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April 21st, 2021

A respectable collegue

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The next day I walked down the stairs to the hotel, aware that he was sitting at the table having breakfast. Some things you think would never happen to you, you think that working externally with a colleague (married and with children) is not dangerous. But then in a moment...
October 15th, 2019

I will not stay silent

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I was raped at the age of 12 in November of 2018 by a guy who had invited me to stay at his house for the night when I had ran away from my house. The moment I entered his room, I knew I had made the wrong decision because...
April 17th, 2021

“I should do this more often”

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I was 6 the first time a man ever touched me. At the time I didn’t know it was wrong, I thought it was normal. My biological father would touch me in the bath and help lotion me up afterwards massaging me as he does. I knew I didn’t like...
June 24th, 2020

Too naïve

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I was 16. I had my first job, a lifeguard. I was so excited. I have been a swimmer since I was 5 so this was a very fitting job for me. I was the youngest person working there by far. Most of the kids were in college and one...
April 21st, 2019

My life as a survivor

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Hi this all began when a time of innocence and being a child at that time was easy and I had no fears of what life was all about my first time I was touched by a guest in my parents home for a party no one noticed what was...
July 21st, 2020

He ignored me

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I was 15 when i was raped. He was my boyfriend at the time. He told me to make him a visit, I did that and after a while we started to kiss and mess around. But when it came down to do something sexually I refused but he completely...
May 26th, 2020

My Last Party

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It was my first year of college. I was the type that hated parties since high school so I barely go out. But our midterms were finished and my friend insisted we should go. So I decided to call my boyfriend too. I remember the party was too loud and...
October 15th, 2022

Male dancer

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Hello my Name is Tj. This happen about 4 years ago I was 19 years old at very young age I always tried to see the good in people. I was always happy and felt nothing could break me down went threw cancer as a baby lost my brother and...
May 24th, 2019

The Statistics that Changed Me

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2 sexual assaults and 1 rape… the statistics of my story. I can’t promise that this story is pleasant, but I can tell you that power and growth comes with telling it. So sincerely, thank you for hearing me out. October 2017 I was in Chebut, Argentina(a part of the...
August 18th, 2019

Abusée par un voisin de mes grands...

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Bonjour chère Linor, Je suis en train de regarder Brave Miss World. Merci! Je témoigne car j’en ai peu parlé dans ma vie. J’avais 4 ou 5 ans. Je vivais avec mes grands-parents et ils me posaient parfois le samedi chez la voisine qui me gardait pour aller à un...
December 7th, 2019

Things do get better

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I am a very happy person now. I’m dating the best person I know but I, too had a horrible history. I was bullied in high school. It all started when I was invited to a party. I went there and a guy offered me a drink and dumb me...
July 16th, 2018

Brother Abused

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When I was about 6, my 12-year-old brother ordered me to take off my pants, and proceeded to rape me. Of course, I didn’t know what he was doing, I just had to obey him. He had me have intercourse fairly regularly, even just taking me to his room when...
May 8th, 2019

Spoke out and was blamed

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I am the only girl at a job of 4 men. I am also 20 while these men are 40+. One worker would grab me from behind when I would walk in the back to the bathroom. This would happen often. One day all my coworkers had to go outside...
January 10th, 2021

Michael B. raped me

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When I was 17 years old I went to a job interview at Priority Records. Michael B. was there interviewing me. He took me out that night to a place called Boardners in Hollywood. He gave me a lethal dose of strong Ecstasy. I nearly overdosed as I struggled to...
May 9th, 2019

The First Time

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When I was 7 years old my mother met a man. I immediately thought of him as a father figure. They got married only 6 weeks after knowing each other. Just days before their wedding in a hotel me and my brother were washing dishes and the man called me...
October 12th, 2023

Workplace Sexual Harassment

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As I write this story to you, please note that this sexual harassment case is still in progress. It began in December of 2022 when I worked as a contractor for a company named TEKsystems. I do IT work for Nutrien Ag Solutions. The first week I was there, I...
July 14th, 2020

Raped in a Psychiatric Hospital in the...

