Domingo/McPeek-Bechtold
Interview with Reverend Glenda Hope
Prepared by Nolan McPeek-Bechtold
Our interview took place on the evening of Monday April 12th, 2010. We met Reverend Hope at her home in the southern part of San Francisco. The interview lasted just over one and a half hours. Since we met in the evening, the interview was open ended which allowed us to talk freely, without the burden on a time constraint. This led to an unconstrained conversation where Patrick and I were truly able to listen to all that the Reverend wanted to say. Reverend Glenda Hope is the executive director of both San Francisco Network Ministries and Safe House San Francisco. She was unsure of what she wanted to do when she was young, but she eventually studied at San Francisco Theology Seminary. She was ordained in 1969 as a Presbyterian minister and has dedicated her life to helping and representing the vulnerable. She has worked in the Tenderloin for 38 years and she has worked with prostitutes for 12 years. She founded San Francisco Network Ministries in 1972 as well as Safe House San Francisco in 1998. Her experience with prostitutes comes from her work at Safe House as well as her work on the streets of San Francisco. Most prostitution happens in the Tenderloin and after 38 years she has gotten to know the area and the women very well. Through Safe House she has gotten a more intimate look at the women and has been able to work with them and hear their stories. She is truly an expert when it comes to knowing the truth about street prostitution.
Although our project is focused on prostitution in Thailand, speaking with her still provided an abundance of useful information. In the United States 70% of women in prostitution suffered long term incest and 90% suffered child abuse. The average age of a prostitute is fourteen years old, but Glenda has seen girls as young as seven. Although there are an alarming number of prostitutes in the US, only four residential programs for prostitutes exist. Most of the women have been told and truly think they are worthless, fat and only useful in the “kitchen and the bedroom.” After deciding to leave their abusive homes, most women turned themselves into sex objects, as this is how they were treated by their families. Many women are mentally ill in some way and are addicted to drugs, alcohol or both. The one commonality by all the women who make it out of prostitution is not mental ability, but a passion to succeed.
Most women first make the decision to change their lives because they are “tired” of living the life of an addict who sells her body and is abused on a daily basis. Many prostitutes have stab or gunshot wounds from “customers.” Not only is their “job” demeaning, they stop making enough money to live after a few years. Older women only get paid $5 a “trick.” Getting out of prostitution is like losing weight and keeping it off as the Reverend described it. It is easy at first, but it gets hard quickly. One needs to possess a great internal strength to change one’s lifestyle. The hardest parts of getting out of prostitution are the addictions, the PTSD, and the change in life style. Any one of those things is challenging, but the women face them all together. Some women must try to break an addiction to heroine, while dealing with the trauma of being beaten and abused on a nightly basis while trying to change from working on a street corner to working in a department store. Another problem the women have is relationships. The only life they knew centered on the need for a man. Even though most women were abused by men, they value men more than women because they are more comfortable with men and they see women as they see themselves, good for nothing but the kitchen and the bedroom. In recovery, the women are taught to value themselves and other women because changing the way the women see themselves is key to helping them stay away from their old lives.
There is little risk of the women being pulled back into prostitution by external factors. The pimps do not like strong women and the women from Safe House epitomize strength. Society however, does little to encourage the women to change. To the average American, prostitution is something “exotic” that is thrilling and mysterious. The prostitutes take societies “extras” because they do what the rest of society refuses to accept. Those who work in prostitution see it differently. Reverend Hope described it as “the distillation of the objectification of women.” Most men who use prostitutes are fairly wealthy, married and want to do something their wives cannot or refuse to do. The women are objects to the men and nothing more. The most important aspect of all prostitution studies is how to help the women stop. It is the desire and passion to change that saves women, but even the Reverend does not know where that drive comes from. Her only thought is that “people change from love, not fear.” New treatments like physical therapy and the principle of Chi have been successful in helping the women maintain their resolve to change. In the end however, if one can develop a method to inspire women to change and stay changed, that person will be a true hero, at least in the eyes of Reverend Hope and her colleges at Safe House San Francisco.
We were received well by the Reverend. She happily welcomed Patrick and I into her home to talk with us, even though she felt a little under the weather. In talking with her I felt that at first she was a little hesitant. It was not clear to her if we genuinely cared or if we were just doing our homework. This is understandable since she knew very little about us before the interview. After a few minutes of talking to her about our topic and why we thought she would be important to talk to, she warmed up to us and was happy to talk. It was clear that she was passionate about her work. There were a few times when she started to choke up, but she took a breath and continued talking. By the end of the interview I felt that she was glad that we came to talk to her. One of the main problems she faces in her work is that most people do not know the truth about prostitution, but in telling us, she knew we would spread her message. Overall Reverend Hope seemed happy to meet with us and hopeful that we would help her in spreading awareness of the injustice of prostitution.
