Truths untold: Stephen Snyder-Hill
by Sarah Szilagy
Truths untold: Stephen Snyder-Hill
by Sarah Szilagy
“Truths untold” is a series featuring the voices and stories of victims and survivors of Richard Strauss, a former university physician who sexually assaulted students and student-athletes during his 20-year tenure at Ohio State. Each episode focuses on one person’s story: their experiences with Strauss, how his abuse affected them and how their lives have been impacted in the past three years since survivors started coming forward.
The first episode tells the story of Steve Snyder-Hill, an army veteran, LGBTQ+ rights activist and Strauss survivor.
Details pertaining to sexual assault, violence and harassment may be disturbing or triggering for some readers and listeners.
A style note
Throughout this project, the words “victim” and “survivor” are used interchangeably and together. For many people who have experienced sexual violence, the ability to identify as one or the other is important. The Lantern’s style is to use sources’ preferences when possible, and men who have come forward about Strauss’ abuse use both “victim” and “survivor” to describe themselves.
By the time Steve Snyder-Hill met Dr. Strauss for the first time, he had already been to war.
Determined to be the first member of his family to go to college, Snyder-Hill enlisted in the army upon high school graduation and was shipped off to Germany for several years before being deployed to Iraq to serve in Operation Desert Storm. It was during a firefight that Snyder-Hill found himself not only mourning the potential loss of his life, but mourning the romantic life he never let himself have.
“There were mortars hitting on the left of us and the right of us, and I thought I was gonna die that day. I remember I was ducked down to my little cubby hole, and I looked up, and I saw a picture of my brother and his girlfriend there. And I remember crying to myself, because I knew that day I had never loved anybody else,” Snyder-Hill said. “I promised myself if I got out of that alive that I would not lie or deny myself again.”
So, upon coming to Ohio State in 1991, Snyder-Hill was determined to learn how to accept himself and his sexuality. He joined support groups for gay students. He pursued romantic partners.
And then, in January 1995, Snyder-Hill was assaulted by Richard Strauss during a medical exam.
Strauss was a physician at the student health center and varsity team sports doctor from 1978-98. During his tenure, he sexually abused students and student-athletes during medical exams. An independent investigation in 2019 found Strauss sexually abused at least 177 students — and that university officials were aware of complaints but did not act.
Strauss died by suicide in 2005.
A therapist told me this, she said, ‘24 years ago, when this happened, it was an injustice and you put it all into a box, and it worked for 24 years, it was wrapped up nice and neat. And you just moved on with your life. And then you know, just lived your life, went to two wars, whatever. And then all these years later, you’ve pulled it all out. And then there’s more adding on to it. And now you’re trying to frantically put it back in that box, and it just won’t fit anymore.’
More than 300 former students have joined lawsuits against the university for failing to address and prevent Strauss’ abuse, all but one of them men. In September, a federal judge dismissed Strauss-related lawsuits for being filed past Ohio’s two-year statute of limitations on sexual assault cases.
Snyder-Hill reported his assault to student health services the day after his appointment. In a patient comment form, he detailed Strauss’ inappropriate questions, insistence on genital exams and what he described as “flirty” behavior. He also documented how he felt: uncomfortable with the questions, guilty that he “let [Strauss] touch him.”
In a meeting with Strauss, Strauss’ boss and a university psychologist, Snyder-Hill said he sat while Strauss screamed at him for threatening his reputation. He left being told that he was “confused and mistaken” about what happened to him.
I feel like every single word that comes out of my mouth paves the way for somebody else to feel more comfortable with that, you know, and that’s why, to me, it’s worth it.
“How did this affect me? I honestly think that it made me hate myself,” Snyder-Hill said. “Now, I just question everything, like would it have been easier for me to accept myself had I not been assaulted by this guy and been so critically embarrassed about it or have PTSD about it, you know, that I wouldn’t have hated myself so much.”
Now, nearly 27 years later, Snyder-Hill said he’s fighting another fight: to get justice for himself and the other victims and survivors who the university failed to protect from Strauss.
Words by Sarah Szilagy
Audio by Maya Neyman and Sarah Szilagy
Photos courtesy of Christian Harsa, Marcy Paredes and Stephen Snyder-Hill
Web Design by Marcus Horton