To hear the survivors of Larry Nassar
As you deteriorate in prison I want you to remember that you lose. In the beginning of our lives you tried to rob us of our will, our dignity as women, our ability to trust, our capacity for love, and our strength, and we have since risen to face you and witness you fall at the end of yours.
None of you need to feel guilty except for defendant. You didn’t do anything wrong. Your daughter didn’t do anything wrong. She’s a marine. Marines are tough as nails.
I was falling on my head. It was a dangerous situation, but, of course, I trusted my doctor and I trusted my coaches, but it was the first time in my life — I was 11 — the first time I realized that no one cared or no one saw what was happening to me.
It wasn’t a decision I made that caused me all this pain. It was a decision that Larry Nassar made. It was a decision that MSU and USA Gymnastics made to create environments for this pedophile to thrive in.
Below is a flashback, an embarrassing memory. It pains me to share it with you, yet I feel I need to share it to explain the inner turmoil that goes on when one’s realization that you are labeled — or now a label of sexual abuse and a victim, something I thought I’d never identify with.
I hope that MSU finally realizes that they, too, need to be held responsible for enabling this monster to treat so many patients for so many years. Why wasn’t any of these girls taken seriously when they were brave enough to report him? Was it because we were not boys or in a high profile sport?
I know now it was not a joke. Larry was a manipulator. He made my teammates and I feel so comfortable to the point that it seemed okay to get treatment at his house.
As others spoke on earlier this week, you compared touching us innocent little girls to alcoholics abusing alcohol as if abusing alcohol was even remotely similar to sexual abuse. If you truly think this is an accurate representation of what you were doing to all of us, then you are more mentally disturbed than I ever thought you were.
I am not alone in this. There are hundreds, if not thousands — I really believe there are thousands — of others who were affected and will continue to be affected decades after you remain behind bars.
If I see anyone with an MSU shirt or hoodie, I get sick. This could have stopped decades ago but you kept doing it and never got caught. It is absolutely sickening.
