Excerpt From Take Back the Night Speech, 1999, on the CSU Campus in Colorado

In planning what to say tonight, I decided to start off by talking about the history of Take Back the Night - because, chances are, this history is not in your textbooks. Take Back the Night has been going for 30 years. It started when the issue of rape was even more buried and silenced than it is today. And when it was first created, it focused on stanger assault - the first truth that had to be told, the first issue to be acknowledged.

Some people ask, "What does Take Back the Night stand for anyway?" And I've heard others say, "Isn't it time to change that name - isn't it more than that now? What about Taking Back the Day, taking back the workplace, our schools, our campus, our lives."

But Take Back the Night is our history - what does it mean?

Take Back the Night is about stopping rapists, not stopping women, children, men. For example, we've heard enough of the rules for women to follow that supposedly would protect us from the chances of rape. Rules like - be afraid of the night - of going out alone at night, going to bars at night, walking your dog at night, going through the parking lot at night being on campus at night.

Take Back the Night directly counters stifling oppressive rules and shouts it loud and clear - Don't focus on stopping women, children, men. Stop rapists.

In the United States it is still very common to hear rules, regularly even. But how many of those rules protect us from the acquaintances who overwhelmingly assault us? Statistics say over 80% of victims know their attacker. Moreover, if we extrapolate these rules we have the extreme example of Afghanistan - and in Afghanistan they say they don't have rape - they keep their women inside at home - like being trapped in cages. Controlling women is never going to be the right or logical way to ending rape. It completely misses the point. The point that there are offenders out there and they are in the wrong. And what's even crazier? Those rules end up protecting the offender. Rapists benefit - in the courts - from the rules that were meant to protect.

I'll tell you why I like the phrase Take Back the Night. It suggests that there was a takeover heist that occurred. Some shift happened back-in-the-day that brought on this sexually violent culture that is now so incorporated and worldwide. With Take Back the Night we suggest that we want to reclaim something - something that was stolen - and what was stolen was the basic human right for each of us to own our sexuality.

It's ours. Not for the taking. Only for the giving and receiving. It's ours - and no one is justified ever in claiming or snatching - turning the tables so fast you don't even have time to figure out what the heck is going on. Not if you're passed out in their bed. Not if you've accepted a dangerous drink. Not even if you've taken a dangerous drug willingly. Not if you're running down the street naked. Not if you've had sex with them before - And on this one I want to add something - I'm a little confused about this - why is there a "school of thought" out there that thinks rape is somewhat acceptable if there was consenual sex before? Why do times of consenual sex - even years of it - minimize even one act of violence? If we really look at the statistics out there - we'd have to say, being intimate with someone is more of a risk factor. Our intimate, acquaintance, family relationships are precious ground packed full of explosive emotion. But our sexuality is not a playground for power trips.

There is never an excuse for rape or for incest or for molestation - whatever the column it holds up the same structure, a structure built of the decisions of individuals who somehow feel that they have the right to exert power and control with sexual contact on another individual. This structure is made of nothing else but those decisions made by individuals - which is exactly why it can be torn down. And people who say it's inevitable - or natural - are speaking about nothing that is real.

What is so real is that there are offenders - undetected, unrecognized, unfortunately. There are offenders and they are wrong.

-----Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault

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