I had the honor and privilege of attending a viewing of the documentary film “Voiceless” last night (7/14/2018) at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa.

The film focuses on five men who have experienced sexual abuse in their life time. Each man experienced the sexual assault in very different ways. While each experience was different, there were several things that seemed consistent through each story—

Each man talked about how the sexual assault impacted every single facet of his life. How they date, how they experience intimacy, how they eat and where, how they relate to family, even how they now define family. Each guy talked about how they were, as men, made to feel it was his own fault – he said yes; then no; how he smiled must have meant yes; the fact that he just laid there, terrified and unable to speak must have meant he was enjoying it; the tears and terror on his face did not scream no or stop.

There are certainly hundreds of thousands of stories similar to yet each unique from the five stories told last night.

Voiceless produced and created by Vanessa McNeal is a film everyone NEEDS to see. It will change the way you see and understand the sexual abuse of men in our society.

HUGE thank you to Vanessa McNeal for her amazing work and dedication to this subject! Madeline at The Project of the Quad Cities definitely deserves kudos for everything she and her Team at TOQC did in getting this film viewing set up.

The entire QC should be proud having folks like Vanessa and organizations like TPQC that are not afraid to stand up and talk about tough issues!

Vanessa’s website: http://www.vanessamcneal.com (you can purchase the films for $10 on her site!!)

The Project of the Quad Cities Website: http://www.tpqc.org (provides HIV testing, counseling, case management, client services, outreach, and education)