Source: TIMOTHY A. CLARY / Getty
“Pose” star Indya Moore, like many trans women of color, has a fascinating story. It’s full of unbelievable trials and incredible triumphs. During a recent interview with Elle, Moore, who prefers the pronoun they but allowed Elle to use her for this story, shared how a moment of her parents “over disciplining” her for her feminine mannerisms caused her to leave her family home and resulted in her living in the foster care system. Moore also said the desire for hormone treatments, was exploited and used to recruit her into sex trafficking.
When Moore was in the foster care system, she was taken in by another trans woman who was sharing her hormone treatments with Moore. But she suddenly stopped. And when she did, Moore started researching ways to get the medication.
She strangers messaged her on Facebook saying they could get her the hormone medication if she did something for them in exchange.
“They told me that they had a lot of friends who were trans and they wanted to help me in my process. And that they could help me to get the money that I needed to be a woman,” Indya says. “Such a weird sentence, right?”
A 16-year-old Indya took the strangers up on their offer.
“And they told me that all I had to do was play with these men who will come in for a moment to see me and play with me and then they’ll give me money. So I said, ‘Okay,’ ” she continues, “and I did that. I stayed with them, and they had men come over and have sex with me.” Moore says the men taught her to use protection and told her she was safe because they would stay in the room and watch as these sexual encounters went down.
The clients came from Craigslist’s now defunct personals section. The men took a cut from her profits. “They told me I needed to do it continuously so that I could afford hormones. 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.”
Eventually, Moore was beaten and bloodied over an argument about her hormone therapy. The altercation resulted in a scar on Indya’s cheek.
“I remember thinking, ‘You messed up my face,.’ Feeling like I wouldn’t be able to make money anymore because the way they showed me how to do it was the only way I understood that I could.”
Eventually, a boyfriend and his mother allowed Moore to live in their home. But there were still times when she turned back to trafficking.
“Whenever they didn’t have money, I secretly sold myself online to bring money and food to the house.”
Moore bounced around more foster homes, did a stint in Rikers Island for an assault charge for fighting a boyfriend, While in Rikers she was misgendered and denied hormone treatment. She was given anti-depression medication and eventually developed a drug addiction.
She was even placed in another group home where she was place with LGBTQ boys. There, Moore was bullied before she eventually dropped out of school in tenth grade.
After all of this, Indya said, “I was just really alone,” Indya says. “I didn’t have anybody.” She wrote a note apologizing to everyone she loved and said a prayer. “I asked God—if this is all that I have to expect of my life, just let me go. But if there’s something more, please let me stay.” She attempted to hang herself. The rope snapped. And whether she wanted to or not, she says, “I survived.”
After all of this Moore began using Instagram, Youtube to showcase herself and raise awareness around trans issues. Around this time, she reunited with her mother Gloria.
She started to have a change of heart regarding her daughter when, as a nurse attendant, she began treating other trans people. She realized she should have been able to treat her own daughter with the same love and respect. And she’s learned the importance of pronouns.
“I can’t say ‘he’ in the street. That’s jeopardizing my child’s life, is how I have to think about it.”
You can read Indya’s full interview with Elle, here.
