I was r@ped at age 15 and m0lested by the same guy for nearly a year. Now, with many physical complications and a life-long (although treatable) STD, I can’t make a case. The police and the entire justice system have basically said “There isn’t enough proof” despite the fact that I have a Sexually Transmitted Disease, and I have to find ways around the issues I have. I can’t insert a tampon without being in immense pain. I can’t have sex. I got surgery, but it didn’t fix the issue. I have to go through physical therapy and find a medication that will hopefully help. My health problems will follow me throughout my entire life, and the boy who did this will get off with no questions asked. 

   All romantic relationships will be altered. Any attempt at further intimacy will cause both physical and emotional agony. Panic attacks. Throbbing pain. Soreness. Things no woman should have to suffer from.

   I know I’m not alone in this. Liars and cheats make their way to court. But those of us who need their abuser to be held accountable and punished? We aren’t listened to. We are not heard. We suffer in silence from things we either could not stop, or were not in a safe position to do so. WE MUST BE HEARD. WE MUST BE SEEN. I’m not the only one who is sick of lying in bed at night and wondering why nobody can hear me. Why nobody is helping me. Why nobody sees me. I’m sick of being in pain. I’m sick of not being listened to. And I know I’m not the only one. 

   Only we can do something about this. We need to make them hear us