ARIZONA
HuffPost
04/23/2018
By Doha Madani
Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), the first American woman to fly in combat, has gone public with a charge that she was sexually abused by an adult while in high school.
In a Wall Street Journal interview, McSally alleges that her high-school track coach pressured her into having sex with him when she was 17 years old. The congresswoman said she wasn’t physically forced to comply, but accused the coach of using “emotional manipulation” and employing psychological tactics to keep her silent.
McSally, 52, said the alleged abuse occurred during her senior year an all-girls Catholic school in Riverside, Rhode Island. She said she told two adults of situation at the time, but didn’t mention the abuse to friends or family until about a decade later.
“It took a while for me to come to a place where I understood what the hell I had been through,” the two-term House member told the Journal. “At the time, I was so afraid. I now understand — like many girls and boys who are abused by people in authority over them — there’s a lot of fear and manipulation and shame.”
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