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I apologize for not being able to share my name at this stage- my case is still under investigation, and I do not wish to jeopardize this. The shroud of silence is quadrupled when one is mentally ill and the perpetrator is someone who is meant to be a healer....
June 8th, 2019

We had sex before

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I met this guy in class and he wasn’t really my type but he was really into me and liked me so I thought I’d give him a chance. We hungout a couple times and eventually had consensual sex a couple of times. I realized I didn’t want anything romantic...
June 21st, 2021

Drugged raped and failed by justice

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On March 31st, 2017, I planned an early evening out wanting to catch up with my good friend Wendy, 35, a teacher for the Santa Clara County Juvenile Detention Center. We went to a place in Downtown Willow Glen. Wendy picked me up from my home about 8 pm. We...
June 20th, 2021

Your truth will change someones’ life.

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Brave Miss World is the first time I knew someone understands the gravity and the depth of what sexual violence does to the souls of the victims but their families. The battle to reclaim my soul’s back is the hardest work I will ever face. The internal growth is where...
December 26th, 2019

Ms.

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I was raped by a co-worker when I was in my mid-20’s. We were at a work function, we were all drinking, then about 10 of us went to his place to continue the party. He grabbed me on my way out of the washroom and dragged me into his...
April 21st, 2019

4th grade

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I an finally seeking help and starting therapy next Sunday for an on going sexual assult that occured in 4th grade. It happened in a dark classroom behind his big desk. All I could do was focus on the sparce light coming through the window, the rattle of his belt,...
August 30th, 2019

My story growing up with a secret

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I’m a black South African, I’m 40 years old now, and my son it 20 years old… loved, taught but I still can never live him alone with my nieces as I was left alone and violeted💔💔😭😭 I have spoken about this, but I hate putting this down in writting😭😭...
January 11th, 2016

Dad and Uncle Raped Me

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I was 12 years old. Christmas Eve 1995 when I was home with my dad and his brother who my uncle. They were drinking, I was in my room sleeping when my uncle came in and took my pants off. He was kissing and touching me. He said he wanted...
June 21st, 2021

Drugged raped and failed by justice

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On March 31st, 2017, I planned an early evening out wanting to catch up with my good friend Wendy, 35, a teacher for the Santa Clara County Juvenile Detention Center. We went to a place in Downtown Willow Glen. Wendy picked me up from my home about 8 pm. We...
July 8th, 2021

Dad Raped Me

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1) this man “casually” crossed my boundaries. When I told him to stop, he did, but throughout the encounter he continued to ask me if I would like it if he did the thing that I told him explicitly he could not do. I never mentioned this interaction being poor...
April 14th, 2023

My “Father”

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When I was 10, my father twisted my mind into thinking sex was convenient and normal between a father and daughter. I was so small and innocent that I didn’t know what to believe, but I was too scared and weak to do anything about it. For the next 5...
September 18th, 2019

Raped in the Air Force

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My first duty stationed 28 years ago, i was sexually assaulted by my first supervisor and violently raped by an officer in my unit. The violence of that raped, ruined me for a long time. Suffer from severe PTSD and after 31 years i am being forced out of the...
September 15th, 2019

Online Dangers

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I had an online friend named Brandon, and he was shockingly nice. I was around 14 at the time. We decided to meet up because he was the town over and i could walk there. So I walked to his house and we got to know eachother. At one point,...
July 24th, 2019

LOST

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When I was 5 years old, I was sexually assaulted by many men. The next day I tried to kill myself. At the age of 10, I was raped and again tried to end it by ending my life. I also am a survivor of FASD and there for not...
March 17th, 2023

