Spotlight: Board Member Shannon Porter

Shannon Porter is the founder of What They Don’t Say, a survivor-led sexual assault prevention, education, and media company.  She is also one of newest members of NCVLI’s Board of Directors.  When we asked Shannon about victims’ rights and joining our Board here is some of what she shared.

Why are victims’ rights, and enforcement of those rights in criminal cases, important?

Sexual assault is an incredibly violating and disorienting crime. A survivor’s ability to make decisions about their own body, safety, and physical intimacy has already been taken from them during the crime itself. When they enter the criminal legal system, they are often navigating an unfamiliar and overwhelming process without fully understanding what protections they have or how to assert them. At a bare minimum, the legal process should help restore some of the agency and dignity that were stripped away. Victims’ rights give survivors a voice in decisions that affect their privacy, well-being, and healing. Enforcing those protections is essential to helping survivors regain a sense of safety and begin building a new normal. They cannot simply exist on paper; they must be meaningfully upheld. Survivors deserve to know that, even when their bodies were not protected during the crime, their rights will be protected throughout the legal process.

What is one thing you wish every survivor knew?

I wish every survivor knew that they are not alone in what they are experiencing. After my sexual assault, I found myself searching online for answers to so many questions: Is it normal to think about what happened this much? Is it still assault if I had been drinking? Is it normal to feel afraid of physical intimacy afterward? I kept wondering whether my thoughts, feelings, and reactions were normal. What I have learned through working in this space is that every survivor’s story is unique, but the experience of survivorhood is not as unique and lonely as it can feel. So many of the things I once worried made me crazy, dramatic, or strange are things other survivors have experienced too.