Help Laura LeMoon Shine in Milan

Hi everyone! My name is Laura LeMoon and I am a sex trafficking survivor and photographer who is asking help to get to Milan to attend my awards ceremony for the International Prize Leonardo da Vinci - The Universal Artist, in Milan, Italy. I won this award in March 2025 for my photography series on violence against people in the sex trade by being scouted by curators and art critics throughout Italy as well as the Effetto Arte Fondazione in Palermo, Italy. The awards ceremony for all of this years' recipients will be held at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan on June 7th and will be attended by the artistic elite of the world, as well as many artists, politicians, and public figures. I have the hotel mostly covered through a generous friend offering to donate her hotel points, and a donation from a benefactor to cover airfare. I am mostly looking for assistance with costs associated with food, transportation, and the cost of getting a beautiful evening gown and attendance to the ceremony. I work for the state of Washington, but because of the state budget deficit and the war on DEI programs, I have been laid off along with hundreds of other state employees.

Registration for the awards ceremony must be submitted by April 30th, so I am in a hurry to get these funds together before this month is over.

Laura LeMoon is a sex trafficking survivor, writer, and artist whose series on violence against people in the sex trade has been exhibited in Tokyo, London, NYC, LA and will soon be exhibited later in 2025 in Athens, Greece and Melbourne, Australia. Her essays and criticisms have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Rumpus, Salon, HuffPost, the Daily Beast, and many more. She has served as a consultant on issues of sex trafficking to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, CDC, US Department of Justice, United Nations Human Rights Committee, White House Domestic Policy Council, and the United Nations Human Rights Council. She has testified in Geneva and DC against the U.S. governments' treatment of people in the sex trade, at worldwide UN headquarters and the White House. She is a tireless advocate for her communities and all communities oppressed and silenced by the powers that be. She has the immense courage to stand up to national and international governmental bodies and take all of the risks associated. She is brave, committed, and a true activist in heart and action. Let's help her to get to Milan and get some of the appreciation she so much deserves.

Sex trafficking survivors deserve more than to just survive life - they deserve to THRIVE in it.