They spoke out pre-#MeToo and cheer it, with note of caution
NEW YORK — The newspaper was about to come out with Leesa Perazzo’s account of being raped at 16. She was relieved. And petrified.
She had never told her story so publicly but thought it could help other victims. Yet Perazzo, a Schenectady city councilwoman, worried that people might think she was lying to get attention or that the crime would become inseparably attached to her public identity.
Going public about the rape “was terrifying and amazingly empowering, all at the same time,” the 52-year-old Perazzo says. The repercussions she feared didn’t come to pass. Instead, other women confided their own experiences and thanked her for speaking out.
“It changed me, and I’m grateful for that,” she says.