Indigo

I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on our weekly journey across the Bay Bridge to the Campus. The other student was an accomplished Quilter named Linda MacDonald. Linda lived in Willits near the famous Mendocino Art Center, but traveled to Berkeley to attend this class once a week. The Indigo vat was made in a 32-gallon garbage can and had to be kept covered between dyeing sessions. Indigo is a unique rich blue dye that develops with an oxidization process when exposed to air. Dipping the fabric several times, and allowing the natural fiber to oxidize before dipping it again, creates darker shades of blue. The dye in the vat is created from a mixture of indigo pigment, various chemicals and a reducing agent to remove oxygen from the dye. It is a rich green color while in the vat, which shows up on the fabric before it is fully exposed to the air. The smell emitted from the dye is unusual, a musky odor in my mind. I like to think that it smells like the color blue. The vat needs to be carefully stirred and maintained between dyeing sessions. There is a “bloom” on the top of the vat created by oxidized indigo, making a bubbly and shiny ball of material reminiscent of a flower. The “bloom” gets moved to the side before entry of the pre-wetted fabric. The process reminds me of baking bread or making yogurt where the steps need to be carefully followed to achieve the desired results. In the process of bread and yogurt making, there are living cultures involved in order to create the product, and with the creation and dyeing process of indigo, it has that same feeling of being alive. In order to create interesting patterns, my classmates and I would use resist techniques on the fabric like pastes, stitching and clamping. Simple household items like clothespins could be used to create patterns by folding and then placing the pins at intervals along the fold lines. Beautiful and surprising results were achieved using these methods. Image of Indigo dye on fabric during the oxidization process. My dream of being a professional artist, all started in early childhood, and the first memories of my creations go back to Nursery School. I loved playing with all kinds of materials, like paint, clay, and crayons, just to name a few examples. Mel (Melanie), painting at Jack and Jill Nursery School, Walnut Creek, California, 1960. In 1974, a neighbor in Marin where I was living at the time and studying art at College of Marin told me about an Art School in Mexico. I ended up sending off slides of my work with an application to the Instituto Allende, and was delighted to hear that I was accepted. I began my journey to study there in San Miguel de Allende by flying to Mexico City in January of 1975. A bus ride completed that journey. When I first arrived, I moved in with a family who had two small children, including a newborn. It seemed like a safe living situation for a 19-year-old woman, but that shortly proved to not be true when the husband started coming on to me. I ended up finding my own place on the other side of town. It was a spacious abode with a wall that was shared with a weaving factory next door. There were 2 adjoined bedrooms, a bathroom, a large living/kitchen area and a small concrete patio out the back door. There was no hot water, refrigerator or a telephone. When I needed hot water for dishes, I would boil some on the stove. For showers, I had to build a fire in a box below a water tank outside to get hot water. I felt much more secure living there and walking a further distance to the Instituto on the other side of town than living with the husband who had made me feel so unsafe. There was the Central Plaza, which was called the “Jardin” that was in the middle of town, and I would pass through it on my walk quite frequently. This was the site of fireworks and festivals, like the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. The streets were cobblestone and many charming shops and galleries were located downtown. The School itself was on a beautiful campus with large ornate doors in front that were closed when school was not in session. Photo of the closed front doors of the Instituto Allende I had heard about you and what you had done to other women before you appeared in my main living space one sunny spring afternoon pointing a gun at me. You had a bandana wrapped around your face and tied behind your head. I had heard you first, in the bathroom. Dressed in a long polyester dress with colorful psychedelic patterns. I wasn’t wearing any underwear or shoes. I walked through the 2 bedrooms and turned left when I saw you standing there. I screamed and shouted, “help me,” thinking that workers at the Weaving Factory would hear me and come rescue me. Nobody came. You said to me “Coyote” which I later learned meant to be quiet or to shut up. You grabbed my shoulders and dragged me out the unlocked back door onto the concrete patio. The tops of my feet got scraped. I gave up. I knew you were going to rape me. I just wanted you to finish as quickly as possible. You took off your belt and put down your gun. Somehow I managed to pick up your gun and threw it over the wall embedded with glass on the top, into the alleyway. The same wall you had climbed over to get into my place through the unlocked back door. Towards the end of this ordeal, I heard a knock on my door. You left, climbing back over the wall. I answered the door. My friend Rhonda had come by to visit me. I told her what had happened and we walked to the Police Station nearby. I had your belt with me. The one you left behind. I went to the front counter, telling the officers behind the counter what had happened to me. They were laughing and playing cards at the time. I showed them your belt. They told me to bring you in if I saw you again. I left with Rhonda and took a bath at the where place she lived. We didn’t talk about what happened. We moved in together shortly after that. I sent a telegram to my father and stepmother about what had happened to me. Nobody came to help me. Rhonda helped me when I got hepatitis A and could no longer go to school. I was on my own when it came to figuring out how to return to the Bay Area. I moved in with my father and stepmother. They didn’t talk to me about what happened to me. They sent me to a doctor who diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes. He showed me how to give myself insulin injections. He told me to practice by injecting oranges with empty syringes. My mother told me years later that “You were never the same again” after what you did to me. I survived. I gave up art for 15 years before realizing that I wanted to go back to art school. In those years, I became so disturbed that I had panic attacks, deep depression and needed to move in with my mother at age 30. I started therapy after becoming self destructive in my 20’s. Depression also called “the blues” has been my long time companion. It has taken me a lifetime to heal. My iPhone predicts the words, depression, PTSD and C-PTSD for my text messages. After my Indigo dyeing class at San Francisco State, I enrolled in the Textiles Fine Art program at California College of Arts and Crafts (now known as California College of the Arts) in Oakland. I was married at the time and had become pregnant with our daughter Emily right before classes started in September. Emily was born on May 13, 1991. By the Fall of 1992, I was a single mom and an art student. An inheritance from my mother who died in 1995, allowed me to graduate and to buy my first home. I continued to work with indigo dyeing and created a large textile piece about my experience in Mexico. After many years of therapy and other healing modalities, I recently started painting on canvas. Part of that process has been a Soul Retrieval session to bring back my 4 year old self who loved to paint. I am feeling uplifted and encouraged after many years of recurring periods of severe emotional pain. Stay tuned for more details about my new work. One of my final pieces was a textile called “Out of the Blues.”
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I returned to fine art in 1990 when I took at class in indigo dyeing at San Francisco State University. I was lucky that the instructor, Yoshiko Wada, and another student from her class, were in the East Bay so that we could carpool together. We would talk textiles on...
October 25th, 2020

