Weaponization of the Worst Kind

By Deanna Maria R.

Trigger warning: This article deals with rape. Please do not read this if you believe it will adversely affect you.

Weaponization of this towards women, the LGBTQ community, & Democrats among others. Something that encompasses a minority of any group, any category, any political party, any race, no matter the financial status, any sexual orientation & the list goes on, but never ‘all’. ‘All’ is a lie. Something that never was and is never specific to politics yet is nevertheless used as political fodder. It doesn’t help victims nor survivors and needs to stop being politicized. Something older than Methuselah, and not a joke, molestation, incest, rape, and pedophilia. Typical writers on this topic will use a bunch of cold inanimate numbers, but I’m here to tell you a about a real person’s story as an example of what some people use as a joke or to lob at the political opposition. This is the human side of surviving pedophilia, my story. Oh, and it wasn’t a drag queen, trans-person, nor anyone from the LGBTQ community that committed the crime.

The Story

Minnesota, Friday June 24, 1983

Deanna and her friend were going to a babysitting job for a neighbor up the street two days after Deanna’s 13th birthday. Afterward, both girls were supposed to sleep over at another friend’s house, her friend’s mom was going to wait up for them. Her friend was just tagging along to keep her company, another 13-year-old girl. They lived in a very large mobile home park, that at the time had its own mayor, police department, town hall and liquor store. It being considered a town because of its size. It was tiered in design with one street being slightly higher in level than the next with a brick wall in-between each tier. In another section, down by the lake, it was in straight rows and above the tier levels a U shape with more rows in the center of the U along with homes making the U. It also had a place for temporary RVs and a pet cemetery.

6:00 pm

Deanna and her friend showed up at the neighbor’s house at 6:00 pm on a Friday to babysit the neighbor’s little girl. The neighbor’s street was a tier above Deanna’s street, two tiers above her friend’s street and Deanna’s grandma lived in one of the rows in the center of the U, the police station was two tiers down.

When they got there, the mother of the child gave instructions, including no one in the house except my friend, especially no boys. Deanna had just turned 13, had no boyfriends up to that point and was a virgin. Back then there weren’t any cell phones, and she was going out to the bar so there wasn’t any number to reach her in case of emergency. Deanna was to go to the neighbor on the left if facing the trailer, if there were any issues. She said she would be home by 1:00 am at the latest and the little girl should be in bed no later than 9:00pm, and then she left. So, Deanna and her friend took care of the little girl, ate, talked, watched TV, then at 9:00 pm put the little girl to bed.

Fast forward to right before midnight

Everything was going smoothly up until around midnight, the power in the trailer cut off, yet the weather was fine and everyone else had lights. Deanna did hear voices near the back of the trailer, when she went to check on the little girl who was asleep in her bed. Deanna called her mom and told her what was going on (her mom was mad that Deanna woke her). Her mom told her to call the police, and hung up, but never came up to help.

So, Deanna called the police, and only being two tiers down, two police officers, one male & one female, arrived within minutes. Deanna told them what happened, so the cops went to look around the exterior of the house and found footprints near the outside electrical box where someone had cut the power off from. With the lights cut back on and not much else that they could do but make a report, they left along with Deanna’s friend who got scared and wanted to go home.

Around 12:30 AM

Nervously waiting for the mother to come home and not wanting to wake the neighbor at that late hour, Deanna went back and watched TV. Then came a knock at the door. Deanna looked through the peephole on the door and unlocked it. It was someone she knew.

Pete was 22 years old and not someone she particularly cared for. Pete was her girlfriend’s boyfriend. Deanna had been trying to get this other friend of hers to dump him because he was an adult hooking up with a 13-year-old (her other friend was also 13) but her mother was allowing it. Pete lived with his parents down the garbage hill (years prior there were no trailers by the lake, but a trash dump that was cleaned up and used to put more trailers on) to the left in the rows near the lake. If memory serves right, he had just gotten out of jail and had not been living with his parents but for a few months.

He told Deanna that he saw the officers come up to the trailer and he came up to see if she was okay. He said he’d been out walking. He claimed he had spoken with the officers but didn’t tell her anything of what was said. Deanna found it strange that he knew she was there because the only ones that had knowledge of it as far as she knew, was the girl who had come with her, the friend and her mom whose house she was going to afterwards, and her mom.

Pete asked if Deanna wanted him to come in and wait with her until the lady came home. Not liking the guy and the mother having forbidden guys in the house, Deanna told him no and that the lady would be back soon. He continued to try and persuade Deanna to let him come in. After about five minutes Deanna said, “No thanks Pete “, and started to close the door.

He was quicker.

Pete pushed the door open, grabbed Deanna by both shoulders and started pushing her toward the living room, which was located at the front of the trailer. She was yelling that he better stop and leave because the lady would be home soon, and as she pleads for him to stop, he starts groping at her chest kicks her foot from underneath her, and she goes down hard with him on top of her. She had not noticed at what point he had his dick in his hand, and she starts kicking. He knees her in her crotch then yanks her shorts and rips her underwear off. Deanna goes silent, not wanting to wake the little girl, and knowing, as he shoves it in ripping and tearing her, there is nothing she can do to stop him.

When he was done, he tells Deanna not to tell anyone because they won’t believe her anyways and he knows where she lives. The last thing he said is he’d be watching her.

The aftermath

Deanna lay on the floor until she thought it was safe, until she thought he was gone. Severely bleeding, and barely able to walk because of the pain, she stumbled, limped to the door and locked it. She went into the bathroom and cleaned herself up as best she could. She had a change of clothes with her because she was supposed to go stay at her friend’s house. She did not know that she should not clean herself, she knew though if the little girl woke up, she would scare her if she was naked and bleeding. At this point she was on autopilot, in shock. She checked on the little girl, in a robotic state, the little girl had slept through the whole thing. Deanna stumbled past the spot where she had just been raped and curled up on the couch, and that’s when she broke.

At 2:00 in the morning the mom finally came home. She walked into the living room, and she noticed the blood on the carpet and automatically asked what happened, and if her daughter was okay. Again, on auto pilot, Deanna said she was fine, and that she was asleep. Deanna apologized and told a lie. She told the mom that she had been sitting on the floor watching TV and had gotten her period. She told her she was just about to clean it up. Then the lady asked where the friend that came with Deanna was at. Deanna told her about the power being shut off and the police but stayed quiet about the rest. The lady paid her, and Deanna left.

Although Deanna told everyone she could, even her mom, nothing came from it, just to be told to try and forget it. She even went to the friend who was dating Pete, but Pete had gotten to her first and told her Deanna would say he raped her but that she came on to him. She wouldn’t listen, forgave him, and called Deanna a liar. They never spoke after that and a few months later, the whole family and Pete were gone.

Fast forward to around three and a half months (October1983)

Deanna miscarried at the age of 13, on the bathroom floor, alone.
What came out was unrecognizable, but Deanna cried anyways.
She did not receive medical care for reasons beyond her control.

Conclusion

27 years later at the age of 40, I found out that Pete had been arrested years prior and was in prison. I believe he has been released since then but have no further information on what has happened to him. I also was told that he had been stalking me for a year prior to the rape, and had gotten with my friend, to be able to get to me.

Rape is not a choice. Getting impregnated by a rapist is not a choice. We need abortion laws in place to allow women to choose especially in sexual assault cases and medical cases.
Rape is not a joke, it’s not political, and if you can still laugh about rape after reading this, then you are not worth the paper this is written on, so to speak.

Check out Deanna’s art work which can be purchased HERE.