I saw this post over at Neil’s blog, he’s going to be interviewed about life as a male victim of sexual abuse next Weds. on the Darkness to Light radio show. I’ll be working when the show airs live, but I will be sure to give it a listen from the site shortly afterwards. Obviously, I do have some interest in the topic, and it’s not often you see the topic of sexual abuse specifically of males being addressed, so I’m glad for that, if nothing else!
Pin It’s disheartening to think that I’ve spent over 20 years in the online survivor community advocating that we believe survivors and act on accusations of abuse only to wind up here. This feels like we’ve gone back to the days of sexual violence being unheard of because no one would dare talk about being a victim. It’s enough to make you want to quit. I felt that way last week. As I watched my wife’s hope for women across the country leave her body while also being overwhelmingly angry at people who voted for a criminal and a rapist, I wanted to walk away and shut myself off from the world.
Instead, I stepped away for a few days and reminded myself that there will be innumerable victims of sexual abuse who can’t talk about it and need to know that they are not alone. There are growing numbers of survivors who will be losing their families and friends and need to know that they are not alone. We will all be looking for community.Â
If anything, the importance of staying online and continuing to talk about child abuse, sexual violence, mental health, and supporting vulnerable people is higher now than it has been in the entire time I’ve been doing this. Now is not the time to walk away; it’s the time to fight for survivors.
I ran across this article today, about a high school in Minnesota and how they have, for several years now, assigned students a senior research project on child abuse. I think this is great, and I think that the more people we can get talking, thinking, acknowledging and listening to survivors, the more tools we…
I was listening to the latest BS Report podcast on ESPN today, an interview done by Bill Simmons with Sugar Ray Leonard. I was aware that Ray openly discusses the sexual abuse he suffered as a child in his recent autobiography, but I hardly expected that to be a major portion of the interview. If…
Pin I saw this tweet yesterday shared by a few folks, and I was curious to find out what was going on: Yesterday, I found out that someone I followed and supported on social media has been using their platforms in an incredibly inappropriate way. They have posed as a mental health advocate to connect with…
I can see from my server logs an increasing amount of traffic coming in from specific searches. For the record, this is a site wrtten by someone who was a victim of child abuse, and it contains links to photos that I have taken, mostly from my travels over the last few years. There are…
It was late when I went to bed, later than usual. But that was ok, I had taken a long nap after dinner and spent some time looking at the site and thinking about what I want to do with the site. I fear that the tech side of things has been dominating lately, and…
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It is always hard for anyone, male or female to speak out about the abuse that happens to them in their lives. It takes a lot of nerve for Neil to come forward with his story and I cheer him and support him on every step of the way.
Fighting this terrible crime starts with people like Neil speaking out. The more people who do, the better chance we have to fight against sexual abuse in any human being of any age, especially children.
Stay strong and someday, we will unite,
Ernie Meyer, Author of “The Story of Rita, Risen from Hell” and http://www.rapecounsel.com.