Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.
More of my real-life true story of me experiencing sexual violence.
WARNING: This article contains sensitive content and may be found offensive or triggering to some people. Photos are real evidence from rape encounters that is intended for educational purposes to help victims and their loved ones to recognize signs of rape. Very graphic details are included with explanations from my experiences. If for any reason you are not ready to see details of abuse, feel free to move on and come back when you are ready.
Caption: A collage of bloodied underwear 🩲 and tissues since the end of last year that I have been collecting.
Whenever you look up anything on the internet, turn on the television, or read the newspaper, you may find a story on sexual assault that is full of victim-blaming lingo and excuses on how victims don't try to report their attacks. This is not true with how many attacks happen so frequently, especially during the time of Covid-19 shutdowns. I want to write this story down to make sure that it may reach someone who may help me as I continue to have no luck. Throughout most of my life, I have been enduring sexual violence. In recent years, it has been the most violent for me with the most amount of offenders that I've ever had as well as the amount of damage done to my body.
Over the years of trying to tell family and friends about it, I've been shut down with excuses, dismisses, or just flat-out abandoned. This has left me to try and prove things on my own and seek help elsewhere. I've tried multiple times different ways and am still doing so. There's a deeply embedded belief within me that keeps me going in staying determined to get my justice no matter how much resistance I get. To be clear, sexual assault is illegal. If there are transactions involved, that's considered sex trafficking whether it is online or in-person. Sex Trafficking is illegal. Both crimes are a form of force for victims in which offenders use different techniques to manipulate, entrap, and abuse victims.
It took me a long time to gather evidence with proof that I'd been made to bleed by other people and harmed so badly that cuts and bruises would last for months. I've even bled out of my vagina and anus for over a month putting me in critical condition to the point that I couldn't provide blood during blood tests. Last June 2022 after my birthday, I decided to try new methods of reporting by calling hotlines while putting together clothes that have been damaged by other people. Over time, almost all of the articles of clothing had been stolen. Some were turned in with my sexual assault kits that I dared to do to try and defend myself from drug-affiliated rapes. These can be difficult to prove solo without a willing witness to speak up because the drugs used are meant to encourage memory loss of the encounter making it difficult to fill out a police and hospital report completely. But that doesn't mean that I should be discouraged from asking for help. In fact, I haven't been discouraged at all and just try other ways to see what will work.
Caption: Each time I would wake up when sleeping on the couch, I would find more marks and wet spots on a board sitting atop the ottoman in front of me while feeling groggy and out of it.
Due to my persistence, I have been able to successfully report a handful of sexual assaults accompanied by an examination. While going to hospitals to seek rape kits and advocacy, I was denied many times examinations and services. And I was charged for all hospital bills that I’m being forced to pay as I did not have health insurance and for the times that I did, they would not cover it. Most of the medical staff refused to look at my panties and even while my pants were bloody as well to prove that I have been continuously raped at different locations while homeless on foot, living in my vehicle, and living in a house. They mentioned that it was unnecessary or would change the topic to asking me questions about something else. Other times, they would just send me back to the waiting room to encourage me to leave while I still get charged a medical bill even though my name was called to go to a room. This was very annoying after waiting a long time and being put to wait again. There was a time I had to wait 5 hours for a nurse and another time 7 hours for a nurse overnight that it had expanded to 11 hours.
During questioning by nurses or law enforcement, I would be asked what I was wearing, why would the people attack me, and how the people would drug me. These questions are framed in a way to discourage the victim from making a complaint and in a way puts it as a fallacy since not all information is at first present. Isn't that the point of starting an investigation in the first place? The Investigators are supposed to investigate to find out how offenders do what they did and their motives. This hasn't been the case in my experiences in multiple areas. I've been so desperate that I've tried different locations to see if anyone would listen to me to try and save my life.
At this moment, I'm stuck with having to try and get out of debt as I cannot accumulate any more medical bills any longer and my credit has been tarnished for now. So in the meantime, I'm continuing to speak out while exploring available resources if there are any. It seems like I'm doing more validating resources if anything as there isn't much out there, but excuses wherever I turn along with more victim-blaming. There will be more articles coming up with more information to help encourage victims to use their voices and keep striving for protecting themselves as well as their family members.
Please #becareful and try to #besafe.
#sexualassault #reallife #experience #rape #sextrafficking #domesticabuse #sexualviolence #EndRape #speakup #standup #speakout #UnseenFortitude #empowerment #blog #TrueStory
Inspired by my true story.
This article is written by:
Andrelyn Izquierdo
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