People have shamed me for fighting against laws that would have resulted in me dying after I was sexually assaulted as a child.

Hello,

I went through a sexual assault experience as a child that very nearly ended with me dying.

I fight against these laws, and I am tauted as being pro-child abuse. It's one thing if someone disagrees with me, and thinks the benefits of the laws outweigh the downsides. I can respect that opinion. But to say that I'm pro-child abuse is abhorrent.

Here is what happened to me.

As a child, I was sexually assaulted while on school property. It was a one time incident. Other details are irrelevant.

I also had no friends my age due to having moved recently.

But what is important is that I just had control of my life violated in the worst way possible. My bodily autonomy was ripped away for a few horrifying minutes. My control over my life utterly gone.

To me, the worst part wasn't the actual sexual action, it was the loss of control over how things play out.

And I wasn't about to let that happen again.

Yet at the same time, humans are social creatures, and need to talk about trauma to overcome it.

I had no friends to talk to. As the new kid, I didn't know who I could and could not trust.

I thought about talking to a teacher. But then I learned that if I told a teacher, they would be obligated to call in the police, who would start an investigation and intrude into my life. Make me recount things. Trample over my autonomy again. Not an option.

So, I had noone to talk to.

I was very close to finding solace through a loop of rope.

I did one last bit of research, frantically trying to figure out an adult I could talk to and trust, who wouldn't be threatened into reporting me due to mandatory reporter laws.

Turns out Priests aren't obligated.

I wasn't religious. I didn't like priests. But I could talk to them, and not have control guaranteed to be ripped away from me again, just as the scars from the previous time were healing.

Now, back to the present.

There's talks over laws that make priests into mandated reporters.

I am against this. I explain why, and summarize the story I just gave, though I present it as a hypothetical situation, rather than one that actually happened to me.

I'm immediately called pro child abuse.

If someone just thought that my argument isn't weighty enough, and that priests should be mandated reporters regardless, I'd understand.