions were hers and hers alone, and not that of PA as a whole. Instead of making a few edits to the show, they responded by taking it completely off the internet the day they got the letter. Now why they'd want to do that when they'd already spent money and time on the show, didn't make sense until I was older to my way of thinking anyway.
But this is nothing compared to the impersonations we've suffered online, all of which have been very damaging to my reputation and that of PA. Some of it frankly scares me as I've found things online making themselves appear to be us. So people thinking that's us, are going to call or email them. Then what? I called two of them and they directed me to a "meeting". They were out of state, so I have no idea what would happen if I were to "attend a meeting" and go to the address they gave me. Of course I was scared that it could be actual pimps trying to lure working girls into a trap - so I've tried to get these sites taken down when I find them as soon as I can get it done. That's why I try and go online daily to look for such impersonators.
But there's others. For two years I had a woman put up a site which was a mirror of ours. The name was even just like ours, maybe off one letter. The color theme was even the same as our website. She was up there taking book orders and donations and pocketing the money. So for two years I was having people calling me up angry they hadn't got their books. I filled those orders because I didn't want anyone thinking I ripped them off. I then FINALLY got her website taken down. This was AFTER I learned she had taken a $300,000 grant in my name to open a drop in center - which when we went to the address it was just an empty building.
This woman gave interviews even as if she was me! Which REALLY got me in a sling for YEARS as people found these interviews and thought I said these horrible things! The problem was the publisher had abandoned the site they were on, and so I wasn't able to reach anyone to get them down. I finally was able to get the hosting company to take it down! Now I found out about this woman when the Dr. Phil show called me up wanting to give me flight information. This woman was ACTUALLY TRYING TO GET ON THE DR. PHIL SHOW AS ME! Since she'd already got $300,000 pretending to be me, and having up a site that appeared to be mine taking money, I can only imagine what would have happened had not the Dr. Phil producer put her on the show and I'd not found out about it in time.
Or the time someone was out fund raising as me and PA. I got an angry call from the IRS because we didn't have a 501c3 nonprofit tax exempt status to legally be allowed to raise money. I didn't know what they were even talking about until they showed me that site. I then had them "follow the money" and they realized it wasn't my website or fund raiser.
I'm not alone in this - I've seen Dr. Phil talking about his impersonators, and Dr. Oz talks about people claiming they're selling his products, and people have interviews published all the time that never happened - so I just am trying to find ways to make sure that people can know the difference between us and these imposters.
It's because of them I've gone back to using our original name, Prostitutes Anonymous, for a time online. I've got stronger legal protection to stop people from using that name online than I do "sex workers anonymous" - which we just started using in 1995. I didn't see the need for a lot of duplicate legal papers, so it is tougher for me to enforce that trademark enough to get a site shut down for example. But there is a whole slew of sites I've found online saying they're "sex workers anonymous" also. I've got many of them shut down, and they just pop up with a new address.
For a time, I had Melissa Farley setting up sites, videos, etc., claiming to be us and attacking prostitution - calling to "have it outlawed" and then signing our name to this stuff! I'd find it, demand it be taken down or else I'd sue, and she would. But an hour later she'd just have the same thing up at a new address.
I've seen fake meetings that aren't us - that are just really not us. I've even had people claim they've met me at certain events. At two events, I showed people the photo and they told me it was the same woman who was impersonating me and almost went on Dr. Phil. Now if she was going for grant money by pretending to be me, it would make sense why she was going around acting like me at prostitution and sex trafficking conferences. But there were other events, and I have no idea who these people met and thought it was me. Now I know I have a very common name, but they've said "no she said she was with Prostitutes Anonymous" so I can only assume it must have been some kind of investigator impersonating me.
I've been told the best way to avoid this is to put my face out there online. However, we are STILL helping people leave abusive relationships and the men like to come right for me to find out where she went - so a recent photo of me online wouldn't be very safe for me to do. I still remember when a pimp came up behind me and stuck a gun in my back demanding to know where "we put his bitch". So until such time as we don't help someone like that to get away, I'm not going to be sticking my photo up on my profile online anytime soon!
That reminds me, I have to go after people who have www.sexworkersanonymous.com up online on Monday. It's a porn company! So yes it makes it appear I'm back marketing porn online - which makes these impersonations very disturbing!
So if you're not sure something or someone is us, then please just go to our official site at www.prostitutesanonymous.net and contact us there.
And if you see someone or hear something I supposedly said or did - before you go all off on me and hate me - give me a chance to at least verify if I in fact said or did it. If you see an interview or video that says it's PA or me, and it makes you angry, please again verify it was in fact me. If I say or do it, then I'll own up to it. This isn't unique to me again as many people are having scammers and the like do such things - so until we get better legal protections, and better laws about people impersonating you, it's a tough situation and that's why I ask that you please talk to me if you're not sure.
Thank you!
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