One of the A Capella groups at my university, The Midnight Ramblers, released a music video they created in which they perform "Til it happens to you" by Lady Gaga. This haunting, visceral ballad about the reality of sexual assault, which earned Gaga an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 88th Academy Awards, came alive in a new way with this college cover, and the music video was equally powerful. In particular, seeing a man being sexually assaulted by a woman in this student-designed video was a refreshing step forward in the conversation about campus sexual assault.
With that said, there was an important component missing from this video that even Gaga would likely notice: queer erasure. In Gaga's music video, a trans person's sexual assault narrative is highlighted alongside the more universally-known cases of sexual assault on women from men. We, the audience, were forced to acknowledge that the layers of gender and sexuality can make sexual assault a multifaceted traumatic experience. I desperately wish that the Ramblers would have taken a page from Gaga's book and gone a similar route.
An article published in September of last year by The Atlantic discusses a recent survey done where they found roughly 75% of LGBTQ college students reported experiencing sexual harassment, and 9% report assault ending in rape (compared to 7% reported by all female college students). LGBTQ people are not the minority when it comes to sexual violence, but their stories are still largely absent from mainstream media.
On a personal note, I wanted to see reflected in this video the trauma that I experienced. I wanted to see one man hold down another man while he struggled to get free. I wanted to hear the assaulter say "I don't really need your permission" when he said he didn't want to have sex. I wanted to see him move through the next few weeks struggling to even comprehend what happened. It's bad enough to be ashamed of your sexuality, how do you begin to address the shame internalized from a sexual assault? I wanted to see that my story, and the stories of so many other queer college students, was acknowledged by those involved in this conversation.
I do not want this to be received as disparaging to the Ramblers or their music video. The fact that we can even make something as direct about sexual assault is a testament to how far we've come.
What I am trying to say is that there is still so far left to go. I am pleading, begging anyone who will listen: don't let the queer survivors of sexual assault go unheard. When you have an opportunity to make a statement about sexual assault, whatever that statement might be, please lift up the voices that never get lifted up. Not only does it help survivors like myself move forward with life, but it may also save people at risk for future sexual assaults.
