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Thousands Tweet #WhyIDidntReport After Trump Dismisses Kavanaugh Accuser

One in three women and one in six men will experience some form of sexual assault in their life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

After the president balked at the first sexual assault allegation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, saying if it had really happened Dr. Christine Blasey Ford would have reported it at the time, women and men took to Twitter to express why they never reported their sexual assaults.

Hundreds of thousands of survivors have used the hashtag #WhyIDidntReport, many expressed shame, fear, both for their lives and their reputations and that they wouldn't be believed. 

Dr. Ford went on the record with the Washington Post a week ago, alleging Judge Kavanaugh attempted to rape her at a party when they were teenagers.

At first President Trump said Ford’s story should be heard, but by Friday he was dismissing her allegation, tweeting, "I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!"

In response, actress Alyssa Milano tweeted in part: “hey @RealDonaldTrump … I was sexually assaulted twice. Once when I was a teenager. I never filed a police report and it took me 30 years to tell my parents."

#WhyIDidntReport sparked from Milano's tweet.

San Diego psychotherapist Allen Ruyle says that appears to be the case for  Kavanaugh's accusers. “I'm not surprised about allegations coming out much later,” he told NBC 7. “Victims of sexual abuse and sexual assault typically wait decades."

Ruyle says most people don't report their sexual assault to authorities out of fear – “fear of what other people will say, fear that they won't be believed, fear that they will be attacked verbally, fear that people will blame them,” he said.

Protesters held a rally in downtown San Diego over the weekend against Kavanaugh and showed their support for Ford. Some of them are survivors of sexual assault themselves.

“Unfortunately there's just this stigma that you're supposed to come out immediately and you're supposed to do, to follow all the rules and sometimes as a victim, you don't feel like you can and you're not ready and you blame yourself,” survivor Losie Ganz, said.

“A lot of the time to even – when you do step forward and even when you do come forward, there will still be people who don't believe you, there will still be people who will shame you,” she added.

But Ruyle feels hopeful hashtags like #MeToo and #WhyIDidntReport will encourage more survivors to keep the conversation going.

“It takes a lot to step up, it takes a lot to say this happened to me,” he said.

Ruyle primarily works with male victims of sexual assault who often find it even harder to report than women.

“[There are] issues of masculinity, gender norms, fears about what people will say about their sexual orientation if the attacker was a male, expectations that we are as men supposed to always be in charge [and] never be a victim,” Ruyle explained.

One in three women and one in six men will experience some form of sexual assault in their life, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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