She described being sexually assaulted 14 years ago, saying she did not report it to police or tell anyone.

“Many people we know around us are also suffering in silence,” McClure said.

She said she stood by Fairfax after the first allegation was made, by Tyson.

“I first began to have my doubts about the side I was standing on when I first heard from Dr. Vanessa Tyson. Her story began to sound too familiar to me and I became ill at the attempts to discredit her, to attack her, to threaten her with defamation suits and criminal prosecution.”

After Watson made her allegations public, McClure said, she knew the allegations could not be written off.

“I wondered if my abuser were ever elected to public office ... and I decided to speak out, how would I be treated? Would people attempt to label me as crazy, as a partisan pawn? Perhaps as an opportunist? Would I be threatened with lawsuits and legal action and would my abuser use the power of their office sitting on top of the dais to condemn me as a modern-day lynch mob that’s tantamount to those who murdered Emmett Till?”