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>> So, it was a month before my nineteenth[br]birthday and it was just your typical,

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run of the mill, getting drugged, dragged[br]back to the fraternity house date rape.

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The next thing I knew, I woke up and I was in[br]his bed with no clothes on and he got on top

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of me and rapped me and I started to say[br]no and then he put over to silence me.

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>> I was sexually assaulted by a stranger[br]while I was walking alone in my neighborhood.

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>> I was assaulted and robbed at[br]gunpoint in my own neighborhood.

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>> I was in an abusive relationship[br]for two years.

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It started out with verbal[br]assault and escalated to physical.

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He would take a knife and cuts the parts[br]of my body that he thought were too fat.

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>> I was sexually assaulted in high[br]school by an older woman that I knew.

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She had her friends hold me down by my[br]shoulders while she like peeled off my clothing

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and basically groped me wherever[br]she felt like it.

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>> I was assaulted right[br]outside the door to my home.

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Growing up as an athlete and[br]a physically strong woman,

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I thought that I might be physically[br]prepared for a situation like this,

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should it ever happen, but by[br]God, I was not mentally prepared

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for a weapon being put in my face.

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>> How do you build up your[br]feeling of self-worth?

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And it's been stripped from you in an instant.

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>> I didn't want to talk about it too much,[br]but it was a big thing happening in my life

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and some people just didn't even[br]want to be associated with me.

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Being treated like you're just[br]nothing really messes with you.

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It makes you think about things[br]in different perspective.

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>> When this happened to me and I decided to[br]open up to others about it, I was so surprised

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at how many of my friends and family[br]members had experienced assault

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but had never talked to anybody about it.

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>> For a long time, I was just afraid of people.

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>> I think it's necessary to speak about[br]these experiences, just to create awareness

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because there are so many people like[br]you who have experienced the same thing.

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>> Sexual assault attacks[br]your body in one instance.

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It really also attacks your feelings of[br]self-worth and that's a lasting repercussion

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that needs to be taken more seriously.

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>> I think because I'm a male survivor, a[br]lot of people invalidated my experience,

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as if like what happened[br]to me didn't really happen.

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So, I think for a long time, it was[br]hard like for even me to believe

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that what happened to me actually happened.

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It is so important to not[br]suppress what you've been through.

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If you don't process it, then you're basically[br]giving your assault permission to run your life.

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>> Everyone's first reaction is to ask why[br]you stayed and it's because I felt so ashamed

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and isolated and embarrassed because[br]no body likes to talk about it

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and if you bring it up, it[br]makes people uncomfortable.

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It took me about a year to be[br]able to look in the mirror again.

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There are more of us out there than you think.

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So, open up and reach out.

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>> I'm an assault survivor,[br]not a victim, a survivor.

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>> I'm an assault survivor, but I'm not a woman.

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>> I'm an assault survivor, but[br]I'm not going to let the actions

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of someone else dictate the rest of my life.

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>> But I am not any less of a man.

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>> But that doesn't mean[br]I am a weak little girl.

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>> But I am not afraid.

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>> I'm an assault survivor and I'm so much more.

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>> I'm an assault survivor[br]and I'm married with two kids.

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>> I'm an assault survivor[br]and it wasn't my fault.

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It was not my fault.

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