Donald Trump’s Lewd Comments Inspire Women to Share Sexual Assault Stories

When news broke on Friday of a leaked video that showed Donald Trump bragging about groping women and making lewd comments about them, many women decided they had enough.

As the backlash started from voters and politicians on both sides, thousands of women took to social media to condemn the Republican presidential candidate and share their own stories of sexual assault.

In the video, which features a 2005 conversation between Trump and Billy Bush, then-host of Access Hollywood, Trump says the fact that he’s “a star” means he can kiss and touch women whenever he wants. “Grab them by the p—y,” he says. “You can do anything.”

Kelly Oxford, a Canadian writer, tweeted about her first sexual assault on Friday and encouraged other women to do the same. “Women: tweet me your first assaults. they aren’t just stats,” she wrote. “I’ll go first: Old man on city bus grabs my ‘p—y’ and smiles at me, I’m 12.”

After that, Oxford said, more than a million women shared their stories by tweeting them at her for at least 14 hours.

She called the stories “harrowing” and estimated she was receiving 50 stories per minute on Saturday morning. Oxford also called on “anyone denying rape culture” to look at the stories on her timeline. Many also used the hashtag “NotOkay” to share their stories and give support to victims of sexual assault. The hashtag was a trending topic on Twitter in the U.S. and continued going strong for much of the next day.