MICHIGAN
WMUK
[with audio and video]
By: Andy Robins
Kalamazoo, MI
March 30, 2012
WMUK
The federal government says about one in every six boys in this country will be sexually abused by the time they are 16. Two events at Western Michigan University this month will help male sexual abuse survivors come to terms with their trauma. And organizers say they hope the wider community will learn about the issue.
Western is one of several colleges and universities around the country showing the new film Boys and Men Healing. The documentary by Kathy Barbini and Simon Weinberg tells the stories of three men who sexually abused as children.
[Tony Rogers] “While he was raping me, I felt like I left my body because I thought I was going to die. So, I wasn’t present there. And actually I had agreed to die at that point.”
That’s Tony Rogers, who’s now a teacher, from a YouTube trailer for film. Also featured are David Lisak, a therapist who calls on his own experience to counsel other male survivors, and Mark Crawford, an advocate for changes in laws on child sexual abuse.
[Tony Rogers] ‘I just experienced many symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. And I thought it was uniquely me.”
[David Lisak] “Boys are sexually abused in vast numbers and vastly more frequently than as a society we are recognizing.”
[Mark Crawford] “I was absolutely amazed that it, in fact, it was so common among sexual abuse survivors of feeling alone, or feeling it was only you.”
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