Many facts about my relationship with my dad, Dan Hogan, are not on my website. It is sad, but he has demonstrated for many years that if I do not enforce strong boundaries, then I cannot trust him. In addition to the few things I mentioned in my last open letter, the following is a major reason I do not trust him when he tries to use money and coercion to get what he wants.
Dan Hogan tried to trick, then coerce my sister
When my sister was pregnant with my niece, our dad, Dan Hogan, told her that he would pay for my sister to live at a place that would teach her how to be a great mother. He drove her from Houston to Austin and took her to a facility there. Our dad, and the workers there, told her that they would teach her to be a good mother if she stayed with them during her pregnancy. They tried to get her to sign papers without letting her read them and to get her to check-in to the facility.
The truth was that the facility was a lock-in facility for pregnant girls and the papers were adoption papers. Our dad tried to trick her into signing away her liberty and her parental rights. (She was an adult, so our father, Dan Hogan, could not sign the papers for her.) He told her that he would only help her if she signed the papers, and he kept his word. My sister did not sign the papers or stay at the lock-in facility. She returned to Houston and had her baby without help from my dad.
Because of the way he treated my sister, I did not talk to my dad, Dan Hogan, for over three years and I did not see him for five years.
In my dad’s business, Lord & Hogan, he teaches people to generally avoid giving away their power
. Dan Hogan taught me and my sister, and he still teaches his clients, that if we do not give control of our lives to other people, then it is more difficult for them to hurt us.
Despite teaching people not to give away any of their power, Dan Hogan wanted my sister to give away all of her power. First, he lied to her so she would sign the papers, then he tried to coerce her with money: he would only help her if she gave her power to him.
Now, he wants me to give him control over my life. This is not the first time he has offered to “help” me by saying that all I have to do is give some control of my life to him and then he will help me. He has a bizarre history of this strategy, and I cannot think of a time it was good idea for my sister or for me.
