 This past weekend, I had the absolute pleasure of spending several days with over 20 of the most wonderful activists working to address the issues of rape culture, abuse and all sexual violence. I was honored when Rebecca Nagle, Co-founder and director of FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, asked me to join The Monument Quilt Leadership Team– a project of FORCE. I reached out to her because I believed, and she agreed, that collaborating just made sense. Check out description of the work she and Co founder/director Hannah Brancato do.
FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture is a creative activist collaboration to upset the culture of rape and promote a culture of consent. We believe that a more difficult and honest conversation needs to happen in America to face the realities of sexual violence, and we envision a world where sex is empowering and pleasurable rather than coercive and violent. To promote this needed conversation, we create art actions to generate media attention and get millions of people talking. According to the Huffington Post, “FORCE is doing a good job with a hard to digest topic, capturing the public imagination with their tactics. The Monument Quilt is an on-going collection of stories from survivors of rape and abuse. Written, stitched, and painted onto red fabric, our stories are displayed in city and town centers to create and demand public space to heal. The quilt resists the popular and narrow narrative of how sexual violence occurs by telling many stories, not one. The quilt builds a new culture where survivors are publicly supported, rather than publicly shamed. To date, over 1,000 collected quilt squares have been displayed in 22 different cities across the US (read more on CNN and MSNBC). As the quilt continues to grow, survivors, loved ones and supporters are encouraged to make a square. In a culminating display in Washington DC, 6,000 fabric squares will blanket over one mile of the national mall to spell “Not Alone.” The HEAL Project’s focus is on addressing and ending Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and within that, how sexual violence in childhood is connected to sexual violence as a whole. The work we do to end rape culture on college campuses, Domestic Violence (DV) in all family configurations, sexual harassment/abuse/violence of any kind in our society, are very much linked. The work I am doing is not just about abused children or adults who were abused as children. There is a bigger picture. Can you see it? Violations have the strong potential to journey through infancy, adolescent and adult life. It can manifest itself in how we create relationships, isolation, have more “tolerance” for unwanted sexual aggressiveness, decreased awareness of danger and emotional avoidance. These manifestations can greatly increase if you are LGBT, a person of color or a person with a disability. According to The National Center for Victims of Crimes, A study conducted in 1986 found that 63% of women who had suffered sexual abuse by a family member also reported a rape or attempted rape after the age of 14. Recent studies in 2000, 2002, and 2005 have all concluded similar results (page 8). Children who had an experience of rape or attempted rape in their adolescent years were 13.7 times more likely to experience rape or attempted rape in their first year of college (page 9). My work and the work of countless other advocates for CSA prevention doesn’t begin and end with CSA– or it shouldn’t. The work that the anti-violence movement, anti-rape culture movement and others do, is not just about adults– or it shouldn’t be. Additionally, we must continue to work towards a movement that specifically addresses youth survivorship. Those voices need to be heard. Sexual violence affects us all and at any age. It’s time to think about an intergenerational movement to end CSA, Rape, abuse and all sexual violence. We must understand this trajectory of violence if we are to stop it in its tracks. Research shows a significant correlation between CSA and adult sexual revictimization. The wider lifetime public health impact of CSA includes adult sexual assault, intimate partner violence, mental, sexual and reproductive health problems. Sexual assault advocates, domestic violence advocates, medical professionals, mental health professionals, drug and alcohol counselors, and other service providers need to understand prior CSA as a context for later victimization, exploitation, and health problems. Sexual Revictimization: Lalor, K., & McElvaney, R. (2010). Child sexual abuse, links to later sexual exploitation/high- risk sexual behavior, and prevention/treatment programs. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 11, 159-177. doi:10.1177/1524838010378299 For these and so many other reasons, we intentionally form this linkage in prevention, healing and overall analysis of sexual violence. The connections of our work from one end of the age spectrum to the other, will make our movement stronger.
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 CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNING: child sexual abuse, perpetrators of child sexual abuse/assault Breaking the Stigma of Child Sexual Abuse Recently, celebrity actor Dax Shepard, who previously appeared on NBC’s Parenthood and is also married to actress Kristen Bell, revealed in an interview that he had been molested as a child. Dax disclosed on The Jason Ellis Show that he was just 7 years old when he was abused by his 18 year old neighbour. Click here for full story  Priest Sentenced to 29 years for Child Abuse John Joseph Farrell’s 12 victims were boys and girls that he attacked in his Moree church, at public pools and sometimes in their own homes. Farrell faced sentencing on 79 charges, including 48 of indecent assault, 27 of sexual assault and four acts of indecency. Click here for full story  Maine man arrested for alleged sexual abuse of two children at traveling petting zoo. Florence Police Detectives have arrested Daryl V. Raymond, Jr, 48, of Stockholm, Maine, following reports alleging that he abused two children at a traveling petting zoo in Florence. Click here for full story  Lawsuit accuses Rabbi, former New Haven Police Commissioner, of child sexual assault A rabbi and former New Haven Police commissioner is being sued in federal court, accused of sexually assaulting a teenager hundreds of times when the boy was a student at an Orthodox Jewish boarding school in New Haven more than a decade ago. Click here for full story  Ex-Naperville priest gets prison for child sex crimes in Michigan A former Roman Catholic priest once assigned to St. Raphael Church in Naperville was sentenced Friday to between 20 and 40 years in prison for sexually abusing students in the 1980s while a high school teacher in Michigan. Click here for full story  State Senator Scott Bennett introduces child sexual abuse bill Bennett introduced a bill to the Illinois General Assembly that would remove the current statute of limitations relating to child sexual assault. This means that a victim of child sexual abuse could report a sexual assault at any time with that the persecutor would be prosecuted. Click here for full story Sex Abuse Victims, Lawmakers push for Right to Sue Molesters New Yorkers who were molested as children joined lawmakers and advocates in a two-day rally for lifting the state’s statute of limitations on suing abusers, saying the law closing the window at age 23 guarantees many more young victims. Click here for full story  House Speaker Dennis Hastert, admits to sexual abuse Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in jail for bank fraud charges after admitting he had sexually abused students while working at a high school decades ago. Click here for full story.  