In a twist so ironic that we’re still trying to recover, Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz has publicly called for world-renowned pop star Britney Spears to testify before Congress regarding the abusive conservatorship she’s been imprisoned in under her father for years now.
For the past 13 years, Britney Spears has been trapped in a conservatorship under her father which has brutally robbed her of her agency as well as her ability to control her own finances in any way.
On Wednesday, Spears delivered an emotional testimony during a hearing on the conservatorship, during which she likened her abusive experience to that of a victim of sex trafficking.
“I worked seven days a week, no days off — which in California, the only similar thing to this is called sex trafficking, making anyone work — work against their will. Taking all their possessions away — credit card, cash, phone, passport card — and placing them in a home where they — they work with the people who live with them,” the pop star told Judge Brenda Penny during this week’s hearing in a Los Angeles court.
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“If I didn’t do any of my meetings and work from 8 to 6 at night — which is 10 hours a day, seven days a week, no days off — I wouldn’t be able to see my kids or my boyfriend. I never had a say in my schedule,” Spears explained. “They always told me I had to do this. And ma’am, I will tell you, sitting in a chair 10 hours a day, seven days a week, it ain’t fun. And especially when you can’t walk out the front door.”
Matt Gaetz, on the other hand, is a rich, white Congressman who is currently under active investigation for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old girl and possibly paying her to cross state lines with him, which is a violation of sex trafficking laws. Gaetz has long had strong ties to Joel Greenberg, who recently pleaded guilty to several of these same sex crimes, and investigators believe that Gaetz met young women to pay for sexual acts through his old acquaintance. Greenberg’s correspondence confirms that he and Gaetz were inappropriately involved with a 17-year-old girl who they claimed to believe was 19 at the time.
Given the way Spears described her abuse, likening it to sex trafficking, and Gaetz’s own experience with the crime from the other end of the spectrum, it was quite ironic when the FL GOPer had this to say:
Britney Spears wants to tell her story to the world.
She wants to use the experiences that have happened to her to cause broader change, and I think we ought to give her that opportunity in the United States Congress. #FreeBritney pic.twitter.com/dggL8PES1o
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) June 25, 2021
You don’t get to do that, Gaetz. You do not get to cover the abuse you perpetrate by trying to behave as some sort of martyr for victims.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
