The Powerful Story Behind Erin's Law with Erin Merryn

Before we begin, I want you to know that this episode contains conversation about sexual abuse, suicide and other very sensitive topics. Please take care while listening. Hey there and welcome to let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. A space to talk honestly and get real about mental health, therapy and all things wellness. I'm Lori, licensed therapist, speaker and your host, here to bring you insights, tools and information you can actually use. Whether you're navigating anxiety, healing your relationship with food, or trying to figure out which techniques will work for your life.

I'm so glad you're here.

Let's dive in and let's talk about it.

She experienced the unthinkable as a young child, went on to write several books and for 15 years has been making her way across the states getting legislation passed to require schools to implement prevention oriented childhood sexual abuse programs. She's one of the most inspiring people I know and a force to be reckoned with. And Erin Marin, welcome to the podcast.

Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to talk to you. This has been like 15 years in the making. We went to high school together, didn't know each other personally, but then we ended up in college together and that's when I found your book and contacted you and everything. So we've gone back and forth periodically on Facebook for many, many years now and this podcast literally is like 15 years in the making. So I'm just so grateful to have you here.

No, thanks for reaching out.

There's a lot to get into. But what is Aaron's Law? The reasons you've made it your mission? I mean, this is so powerful and so important and so needed. Give the overview of this mission that you're on because it's so incredible.

Yeah. So for over 15 years I have been going from one state to another passing Aaron's Law, testifying before legislators. The law requires children being taught K to 12th grade personal body safety safe and unsafe touch, safe and unsafe secrets. As I like to say, legislators, the eight ways on how to get away until today, like we were taught in dare. I hold up my DARE card and I tell legislators I knew how to say no to drugs, but I was never educated when I was being abused on how to speak up and tell. The only education I got came from the perpetrators. So I stayed silent. And it is now my mission to make sure every child across this country and world got it passed. In Ontario, Canada has a voice on how to speak up and tell if they're being abused.

How many states has it passed in where. Where Are you at now?

So we are at 38 states, really close to passing it in 39. In Wisconsin, it's passed in the assembly just a few weeks ago. Now we're waiting for the Senate in January to call it for a vote. And Ontario, Canada is the most recent place to pass it.

Didn't India pass it or wasn't there another international.

Yes. So there's a state in India that requires it. The thing there is, I learned judges require laws there. And a judge in that state was seeing so many cases of sexual abuse, he was doing research and stumbled upon Aaron's law. All of a sudden I'm getting Google alerts. Aaron's law is now required in India after a judge was seeing so many cases, he's requiring all schools to teach it. I'm like, that's amazing.

So you didn't even have anything to. Wow.

Nope. Nothing to do with India. Now Ontario, I did, but India, no, it shocked me. I started getting all these news article Google alerts on Aaron. So I'm like, this is amazing. And so I actually found him on LinkedIn and I go, hey, would you be willing to talk on my documentary that's being made to show that you see the importance of this? So why do these remaining 12 states not see the importance?

It's such a perfect example of, you know, the impact you're making. I mean, but it's going to always go above and beyond even what you know you're doing. What are the reasons these states aren't passing it? What is going on? You have an issue in Arizona, didn't you?

God, that was so frustrating. I'm so angry with the legislators in that state. What I run into issues with is school boards, the different organizations that are involved with the schools showing up and lobbying against it because they do not want to require schools telling them what to do by lawmakers. They tell us they don't have enough time to teach this. We are already required to do A, B and C and I say we can make time for our class in choir. We can spend one hour. That's all I ask for a year teaching Aaron's Law. The other issue is these red states and almost all of them are red. That is left thinks this is sex education. It is not. So I always have to address that and tell legislators to word the language. Personal body safety education. Because we live in a world they see the word sex and they all freak, freak. We're teaching kids about changing your gender, what an abortion is and what sex is in first grade. That's not what it is. It's personal body safety education. And so I have to get through these red states and tell them this is just teaching kids on how to speak up and tell. We mandate across this country tornado drills, bus drills, fire drills every year, twice a year. If we are requiring kids and teaching them how to run out of a burning building and duck in cover from a tornado, we're why are we not educating them on personal body safety? Because they are far more likely to be sexually abused than being a tornado, have to evacuate a school bus or run out of a burning building. So this is just, if not more important to teach kids. And that's the argument I make to them and some of the other issues we come up with. As I said, the time is the cost. That is the biggest issue I run up against. Erin, this is an unfunded mandate. How were schools going to afford to teach your law? So after 15 years of doing this, two and a half years ago, I decided to create the Aaron's Law foundation, which now provides the free curriculum to teach Aaron's Law. I made videos. I went back to my former elementary school in the first grade classroom where I once threw tantrums because of what I wasn't telling people and recorded the videos for the curriculum. Talking to students, talking to teachers on the warning signs to look for. Teaching kids on how to speak up and tell on what to do if your friend comes to you and says this is happening to them, letting them know this is not your fault. I wanted to take this full circle and show that you can turn something negative into something positive and wanting to give kids the voice that I never had as a child.

