In 1998, Brenda Tracy, then 24, had gone with a friend to that friend's boyfriend's apartment in Corvallis, Oregon, where other men were hanging out. During the assault, she couldn't move her arms or legs. The suspects treated her like a rag doll, "picking me up and tossing me around the whole apartment."After this rape the stress of the public attention added to Tracy's pain. Authorities told her that the case could take years ... and that she would have to testify in four separate trials. She stopped her case.
In 2014 she contacted Oregonian columnist John Canzano and told her story; it was published with her name and pictures. Tracy says. "I walked out of my prison of shame and silence that day." Telling the truth has allowed her to push for the passage of no fewer than seven pieces of legislation in Oregon and has helped untold numbers of sexual assault survivors. She has routinely been interviewed and has spoken at dozens of colleges across the country. And most important for her, she has forged closer relationships with her sons, Darius, 25, and Devante, 23.