Olimpia Coral Melo Cruz, a women’s-rights activist from the Mexican city of Puebla, is a survivor of revenge porn—sexual content that is shared without the consent of those featured within it. She turned her experience into action, and in April 2021, Mexico passed Olimpia’s Law, federally prohibiting the sharing of such content without the subject’s permission.
Most U.S. states have passed similar measures, and consequences for distributing revenge porn vary in some places from misdemeanor offenses to felonies. But anti-revenge-porn legislation has yet to pass on the federal level.
Melo Cruz and I are kindred spirits, and I hope that she inspires people around the world to not only take up this cause but also speak up for themselves. It can be difficult to be a survivor, speaking up about something so personal, but Melo Cruz’s impact will not only be meaningful right now, it will be remembered in history—and history is on her side.
She has changed the world. That is what she symbolizes.
Nguyen is the CEO and founder of Rise, a civil rights nonprofit that advocates for survivors of sexual violence
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