So you've like, dealt with the objection of the time, the cost. I mean, you've provided all of that and you're still bumping up against the resistance of the language and just how people are perceiving it. Unreal. Unreal.

Oh, yeah. And they sit there and make this argument as they recently did in Wisconsin. This is an unfunded mandate. Telling the news, I go, no, come look at my curriculum. You can download it in a matter of minutes on the Aaron's Law foundation website. It's so easy at no cost. And you can literally have it in minutes. Some argue that this is a parent's role. School should not be responsible for teaching this. I wish we could get parents to talk about this, but they don't. They talk to their kids about stranger danger. 90% of the time. Children are not being hurt by strangers, but someone they know. And trust. So if we can't get parents to talk about this, then where's the one other place they spend most their time? In the schools. And sadly, abuse is often going on in the home. Mom doesn't know dad, stepdad, older brother is abusing the children in the house. So they need to get this message outside. A powerful story I recently just heard as I spoke In Nashville, about 300 people at a conference and sitting front row in My audience was three sisters and their mom, two 14 year old twins and a 17 year old. The mom reached out to me exactly a year ago and her letter started off thanking me because she didn't know what Aaron's Law was. And suddenly she's getting a phone call from law enforcement that her then 10 year old learned Aaron's Law and disclosed what her father, biological father, was raping her for years. They were divorced so mom wasn't around to see this on his planned visits. And when she came forward it caused the other two sisters to come forward. This father had been abusing and threatening his children for years. They went through a two and a half year legal battle and last November put their dad in prison for 80 years. Imagine if Tennessee never passed Aaron's Law. These girls right now would very likely still being abused. And it's stories like that that motivates me, that tells me you can't get rid of me because there are kids in these other remaining 12 states that are experiencing exactly what happened to these girls in Nashville and they need to be educated and their abuse needs to be stopped.

Is going to ask you, it's got to be so frustrating fighting against these legislators. What keeps you going? And it is, it's stories like that, it's your own story and you know the lives you're impacting and you're like, I will not stop.

I just had a reporter at my house just a couple weeks ago and they asked me, Aaron, like a state of Wisconsin that kills this bill for 10 years and we're hoping not for it to die again. What keeps you going and keep going back and not just giving up because most people would just be like, okay, this state's just not going to pass it. And I tell the reporters and legislators that I don't want children out there to experience six years of abuse like I did. And the long term effects, how it continues to affect you into adulthood. I don't want them to live with that because I know what it's like just because I'm this outspoken activist, it still definitely has its effects. On me in many negative ways. And then there's the story in New York. New York killed my bill. For eight years. I kept going back, flying out their testifying, meeting with reporters, doing everything I possibly could to get it passed. And you know what I told the lawmakers? One day I will bring you the proof of why I never quit, why I continue to come back and demand that you pass this. And when it finally did pass, I brought them that proof of why I didn't give up. The very first year Aaron's law was taught, nine children that day came forward in one elementary school saying they're being sexually abused. When this went to trial, there were 26 boys from that one elementary school, some were now middle school and high schoolers, who came forward after the current students in the elementary school cried out that they're being abused. And when it went to trial, who were they testifying against? No, not the stranger. They were all being abused by the principal. It's that person, you know, and trust of authority. Shocked the community. Doesn't shock me. This is the reality we live in. And had New York passed my law eight years prior, there were seven, eight, nine year olds on the stand who were not even born or babies and toddlers that could have been prevented from being abused had we passed this years ago. So I use that example to say, we locked up this monster who's now sitting in prison for 63 years, but we could have locked him up a lot sooner and saved a lot more kids from being abused had we passed this. And that story is really helping me in these remaining other states of getting the attention of legislators and saying, hey, we need to talk about this. We need to educate these kids. It works. This is not sex ed.

