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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 24, 2009

Contact: Michael Cox (503) 986-1904

House Votes Unanimously for Justice for Rape Victims

HB 2343 affirms that rape is never the victim’s fault

The Oregon House unanimously passed a bill to improve protection for rape victims by removing consideration of a victim’s behavior leading up to a sexual assault from charging decisions. HB 2343, sponsored by Rep. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis), clarifies that nonconsensual sex can be charged as rape, regardless of whether a victim became mentally incapacitated due to voluntary or involuntary actions.

“Oregon is one of only a handful of states whose sexual assault statute contains an explicit reference to a victim’s behavior prior to a sexual assault,” said Gelser. “Rape is never the victim’s fault. Our law should reflect that.”

House Democratic Majority Mary Nolan, commenting on passage of HB 2343, said clearly, “It is time.”

The current definition of “mental incapacitation” covers only a narrow set of circumstances. For example, if someone slips a drug into a victim’s drink and then the victim is sexually assaulted that can be charged as rape. However, if the victim was in the same state of incapacitation due to voluntarily consuming alcohol or another substance, it would be charged as a lesser offense.

“Any woman in Oregon should be able to enjoy a drink or a party without being raped,” said Rep. Jeff Barker (D-Aloha) who chairs the House Judiciary Committee. “This bill makes it clear that a rapist cannot escape responsibility for a crime by blaming the victim.”

If HB 2343 becomes law, the prosecution will still bear the burden of proving that rape occurred. This means that the prosecution must prove that the defendant knew that consent had not been given. A defendant could still argue that his own level of intoxication prevented the recognition of a victims’ incapacity to consent, or the defendant could argue that the victim gave consent. To obtain a conviction, the state must still prove that rape occurred beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Rape remains under reported and extremely difficult to prosecute due to the nature of the crime and cultural attitudes towards it,” said Gelser. “However, I am pleased my colleagues were willing to tackle this issue and unanimously voted to ensure our laws reflect that no one ever deserves to be raped.”

The bill was introduced at the request of former Attorney General Hardy Myers and the Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force.

HB 2343 now moves to the Senate for final consideration.

New Report Shows High Incidence of Prison Rape

Today, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) released a report that stated that about 60,000 inmates are raped or sexually assaulted each year. The US Attorney General, Eric Holder, now has a year to make recommendations to states, and then they have a year to make sure they're meeting these recommendations.

The topic of prison rape is incredibly complex... When you stop to think about it, how many times have you heard jokes in movies and television like "don't drop the soap" or someone "being your bitch?" Or how many times have prison scenes been sexualized (I'm thinking "L Word" right about now) when the under text was definitely sexual violence? When I really started paying attention to how often these things happen, I was shocked to realize that society thinks that it's okay to treat people in prison as less than human. Shocked, but not surprised.

Check out the story that MSN is running about the NPREC's report. It states that prisoners are more likely to be assaulted by staff than by another inmate and suggests "better staff training" as one way to reduce these acts of violence. Excuse me? Are we supposed to expect that staff don't know that it's not okay to rape inmates and some simple training will clue them in? Instead, let's take the time to create an entire paradigm shift in the criminal justice system that demands that are people are treated with dignity and respect. Something tells me that would go a lot farther to end sexual violence in and outside of our prison systems.

I was also concerned at the suggestion that another strategy should be "improved screening to identify prisoners vulnerable to abuse." Guess who these folks are? People who are short, young, gay, or female -- I guess things aren't too different inside the walls of a prison... To me, this puts all of the focus and blame on the survivors of prison rape (again, shocked but not surprised) rather than the people who are committing the crime. As though rounding up all the young, short, gay and female inmates and separating them from their peers would make all the difference. But wait! It wouldn't because somehow they need to be separated from prison staff who are more likely to assault them! Well, now I'm really stumped...

I'm grateful that today's report from the NPREC will shed some light on what's really going on in prisons, as well as sexual violence in general. However, I feel pessimistic that any immediate action will truly focus on the elimination of prison rape -- again, that paradigm shift -- instead of some written policies that will be considered all of the action necessary.

What do you think?

Example #2394802834: We Live in a Rape Culture

We received this article from a regular PWCL blogger in our e-mail today, coming via Feministing.com. A young woman was sexually assaulted on her campus, and after fighting back using so-called lifesaving self-defense skills, she was attacked again by a group of young men because she fought back in the first place.

What's interesting about this story is how it highlights a few scary things that take place in our rape culture:

1. When survivors fight back, it often doesn't work or backfires. Yet we are continually taught that self-defense is one of the key elements to ending sexual violence.
2. Mob mentality. If you've seen Dreamworlds 3, you know what I'm talking about. It highlights the idea that some men participate in the mob mentality around rape culture and sexual violence. In this case, they did not stick up for the survivor but rather participated in the violence being perpetrated against her.
3. The normalcy of rape in our culture, and even more on college campuses. See the "rape trail" in this story. Ugh.

What's really upsetting to me is that this story isn't on national news. Why? Because, sadly, these sorts of instances of sexual violence happen to people, and moreover women-identified people far too often. I was physically assaulted by a group of teenage boys last year, outside of a PETCO no less, and it reminded me of all the times I experienced similar violence when I was in high school and my early college years. It was normal to me back then, and only when we start talking about stories like the one featured above on feministing.com do we realize what an epidemic physical and sexual violence is against all sorts of oppressed groups, and in this case, women.

