Reunion Online

I realize now I’d been unknowingly recovering for years before I acknowledged to myself that the unwanted sexual interactions I’d had with my parish priest were abusive.

I learned long ago that repeating myths in an attempt to dispel them actually has the opposite effect. So here they are—just the facts about male sexual abuse.

More and more often it seems we are reading news about adult females “having sex” with teenage boys.

Why? We ask it all the time: Why is the sky blue? Why didn’t she call me back? Why do I have such a hard time being disciplined? Why did that man kill all those innocent children? Why did I get abused? It is the ultimate question resulting in what we hope to be the ultimate answer to bring us some form of closure and comfort. Sometimes it does, but most of the time we are left many years later asking the same questions and still wondering why. Today, Aaron explores this question.

For several days, one sentence has continued to trouble me: "I'll never forgive you." Those words were spoken by the man identified only as Victim 4 at the Jerry Sandusky sentencing on October 9, 2012. His words say several things to me.

I remember the interview like it was yesterday. The year was 1984, and I was a oh-so-young, oh-so-green social work student conducting an interview with a veteran gay activist at our local GLBTQ center. (Mind you, many of those letters weren’t spoken of back then). I was 24 years-old, straight-define, and I literally quivered with nervousness at being, for the first time in my life, in queer-defined space. My purpose of the meeting—to research the history and advocacy of the centre for my studies in community development—belied my internal emotional state.

I was telling a friend recently about my emotional reaction the first time I heard the Joyful Heart Foundation’s PSA that talks about about engaging men to "end violence against all people, men women and children."

The commencement speaker at my niece’s graduation this past weekend startled some in the audience when he noted that having to overcome adversity is a normal part of a achieving a fulfilling life.