Yeah. Have you ever had a legislator come back to you and apologize and been like, wow, I'm sorry for being someone who was killing this bill once or ten times.

Yes, I have had some. Or coming back to me and saying, thanks for never giving up. I had a legislator in Indiana who was walking into the hearing with all plans of testifying, I mean, voting against it. And after I testified, he got on his microphone and said, you just completely changed my mind. I came in here planning to vote against this, and you just showed me the impact and the difference this will make in children's lives. And he voted yes. In Illinois. I was warned when I was testifying that there was a legislator in the assembly that is against all school mandates. She does not feel that legislators should tell schools what to do. She thinks it should be Left up to the school boards. So she, in over 16 years as a legislator, had never supported a school mandate. And they said, erin, she's going to get on her microphone, she's going to push others to vote against this. Your goal is to get everybody else to agree because her one vote is not going to matter if you get everyone else to vote yes. Well, I'm sitting there going, what could I say to get this woman to vote yes? So I testified. They get to ask me questions. She was the first on her microphone to break down and cry and said, had Aaron's Law existed when I was a child, I would have broken up and told. But instead, I stayed silent for four years because nobody was teaching me how to speak up until when this family member was abusing me. And she looked around and said, I want every single one of you to vote yes. The newspapers interviewed her because this was the one and only school mandate that she voted yes to. And she even let me interview her when I wrote my third book to show the importance that this law does make a difference. It's those stories that really impact me. Continuing to see the news alerts of another child coming forward as a result of my law that truly keeps me motivated to not give up, to just keep going. Because I know I give up on Wisconsin, Kansas, Kentucky, South Dakota. I feel like I'm failing the kids in those states. And I have a gift for speaking, for testifying. You know, for a lot of survivors, there's shame around this, and they don't want to talk about it. And I don't carry that shame. And I want to be that voice. And I have a way of being able to communicate, to speak to these legislators and wake them up to do the right thing.

I want to ask you about this shame and kind of the more personal end of it. But first, if someone's listening on Aaron's Law, on the website, there's a list of states where it's passed, states that it's pending in, states that you're still just fighting against. If someone's in one of those states, is there anything that someone can do to support you? Phone calls they can make to say, like. Like, how can they rally with this to support it? Or is it just up to you to testify and get them to agree?

No, I need. They need to hear from everybody and anybody. They need the pressure put on them, especially if you live in that state. What I'm asking for now more than ever is the state of Wisconsin because it is so close to being passed and I don't want it to die for the 10th year. And so I tell them to go on the government website for the state of Wisconsin or the state you live in and look up every single senator and representative and, and email them all. Tell them you need to vote yes to Aaron's Law. If you have a personal story you can share, share it. Let them know that this law could have saved you from years of abuse. But yes, it's going on the website and writing them all, really getting the message across to the Education Committee. But right now it's the Senate in Wisconsin. The assembly supported it and I'm getting some resistance in the Senate, so. So it's really getting on the website and writing them and telling them all these other states have passed it. Why not ours? Let's not be the last. And so if you go on Aaron's law.org you will see the map of what states have and have not passed it.

Okay. Yeah, I think if there's more can support.

You can review the curriculum. You can review the curriculum on Aaron's law foundation.org and parents, our parents can download it. I have so many homeschooling moms downloading the curriculum to talk to their kids about it, which I think is awesome because when they fill out the form, it says, I ask people to give me their name. They work in a school district and what their job title is. And it's really cool because I see social workers, teachers, principals, and then I see homeschooling parent. And I'm like, that's awesome. And I keep getting so many. And I'm like, yes, we're getting the homeschooling moms and dads to talk to their kids about this. That's cool.

