'I know in my own healing, reclaiming my agency over my story has been an important part of moving forward.'
Ayanna Pressley is an advocate, a policy maker, an activist, a survivor, and the first woman of color to be elected to Congress from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Here, in an exclusive excerpt from Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman's upcoming anthology,shares her own experience as a sexual assault survivor and how to ensure justice for all.
And so as we work toward a more just nation, it is critical that we fortify ourselves with a vivid image of what that future looks like. A day to come where we walk among our brothers and sisters in community, in a nation that lives its values out loud. A world that not only believes survivors and centers their voices in the struggle for justice but also holds consent, bodily autonomy, and liberation as the standard.I want a world where survivors are believed and validated and supported.
During my 2018 congressional campaign, many times well-intended journalists would engage me in a line of questioning that amounted to relitigating the details of my childhood sexual abuse and campus sexual assault. In those moments I would aim for composure and grace, reminding myself that the public life I have chosen brings with it intrusive questions all the time. Those interviews would be triggering and at times very frustrating for me and members of my senior staff who were also survivors.
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