Marques Houston is 39 years old. In an earlier statement, he said they started dating "after" she turned 18. I don't believe him, but even if it is true, this is an example of predatory grooming. Here's why I always feel the need to call this out... http://theblast.com/140907/marques-houston-marries-19-year-old-miya-dickey

Society--to some extent--has normalized the troupe of older men dating young women, labeling it as a "preference". In reality, these men are mostly drawn to these women's naivety & their capacity to be manipulated and controlled. It has little to do with their youthful beauty.

I was pursued by grown men as a teen and was often told it was because I was "mature for my age". I was told multiple times that a boy my age wouldn't be able to give me what I needed. (First of all, no 16-19 year-old knows what they NEED from a romantic partner.)

I feel for this a few times. What would come next was constant monitoring (calling/texting needing to know my whereabouts), pressure to engage in sexual acts, and attempts to isolate me from friends and family.

What's wild is I was a trained peer educator on sexual health& healthy relationships. So for a while, I blamed myself for getting mixed up w/ those people. But that is how manipulation works--even though u know the signs, abusers will gaslight you into thinking they're different.

Years later in my mid-twenties, I started teaching teenage girls and so many of them had very similar stories. They were told the same lies and like me, were being groomed without even realizing it.

One of my students even had a man teach her the laws on statutory r*pe in our city, as an attempt to show her that even though she wasn't 18, he couldn't be charged....

It wasn't until I looked in their baby faces & listened to their naive hopes for being with these creeps forever that I realized how often this predatory prey-book is used. It made me sick.

We would have longggg talks about healthy relationships and a number of girls who were in those situations later talked to me about distancing themselves from those men.

(Also, I would always repeat I was a mandated reporter so when I had those 1-on-1's, girls would usually give me the "boyfriend's" name and I would have it investigated.) I bring this up bc I had let admins know before doing this...

...and would be often be told BY SCHOOL STAFF that the student was "fast" and shouldn't be "hanging out with grown men". (Forgot to mention all my students were Black girls-- important to note).

I'll have to write something longer on this later but in short, CALL THIS SHIT OUT EVERY TIME-- especially when it happens to Black girls. It is not normal. They are not "fast". They are not "mature for their age". They are being GROOMED.

WAIT so the teen MH married was classified as a run away at age 16. She was adopted by a family in another state 4 years prior. This 100000% confirms for me he is deff a predator. They prey on girls surviving childhood trauma. https://www.allaboutlaughs.com/marques-houston-39-announced-engaged-to-19-year-old-miyana-dickey-who-was-declared-a-missing-person-at-the-age-of-15-fans-pull-receipts/