By: katelynskyebennett
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Sexual Assault Awareness Month – resources

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. I shared some resources with my youth employment clients this week and thought I’d share them with you all as well.

Green, gray, and pink flashing words read, "End Victim Blaming."

First, some context: While women are numerically the most affected by sexual violence, all genders are affected by sexual assault, including men. The LGBTQ community faces the most disturbing rates of sexual assault, in addition to societal stigmas that can limit access to help.

There’s evidence that minoritized communities and folks who are disabled are more at risk of being sexually assaulted as well.

The majority of people assaulted experience their first rape or assault while under age 25. I’m including several resources below, both for awareness and in case you yourself would like support.

“Sometimes when you’re in the situation, you don’t know you’re in the situation until maybe later,” Siu Lim said in the #ChoosetoSpeakUp video series by Pocket Angel.

While this post is relatively short, I hope the following videos and links will point you toward some helpful resources on your journey either to healing or to awareness of this reality. Feel free to share additional resources in the comments as well! (Spam and harmful comments will be deleted.)

VIDEOS:

RESOURCES:

If you’re in Chicago, I’d be happy to help refer you to a counselor who works with survivors of domestic violence and/or sexual assault as well, both Spanish and English language, like Sarah’s Inn.

I also know of several shelters and organizations that work specifically with LGBTQ youth, immigrants, and domestic violence survivors. Feel free to reach out here:

Biblical Reactions

For those interested, I’m including a few links to Scripture dealing with sexual violence as well, to demonstrate God’s heart for people and encourage you.

My personal favorite is Vashi (Esther 1), who was deposed from her Queenhood during a massive party because she refused to become the object of her drunk husband’s and the whole kingdom’s sexual gaze.

Within the cultural context of ancient Israel, God also held men accountable for their actions and did not blame those who were raped (Deut. 22:25-29).

The stories of Dinah (Gen. 34) and Tamar (2 Sam. 13) also show the outrage of the patriarchal families whose daughters and sisters had been violated.

Trigger warning: this next one is graphic.

Gif of a girl saying, "One second, hold on" and leaving the screen.

Judges 19-21 contains the disturbing story of men from Gibeah who wanted to rape a man who was passing through the city (19:22). When they wouldn’t listen to the host, the traveler sent his concubine outside for their pleasure, and they gang raped her all night long. When the man discovered her the next morning, limp and unable to speak, he took her back home, chopped her body into 12 pieces (what was that about?!), and sent her body parts all across Israel.

This caused even more horror and resulted in the entire tribe of Benjamin being removed (chapters 20 and 21). Everything about the story is horrific, but the tie-in here is that for one man’s actions, an entire tribe was cut off from the nation at that time. His actions had serious consequences.

Though there’s not a smooth transition from that story to anything else, I’ll conclude by reflecting on how Jesus held women in high esteem, though they were questioned and oppressed by his society, and did not judge people based on their past actions or what they had suffered.

I hope the resources above have been helpful, and again, please reach out if you would like any Chicago-based assistance.