SALEM, Ore. -- She spoke the words calmly, as if describing her drive home.
“I was drugged and gang-raped by four football players in 1998.”
Brenda Tracy was at the podium Wednesday at a State Capitol rally for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. She said it might not be visible, but the experience is never far from the surface.
“I’m not over it, and you never get over something like this,” said Tracy.
She arrived in Salem having just finished speaking to what she described as a very important and influential audience: the University of Oregon football team. Tracy said the players were inspiring, attentive and inquisitive.
“I tell my story, and I tell my story in graphic detail,” she said. “I talk to them about how as football players they have a special position of influence and power to change the culture,” said Tracy, who now travels the country speaking about sexual assault.
“I do my best to engage them in movement to stop sexual violence. We need men involved,” said Tracy. She said she spoke to the Oregon team at the invitation of new football coach Willie Taggart, whom Tracy said has taken a strong stand with his players on the issue of sexual violence.
The rally featured state office holders, and other survivors. Lindsey Webb said she still suffers from an abusive relationship with her estranged husband, the father of their two children.
“I’m trying to break the cycle of domestic violence, for myself and for my children,” said Webb. “This is generational for them, I grew up in a domestic violence environment, I’ve had lots of therapy and wanted to break the cycle, but still ended up in a marriage that was abusive.”