so forceful

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It was 2 weeks after my 17th birthday. I was talking to this guy 3 years older than me, I had found myself really catching feelings for him. One night we had planned a sleepover at his house. Before i got there i already told him that i didn’t want...
December 26th, 2020

I don’t know what to do

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Today I was hanging with my brother’s friend at my house and he held me down and tried to have sex with me. I repeatedly said no. I pushed his hands away but he held me down. He asked once more, i said no, he said he wants to take...
April 1st, 2021

Sex doll

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After work one night I was drugged by a co-worker. I woke up in his bed naked. He was not in the room. I felt 2 emotions very heavily and immediately. Shame and wrong. I remember looking around for my clothes in a panic. I don’t remember how I got...
April 27th, 2019

Everyone Else Likes You, Too

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I had never been to a bar before. Sure, I’d gone out to Applebees with other coworkers where they’d serve me drinks. But I was 19, and had to drive home. I had never been drunk before, and didn’t push my limits. I went to the bar to see him...
April 16th, 2020

3 years on

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I don’t know why I’m writing this out. Maybe so I don’t feel alone, or maybe to just have it in writing, I don’t know. 3 years ago on the 19th I was raped. I can say that now, not that I’m proud of that but I can say it....
January 4th, 2021

Michelle Johnston

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I just wanted to write on here. Something amazing happened today. I came home and my mom was telling me about this documentary and how Linor was trying to encourage woman to speak out. I got a lump in my throat as I had just reported the rape that happened...
April 20th, 2019

At 17yr old was raped by my...

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I became pregnant at age 16, forced to marry months later at 17, I went through domestic violence, physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse by him, my husband and my family did nothing to help me out of the nightmare! After 2 yrs I got out with the help of...
January 20th, 2020

School Bathroom

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I was sexually harassed for a period of two years by a group of eleven boys. The ringleader was stalking me both on and off campus as well as online. One day he followed me into a bathroom and pushed me against a wall when I turned to confront him....
January 23rd, 2019

Raped by my boyfriend

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I was 15 when it happened and my boyfriend was 18. I’d met him as he and his mum worked with my mum. we started dating and were told not to do any funny business, then we went out to watch the Christmas Light switch on and as it finished...
May 25th, 2019

The Trauma That Made Me

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I was raised in a broken home in a broken home from a pretty young age. Not young enough that it’s all I ever knew, but young enough that visitation schedules were a steady part of my life. I am the oldest of my parent’s 3 children, but my dad...
July 25th, 2023

Older

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When I was 16, I was introduced to a 24 year old retired marine who has had a very difficult life. We became friends first and I wanted to help him through his breakup and fix his depression. We then started dating. A few months into the relationship, after I...
November 3rd, 2019

