?- is there a woman here at DU who has not experienced sexual violence?

[vietnam_war_vet]

138. And there are men who have also been sexually assaulted

I was 10. Three 7th grader boys forced me into a very secluded thicket of bushes and gang-raped me. When the leader of the group couldn't maintain his erection, he grabbed a stick and used it to rape me. I bled profusely. They laughed and just left me there.

I went home. I told me parents what had just occurred. They took me to our family doctor. He had to put stitches inside my anal canal. I eventually healed.

I'll never forget hearing my parents tell our doctor that I had done this to myself.

The leader of that group of 7th graders was the son of the most prominent Catholic family in town. Years later, my parents told me that they had to decide against "believing me" and not doing anything against that boy or the other two boys since my Dad was afraid if he took on that prominent family, he would be blacklisted in our small town, affecting his ability to do business.

So it goes....