Spring Break
Marchers mobilize to 'Take Back the Night'
David Cordill
Issue date: 4/28/08 Section: News
"We support the right of every woman in every circumstance to prevent an unintended pregnancy," Pickering said. "… Given the current situation, and the fact that there are no laws actually out there … the most important thing we can do as women ourselves, and as allies and lovers of women, is to arm ourselves."
Gray told the audience about how she began working for MOCSA in 2003 after she was sexually assaulted. She said she was abused by her uncle when she was younger and later by his son. Gray said she experienced other similar traumatic instances as a teenager.
"I was in and out of every psychiatric hospital," Gray said. "I was anorexic, I was depressed, I was suicidal. They had to pump my stomach. I was very promiscuous. I was searching for love in all the wrong places. … To be put through what I was put through, I feel like I was humiliated even more to have to go through a rape kit. I don't want another woman to have to go through this by herself."
Gray said she learned how to love and respect herself through her healing process. As a volunteer, she helps victims of abusive relationships cope with their experiences.
An emotional Lowe, the final speaker of the evening, discussed the case of Christy Forrester, who was repeatedly raped after allegedly being drugged by an individual at a party in August 2006. Lowe said afterward, at a hospital, Forrester requested a urine analysis to check for traces of a date rape narcotic. Lowe said since Missouri law does not include a urinalysis as part of a rape kit package, the results of the test, negative or positive, could not be used as evidence during prosecution. The suspected rapist was found guilty of a lesser charge of kidnapping and restraint.
"He won't be listed on the sexual predators list," Lowe said. "… It's important to take this night back, its important to take every night back so that all of our citizens … know that they'll be safe. It's also important we fight a metaphoric night. We fight the darkness that still exists in our institutions and our laws. And that's a much more complicated thing to fight. Christy has taken that fight on."
dcordill@unews.com
Gray told the audience about how she began working for MOCSA in 2003 after she was sexually assaulted. She said she was abused by her uncle when she was younger and later by his son. Gray said she experienced other similar traumatic instances as a teenager.
"I was in and out of every psychiatric hospital," Gray said. "I was anorexic, I was depressed, I was suicidal. They had to pump my stomach. I was very promiscuous. I was searching for love in all the wrong places. … To be put through what I was put through, I feel like I was humiliated even more to have to go through a rape kit. I don't want another woman to have to go through this by herself."
Gray said she learned how to love and respect herself through her healing process. As a volunteer, she helps victims of abusive relationships cope with their experiences.
An emotional Lowe, the final speaker of the evening, discussed the case of Christy Forrester, who was repeatedly raped after allegedly being drugged by an individual at a party in August 2006. Lowe said afterward, at a hospital, Forrester requested a urine analysis to check for traces of a date rape narcotic. Lowe said since Missouri law does not include a urinalysis as part of a rape kit package, the results of the test, negative or positive, could not be used as evidence during prosecution. The suspected rapist was found guilty of a lesser charge of kidnapping and restraint.
"He won't be listed on the sexual predators list," Lowe said. "… It's important to take this night back, its important to take every night back so that all of our citizens … know that they'll be safe. It's also important we fight a metaphoric night. We fight the darkness that still exists in our institutions and our laws. And that's a much more complicated thing to fight. Christy has taken that fight on."
dcordill@unews.com
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