Sharing – Your discomfort is not our deadline to move on

I have noticed this talking point appearing in public discourse recently. The one where people continue to talk about trafficking and sexual abuse and are branded as “miserable” or mean-spirited because no one wants to hear about this sad stuff all the time. They should let it go already.

Or, in many cases, we are also asked why we are bringing it up now, rather than when it happened.

Sexual abuse is a difficult subject. No one wants to hear about, let alone talk about it. But that won’t make it go away. It also doesn’t give us a free pass to silence survivors’ voices. As the authors of the article below point out:

Justice does not expire because it makes people uneasy. Survivors do not speak because it is convenient. We speak because harm does not dissolve with time, and silence has never protected us. If accountability feels uncomfortable, that discomfort belongs to the public, not to those who survived the violence.

https://lailluminator.com/2026/02/19/sexual-abuse-deadline/

Do I wish I never had to hear another survivor’s story? Of course, I do. Not because of my discomfort, but because I wish these stories didn’t have to exist. Until there are no more stories, we owe it to survivors not only to hear them, but also to learn from them and take action because of them. Ignoring the truth harms us all and leads to more survivors with stories.

I, for one, will not be silent on the subject.