SAAM Activism

A big blog thanks goes to Feministing for being so on top of everything.

I just read this article: Another military contractor rape *before you click - trigger warning*

Essentially, another woman working for a US defense contractor in Iraq has come forward as a survivor of a terrible, terrible sexual assault (too many details in the article. sigh.) perpetrated on her by her male coworkers.

The survivor was told to be quiet about it by superiors and stayed quiet for fear that more violence would be perpetrated against her.

Feministing is asking us to do a few things to support this survivor and the many, many survivors who are speaking up after working for defense contractors in Iraq, which I think is just so smart of the Feministing folk and it makes me like them all the more.

So, PWCL folks:

Take Action! Pressure the Department of State and Department of Defense to take steps to protect US contractors; urge them to respond to the concerns raised by Rep. Louise Slaughter.

Not too Shabby - Another Follow-up for the LA Times

On Saturday, my letter to the editor was published in the LA Times in response to Mac Donald's shameful opinion piece on sexual violence on university campuses. I was also happy for Kelsey's link to the fabulous response written by Nora Niedzielski-Eichner which was also published in the LA Times.

I'm so glad that there has been a public stand in support of survivors!

Rape as an epidemic

I was surprised and appreciative to see that a mainstream news source like MSN had "Rape as a weapon of war" as it's first headline when I logged on to my computer last night. According to UNICEF, violence against women and children has nearly doubled in countries like Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in Kenya they noticed the increase in a matter of days.

It reminds me that fighting for peace in our homes and fighting for peace in our global community is linked on such a fundamental level; we can't focus on just one or the other.

Awesome to the 10th

One of my earliest experiences of learning about feminism took place while volunteering at the Vagina Monologues at the University of Oregon. Never before had I heard throngs of women yelling the word vagina in a public sphere (and I can't say I heard it much in the private, either). Viewing the V-Monologues as well as reading the novel really helped me to define what feminism is in my life, and it also gave me a better idea of how sexual and domestic violence affect women throughout the world.

Thanks to an advocate at a sister agency, I read this letter written by the fantastic Eve Ensler online last night. Eve gears up for V-Day to the 10th which will be held in the New Orleans SuperDome, which many know as a place where sexual assaults happened at an alarming rate during the chaos of Hurricane Katrina. This year will be the 10th anniversary celebration of a call to action against violence that Eve started years ago by conducting private interviews with women about their relationships to their vaginas. For me, and I'm sure many other folks, the Vagina Monologues hold a special place in my heart.

After reading the above letter I looked further into the V-day in New Orleans in April. Loads of celebrities from Oprah to Glenn Close will be in attendance at the SuperDome. For me, it seems amazing that so many people in the public eye will be attending this event. So, thank you to that lovely advocate who brought Eve's letter to my attention. I hope everyone will take a few minutes out of their day to read it, and I hope you all attend a local showing of the Vagina Monologues to celebrate 10 years of activism around violence against women.

Damn, Eve Ensler helps me be proud to be a woman.

Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War

NY TIMES: Rape Epidemic Raises Trauma of Congo War
By Jeffrey Gettleman

I found this article when it was published about a week ago in the NY Times, and it has been haunting me ever since. I want to give a warning - some descriptions of the violence happening to women in this article are graphic.

This article details the rising rates of violence against women in the post-war era of Congo, Africa. Now, for anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the news about Congo in the past, oh, couple of decades, knows that sexual violence as a war weapon is no new occurrence for this area. Although, as this article unearths, even after the "war" has ended and a new government has emerged, rebel groups still control many areas of Eastern Congo and continue to use sexual violence and torture against women and children as a very real and very powerful war weapon. This article reports that there are 10 new sexual assault cases each day at Denis Mukwege's hospital. Of those ten, at least six require surgery to heal internal injuries from the sexual brutality. There are so many, in fact, that a new ward is being built for rape survivors because they are being pushed out the doors for newer cases each day, unable to fully heal before their discharge. Moreover, they stress that this epidemic is expanding into the culture as rates of murder and violence against women in their marriages and families has been ever increasing as well.

It was so powerful and disturbing to read this article because it is often hard for me to look past my immediate reality. We hear about cases of violence against women in our area everyday, and while it is no doubt an epidemic here in the US, it is even more so for the women and children of Congo.

This article makes me wonder and makes me downright angry that this violence is allowed to continue at such high rates on a daily basis. That's not to say that nothing is being done - as this article describes the largest UN peacekeeping force is present in Congo with around 17,000 forces. I wonder, then, what will stop the spread of violence in this area? I imagine it will take way more money and media attention then it is getting right now. When speaking to friends and family about this article, I was surprised to hear that many are still unclear about the past wars in Congo, and even more unaware of the ever-present violence that still takes place. This makes me feel now, more than ever, that awareness needs to be brought to this issue in the US and beyond. Something needs to be done.

I get a sick, heavy feeling in my chest when I even begin to think about the women and children of Congo. I'm posting this blog in hopes that others will have input on what can be done - even if it's just writing a senator or sending clothing and hygiene items to the hospitals and clinics in Eastern Congo. I'm more ready than ever to do anything to help curb the violence, and I hope some of you may be too.