Nevertheless She Persisted

 We all have our secrets this is one of mine. I am a Sexual Abuse Survivor. Here in Canada, there is a compensation fund for that if you can prove it and it meets their criteria. My abuse did not. Because all of the males were within 10 years of my age at the time it is not considered sexual abuse.

I do not agree and I think that needs to change. You can not tell me that as a three-year-old with her panties around her ankles with a 10-year-old boy is not a victim of sexual assault. I refuse to believe that a 13-year-old who was jumped and pulled into the brush by a 16-year-old was not a victim of sexual assault. It just seems wrong that since there was no penetration and the male in question was only a few years older than me that coming into my room and rubbing himself between my legs is not sexual assault.

I am a second generation sexual abuse victim, my mother was abused by the father of two of the three males mentioned above and my daughter was assaulted by the last one before he was finally punished for what he had done to her, me I wasn't mentioned. Of course, I wasn't because I did not look for help for myself I looked for it for my daughter.

When I was interviewed and then told that I did not meet the boards' criteria all I could think of was 20 years of my life counted for nothing in the eyes of the law. I cried that day and then I began to actively look for ways to put it behind me at last.

I have done fairly well I think though I am sitting here shaking as I write this I know that what I feel now is much less than what I felt on that day. I can only put my story out there for you, it is too late for anything to be changed but I survived and so can you!