Unofficially Raped

I have no jokes here. I barely have words. This story speaks for itself and sickens me with the kind of inarticulate rage usually reserved for genocide.

But if genocide is the act of obliterating an entire ethnic group, then this tragedy of errors is clearly the act of obliterating a person so completely, invalidating them, that her bravery in choosing to resist and live is simple incalculable.

Just a small handful of the tools and documents required for the average rape kit. I speak from experience here when I say getting one of these done is both time consuming and deeply humiliating.

For some statistics on just how many assaults there are every year, you can go here to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network. Among the important highlights? One in six women, on average, and one in thirty three men are sexually assaulted at some point in their life. College age women are at four times the national average risk. About 3/4 of victims knew their assailant beforehand, as a friend, colleague, peer, someone they interacted with on at least a few occasions.

But there’s more to this story …

It’s not rape, it’s just a horny kid forcing sex on another kid.

A 14 year old boy is accused of raping a twelve year old girl on school grounds, during school hours.

Here’s what site supervisor Mustapha Cannon has to say about it: “They’re calling it a rape when it wasn’t really a rape. When this is all over with I want to see if I can get a public apology for my principal, which is my friend, and my vice-principal, which is my friend who aren’t at work right now.  Some kids are not as popular as other kids.  You have a girl that’s not as popular as some of the girls.  You have a guy who is not as popular with some of the guys and the girls.  It was hormones gone wild.  There’s been plenty of incidents that happened that haven’t been reported as possible rapes or attempted rapes.  I think this is something that’s been worded the wrong way.” Read more

Here’s the video with his interview:Mustapha Cannon Rape Interview #2

Congress addresses rape kit backlog

“Each year, approximately 200,000 rapes are reported in the United States. The majority of these sexual assault victims undergo a medical examination immediately after the attack so that the police can obtain a rape kit — a collection of any physical evidence the attacker may have left behind, including vaginal swabs, urine samples, blood tests, and fingernail scrapings. And then, in many cases, these kits sit collecting dust.”   Read Roxann MtJoy’s whole story here. At the end, there’s a link to contact your congresswomen and men.

Al Franken introduces anti-rape legislation

What a concept! Now the government can’t hire contractors that have clauses in their contracts forbidding women who get raped on the job from suing the company.  Thanks, Al!

What’s more intriguing is the fact that 30 republicans voted against this legislation. Here’s a list.