You say all of this with, like, such passion and you're so calm. And I'm. This is such a big part of your life, right? Like your history, but also now how you've turned it into your mission in life. Erin, how does this, like, as you speak, it makes me tear up hearing these stories and like, how do you stay calm? How does this not consume you day to day and consume your family and your marriage?

Or.

Or does it like, I guess from. From someone listening who's dealt with abuse and been abused?

What?

This is a loaded question. But what can they do to. To move forward in life? And how are you doing this? Because you're not just healing, you're now on this mission and you're not going to stop. And so it's still such a big.

Part of your Life, it keeps me definitely busy and it's a lot more challenging raising four little kids than when I started this 15 years ago and I was a single 25 year old running all over the place, jumping on planes. So it's a balancing act with our schedules, but we make it, we make it happen. My husband likes to say that's one of the main reasons he married me, because he felt like he had to come alongside me and help me get this passed because he saw the difference it is making. And I often tell survivors I was going down such a destructive path in high school. I was so miserable, self harm depressed, a suicide attempt at 16, I was put in a hospital at 18 before I even graduated. And I realized I was harboring so much anger and hatred. I had so many nightmares and flashbacks. I could continue to hate these men and let them take my joy and happiness or I can do something with positive about it. And the one thing I could take back was my voice. And I cannot tell you how empowering it is. Every time I get on a stage and talk about this and like, yep, just shared my story to another group of people, you can't shut me up. And I know for a lot of people there's stage fright, there's shame around this and that's why I talk about it, because I have no shame, I have no fear. I don't know what it feels like to have the butterflies. I've just always been able to get up and talk. So if I can use my story to help other people and inspire them to let go of the shame, to be very vulnerable and tell people how this affects my life, even as a mother, not wanting my children to go to sleepovers, experiencing my kids at the age I was when I was abused, you know, all these just different things. And so, you know, I've learned to balance it and make it, you know, as I said, my mission, I'm not going to let anything get in my way and prevent me. And I hope survivors can see with what I've done with my life, I've been able to take tragedy and turn it into triumph and do something important with it. Because you know, I stopped letting my perpetrators control my life and have power over me.

From what I know too, even just with what I do, you don't have to get on a stage like you're a voice for so many people. But just being in therapy and telling your story or writing in a journal like saying what happened and you're very specific, you use the term survivor, not victim is There a reason for that?

Because I hate, you know, I hate that word. You're not a victim of this. No. You've survived it. Often I look at the victims are, you know, are those that have, you know, died. The people that were murdered in situations. You've survived this don't play the victim role. And I tell a lot of people, you don't gotta go travel the world and stand on stages and do what I do, you know, that's. That's not the case. In order to move forward and heal with your life. And I'm still healing from this. And, you know, it's the importance of talking about it, letting go of the shame and talking about it. The most powerful stories I've come across are the grown men that come up to me with tears in their eyes after hearing me speak and tell me. I can think of three men in particular right now telling me, aaron, I've never told a soul. My wife doesn't know. Nobody knows. This haunts me. I want to take it to my grave.

And I don't.

I don't know why I'm telling you this right now, but you've just moved me, hearing you say, don't keep it a secret anymore. The one thing you could take back from your perpetrators is your voice. And, yeah, you might struggle in therapy, but when you find the person you can connect with, oh, man, there's so much relief there. You know, I remember early on, I'm like, I don't want to talk to anybody about these details, about these horrific things that have happened, and. But once I started talking about it, it was like this weight was being lifted off me. The more and more I said what happened to me? And, yeah, and I just. I experienced relief from it. And I encourage and I tell everyone that comes to me and says, I've never told anyone. You're the first person I'm telling. I told all three of those men. One of them, I'll never forget. The most recent, I reached across the table as he's sitting there. He is the man that organized the entire event to bring me to speak for this conference. And I thought he was coming to thank me because I had a line of people waiting to talk to me, and I thought he was coming. Thank you for coming. And he's standing there, like, hesitant on his words, and I'm like, what's going on? And all of a sudden, his eyes welled up with tears. And I knew in that instant what was about to happen. And he goes, I don't know why I'm telling you this, but I just feel like I just need to tell somebody. And you just moved me here in your message and he told me what happens, and like I told him, I go, do make me a promise. Today's your. Your journey towards healing. You've told me I want you to go home and tell your wife because you have nothing to be ashamed of. And I guarantee you she is going to support you 100%. And then after that, you go find a therapist that works with survivors in trauma that understands what you know, has the expertise with PTSD and you know, and might be experienced with EMDR or other forms of helping survivors of trauma because you've been carrying this alone for far too long and you have nothing to be ashamed of. And it's time you take back your voice.

