1950s: Growing up in the 1940s, Barbara never talked about having been raped by a family member. As a young adult, she went to a psychiatrist who told her that people generally weren’t bothered by incest, and, despite her distress, she let the matter drop.

1982: Several women in their twenties met through a local feminist anti violence group. Discovering their shared experiences of childhood sexual abuse, they began meeting to support each other, theorize about child sexual abuse, and work to make the issue more visible.

1995: A man in his thirties confronted his parents with accusations of child sexual abuse. Denying his account, they argued that his memories were false, implanted by a therapist’s suggestive techniques. They referred to literature from the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, and implored him to see a new therapist.

1998: The stickers read “Proud Survivor” and “The Abuse Stops Here.” Fluorescent green and orange, plastered to marchers’ bodies, they caught the eye of onlookers, who often cheered or mouthed, “Me, too,” as Run Riot, a survivors’ activist group, chanted and sang its way along the route of the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.