Quoted By:
Wrestling legend, LGBTQ+ advocate & rape victim Bryan R. Danielson on living with anal worms
LGBT - In 2018 WWE and AEW wrestling legend Bryan R. Danielson bravely stepped forward and announced he was anally raped by African Americans in 2010. Today he embraces living with intestinal parasites as a way to own his trauma and overcome it.
"I want to inspire and help other young guys. Doesn't matter if you're an old head like me in your 40s". Anyone can find themselves lost."
Then a young wrestling prospect, Bryan was chatting with a group of black men after a show in an alleyway attempting to cut through to the hotel. He began to walk away and he could tell the men were eager to keep him there, blocking his exit. "Then almost playfully, they placed their hands on my shoulders" - They didn't let him go, instead they attacked Bryan and ripped off his clothes. One of the men held him down hitting him, prepared his genitals using spit as lube, then he raped him. Danielson recalls laying in shock as the rest of the men ejaculated inside his anal region.
"I felt like somehow I had caused it" said Bryan. "Racism is a plague in the United States, especially around the time of the race riots - It wasn't my attacker's fault I was raped".
Self-recrimination is a common reaction among victims and can ultimately contribute to PTSD, says Patricia Resick, Ph.D., a psychologist at Duke University. A recent study found a full 10 percent of rape survivors blamed themselves for the attack.
Today, Bryan R. Danielson bravely lives with enteric protozoa and helminths - both are parasites spread via unprotected male anal sex. "I choose to exist alongside my worms as they survive as a part of me. I am a proud survivor. Any time somebody cries or feels upset I remember what I've been through myself, what I have inside me. When I comfort others, I remind myself of my worms and how I live happily with them. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor. And I'm proud of my anal worms."