Those personal stories just make everything so powerful. And I, again, I. Knowing what I do right, and being such a. An integral part of people's lives and knowing things that their spouse doesn't know or that nobody in their life knows. Like, you also hold space for people to do that. And you never know what people are gonna say when they come up to you after speaking. I mean, it's just like you open doors for people and you, again, you. You've been a voice for them without them even realizing it. And then they have a voice now. And is there anything you. Because again, more on the personal end of it, if you have a spouse who's been abused or, you know, they're currently working through something, is there any advice you would give a spouse to support their spouse who has survived sexual abuse?

Yeah. That's huge. Oh, yes, it is huge. I mean, my husband has been an, you know, amazing supporter. But like I tell people, I say you also got to do self care for yourself because if they're telling you horror stories, it's going to be hard to listen to, to hear some especially graphic horrible abuse. You know, my husband's heard things that I will never share on a stage. And as I've said to him, I go, I don't want you to have these thoughts in your head of these horrific things that have happened to your wife. And he's told me, aaron, there's nothing that I'll be afraid of. And I'd rather you tell me than. Than to keep this in, you know, as your spouse, I am here for you and I want people to understand that they're. They're going to support you. And I also want, you know, that spouse to, you know, to. Yeah, I need you to go to therapy. But it's very important, crucial to have your partner be there and talk to a therapist on how can I. How can I help my spouse? How can I be, you know, a support system and knowing I'm doing the right thing? And as I've always said, you got to provide that space and open the door. As my husband has said, Aaron, I've opened the door for you. You can tell me anything you want. I'm not going to force or push you to tell me things you don't want. But the door is open. Don't feel like you have to shield me. Don't protect me. Aaron, you know, I can handle this. I can handle hearing the things that you've experienced and people you know, and a lot of people don't know the backstory. And that's why tal what happened to me When I start my message to show the power predators have on kids. I went to my first sleepover at 6 years old. That's supposed to be exciting time in a child's life. And that's where I was abused. And that's why my kids don't go to overnights in my best friend's home. Her uncle lived there as the male caretaker because her dad wasn't in her life and woke up in the middle of the night to this man sexually abusing me and threatening me. I didn't get the message to speak up. So I continued to be abused. And what started off as just grooming, you know, fondling, turned to horrific situations of being raped that would give you nightmares that I will spare you the details. And, you know, in this, those experiences, I. I was suffering with all the behavior problems. They held me back. I put my hand through a window. I was acting out like it was all the red flags. And they blamed it on, oh, my parents split up and dad moved out. Oh, she's acting out because mom and dad are headed for a divorce. And so that was the excuse they made for my behavior problems. The only reason my abuse ended was because we moved. I was no longer going to be around this perpetrator. All my behavior problems went away. Started at a new school, still in the same school district, Made new friends. I avoided all the sleepovers when they invited me. I didn't trust their dads, stepdads, older brothers. But moving got me that much closer to the next perpetrator in my life. And because I wasn't educated on how to speak up and tell with the first perpetrator, it made me once again a target. And I Once again, in the middle of the night, woke up to being sexually abused while spending the night with my grandparents in their condo. Wasn't my grandparents abusing me. I was there with a bunch of older cousins and my cousin Brian, who was a few years older, woke up to him sexually abusing me. This was the older cousin that I looked up to as the brother I never got. Coming from a family of girls, I trusted him. I looked up to him. He was the standout athlete known in the high school who got great grades. I'll never forget when I finally disclosed my 16 year old sister saying, I just can't see him doing that. And it's often the person you cannot picture doing that, the person you trust with kids. How can a father do this to a child? How can the principal do this to a kid? And this cousin of mine threatened me, Aaron, this is our little secret. No one will believe you. You'll destroy our family. The neighbor it was, I will burn your house down if you tell anyone what I'm doing to you. So these threats kept me silent. So when my cousin was abusing me, I turned to my pink diary that I wrote about lemonade stands, the fun fair at school, the school dance, and I'm now writing about as a fifth, sixth grader, the horrible things my cousin was doing. And it gradually got worse and worse because over time he realized, I'm not telling anyone. And why did I speak up? No, it wasn't that police officer coming in or the social worker teaching me on how to speak up and tell. No, as I tell legislators, as they tell parents, if they're doing it to one kid and getting away with it, they're doing it to somebody else. And my 11 year old sister came to me and said, brian's gross. I remember where I was standing the minute she told me that. Still can picture it. Sitting on a trampoline for four hours after she told me and exchanging stories. The same Thanksgiving, the Christmas, the one time that I got away from him and escaped, he went after her and was abusing her. And with her coming to me, it gave me the courage to we need to tell mom and dad. And that is the reason our abuse ended. And that is why I've made it my crusade to get this passed in all these states. Because I feel had I been educated to speak up and tell, I could have saved my sister from being abused.

