Reaching out to male rape victim

Submitted by el cid on Sat, 2013-12-14 16:54

Article here. Here's commentary on a subject rarely discussed: the sexual assault of boys. The specific case involves a 13-year-old boy who was sodomized in a hazing incident. Many in the town tried to cover it up. The men who wrote the article were also victims of sexual assault. Excerpt:

'The sodomy hazing of a 13-year-old boy from Norwood is indeed indefensible. The boy and his family have run from Norwood as, by all accounts, the town and the school turned on him and his family. Fingers are pointing and debate is rightly raging on issues of hazing, rape and bullying.

Such debate is welcome, but we would like to step back for one minute and pause on behalf of the boy and his family.

We have no idea where that boy or his family are right now, but we reach out to them with great care, concern and optimism. We imagine he is bewildered and may not have the vocabulary to even begin to explain what happened in Norwood, or what is happening now. Tears may be falling or, conversely, he and his family may be too numb to actually shed tears. We understand the family’s sense of abandonment and isolation. We worry they are feeling guilty for speaking out, as their courageous actions have led to their expulsion from the town they loved. Justice looks to be elusive.

We want the boy to know that he is the hero of this sad tale. He spoke up and out, and we admire him immensely for the strength he has shown. We do not know his mom and dad but we gather, from what we have read, that he might have special parents who will be essential to his healing, as he will be to theirs.

We reach out to the boy and his family as a group of proud men who, like you, have suffered the trauma of childhood sexual abuse. Our experiences are different, but we were all seriously traumatized by our experiences and the subsequent abandonment we felt as we tried to speak out. And we all have found unique and liberating paths to healing, as we believe he will.
...
We, and millions of other men and women who have walked similar paths, stand humbly with this boy, holding him deeply in our hearts. We admire him, and just want to plant a seed of hope with him that there is a path through this, and we believe he will find his, as we have found ours.'

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Comments

Well written article on such a sensitive subject. Good to see. I know male rape victims are often forgotten or swept aside. Talking and addressing the issue is a step in the right direction. Now if we could just stop the male rape "jokes".

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Submitted by Kris on Sun, 2013-12-15 03:46

I was surprised when I clicked on this article to discover it was about a male victim of rape. I expected the usual story about a female. Female victims deserve support, but male victims are almost never mentioned or discussed or given support. I was also glad the men writing the article were willing to talk from their own experiences as a way of supporting the victim. That's about as good as one can do given the circumstances.

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Submitted by el cid on Sun, 2013-12-15 15:33