Been seeing the “Me too” statuses for people to share their experience as a survivor and to that I say: if you are a survivor and are not public about it, that is OK. Your safety and comfort come first. I am so sorry for what you have gone through. I have my own stories to tell myself. You owe no one when it comes to your story. I say this especially to my QT/POC community.
If you are able to say “Me too,” please do and spread visibility! But to the white / cis people / cis ...women out there: don’t dare go demanding it from others, especially not from Black & POC women & femmes & especially not from trans & non-binary people. Consider that you are not necessarily trusted if it took Rose McGowan’s Twitter expulsion to activate your activism. Consider privilege when it comes to who is able to come forward and be believed first.
Added thought, which I’ve been writing about a lot lately: the accompanying explanation for “Me too” statuses only focuses on “women,” (and sometimes updated to “men and women.”) This is a reinforcement that there are only two binary genders: women and men. Specifically, cis women and cis men. It is a FACT that there are survivors of all genders. If you are sharing “Me too” statuses, make your language inclusive. I am simply tired of having to remind people of my humanity and of the existence of our QT(POC) community. Exhausted.
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An excerpt of this post was featured in The Root on 10/16/17.