No Images? Click here A Huge Sex Abuse Scandal Gets IgnoredThis week the country debated whether an awkward sexual encounter between a well-known actor and an anonymous woman was sexual assault. Less attention was paid to a Michigan courtroom, where victims of a known child molester bravely and publicly shared heartbreaking accounts of the abuse they'd suffered at his hands.These women, victims of disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan team doctor Larry Nassar, deserve a lot more of our attention. Nearly 100 women are expected to read impact statements about what he did to them in court this week.The statements are brutal. HuffPost's Alanna Vagianos documents particularly tragic testimony from Kyle Stephens, a family friend of Nassar’s and the only known victim who was not an athlete or a dancer.Stephens said she was sexually abused by Nassar starting when she was just 6 years old. Her parents didn’t believe her when she told them about the molestation, she said.Her father killed himself in 2016, Stephens said, after realizing she had not been lying. “You used my body for six years for your own sexual gratification. That is unforgivable,” Stephens told Nassar.Nassar is accused by a stunning 140 women -- including Olympic medalist Simone Biles -- of serial sexual abuse.Yet the story hasn't gotten nearly the attention that some of the other tales of sexual predation that have come out of the growing #MeToo movement.At first this was explained away by people who said Trump was sucking up all the media's attention. That argument became less powerful after the Harvey Weinstein story broke last fall."So we are forced to ask ourselves: if not because of Trump, why was the sexual abuse of 120 girls barely a news blip for so long?" said HuffPost's Chloe Angyal, who has been following the case for months. "It's because they're girls. And because gymnastics isn't football."If you love getting these emails, please use this special link -- that belongs only to you -- to share with a friend!The reality of being a woman — by the numbers.Like what you see? Share it with a friend. Did someone forward this email? Subscribe here. Can't get enough? Check out The Good Life.©2017 HuffPost | 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 |
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