“When my rapist showed up under the ‘People You May Know’ tab on Facebook, it felt like the closest to a crime scene I’ve ever been,” Kevin Kantor recalls in a haunting performance piece during the 2015 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. “Facebook informs me that we have three mutual friends. Which is to say that he is people you may know.”
In the poem “People You May Know,” Kantor recounts the day he stumbled across his rapist’s Facebook profile — learning the man’s middle name, seeing his baby photos, and being forced to relive the violent assault and its painful aftermath.
“Two police officers told me that I must give the act a name or it didn’t happen,” Kantor says. “That obviously I could have fought back, which is to say: No one comes running for young boys who cry rape.”
Watch Kantor perform the poem in the powerful video below.
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Related stories:
Male College Student Bravely Opens Up About Being Raped By Another Guy
Madonna: I Was Raped At Knifepoint On The Roof Of A Building
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Bobby E McGill
That’s intense.
Scribe38
Proof that sometimes beauty is birth from ugliness.
Clark35
What’s with queerty’s obsession about gay and bi men who get raped?
Cam
@Clark35:
Yeah, and what’s this stupid obsession with women that get raped? And, hey, what’s this stupid obsession with people who get attacked and beaten? And hey, what is this obsession with people that are robbed?
Not to be a dick, but you get where I’m going right? It is an incredibly unreported crime, and even if it is reported the police are still difficult to get to follow up many times.
Prinny
@Clark35: What else can they write about? there’s not much happening to us.Unless you want to read another article about stra8ght guys being gay?
Bellamy
To all of you whiners, stop reading articles that you know will bother you, irritate you, or otherwise get your bitchy pink panties in a bunch, and that way you can also spare the rest of us your bothersome, irritating, bitchy complaints about how much you dislike Queerty articles. Seriously, some of you guys are more obnoxiously bitchy than a gaggle of blonde Barbies!
TundraMichael
Obviously, we’re witnessing a crime. Someone is holding guns to these guys’ heads and forcing them to read things they don’t want to read.
da90027
I actually find this story a refreshing change from all the stories about non-celebs or guys I don’t know who pose nearly nude for attention.
Patrick Griffin
Wow
Frank Croix
It is a very disturbing feeling. A similar situation happened with me when the rapist of a close relative showed up on my”people you may know” . I don’t like that feature its really not safe and makes me uncomfortable that my picture is being sent out there too.
Desert Boy
Is it too late to prosecute his rapist?
Maude
@Bellamy:
BRAVO BELLAMY!
NoCagada
@Clark35: SOmetimes, I’m am amazed at the ignorance of some things I read. Your question was one of them…or something that somebody who has something to hide would ask…
Maude
BRAVO BELLAMY! You said what needed to be said, but I would have said it on any other thread, but this one.
Chris
WOW!
scotshot
@Bellamy: It’s always nice to hear hate speech from a so called “brother”.
mgkbus
What a brave and expressive way to tell of a horrible crime. Many men, me included, are the victims of sexual assault and it is truly an underreported crime. I blamed myself for a long time, saying to myself that I should have known better than to get myself in such a position to be taken advantage of. Luckily, I had folks to depend on and even my boyfriend at the time was very understanding. But I still felt alone. Rape is so not about sex, but power. Having your dignity and sense of being ripped away, being forced into feeling helplessness, shame, and paranoia – these are some of the real feelings that victims face. I am known to have a pretty strong identity but I still carry this internal scar. One day I hope to forget, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Adam Amin
The exact same thing happened to me. Word for word.
It’s absolutely horrifying, and yes, it does feel like going through the same experience all over again. To know this person who gave me such misery for 10 years and wrecked me is able to live happily and co-exist with others when he should not be.
Life stopped for me when I was 15 but he grew up.
MiralParis
I was just reading a story here about Madonna being raped in NYC 30 years ago and one of the comments was, “So if she was gang raped on the roof of a building why didn’t she report it” My question to the readers of this mostly male site, is, “Is this an example of sexism by someone who would never write such a thing here, or is it something else?”
yaletownman
@Clark35: W is that you fear? Is it that someday some young boy will write a poem about you and Queerty will make sure it’s published?
AndYouWillDeal
“The wolf” sounds hot, I wouldn’t mind saying yes to him
James Dunaway
Brandon Guilbeau they found u
Brandon Guilbeau
James Dunaway I don’t keep a shrine !!
Try again
And only the willing !
But sometimes a little fight is fun
davenbill
@Clark35: The obsession is that gay and bi men are STILL being raped; including the mental rape by those who dismiss this atrocity and ask questions like, “What’s with queerty’s obsession about gay and bi men who get raped?” Rape needs to be written about again and again until it is stopped, until society stands and supports the victims, until the rapist is brought to justice. They ask, “Why didn’t you fight back?”. Maybe for now, writing about it IS our way of fighting back.
davenbill
@AndYouWillDeal: Well Little Red Ridinghood, don’t cry wolf when you get burned.
Clark35
@yaletownman: Nope as I’ve never engaged in anything at all like that, and I don’t fear much. But there are a lot of professional victims on this site which isn’t surprising.
sacredprofane1
Kevin, I cannot hold you in my arms but I hold you to my heart.
Markajv
@Bellamy: Wow!!! That was the fucking “Bitchiest” comment on here.
Daniel Bujes
This was such a good poem