Here is the second part of former pornstar Desi Foxx’s article. The world of supporting people connected to the porn industry feels positive but some days the chance meetings are the most interesting …

My phone rang on a Friday afternoon. It was a leader of the non-profit organization I work with asking me to manage a booth at a local human trafficking walkathon the next morning. Because my story involves being sex trafficked inside the Los Angeles porn industry and being saved by the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking (FCAHT), I now do volunteer work as a consultant and instructor speaking about the connection between sex trafficking and the porn industry. It was a small event so I could attend alone. I only needed to run the booth for a few hours. The next morning, I printed up some fact sheets on pornography stats, packed up the equipment and off I went for an afternoon of educating others.

It was a really hot day and I had some trouble finding the location in downtown Tampa, so all the shady places for setting up my booth were taken by the time I got there. I found a place towards the end of the row on the sunny side of the usual horseshoe-shaped arrangement of booths. There was a nice line of shade trees not far behind. Too far away to put the booth under and stay in the line of other booths, but there was an inviting bench where I could sit in between visitors to my booth. I got everything set up and took a break on that bench while watching the organizers gather the walkers for the actual walkathon, which was to begin in about 30 minutes. I found out quickly that smaller events move along at a fast pace. You have to keep up or you will lose out on something.

I had several visitors who picked up various pieces of information and some fun items with human trafficking statements on them. Running a booth allows me the chance to approach the topic of pornography with others and share some surprising facts that most, especially parents, don’t know because they aren’t readily shared in our mainstream media and resources. It was a steady stream of Q&A for 30 minutes, then the presenters gave their opening ceremony and the walkers departed for their hour-long journey, bringing awareness to human trafficking and raising money to help the victims of this mostly hidden crime. My first thought was about the shade tree behind me and that welcoming bench. As the crowd headed off down the sidewalk, I turned and headed for that bench. I sat and closed my eyes, thinking of cool thoughts, enjoying the time while it lasted. The walkers would be back and hyped. They would be ready to get more fully engaged when they returned.

As I sat there, a young man walked over and asked if he could share my bench. He was running the booth next to mine with a couple of other young people. I told him, ‘Of course; sit down and enjoy some shade.’ We both sat there together for some time, not talking or even really acknowledging each other, I with my eyes closed and he with playing on his cell phone, both lost in our own thoughts. I don’t even remember what was the first sentence spoken. I believe he asked me a question about the walkathon.

It was his first time attending this type of function, he said. He had come to help a friend carry and set up their booth and now that he was there, he said he was interested in getting more involved. When I see young people getting involved in the important issues around our world, it always gives me a burst of great hope and joy, so suddenly I felt drawn to talk more to this young man. I don’t usually volunteer my porn past information in casual settings but this time, it just rolled off my tongue as I told him how I ended up running FCAHT’s booth that day.

As I explained what I learned from working in the US porn industry, in discovering the facts about human trafficking and then in putting the two together, I shared statistics about how pornography was harming our youth and families. The young man became very quiet. I could see his demeanour change as his shoulders slumped slightly, he hung his head forward just a bit and his hand briefly covered his eyes. I ended my sentence and let the quiet fall back between us. I felt something had happened here but I didn’t know what, so I didn’t really know how to proceed. This happens a lot when I talk to others about this subject. I planted the seed of knowledge. That’s my main goal. The rest will come as long as the seed is planted firmly enough to take root.

It felt like quite a while but it was probably just moments that went by before that young man sitting next to me on that cool bench that day, raised his head and looked me in the eye as he spoke. This is what he told me:

Find out about a life-changing encounter in part 3 of Desi Foxx’s article.

Please visit www.PornintheValley.com for more on Desi’s story and to learn more about the harms of pornography. Porn Valley sells you fantasies. At www.PornintheValley.com, you get the truth about porn for free.

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