I write on occasion for some of those old-fashioned-type ink-on-paper magazines. One local magazine I really loved writing for was a cute girlie pub called Lipstick. The editors there assigned me the best stories, like a peep into the life at the women’s and children’s homeless shelter.
Earlier this year they assigned me a story on the Birmingham Crisis Center for the April issue. April, by the way, is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Rape response is one of the most in-demand programs at the Crisis Center so there was a natural timeliness in the story. Unfortunately, on the day my story …read more

With Sexual Assault Awareness Month (April!) and Blog Against Sexual Violence Day right around the corner (April 5!), this statistic is both timely and appalling:
Researchers at the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions report that 18 percent of young women recruited into a study experienced sexual victimization in a two-year period. Victimization was defined as unwanted sexual contact, verbally coerced sex, rape or attempted rape. Among this group, the majority (approximately 66 percent) stated that their victimization was perpetrated by an intimate partner.
Importantly, it was found that sexual victimization of women by intimate partners and non-intimate partners are two …read more