new york city council speaker melissa mark-viverito said thursday she had been sexually abused as a young girl, a disclosure she said she decided to make following allegations from multiple women that republican presidential nominee donald trump had touched or kissed them without their consent. <u+201c>between the ages of 5 and 8 i was molested by two different individuals at two different points in time,<u+201d> ms. mark-viverito, a democrat, said at a city hall news conference. ms. mark-viverito, who is supporting democratic presidential nominee hillary clinton, said a 2005 video released friday in which mr. trump bragged about groping women <u+201c>triggered things that i haven<u+2019>t felt in a long time.<u+201d> as she spoke, her eyes welled with tears. mr. trump previously apologized for his comments on the 2005 video, calling the remarks <u+201c>locker-room<u+201d> talk that didn<u+2019>t represent his behavior. on thursday, he described the women<u+2019>s allegations of inappropriate contact as <u+201c>false and slanderous in virtually every aspect.<u+201d> a spokeswoman for mr. trump didn<u+2019>t respond to a request for comment on ms. mark-viverito<u+2019>s remarks. ms. mark-viverito, the second woman and first latina to lead the council, first spoke publicly about the sexual abuse on twitter wednesday evening. on thursday, she said she didn<u+2019>t start <u+201c>dealing with my abuse<u+201d> until she was in her 20s. <u+201c>that<u+2019>s what trauma does to you,<u+201d> said ms. mark-viverito, who represents east harlem and portions of the south bronx. <u+201c>in some ways you create your spots that are a little sketchy, right? you try to block it out.<u+201d> get the best of the wall street journal<u+2019>s greater new york section delivered to your inbox every day. sign up for the newsletter here. the abuse occurred in puerto rico, where ms. mark-viverito was born, and no criminal charges were filed, a spokesman for the speaker said. ms. mark-viverito said she would <u+201c>feel uncomfortable having anyone around me<u+201d> who supports mr. trump <u+201c>because in essence you are condoning that type of behavior where you think it<u+2019>s ok to violate a woman.<u+201d> councilman joseph borelli, a staten island republican and the only lawmaker in the 51-member council to endorse mr. trump, said he was sorry for what ms. mark-viverito had been through but that she was a hypocrite for supporting mrs. clinton. <u+201c>i am sorry to hear of the speaker<u+2019>s past, but only one candidate in this race wears the stigma of defending a child rapist,<u+201d> said mr. borelli, referring to mrs. clinton<u+2019>s legal representation of an accused rapist in the 1970s. <u+201c>anyone defending hillary clinton<u+2019>s blatant corruption and contempt for the public may want to come off their high horse.<u+201d> have something to say about an article in greater new york? email us, along with your contact information, at gnyltrs@wsj.com . letters will be edited for brevity and clarity. please include your city and state. a spokeswoman for mrs. clinton declined to comment. councilman steven matteo, a staten island republican who plans to vote for mr. trump but hasn<u+2019>t officially endorsed him, said his <u+201c>heart goes out<u+201d> to ms. mark-viverito. <u+201c>supporting a candidate does not mean one condones everything that candidate says or does, or has been alleged to have said or done,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>good people can disagree in politics.<u+201d> ms. mark-viverito<u+2019>s decision to speak out about sexual abuse marks the second time since she became speaker in 2014 that she has made a deeply personal experience public, and it is the second time she has done so on twitter. in august 2014, she wrote on twitter that she had high-risk hpv , or human papillomavirus, a common sexually transmitted infection that can cause cancer. write to mara gay at mara.gay@wsj.com
new york city council speaker says she was sexually abused - wsj
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