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Mike Outrich, a junior at Ohio University, was sexually assaulted during his sophomore year after a party. As a male sexual assault survivor, Outrich shares his story at the F--kRapeCulture rallies and actively works with campus organizations in hope that other male survivors of sexual assault will come forward with their stories and allow themselves to heal despite the social stigmas.

Rape, sexual assault occur beyond females, gender binary

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth in a weeklong series explaining how sexual assault cases are handled in Southeast Ohio and the resources available to assist survivors.

It’s an off-campus party. You aren’t really familiar with a lot of people, but hit it off with a guy you’ve never met before. Buzzed, but not drunk, you realize that guy needs some help. Overcome with a nurturing obligation, you invite him to sleep on your futon after he complains about his roommate having bronchitis. In the middle of the night, he forces himself on you. Now, as you’re unable to fight back, he rapes you in your own bed. That is Michael Outrich’s story. 

Outrich was raped last year after he invited another Ohio University student back to his single room in Martzolff House.

“I identify as male and, having that masculine stereotype, you’re not supposed to be vulnerable,” said Outrich, a junior studying geographic information sciences. “You’re supposed to be strong; you’re supposed to be emotionless. You’re not supposed to show your feelings.

“You’re supposed to be able to defend yourself and protect yourself.”

He originally went to Campus Care at Hudson Health Center for a rape kit test, which is oftentimes necessary for prosecuting, but was driven in a van to OhioHealth O’Bleness Memorial Hospital, which is standard procedure for Campus Care. Outrich requested a male SAFE, or Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner, nurse, but O’Bleness didn’t have one available at the time.

Outrich said he was uncomfortable, but the female nurse who examined him was sympathetic.

The nurse told him it was the first time she performed the test on a man.

“It opened her eyes,” he said. “She felt really bad for me but she did what she had to do. She said most men don’t come through there.”

From there, it was a matter of investigation.

Outrich said he felt as if the Ohio University Police Department, which investigated the case, was looking for him to change his story.

Officers confiscated numerous items for evidence, such as a towel, washcloth, pillow and Outrich’s bed sheets.

He eventually became frustrated with what became an exhausting process.

“Eventually I said, ‘You know what, I can’t keep going through this; this is ridiculous. I’m tired of being questioned for every single thing I tell you. Everything I told you is true. You need to just listen to me.’”

But OUPD kept asking questions to determine whether Outrich’s story was changing. It didn’t.

One week after the incident, Outrich dropped the case.

“It could’ve gone on for months,” he said. “After seven days, I was like, ‘I’m done.’”

Outrich, who has been seeing a therapist and psychiatrist since being on campus, said he had a history of psychological problems, with previous abuse from his family and by growing up in the foster care system.

All that resurfaced after he was raped. He attempted suicide on his prescribed psychiatric medication through overdose.

After skipping three weeks of classes due to psychiatric hospitalizations, he filed for incomplete grades with the university.

His psychiatrist then had to approve a request for the incomplete grades and also noted Outrich would not be suitable to return in an academic setting because of his current state of mind.

Ultimately, he was asked by the university to “step away for a bit” because he couldn’t handle being in an academic setting. Outrich stayed with an aunt and took a semester off.

He ended up completing the necessary steps set forth by the university, which included visits with a therapist and psychiatrist separate from OU and being cleared of suicidal or harmful thoughts, in order to return for the first summer session in 2014. 

Now, Outrich is by himself. He said on-campus sexual assault support groups are for women.

Though sexual assault is getting more national headlines, the focus is sometimes still stuck in the heterosexual, man-victimizing-woman mindset, said Delfin Bautista, director of OU’s LGBT Center.

There are several psychological side effects following an assault against a man, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. Some heterosexual survivors might fear the assault will make him homosexual or have their masculinity questioned; homosexual survivors might fear they will be outed.

 

LGBT individuals and sexual assault

Jesper Beckholt, a fifth-year studying English, is a survivor of sexual assault.

Beckholt was assaulted by a bisexual man through coercion more than a year ago. Beckholt identifies as trans and non-binary. 

Beckholt said it took a while to finally come to terms with what happened. Beckholt didn’t even consider the incident a sexual assault until another individual shared a similar story.

Beckholt did not press charges or get a rape kit test.

Statistics show 64 percent of trans individuals will be sexually assaulted, according to the Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey.

“It freaks me out a lot because a lot of the people I love, my chosen family, are trans,” Beckholt said. “It’s scary to know it is so likely that we’ll be hurt, we’ll be hurt again. It’s a scary thing.”

Men and LGBT individuals are less likely to get a rape test kit, said Chessie Rymer, manager for the emergency department at O’Bleness.

“There’s so much stigma, I think, attached to a man coming in and their feelings about how they would be viewed; I think there is a lot of stigma to get past and that’s not how that’s going to be viewed when they come in to the emergency department because this can happen to a man just as well as it can happen to a woman.”

O’Bleness has male nurses to perform the test “more often than not,” Rymer said.

“We know that ... we’re only going to be able to change society if we work together and we fully understand that this is not just a women’s issue, this is not just a heterosexual issue,” said Claire Chadwick, co-founder of F--kRapeCulture and a junior studying sociology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. “This is something that is prevalent across the board.”

Outrich said he wanted to increase the scope of support, so at the August rally he attended, he spoke up to voice the need to include men.

Beckholt is trained through the Women’s Center and the Survivor Advocacy Program, but is not yet an advocate.

Beckholt wants to first make sure the program is inclusive to everyone.

The program offers a 24/7 confidential reporting hotline and a service that pairs advocates with survivors to help them through any legal, medical or mental health navigation throughout the process, said Susanne Dietzel, director of the Women’s Center.

“There’s the fear if you’re queer or trans and you go in and you’re like ‘Will the person understand where you’re coming from? Will they have biases? Are you going to have to educate them when you’re going in about this really sensitive serious issue?’ ” Beckholt said.

The university’s first support group to formally include all genders and sexualities, called Healing Connections, will be started within a week, said Michelle Pride, training director at Counseling and Psychological Services.

The group will be able to accommodate eight to 10 people, Pride said.

“CPS is a safe place to come,” Pride said. “There are a number of clinicians on staff who are trained to work with trauma survivors and who have significant experience working with LGBT community and with men.”

Beckholt creates web comics and artwork to help advocate and cope through the process. 

“I like the person I am now better than I like the person I was a year ago,” Beckholt said. “It didn’t make me a bad person or crappy or anything. I’ve grown a lot and nothing can make it okay what happened but I do feel like I’ve come a long way in accepting what happened to me, come a long way in processing things, in connecting with people I love. ... I’ve grown as a person and that’s neat.”

Outrich works through POWER/GAMMA and has shared his story multiple times, especially with freshmen. He doesn’t want to press charges against his perpetrator and isn’t even aware if the man knows about Outrich’s situation.

“I just want it to be behind me,” Outrich said. “It’s one thing to talk about it openly and tell people about the story and everything, but it’s a whole other thing to go through the interviews again and revisit every single detail and experience it all over again.

“The more people that hear my story, the greater the chance that the population that is quiet right now will speak.”

@reb_barnes

rb605712@ohio.edu

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