As an erased parent, I'm going to be frank, and a little blunt, not that I'm ever not those things. We needed you to stay. I know how hard this is, I've been erased for two years now. I've lost my career, twice over, have had my business threatened, have had employers called and harassed, friends harassed and manipulated, I've moved hundreds of miles away thinking it would end — it didn't. I'm still not emancipated, 5 years later, with a harrowing domestic violence report that has been sent to CT state legislators and the governor multiple times over the years — without anyone ever sending an email back or a phone call back. To say that it'll never end is sadly an understatement. And at some point, any of us in this situation has to start to understand that it may absolutely never end, but that doesn't mean we can't be loud as hell, and we can never stop fighting for change anywhere, and everywhere we can.

The only way to stop what we've all been facing is to be in a position of power to change it. And ultimately, I know hundreds of us who would have never given this up to change things.