Child molestation allegations against Afrika Bambaataa Afrika Bambaataa, known for “Planet Rock” and founding the Universal Zulu Nation, made headlines earlier this month when allegations of child molestation were made against him. Click here for full story.  Jared Fogle's Sexual Obsession with Underage Girls To the public, Jared Fogle was a geekishly charming icon of personal dedication and accomplishment. But few knew the real Jared, a man frequently driven by his sexual obsession with underage girls. Click here for full story.  Trump Accused of Sexual Abuse
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has denied claims he raped a woman when she was a teenager…She accused Trump and fellow billionaire Epstein of “sexual abuse under threat of harm” and “conspiracy to deprive civil rights.” In her claim, Johnson “alleges she was enticed by promises of money and modelling career to attend a series of underage sex parties held at the New York City residence of defendant Jeffrey E Epstein and attended by Donald J Trump.” Click here for full story.  Coming out (of the closet), having its historical roots in LGBT communities and movements, is the first step in a private, public, political, spiritual journey. The process of coming out or the privilege of outing oneself can be a liberating, scary, intense, wonderful, life altering, lifelong process that has aided in visibility, community and movement building of queer and other communities. Visibility alone will not liberate us. It alone will not address the issues of healing, prevention, or what justice looks like for survivors. Not everyone is able to come out but those who can, help broaden the scope of what the movement is or can be.
 This past weekend, I had the pleasure of participating at the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Conference. This year’s theme was From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom. I was there presenting my very first workshop about the focus of The HEAL Project— sex education. The workshop I nervously presented was uncomplicatedly named, “How Sex Ed Can End Child Sexual Abuse.” I wondered if participants would steer away from the topic of child sexual abuse (CSA). I’d assumed that participants would rather go to one of the many other workshops presented by a line-up of stellar presenters. I wondered if I would stumble upon my words, have another anxiety attack, and or fail at my attempt to tackle this work—this next step in my journey of healing.
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Welcome to The HEAL Project Today is the official launch of my website HEAL2End.com. That’s Heal– H, E, A, L, the number 2, End–E,N,D, dot com. HEAL is and acronym for Hidden Encounters, Altered Lives. We launch today, as we embark on Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. I’m Ignacio Rivera, I’m a survivor of child sexual abuse or CSA, and this is my project I’m one of 8 people of color who are survivors of CSA, that were awarded a 2 year fellowship to create our own project on how to address and help end CSA. The fellowship was awarded by Just Beginnings Collaborative. Click on this link to find out more about them. You can also click on the link to find out about the other fellows and the amazing work they will be doing. The HEAL Project is a long time coming. I started doing this work about 14 years ago after I performed my show Lagrimas de Cocodrilo/ Crocodile Tears, but had no funding and it was almost impossible to get people talking openly about CSA and its affects. Jump to 2016, In the wake of community healing, organizing, education, storytelling and activism within the sexual liberation, women’s rights, LGBTQI, restorative justice, anti-poverty movements, engaging in the fight to expand abstinence only sex education, dialoging out and loud about rape culture, community responses to violence, intersectionality and so so much more, the conversations about sexual assault, rape, power, control, consent, and boundaries have been cracked wide open. I hope you all can take this journey with me as I grow with this project to talk about the thing that has been so difficult to talk about when it comes to sexual abuse and specifically, the sexual abuse of children— sex. As stated in my information page on Just Beginnings Collaborative website, The Challenge: Our society’s view on sex is important to understanding, preventing and dealing with child sexual abuse. We live in a hyper-sexual society that exposes sexual imagery but does not talk about it. Sex education in public schools has almost been erased. In the midst of this silence, we are left to form our sexuality in secret. This culture of silence and shame around sex and sexuality creates a breeding ground for child sexual abuse. The Solution: Broaden the conversation about sex and sexuality as a critical component to ending child sexual abuse. This project fosters open dialogue in the movement by promoting healthy understanding of sex and sexuality as a focal point of any work to end child sexual abuse. By making visible the hidden tools used to coerce and inflict guilt, shame and violence on children, we can eliminate the shame and secrecy that allows abuse to occur. In this project I will be organizing social media campaigns, creating a theater projectlead by survivors, crafting a manual for parents/guardians/caregivers on how to teach comprehensive sex education to their children, posting blogs and more. Please check out my website. Look up top at the menu bar. In the ABOUT section, read more about the HEAL Project and me. In MEDIA CAMPAIGN, see the current call-out for submissions “Outing CSA.” In WORKSHOPS, you’ll find upcoming workshop presentations at conferences, colleges and Universities, and workshop descriptions In SEXY SURVIVOR, (coming soon), you’ll be able to read survivors collective hopes, impacts and sexual health skill shares In SUPPORT, you’ll find resources and a guide to coming out as a CSA survivor …and check out CONTACT, to connect with me further. Thanks everyone Comprehensive sex education WILL help end child sexual abuse.  A project helped realized by Just Beginnings Collaboartive Fellowship— Helping to end child sexual abuse
The topic of sex must be at the forefront of ending child sexual abuse and the discussion of sex, sexuality and healthy relationships beyond the heteronormative must be central, especially for those most marginalized. This project supports a shift from practices making children responsible for their own safety—or, as so often happens, the elimination of children’s voices altogether—to communities that are transparent and empowering around issues of sex and sexuality. |
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