I hate that crimes like this carry such a light sentence. It is genuinely upsetting to me because it tells us what little regard our culture has for us. It's bullshit.

I'm almost 30 and I still get highly triggered by innocent things. I find I get more triggered when I'm stressed/overwhelmed about work; or if things have been good for a while so I've been able to almost forget, then when something does get to me it affects me worse bc I haven't felt like that in a while... Last week an innocent comment had me lying in bed crying. Times like that, I dont want to deal w anyone but my cat

It sounds like your boyfriend understands, as much as men can understand without having experienced it. Try not to internalize it, triggers can do that to anyone. I wish that our abusers were the ones who sobbed and threw up every time something reminded them.

I still get so furious and helpless sometimes. My thing didn't go to trial so I just did my best to post his name to as many public things as I could, even graffiti-ing public places with his name, contact info, and what he had done. I had few options so I tried to get word out as best I could... Anyway. I do hope that the sex offender registry is international. I think it would be?