Welcome to the SpeakOut! Blog

Break the silence that surrounds sexual assault, sexual harassment, interpersonal violence, relationship abuse, stalking, hate crimes, and identity-based violence. Share your story here on our anonymous blog.

To speak about an experience with any form of interpersonal violence is difficult, but it is also empowering. Breaking the silence reduces shame and helps others to speak out about their own experiences.

End the shame. Be empowered. Speak Out!

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We are holding our spring Speak Out! on April 16th, 2018 from 7-9 pm in The Pit. For more information, check our Facebook page.

Because this blog features stories of interpersonal and sexual violence, we offer this *content warning* as a way of caution. We also ask that you do not reproduce any of the content below, as the authors of these personal stories are anonymous, and cannot give consent for their stories to appear anywhere other than this blog or at a Project Dinah-led SpeakOut event.

Friday, January 22, 2010

In November 2007 I was raped. I did not want to call it that at first, did not think it was as serious as an anonymous man jumping out at me in the dark. It was not anonymous. I was raped by a guy I knew from high school, from my hometown. I was drunk and said "no" on the P2P to going home with him. My "no" was not respected. He kept asking and pushing and pressuring. I went home with him. We had sex and even though in everyday life I am outspoken and assertive, in this situation of terror, I was mute. Outwardly mute. Inside I was screaming and my head was spinning. I could not say anything as he breathed on me and clawed at my back with his nails. I could not say anything as he suggested I "finish him off". I want to throw up anything inside me that remembers that feeling. Then, as if we were lovers he wanted me to stay and spend the night cuddling. He did not see, as most perpetrators in a society that supports perpetration, that he had raped me and was not a lover but a terrorist. A terrorist invading my body and numbing my voice. It took me a year to get help. I thought my story was not rape because I said yes. I ignored all the times I had said no- just like he had.

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