In June 2012, Trey Malone, a junior at Amherst College and a distinguished student both academically and athletically, took his own life after he was unable to deal with the immense trauma and intense emotions he suffered after being the victim of rape by a co-ed.
After his suicide, it was discovered that Malone’s experience was not an aberration. A year earlier, in April 2011, Newsweek magazine published a riveting expose of the dirty little secret of male rapes and sexual assaults that were happening with regular frequency in all segments of the armed forces, in particular the army. The personal stories of several soldiers were revealed.
More recently, in November 2013, The Los Angeles Times exposed the harrowing ordeal of an Air Force security guard, Trent Smith, a 20-year-old Black male who was pressured into engaging in sexual activity with a male sergeant. The experience left Smith so distraught that he contemplated suicide several times according to news and medical reports. Smith has asked Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James to overturn an order that he is to be medically discharged from service.
Each of these powerful stories national headlines.
