EXPERIENCES WITH SBO
FEMALE, 43. SAN BERNADINO, CA. January 2025.
"There was this guy at work who kept creeping on me. He would say all kinds of lewd, inappropriate things. I didn't
know if it was sexual harassment or not. SBO CONNECT explained the different kinds of harassment and helped me work through the situation.
Before that, I was afraid to say anything."
FEMALE, 22. AUGUSTA, GA. April 2025.
"I was at a friend's house and she was having some people over. I was drinking, but not drunk. I thought everyone
there was okay, but... I fell asleep on the couch--I had there before--but I woke up in the middle of the night with this guy--who seemed harmless
e--with his hand in the front of my pants. When he saw I was awake, he started kissing me, like we had been making out before. We hadn't. I was
fast asleep. I started freaking out and he left. I didn't know what to do. I didn't think it was rape, but it was definitely not okay. My contact
at SBO explained that no it wasn't rape, but it was a kind of sexual assault. Without them, I don't think I ever would have told anybody."
REESA, 17. NEW YORK CITY. December 2024.
"When I was fifteen, one of my brother's idiot friends roofied me. Our parents were out of town and they were all drinking.
Other than a sip of wine a few times, I was inexperienced with alcohol. The guy kept pressuring me to drink. I thought 'okay, I'll just have a little
bit'. It was vodka and orange juice. I woke up the next morning having no idea what the hell happened. All the guys, including my brother, were
gone. I didn't know what to report or to who. Eventually I told a friend, and she said that maybe it was just the alcohol. Maybe I wasn't roofied.
I have more experience with alcohol since then, and I know it wasn't just alchol. I didn't want to go to the police. I couldn't tell my mom and
dad. I just needed to tell somebody. My contact at SBO said that it was too late to do anything legally, but talking to him (yes, a him,
a very understanding and sympathetic him) really made me feel better and helped to put the experience in context."
