Many persons are unaware of the extent of sexual victimization of men and boys. According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year there are 1.267 million MALE victims, and 1.270 million FEMALE victims of non-consensual sex.

No, that's not a typo. The numbers of male and female victims are almost identical. 

• The key is the wording of the CDC survey, which asks men if they had been "forced to sexually penetrate" a female partner.

In their ground-breaking article, UCLA researchers Lara Stemple and Ilan Meyer reveal, "We concluded that federal surveys detect a high prevalence of sexual victimization among men---in many circumstances similar to the prevalence found among women."

Now take a look at the Start By Believing website. All the images and quotes feature female victims. SBB even has a report titled, "Start by Believing to Improve Responses to Sexual Assault and Prevent Gender Bias." Look for any mention of male victims of sexual assault, you won't find it. 

So we ask, "Why is SBB hiding the existence of male victims of sexual assault?"

Sincerely,

Edward Bartlett