News

June 1, 2017This Gay Man Breaks the Silence on His Domestic Abuse Horror Story Intimate partner violence is a serious yet oft-ignored issue facing LGBT people, says the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. To help break the cycle, Patrick Dati shares his experience. [read more]

June 1, 2017Windy City TimesPatrick Dati raises voice against domestic abuse After coming out, Patrick Dati fell for a man who seemed great at first, but later began physically abusing him. [read more]

March 2017Patrick Dati joins the Elite Speaker’s Bureau Author, Anti-Violence Advocate and Motivational Speaker Patrick Dati Teams Up With Renowned Domestic Violence Expert Denise Brown to Address Domestic Abuse Impacting Gay and Straight Men and LGBTQ People Dati Signs on with Brown’s “The Elite Speaker’s Bureau” as its First Gay Male Survivor to Speak on … Read more

September, 2016 In 2016, Dati was chosen as keynote speaker for Break the Silence Foundation, a domestic violence non-profit organization which elected him in 2017 to their board of directors as Chairman of their Planning Committee. [read more]

August 16, 2016President Obama responds to letter from Dati

September 21, 2014 Windy City Live/ABC7 Chicago Child Predators: How to Protect Your Child “On this special show titled, “Child Predators: How to Protect Your Child,” we were joined by Patrick Dati, who had a horrifying encounter with serial killer John Wayne Gacy when he was only 9 years old, and lived to talk about … Read more

August 7, 2014 Chicago Sun-Times The Sitdown: Patrick Dati, anti-bullying advocate and child abuse prevention spokesperson “The lifelong Chicagoan was 9, he says, when late serial killer John Wayne Gacy raped him in a restroom of Goldblatt’s department store on Belmont near Central in the winter of 1973. He kept the deeply scarring and life-altering … Read more

January 29, 2014Windy City TimesGacy Survivor Dati on Life and New Book, “I Am Me” “As a 9-year-old, Patrick Dati’s life changed forever when serial killer John Wayne Gacy raped him in the men’s bathroom of the now defunct Goldblatt’s department store on a winter morning in January 1972.” [read article]

July 21, 2013Chicago TribuneMale survivors of sexual assault break silence, combat stigma “Consider the story of Patrick Dati and Dawn Smith. About two years ago, Smith was looking for ways to help her preteen son, who recently had tried to commit suicide after suffering years of sexual abuse, she said. She stumbled across Dati’s website, … Read more

March 14, 2013CNN.comViolence Against Women Act shines a light on same-sex abuse “Patrick Dati had reached his breaking point. With a metal pin in his arm and Vicodin coursing through his veins, he picked up the phone to call his psychiatrist.” [read article]