Raquel's Story

I didn't have sex with anybody and I'm not pregnant, but that doesn't mean I do not have a story. I'm young and my mother has always told me about how my body worked since I was really little.

Well when I went to the 8th grade I began to hang around different people. These people were active, but not sexually. They did oral sex and other things an sometimes they did have sex but it was always safe, no matter what. I started hanging out with these people and doing what they did. I got a reputation fast, but this didn't bother me, until I started getting approached by people. Boys would come up to me and feel on me and tell me how they could sex me so good. I thought it just immature boys until the day I almost got raped.

I was at my grandmas house and she is one of those old ladies that everybody knows and loves. She would let people come into her house and she would feed them. Well this man was about 33 and on drugs. My family felt for him and my mother knew him when they were children. He would come over everyday.

Well I stayed over my grandma's for about a month, I guess he knew when I was going to leave and decided to make his move. I was asleep on the couch in her living room and he came in without knocking, my grandma was in the laundry room so she didn't hear him come in. I felt someone standing over me and I woke up. H was standing there over me while I was sleep. He was going to rape me. I screamed and he left. I told my grandpa and this man could not come over anymore.

Everything was fine until I was walking to the store one day by myself. I heard someone call my name and I turned around, this man was chasing me. I ran into the store and hid. I ran all the way home.

Now, I look back and think if I had been raped and gotten pregnant what would I have done, one word abortion.

"The media is painting a picture that is becoming more oppressive as time goes on - oppressive to the truth about the movement among women, lesbians and gays, and people of color. We cannot and will not live without our lives, and we must make that message loud and clear, not only to the gatekeepers of the media who determine 'all the news that's fit to print,' but also to the readers who don't understand our fight and who must be educated so that we don't fight each other. The truth must be told, and we must take the responsibility to tell it - not only in our own publications and circles of friends, but also to the other people out there who lack the sophistication or knowledge to realize that what they hear and read is not the whole story."
- by Rhonda K. Craven in 1982