I so appreciate you sharing all that. And I know a lot of those stories are in Stolen Innocence and your subsequent books. And you know, again, going to the same high school, you kind of learn where people's houses are. And I can picture your house because I. You know, you just learn. And you know now, right looking back, it's like, oh, I rode my bike. And you never know what's going on in someone's house. Like, it's just.

Interesting. That's interesting you say that because I did a Facebook post of the house I was abused from 6, 7, and 8 in and posted it and said, this looks like just another house in another neighborhood. That you would never know what's going on inside. But the reality is you don't know what's going on inside with the house behind you, the house next door or down the street. It may look like the picture perfect family. Little do you know what's going on behind closed doors. I put that post just to make a point, having no idea what would come with that. And I would get a private message on my Aaron's Law page saying, aaron, is that Ashley's house? I played in that house for years. After I moved away, she moved to the neighborhood. And she knew exactly who Richard was because he groomed her. And she started exchanging stories with me of how it started. And this is how predators groom kids, with him coming up, playing with her hair. From there, he was massaging her shoulders, and she'd just be like, oh, get off me. She was all creeped out. And the. And the final point came when she was in a back bedroom, and he came up and cornered her and pushed her himself up against the closet. She goes, aaron. I could feel that he had an erection, like, and she freaked out, pushed him off and said, get away. And she escaped out of the house and never went around that man again and saved herself from being hurt. But he groomed her and had all intentions of doing what he did to me. And this is the pattern I show people. They will keep doing it until they're stopped. They're monsters. They will not stop. And they often have multiple victims.

That whole idea of you just never know what's going on behind closed doors again, it's just. It's disgusting.

It's scary. All the more reason to be passed. Yeah, it is. We need to talk about it. Look at the stuff that has gone on. Epstein, Jerry, Sandusky. The list goes on and on. Yet as a society, we sweep it under the rug. Want to look away. When I tell people and I tell legislators, every single one of you in this room knows somebody that this has happened to. They just haven't spoken up yet. And it's it's the truth. One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused by the age of 18. 90% of the time they know who their perpetrator is. So this is why. Staggering.

Staggering.

Yep. This is why I keep fighting. This is why I won't give up. And I will spend the rest of my life fighting to get this, get this passed. And I don't know what the end result will look like, but I hope someone will, you know, step in after I'm not here and finish what, what either I couldn't finish or helping me take it international.

And now I think at this point in your life, you don't know what it's like to not be a crusader. And I think that's just like, you only know, you know this and it's come from again, right? Like you've just risen like a phoenix and this is your mission. And again, because your sister said something and you were like, oh, what wtf? Like that, you know, you were speaking and then you were just. I mean, it's just wild.

