Katie Koestner

Katherine H. Koestner is an American activist against sexual assault. She came forward in 1990 at 18 years old publicly after an alleged rape that took place on William and Mary campus which involved her and her date. Koestner started speaking out about her experience in 1991 by lecturing at other college campuses to raise awareness. She also volunteered in rape crisis centers. She was featured in the media, including an HBO special, No Visible Bruises: The Katie Koestner Story. Koestner's work and activism has helped the term "date rape" become part of the larger discussion around rape and sexual assault. Koestner founded several campus sexual assault prevention groups after graduating from the College of William & Mary in 1994. Koester is the executive director of the Take Back The Night Foundation, president of Campus Outreach Services and serves as an advisor for other organizations to help prevent rape and other forms of sexual violence.

Early life and assault Koestner is from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1990. In the fall of 1990, she enrolled in William and Mary (W&M) where she planned to study chemical engineering and Japanese. Koestner was raped by a student she had been dating for just over a week. She had invited the student back to her dorm room after a date. They had gone on a date to a French restaurant and Koestner wanted to spend time alone with him afterwards. Koestner said that she felt tired and weak after hours of arguing about sex and said, "He just wore me down all night. I couldn't do anything." She said her date "climbed on top of her and had sex despite her alleged protests." She said she felt "paralyzed" and that "he had a ginormous ego, and had always had what he wanted in life". Her former date left her notes and friends tried to arrange a meeting between them, hoping things could be patched up between them. Instead of filing a police report, she was asked to pursue an administrative hearing at W&M.

Publicity Because she felt a lack of support from her roommate and other women in her all-female dorm, within a couple of months after she was allegedly assaulted, Koestner moved to new quarters on campus. The letter that she sent to her local paper trended nationwide. Koestner appeared on the cover of TIME magazine. She appeared on Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Jane Whitney Show, CNBC Talk Live, and was featured in the Washington Post. The publicity caused Governor Doug Wilder to ask officials involved in education in Virginia to study campus rape. A few years after Koestner came forward publicly, W&M changed their policies so that students found guilty of sexual assault are required to be suspended. Koestner wanted justice. Controversy over her paid role in a planned HBO dramatization about her experience led to the creation of a petition that asked for the "man's point of view" to be considered in the story. The petition signers said that the name of the alleged rapist was known on the small campus and that he would be "ruined." No Visible Bruises was a 1/2 hour special that was part of HBO's series, Life Stories: Families in Crisis. Her appearances were considered "divisive" by some students at the time. Koestner graduated from W&M in 1994, majoring in public policy and women's studies. She also volunteered at a rape crisis center and became a certified peer-educator ad sexual assault counselor in Virginia. She has been published online and in print. It was Koestner's efforts that brought the concept and term "date rape" to public attention.