'I was a product of rape': Miss USA 2014 hopeful reveals

Daily Mail ^ | 06/05/2014 | MARGOT PEPPERS

[SeekAndFind]

The woman representing Pennsylvania in the Miss USA 2014 pageant has opened up about how she was conceived when her mother was raped at knifepoint.

Valerie Gatto, 24, revealed to Today.com that a man dressed in black attacked her mother when she was just 19, forcing himself upon her behind a building until a passing car spooked him, and she managed to run away.

Rather than let the tragic story define her, Valerie has decided to use it as a platform to help educate women about sexual assault. 'I believe God put me here for a reason,' she said. 'To give [people] hope that everything is possible and you can't let your circumstances define your life.'

[Dilbert San Diego]

The logic of aborting after rape is that the circumstances of conception are horrific. And that the family would always be reminded of the rape, by the very presence of that child in their lives.

That’s the logic anyway.

[stremba]

Bad logic. If the presence of the child in their lives is painful, then why not give the child up for adoption? There are many loving, caring couples who are incapable of having children of their own who would love to adopt such a child. It would be a positive for all involved, especially the child who actually gets to have a life instead of being murdered.

[Buckeye McFrog]

What a wonderful example of how God can turn tragedy into a miracle. I hope she wins.

[GreatMan]

She is a beautiful woman however PA is CCW state, her mother should have been carrying a “Lady Smith” and sent the rapist to his grave.

[trisham]

She’s beautiful and brave. Best of luck to her!

[Gay State Conservative]

It was very brave and selfless for her mother to have refrained from having blamed the child for the atrocity.

[Bigg Red]

I don’t keep up on these things. What happened to the woman you mention?

[Agamemnon]

Why do we need to know this? OR... is the necessity for making a victim of yourself and cultivating a victim mentality SOOOO ingrained now?

What a strange thing to post for someone who sports the tag line that you do.

Both the mother's perspective and the daughter's perspective on what happened are evidence of people who clearly rose above their circumstances and refused to be held back by them.

They are not parading a victimhood drenched blame game, they are not whining about a rapist, but instead are living testimonies to overcoming what was such a tragic event.

This is very likely to sting the abort-a-rape peddlers significantly.

Why don't you celebrate their courage rather than slathering them with your contempt?

FReegards!

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I don’t keep up on these things. What happened to the woman you mention?

Carrie Prejean was calkifornia’s representative to Miss America and was even favored to win.

In the panel of judges, was Perez Hilton ( pseudonym of Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. ), an American blogger and television personality. His blog specializes in the outing of alleged closeted celebrities and its role in the increasing coverage of celebrities in all forms of media.

Perez Hilton took to the Internet and TV airwaves to humiliate a beauty pageant contestant who gave what he considered an “offensive” answer about gay marriage. Hilton, inexplicably serving as a judge for the Miss USA contest, asked Miss California, Carrie Prejean, whether she supported the legalization of gay marriage. Prejean respectfully answered: “I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.” President Obama, by the way, AT THAT TIME before he “evolved” defined marriage the same way Prejean does.

No matter. Hilton immediately lambasted Prejean as a “dumb b*tch” in a viral YouTube video he taped after the pageant Sunday night. He apologized the next morning for the attack, then retracted his apology, then escalated his divisive rhetoric. On Tuesday afternoon, Hilton told an MSNBC female anchor that he was thinking of an even more vulgar epithet — the “c-word” — as he listened to Prejean’s answer. The female anchor said nothing. Basking in his new role as thought and speech enforcer, Hilton told CNN’s Larry King that beauty pageant contestants must bow to the tolerance mob: “Yes. I do expect Miss USA to be politically correct.”

And apparently, the Miss USA organizers agree. Instead of apologizing for Hilton’s vile behavior, the pageant director of the Miss California contest, Keith Lewis, sent a note to Hilton throwing Prejean under the bus: “I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss CA USA 2009 believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman. … Religious beliefs have no place in politics in the Miss CA family.”

But gutter profanity and misogyny do?

[SMARTY]

Actually, I was thinking it’s WAAAY too much personal information and isn’t in the public interest.

Myself, I’m very private and never talk about personal stuff, openly like that. So, I am always surprised when people do.

That’s all.

[JimRed]

OR... is the necessity for making a victim of yourself and cultivating a victim mentality SOOOO ingrained now?

I read it differently; I think she is setting an example that may cause some rape victims to rethink killing the innocent child who might well become as accomplished as she is.

[SMARTY]

Maybe... it just seems inappropriate. Actually, if she wants to be an advocate for rape victims, etc. there are a lot of ways to do that and it just made me uncomfortable to see someone volunteer information THAT sensitive at a time like that.

Oh well, that's just how I saw it.

[JimRed]

Oh well, that's just how I saw it.

That's why they make chocolate and vanilla...and strawberry...and a whole bunch'a other flavors!

[Yaelle]

This beautiful woman has lived a full, productive life.

* Participated in church and girl scouts growing up.

* Magna Cum Laude Graduate of the University of Pittsburgh

* Taught English in Italy for Several Months.

* Now Miss USA Beauty hopeful representing Pennsylvania.

---

I think the mother should sue her doctor for unintended birth! Surely this woman SHOULD have been aborted!!

Do I have to put /s?

[Yaelle]

She IS a walking pro life advocate. That is the point.

Activists don’t do half the work of living, wonderful people who were conceived by rape.

The same with the newest ultrasound machines.

Talk is cheap.

[Agamemnon]

Actually, I was thinking it’s WAAAY too much personal information and isn’t in the public interest.

As I wrote: this is very likely to sting the abort-a-rape peddlers significantly. In that sense it is very much in the public interest.

Myself, I’m very private and never talk about personal stuff, openly like that. So, I am always surprised when people do.

Some folks actually have an inspiring story to tell. I am reminded of abortion survivor, Lila Rose, for instance, who is very active in the pro-life fight - every bit as much as this Miss USA aspirant may prove to be.

You may not have an inspiring story of your own, and that's fine. Some folks do, and recount their personal story to inspire others to do the right thing and to make the right decision.

I wouldn't fault someone for that.

FReegards!

[Bigg Red]

Ah, yes, now I remember that brouhaha. What a disgusting little male — won’t call him a man. And how disgusting of the pageant officials. Glad I don’t bother to watch that junk.

[Neidermeyer]

“I was a product of rape’: Miss USA 2014 hopeful reveals”

Was ?

Is she dead ?
*********************
I’ll play grammar police here ... looking at things chronologically she WAS indeed a product of rape ,, she was no doubt conceived minutes/hours or even days afterwards ,, she could say “was and am...” but that would be very awkward and wouldn’t be true in her mind ,, she is no longer a “product of rape” but a child of her loving mother ,, putting it in the past tense is very healthy.