No

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I was sexually assaulted at 10 years old. I need help.
June 16th, 2019

Survivor #metoo

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I’m a mere eighteen years old, and I have been sexually assaulted. Twice. It’s not something I ever expected to have to go through myself. I remember when I first learned what sexual assault was in fifth grade; I was ten years old. How was I supposed to know to...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

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My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
June 11th, 2020

Afraid, Ashamed and Alone

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It was a family member. I was sleeping over at their house because my mom had to get a cancerous spot removed on the back of her head. He touched me. He continued to touch me. And i just froze up. The next day, I tried to act like everything...
July 10th, 2019

So drunk I can’t remember

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I was turning 18. I was partying like any teen would. I drank a lot. I threw up, sat down. They picked me up and put me in their car. They said “don’t worry we’ll take care of you. You won’t miss the bus”. I remember lying on the bed...
May 7th, 2020

3 Different Times

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The first time I ever experienced sexual assault or anything sexually was when I was around the ages of 7-9 and I was in the sea. I know it might sound crazy. But I was in the sea. I remember it was a man, he didn’t look old, but he...
October 6th, 2021

My Mother was raped and told me...

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Back in 1983 my Mother got really drunk. She told me about the time when she was raped in Sept. of 1971. She went in explicit details about it/ In Feb of 1971 My father dissapeared. He was in the insurance buisness and got involved in white collar fraud and...
June 23rd, 2014

I’ve Never Told Anyone Before

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I was first raped at the age of 13 hanging out with my friends when I wasn’t supposed to be. It was one of my friends there who was the son of my best friend. To this day you are the first that I have told. I did not tell...
March 3rd, 2021

My protector, my father, my rapist all...

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I remember the first time like it was yesterday. I was asked if I would like to “play a game”. Come to find out I didn’t like that game. I don’t think I’ll ever like THAT game. I was THREE the first time, and 13 the last. I was raped...
August 17th, 2019

My/our German “Weinstein” Case

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My name is Jany Tempel. I live both in Germany and Thailand. I turned public now, to end the big silence of our country. Almost twenty years ago I had already written a novel about my arduous life. The book wasn’t published back then, mainly because I reported on crimes...
May 19th, 2022

It started with you.

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When I was 16, I was socially awkward, shy and kept to myself. I had a small group of friends and didn’t venture far from them. At home, I was funny, happy and played the annoying little sister act pretty well. I was known for being respectful, caring and well...
May 21st, 2019

raped by my own brother

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I was maybe 11 or 12 when i got raped by my brother. He would put me in his room and take off his pants and tell me to touch his penis and I was so scared i did. then he would take off my pants and touck my private...
December 5th, 2020

Summer 2019

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I got my first job working at a lovely Mediterranean restaurant/cafe one summer because my teacher said she knew the man who ran the place and put in a reference for me. I was 15. He was in his 60s. Two days after I started, the groping began. Only he...
November 15th, 2020

J’avais 13 ans

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J’avais 13 ans j’étais allé avec mon amie chez un gars pour la soirée ils étaient trois gars et c’etait la première fois que je buvais de l’alcool et ce gars qui s’appelle pascal m’a agressé. Je ne l’ai dis a personne et j’ai fait comme si rien ne s’était...
October 12th, 2021

A Family Member Sexually Took Advantage Of...

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When I was 11 or 12 years old me and my family moved to a new neighborhood. Shortly after my mom helped my other family members move in across the street from us. We all wind up getting close because we were all close in age in someway. A family...
April 1st, 2019

Raped by my Stepfather

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This is something I have not shared in years. Everything started when I was about 6 years old. My mother married my stepfather when I was a baby and I had known him almost all my life. One day, my mom went to work and my stepfather was on the...
September 15th, 2019

I didn’t fight back.

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I was 17. I went to a house party of a friend of a friend and knew no one other then the friend I went with. I got talking to a guy, he suggested we went upstairs to a bedroom so we could talk properly. I stupidly agreed. He tried...
June 8th, 2023

Unethical or illegal?

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Last year my partner and I worked for the same business. It was a small business near a small town and it had no management or HR of any sort – only one man owned and ran it, even though it served thousands of people each year. I hit it...