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LISA DREHER

Journalist

Education reporter for the Laredo Morning Times in the Texas border city of Laredo. Graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in the fall of 2018 with a journalism degree and history minor. Interned at hyperlocal news site, the Austin Monitor, and Austin’s main legacy paper, the Austin American-Statesman. I was a senior news reporter for The Daily Texan, UT’s official college newspaper, for which I have covered state and local politics. Print journalist skillfull in multimedia tools, such as video and audio storytelling using Adobe Suite

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'Afraid to be vulnerable’: A male student opens up about being a sexual assault survivor

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Editor’s note: The name of the source has been changed to protect their privacy.

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James wasn’t sure what to think walking back to his apartment after a one-night stand with a man he met on a dating app his freshman year at UT. All he knew was he felt more vulnerable than ever before.

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“At first I didn’t classify it as rape because it didn’t feel like rape, but then it was like, ‘What does rape feel like?’” James said. “But if a friend told me that experience, I would probably just say ‘rape,’ but I wouldn’t talk about it. I was afraid to be vulnerable around men for a long time after that.”

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As a man, James said he struggles sharing his story because of the stigma that male sexual assault survivors are weak or were not assaulted to begin with.

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“It affected who I was fundamentally as a man, because being violated is not necessarily the description of what you would consider a man to (be),” he said.

Thirty-nine complaints alleging sexual assault were filed by men to UT’s Title IX Office for the 2017–2018 academic school year, according to information obtained by The Daily Texan through a Texas Public Information Act request. During the same year, 171 complaints alleging sexual assault were filed by women. 

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James said he did not report his incident to police for fear of a long and painful legal process. 

 

Research shows these gaps are consistent with the typical ratio of reports by men and by women, Title IX Office Coordinator Krista Anderson said.

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“If someone who is male-identifying has been victimized, the likelihood they’ll likely come forward is greatly reduced because of social norms, cultural norms of men and masculinity,” Anderson said.

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Organizations and services such as UT’s Counseling and Mental Health Center, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network and the organization 1in6 — which specifically helps male and male-identifying survivors — offer multiple resources such as support groups and hotlines for survivors on campus.

Seth Stewart is the development and communications director for 1in6, named after the statistic that 1 in 6 men will be sexually assaulted or abused.

 

Men often do not come forward because of social norms about masculinity, Stewart said.

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“They’ll call it hazing, they’ll call it humiliation,” Stewart said. “Part of that is sort of putting it in a certain box to preserve a certain kind of strength or confidence or masculinity.”

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James said he blamed himself for the incident and worked out more to try to fight the idea that he was too weak to fight off the perpetrator. He now does not feel comfortable being alone with men.

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“Before it happened to me, I never thought how large a guy could be, how he could overpower me,” James said. “That’s probably a thing that many women think about a lot, but for me, that never was. I started working out a lot after I was assaulted. I think about the fact that I was probably scrawny then … like it was my own fault for not being stronger.”

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James said he did not disclose the incident to many friends, and he anticipates mostly negative reactions after sharing because society frames sexual abuse and harassment of men as humorous or not at all something to be taken seriously. 

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“For me, I’m bisexual, and I would never talk about this with a girl I was interested in because of masculinity,” James said.

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The fact that men are less likely to report being sexually assaulted, as well as typically being the perpetrators of sexual violence on women, both contribute to the discrepancy between reports by men and women, Anderson said.

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“I think because we see a higher rates of victimization of women, that in itself is going to be a disproportionate number of complaints from women,” Anderson said. “When we do see men have been victimized in some way, shape or form, they feel less comfortable coming forward. And not that everything is men-on-women (or) women-on-men, we see same-sex violence as well.”

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About 15 percent of female UT students and 5 percent of male students reported being raped at UT, according to the 2017 Cultivating Learning and Safe Environments survey.

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Men are often are left out of the dialogue about sexual assault, which should include discussion about more men without taking away from women’s experiences, Stewart said.

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“There can be — and not all the time of course — sometimes the automatic assumption that men are bystanders watching this happen to women or they’re perpetrators,” Stewart said. “So, thinking about a man as a survivor is not the first place that some people’s minds go to.”

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Using alcohol and drugs to cope with sexual assault often occurs during college, Stewart said. James said he drank and used drugs to deal with his trauma.

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James said he is currently doing better after time has passed, but he knows the psychological effects will follow him. He hopes more people have empathy, not only when survivors disclose but when they are coping with the trauma in their daily lives following the assault.

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“People have a tendency to treat male victims of sexual assault like ‘it’s your fault for not being man enough. It shouldn’t really have affected you that much. Why is this a big deal?’” James said. “Especially if you’re a straight guy, it’s like, ‘You got sex, why are you treating this like it’s a bad thing?’”

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35 ICE detainers declined in February under Travis County Sheriff’s Office policy

  • Writer: Lisa Dreher
    Lisa Dreher
  • Mar 10, 2017
  • 2 min read

In February, Travis County Sheriff’s Office declined 35 requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain suspected undocumented inmates, according to public records from the office.


ICE makes detainer requests asking local law enforcement to hold suspected undocumented inmates to be investigated. On Feb. 1, Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez implemented a policy to not honor such requests without warrants by a judge. Thirty-one inmates were released, some with multiple detainer requests, but were not released into ICE’s custody that month, according to the records generated on March 1.


“(ICE) often come without warrants,” said Major Wes Priddy, Travis County Jail administrator. “After the implementation of this policy that we started, we started seeing some warrants placed on some of the individuals that ICE would bring to our attention.”


Some inmates were arrested with multiple charges, totaling 45 charges brought to the 31 inmates released that month whose detainer requests were rejected. The Department of Homeland Security on Feb. 21 directed ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies to deport any undocumented person, regardless of criminal activity. ICE said it would follow this order in conjunction with President Donald Trump’s orders to crackdown on immigration, in a statement dated Feb. 21.


“Under this Executive Order, ICE will not exempt classes or categories of removal (of) aliens from potential enforcement,” ICE said in the statement. “All of those present in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.”


Of the total charges of the inmates released, 32 were misdemeanors and 13 were felonies. The most common misdemeanor was driving while intoxicated, with 11 charges, but Priddy said ICE does not prioritize any one charge.


“The most common charge seemed to be DWI’s, but you would see individuals in on traffic offenses that have been identified by ICE,” Priddy said. “For whatever reason, they would want to place a detainer on them.”


There were also five charges of injury to a family member and one sexual assault charge. Priddy said the office prioritizes these two categories for investigation by ICE even if agents do not present a warrant. The Sheriff’s Office said Feb. 14 that it will review all charges against an inmate before rejecting a detainer request. The announcement followed statements by State Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, who said an inmate charged with sexually assaulting a minor should have been detained despite Travis County’s policy.


“We have a clear message to Sheriff Hernandez,” Buckingham said in a press conference in February. “Again, please rescind your policies. I want a safe Travis County and a safe Texas.”


UT law professor Denise Gilman is the director of the School of Law’s Immigration Clinic. Gilman said regardless of how serious an inmate’s charge is, ICE cannot detain someone under this policy without a warrant or probable cause.


“We have had clients who have had, for example, traffic tickets and have been put into detention and deportation,” Gilman said. “Probable cause means you have evidence that shows that this person actually falls within the crime or immigration offense that the law enforcement entity is pursuing.”

 
 
 

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