This Is The Face of a Sexual Predator.
Today, a civil jury found that former president Donald Trump sexually abused advice columnist E Jean Carroll. They deliberated for less than three hours before delivering their verdict, making Trump the first former U.S. president to be legally declared a sexual predator. The court awarded Carroll five million dollars in damages.
Though I believed Carroll from the start, I was not expecting the jury’s verdict to come so quickly. As I am a survivor of long-term sexual abuse, and suffered targeted online abuse related to this during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, this news has brought on an onslaught of emotions.
Though the jury did not find that Trump raped Carroll, I am glad she at least got the judgment that she did. Sadly, I don’t expect her to see a dime of the damages — which would be mere pennies for him — any time soon.
And more sadly, even if Trump is forced to pay up, I don’t expect the judgment will have much, if any, effect on his standings in the 2024 presidential race. His supporters will either continue to believe that Carroll is lying, or, worse but equally likely, they’ll believe her but just won’t care. Because rich cishet¹ white men continue to dominate this country, where, in the year 2023, women continue to be treated as second-class citizens.²
I am not a woman, but I was assigned female at birth and raised as a girl. Like many girls, I was sexually abused by an adult male relative. He was also a cishet white man; not wealthy like Trump, but financially comfortable.
Like many sexual predators, my abuser never had to answer for his actions. The most I got was a weak private apology. He went to his grave an honored member of the community.
I bring this up because the same people who support sexual predators like Donald Trump are convincing the public that the real sexual predators are people from the LGBTQ community. My community. Gay men, drag queens, and trans women are all portrayed as predators, groomers, and pedophiles who should be restricted…
