“Prosecutors allege Maxwell helped Epstein traffic and abuse underage girls; he died by suicide awaiting trial last year.”— Jonathan Dienst, Joe Valiquette, Tom Winter, Sarah Fitzpatrick, nbcnewyork.com
“That anyone could think us a romance nauseated me, while crime and drama seemed overblown.”— Bindu Bansinath, nytimes.com
“Multiple ex-members compared aspects of the group dynamic to a 'cult.'”— Amy Zimmerman, thedailybeast.com
“To say that we’ve all been here before and that many suspected this all along is an understatement; we simply have not been told this story in quite this way, at this level of frank detail.”— Hank Stuever, washingtonpost.com
“There is a path forward, past denial and scandal and shame. There is a path to genuinely being the better person that you want to be.”— Ijeoma Oluo, theestablishment.co
“Now, I admit a family member touched me: touched me, touched me, touched me. From a child to the age 14, yeah. While I laid asleep, took my virginity; so scared to say something, so I just put the blame on me.”— R. Kelly, genius.com
“Abuse is not a mistake. A mistake is a lapse in judgment. Forgetting to silence your phone during a movie is a mistake. Ordering curry from a Thai restaurant without any reviews on yelp? Mistake. Abuse is a CONCIOUS DECISION. Stop making excuses for abusers.”— Franchesca Ramsey, twitter.com
“Let me make this simple: If you hear about sexual violence and your reaction is to impugn the survivor's character and make baseless assumptions about the victim's motives, you're doing it wrong.”— Dani Bostick, twitter.com
“Women have been speaking up for years about harassment and abuse. 'Me Too' has just created cover for those who didn’t feel safe enough to speak up. The movement didn’t *create* the concept of speaking out. it just allowed people to hear us better as a chorus and not a solo.”— Tarana Burke, twitter.com
“The movement is about people owning their truth and releasing the shame associated with sexual violence. That is not a NEW concept. What’s new is that there is some accountability now.”— Tarana Burke, twitter.com
“Perpetrators are the real criminals, yet survivors often feel as if they have done something wrong, burdened by a sense of shame and the horrors of their past. If you feel that way, know that none of this is your fault.”— Dani Bostick, twitter.com
“Sexual violence does not happen in a vacuum and victims do not suffer in a vacuum. First, a perpetrator commits an unspeakable act, then individuals and organizations embolden perpetrators & discredit the victim by creating an alternate narrative of disbelief and doubt.”— Dani Bostick, twitter.com
“I believed that, to borrow an analogy from a friend, if I kept digging I would find water.”— Chloe Dykstra, medium.com
“As Felitti spoke to the 183 people in the program, he found 55 percent had been sexually abused. One woman said she put on weight after she was raped because 'overweight is overlooked, and that’s the way I need to be.' It turned out many of these women had been making themselves obese for an unconsc…”— Johann Hari, huffingtonpost.com
“This is so very important. People with intellectual disabilities are sexually abused at SEVEN TIMES the rate of non-disabled people. Education & empowerment is key to helping them protect themselves & recover.”— Martha Plimpton, twitter.com
“Most of all - there is nothing 'frail' about coming forward to talk about abuse. That shit is hard and brave.”— Jessica Valenti, twitter.com
“You may find it harsh that you are here listening, but nothing is as harsh as what your victims endured for thousands of hours at your hands.”— Rosemarie Aquilina, upworthy.com
“For this sport to go on, we need to demand real change, and we need to be willing to fight for it. It’s clear now that if we leave it up to these organizations, history is likely to repeat itself. Now is the time to acknowledge that the very person who sits before us now—who perpetrated the worst ep…”— Aly Raisman, deadspin.com