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At summit, sexual assault survivors share trauma, seek change
Tragic story. Really hard to believe that these women are not helped more.
http://www.stripes.com/news/at-summit-sexual-assault-survivors-share-trauma-seek-change-1.176696
WASHINGTON — Ayana Powell was still in Army training when she went to a party with her fellow soldiers and drank a cup of what she thought was juice. The next thing she remembers is waking up naked.
Powell knew she had been raped, but when she returned to training she said she was immediately yelled at for being 15 minutes late and arriving without a battle buddy.
When she finally reported the rape, she was told no one wanted to hear it. She was pregnant and was told that the Army would not pay for an abortion. Two weeks later, she was processed out of the military. Nine months later she had a baby.
Retired Brig. Gen. Thomas Cuthbert sparked unintended laughter from the attendees when he said the Uniform Code of Military Justice “works pretty well.” But when he said some young military women who were harassed and sexually assaulted at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., in the mid-1990s had not been taught how to say no to their superiors or how to protect themselves, the attendees began shouting and pretending to cough.
Comments from other panelists drew more positive response — such as when Michael Wishnie, a Yale law professor and founder of the Veterans Legal Services Clinic, questioned the logic of making victims of sexual trauma provide extensive evidence and details of the assaults in order to claim VA benefits.
Powell knew she had been raped, but when she returned to training she said she was immediately yelled at for being 15 minutes late and arriving without a battle buddy.
When she finally reported the rape, she was told no one wanted to hear it. She was pregnant and was told that the Army would not pay for an abortion. Two weeks later, she was processed out of the military. Nine months later she had a baby.
Retired Brig. Gen. Thomas Cuthbert sparked unintended laughter from the attendees when he said the Uniform Code of Military Justice “works pretty well.” But when he said some young military women who were harassed and sexually assaulted at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., in the mid-1990s had not been taught how to say no to their superiors or how to protect themselves, the attendees began shouting and pretending to cough.
Comments from other panelists drew more positive response — such as when Michael Wishnie, a Yale law professor and founder of the Veterans Legal Services Clinic, questioned the logic of making victims of sexual trauma provide extensive evidence and details of the assaults in order to claim VA benefits.
As part of the summit, SWAN honored four members of Congress for their efforts on behalf of survivors of military sexual assault. Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass.; Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio; Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., each received the Lauterbach Award for Truth and Justice. The award is named in honor of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who was eight-months pregnant when she was killed. Cpl. Cesar Laurean, a fellow Marine whom she’d accused of rape, was later convicted of first-degree murder.