I’m always afraid that someone is going to attack me.
There’s only a few places that I feel comfortable being myself.

I don’t like to be around men,
they make me nervous.
And, I have to be on guard.

I was really young when it first happened.
Maybe like 7.

I was a quiet little boy.
I wouldn’t really talk.

I was just a little boy with a horrible bowl cut from his mom.

It’s hard to see pictures of myself like that.
But, it’s getting easier.

I really liked science.
My Dad got me an electronic kit.
I figured out how to make the TV get snowy,
and, he’d get all mad at me.

We didn’t have a good relationship.
He was abusive.
Not in a sexual way, though.

The tattoo on my arm represents him and the good times that we had when I was young.

He would come and pick me up,
and take me back to his work with him.
He worked at the chemical plant.

He died 10 years ago.
The morning after Valentine’s Day, his heart just went out.

He never knew about the sexual abuse.
I was afraid to tell him.
He would have killed the kid.

I don’t like to be around men,
they make me nervous.
And, I have to be on guard.

I was really young when it first happened.
Maybe like 7.

My name was Kyle.
My middle name was Lee.

It’s hard to see pictures of myself like that.
But, it’s getting easier.

I just want take some of my power back for myself.