We expected to learn most of what she said about the women in prostitution as well as the challenges they face when they try to get out of it. It makes sense that majority of the women were abused both physically and sexually by friends and family. The effect of this long term abuse would lead to the PTSD that the Reverend talked about. It also makes sense that the women were addicted to drugs. They may have started using as a release from the trauma of their lives and as that addiction spun out of control, they found themselves on the street. Patrick and I were also not surprised that many of the women in prostitution have low IQs or are mentally ill. Even if one is abused, a mentally well person would most likely find safer ways to deal with the pain. We also imagined that changing one’s life would be hard because of the addictions and the culture change. Drugs like heroine are known to be incredibly hard to break addictions from and even people who live “normal” lives know that simple lifestyle changes are difficult so a complete change like the one a prostitute must undertake would be near impossible for a “normal” person to imagine. Although we anticipated the statistics we were told about women in prostitution and how hard it is for them to get out, it was still shocking to hear the truth about the hardships the women face.
The most surprising information Patrick and I learned during our conversation with the Reverend was the fact that society is completely oblivious to the truth about prostitution. After doing very little research I was completely appalled by the prostitution that happens in the world, especially with the prostitution in America. I am amazed and embarrassed that most people of and above my social status are blissfully unaware of the pain and suffering that the “exotic” women on the streets of San Francisco go through. It is hard for me to understand how people could find the sexual exploitation of women anything other than terrible. Crimes like rape and murder make people angry, but some people even protest for the rights of women to be prostitutes. I wonder if those who accept prostitution are uninformed or simply do not believe the stories they hear. There may be some prostitutes who are able to execute their jobs “safely” and are treated with “dignity” but are large majority of women are being taken advantage of, abused and robbed of their right to be dignified. Although I expected many of the horrible statistics about prostitution, I was most surprised by the simple fact that most Americans are completely unaware or do not care about the true plight of prostitutes.
After leaving the Reverend’s home and driving home, I felt enlightened and empowered. There was this great injustice that I had just learned about and I wanted to make a difference. Reverend Hope did not try to convince Patrick and I of anything, she simply told of the truth about the world she worked in. The dark side of society thrives on the streets of the tenderloin and I hope that in bringing light to the issue of prostitution, I can help the desperate women. The Reverend’s attitude toward her work also impressed me. She had goals but she understood what she was doing and how hard it was. She was simply devoting her life to something she cared deeply about. Many people discover an injustice and dive so deep that they become “burned out” but Reverend Hope’s attitude is slow and steady. She works for progress. In working on this project and spreading awareness, I hope that I to can work for progress and improve the situation for prostitutes everywhere, even if it is only by informing a few people or making a small donation. Progress is progress and any act, big or small, is one step closer to bringing justice and dignity to the women of San Francisco and the world.
Interview with Reverend Glenda Hope
Prepared by Patrick Domingo
The interview took place at her house on Monday, April 12th from 7:45pm to 9:00pm. My partner, Nolan Mcpeek-Bechtold. I interviewed Glenda Hope, who is a Presbyterian minister and started SafeHouse SF, which is an organization that helps ex-prostitutes get back on their feet and live normal lives by providing skill building workshops and support groups and other programs that help improve one's overall quality of life. Her experience with prostitutes in the Tenderloin district made her a very worthy candidate to our own project, which is about prostitution in Thailand. Although she doesn't have much experience in Thailand, she definitely helped us understand the psychology and the sociology aspect of prostitution.
Nolan and I were received with a very warming welcome and we were treated extremely courteously, considering the fact that she was sick and a bit tired. I was very humbled at her openness, and she opened up to us from the very beginning. We all hit it off very well and got along great. I have the utmost respect for her as a person, and am inspired by her tenacity and determination and passion for such a minority of people that is looked at as a low-tiered group as far as value is concerned. I can certainly say that although she is physically old, her mindset is anything but. She has more love and passion that most people I've encountered and is truly and inspiration and a role model that I can hopefully emulate someday.
I expected to learn a lot about their organization and what type of reality and the systems that prostitutes have to deal with. I learned that 90% of all the prostitutes who come through Safehouse started out not by choice, and they were all sexually or physically abused by family members, friends, or close relatives. I also learned that most of them came have some form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and that many of them had to have major surgery when they arrived because of so much physical abuse. I was absolutely stunned at some of the stories I heard, some being both so brutal and cruel, and others being absolutely inspiring. I can recall one story where this girl has been on the streets since she was 13, and came in sometime in her early 20's. She worked so hard to get her life back together and now she works two jobs and owns her own house. I can honestly say that that was one of the most inspiring stories I have ever heard.
What surprised me personally, was the difference between how the lifestyle of a prostitute is portrayed in the media and the movies, and how it truly is, and also how society has placed a stigma on prostitutes, leaving only 3 other residential institutions aside from Safehouse SF that do the type of work that it does. This to me, is absolutely unacceptable and I believe serious outreach efforts should be implemented in order to spread awareness of this horrible misconception. I also learned about the increase in mental illness in this country and how when Mrs. Hope was our age, she never knew anyone with mental illnesses of any sort. We also learned about spiritual healing of the mind through natural means, like acupuncture, herbs, and physical therapy.
My overall impression of the interview was a very eye-opening, enlightening experience. I learned how most prostitutes are brought into this business and it was not what I expected at all. I learned about the in's and out's of the business, and how most prostitutes work on their own, contrary to popular belief of the pimp and the cane and fancy hat, as Mrs. Hope put it. Mrs. Hope also kindly pointed out that "people don't change through fear, people change through love," and I absolutely believe that to be 100 percent true. Love is the only way to initiate change, and even though it conquers all, it is much harder to love than to hate.