It's wild. It's so, it's so needed and, and it's, it's hard for some people to hear this, but I wouldn't change my past because it has had a far more bigger impact on helping people, on saving lives, on protecting kids. Then you know, just, just me living with what I've experienced and having to carry that far more good has come out of it than evil.

It's so impactful. And I know, oh my gosh, I just appreciate you so much. Again, I've known you for a very long time. I know you gotta go get your little ones from school and everything, but there's a documentary you're working on. Like, tell me just a little bit about that. And you've spent 15 years now again crusading. Where do you see yourself in the next 15 years?

So I'm always trying to check boxes and get creative, especially with so much resistance in these 12 states. So I created the funding, you know, piece of. It's no longer on funded mandate. I've proven the point. This is one hour out of a school year. Not asking for weeks and weeks. And one other idea I got is I have learned legislators love being in the spotlight for doing good things, love the media attention. They have big egos, it's no secret. And so if I can tell them cameras are following me and you can be on camera being a champion for kids, making you look amazing and put you on this pedestal, oh my God. I'm getting so many people's attention. Legislators. The cameras are following me. I'm showing these other legislators. Look, there's cameras following me. Two state capitals this past year. Arizona, Iowa, Madison, Wisconsin. And they're sitting down with these bill sponsors, talking to them and asking them, why are you sponsoring this? How important is this to teach? And so I'm once again trying to find another avenue. And with. With filmmakers now following me for the last year and a half, it's going to get the message out there, I want the survivors to hear it, that you have nothing to be ashamed of and. And that, you know, those that will just stumble across it, that don't know what it is to give them the courage to break their silence and send a message to these legislators. Look at what this law has done. We are hearing those Tennessee girls are all going to be in the documentary. They're actually excited to be in it. They're like, yes, we get. You know, which is amazing because so many don't want to talk about this. I go, you girls are going to help so many people by being so brave and sitting down and talking about this. A mother up in New York, one of the mothers of one of those boys was abused by the principal. She's on it. A mother in Georgia reached out to me, thanking me, because her daughter told her within 24 hours what Grandpa did to her on her birthday. And you know what she said to her mom when she told her mom I knew what to do because I was taught Aaron's Law. I'm like, oh, my gosh. Wow. Yeah. Yes. This is why I do it. And every time you. I'll say, there are times where I'm just, like, pulling at my hair going, oh, my gosh. I've spent thousands of days of hours trying to get this passed in some of these states. And it's always around this time that it's like, just when I need to hear another kid coming forward, it's like my tank fills up again and gives me all this energy to just go out there, get it done. Awesome.

Is there a date for when the documentary comes out? Do you know yet?

There is. There is not. They're continuing to follow me. They're thinking sometime in 2027. Okay, I'm. I'm gonna say middle to, you know, because once they get all this filming done, then you gotta go through the whole editing process. Lawyers, music licensing. It's so much that goes into just that, that I've learned along the way.

All right, well, that is definitely something to look forward to. I'm going to link your books. I'm going to link Aaron's law pages and sites and everything exactly like you said. How to support this in these. What is it? Is it 12 states? That we're.

12 remaining states? Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

So we're going to help those states get it passed and everything. I just, I appreciate you so much. And again, just that. That personal time makes this so much more for me because we grew up, you know, in the same town. It's just. It's so crazy how full circle this has come. So, you know, I'm just, I'm happy to support you and it's been such an incredible journey to just watch everything you've accomplished, and I appreciate you so much. I know this is so helpful. So I just. I can't thank you enough from the bottom of my heart for everything you do. Because I talk about it in sessions with my clients. I have parents who ask me, like, how do I talk to my kid? I about this? Because I got this letter from school. So, you know, it's happening in my conversations too. Like, even if I didn't know you, they would still be asking those questions. So that's just how impactful this is and how far it's reaching. So I just. Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much, Erin. I appreciate you. Keep going. And we're all here behind you as your. Your warriors to back you up.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thanks for hanging out with me today on let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. If this episode episode resonated with you, it would mean so much if you'd leave a five star review, share it with a friend, or come say hi on Instagram at Laurie Streeter. Your support will help this podcast grow. And I so appreciate you being here today. I want to help people just like you feel like they're not alone and gain the tools they need to grow. Until next time, take care.