On June 17, 2017, jurors in the Pennsylvania sexual assault trial of Bill Cosby reported that they were hopelessly deadlocked, and the judge declared a mistrial. The district attorney has already declared his intention to seek a retrial. At Blackburn Center, we stand behind all victims of sexual violence, and are heartened by the prosecutor's decision to seek justice for the women who were allegedly drugged and raped by Bill Cosby. Given the mistrial, we decided to rerun a p

Have you seen the hit show Empire? In many ways, it’s an incredible show, with strong female lead characters (especially Taraji P. Henson as Cookie Lyon) and a dedication to address issues such as homophobia and mental illness. Yet for all of that, there is one major reason to not watch this show…one of its main characters, Lucious Lyon, is a sexist, homophobic abusive man, who happens to be played by an actor (Terrence Howard) with a long history of abusing women. The crea

In recent weeks, it’s become apparent to just about everybody that Bill Cosby is a serial rapist. The first known rape occurred in the 1960’s. By 2015, 46 women had publicly accused him of rape. Many people didn’t want to believe that any of this could be true until 3 weeks ago, when Cosby’s deposition in a 2005 case became public — including his shocking admission that he obtained drugs to give to women that — in his words — he wanted to have sex with (the reality is that a