Yes, that helps. Thank you for your quick response!
Hi Caitie, I'm a Chemical Engineer from Albuquerque, NM, and I'm currently working on a narrative, non-fictional account of my experience as a survivor of a multi-attacker, day-long sexual and physical assault that the police now believe was orchestrated by a colleague of mine at Sandia National Laboratories to stop me from reporting him for committing fraud on a research grant from the Department of Defense.
My first draft primarily focuses on my path to recovery but contains a section that describes my attack in detail and includes photos that were taken as part of my rape kit.
My question for you is about how to end my story. At one of my darkest moments, I decided to start focusing on helping other victims in an attempt to stay positive. The result is a non-profit organization, called Victim 2 Survivor, that I'm working to establish to provide financial, emotional, and logistical support to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, starting with the poorest states (New Mexico is one) and expanding outward from there. Over the past few months, I've spoken to numerous survivors around NM, and I've made several shocking discoveries, including that a disproportionately large number of sexual assualt survivors in this state are LGBTQ+.
To get to my question: should I include other victims' accounts in my story, along with a discussion of why I (and two respected New Mexico historians) believe this state has an especially troubling rape culture that targets the LGBTQ+ community? My ultimate goals are to provide readers with an honest, tangible, disturbing account of what victims of sexual violence experience during and after their attacks and to give victims hope that, not only can they survive, but they can turn the worst days of their lives into something positive and impactful. I would really like to expand the focus from just myself, though, if doing so won't be a distraction.
Anyway, thank you for reading this obnoxiously long post. I appreciate any advice you're able to give me.
Regards, Carlee


