Pose star Indya Moore opens up about sex trafficking ordeal
Indya Moore, who stars in Pose (Frazer Harrison/Getty
Indya Moore, who is best known for her role in Ryan Murphy’s hit TV show Pose, has opened up about her sex trafficking ordeal as a teenager.
The transgender actress told Elle magazine that her foster mother—who was also trans—cut off her access to hormone replacement therapy when she was 16. Moore said she tried to access it online instead.
It was then that she received a message on Facebook from people in a nearby area who told her that they wanted to “help” her in her transitioning process.
They told her that they would give her money for her hormone replacement therapy, but said she would have to “play” with men.
Pose star Indya Moore ‘didn’t understand what sex trafficking was’ at the time
“I stayed with them, and they had men come over and have sex with me,” Moore said.
“They told me I needed to do it continuously so that I could afford hormones,” she continued.
“I stayed with them, and they had men come over and have sex with me.”
– Indya Moore
“I didn’t understand what sex trafficking was at the time. The language I knew was that they were, basically, my pimps. I was just a kid.”
That experience came to an end over a year later when she was attacked by the group over a dispute over her hormone therapy.
Later, Moore attempted suicide, but said she thankfully “survived” the ordeal.
Moore also spoke about the abuse she faced growing up transgender
Elsewhere in the interview, Moore spoke about the abuse she faced from her parents growing up.
“Because I was assigned male at birth, they expected me to be masculine or to perform the way they thought young boys should perform. And I did not,” Moore said.
Pose star Indya Moore (Frazer Harrison/Getty)
“They didn’t understand. They had never experienced what it was like to have a family member who was genderqueer.”
“A lot of times, when parents overdiscipline their children, especially when they’re queer, their intention isn’t to hurt them.
“They think they’re saving their children from harm. But they don’t realize that they’re causing harm, that they’re doing to their kids exactly what they’re afraid of the world doing to them.”
Indya Moore was one of the people in Time 100’s influential LGBT+ people last month.
Writer Janet Mock wrote about her: “Writing her character Angel proved healing for me as a trans woman who had walked in those same platform shoes, longing for more than the crumbs society had thrown girls like us.
“But a greater gift has been watching Indya rise from an adolescence navigating foster care in the Bronx to critical acclaim as an actress and model using her voice to center the marginalized communities she comes from.”
