220 survivors of military sexual trauma descended on Capitol Hill today.
Today,
Service Women's Action Network is held their
"Truth and Justice Summit," the first-ever mass convening of survivors of military sexual assault on the nation's capitol. The schedule inclues a panel of survivors sharing their stories with attendees and the press. There will be an awards luncheon, advocacy training and visits to congressional offices. The aim of the congressional outreach, from SWAN policy director Greg Jacob:
We are asking that Congress educate themselves more on issues of sexual assault and harassment in the military and that they become vocal leaders in holding the military accountable for stopping rape in the ranks.
This is an issue that affects men and women service-wide. The reforms and improvements made thus far have been spearheaded by a relatively small group of legislators, most of them being on the Armed Services committee. It is critical that Congress understand that the issue of military sexual violence affects everyone, including veterans and families in their districts that might not have a military presence.
The timing of the conference is set to coincidence with the mark-up of the National Defense Authorization Act. Though the Pentagon
recently initiated some administrative changes which were greeted favorably by advocates, there is still much work to do, as the
latest Department of Defense report detailed. The annual NDAA is the ideal vehicle for Congress to hold the military accountable. More on this conference and its aims
here.
One of the bags of 20,000 postcards, and a print out of signatories.
They carried with them a special delivery for Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) , Chair, Veterans Affairs Committee, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), Chair, Armed Services Committee, Buck McKeon (R-CA), Chair, Armed Services Committee and Rep. Jeff Miller (R-FL), Chair, Veterans Affairs Committee. They had 20,969 postcards representing signatures SWAN collected on a
Change.org petition. The cards were printing with a simple request: "END MILITARY RAPE."
The 220 citizen lobbyists also came armed with their own personal stories of their experiences with military sexual assault, and attempting to navigate a path to healing and justice through the military roadblocks.
After the fold, a conversation I had with two survivors which is likely to be very similar to the earful the lawmakers got this afternoon.
Elizabeth Luras of Portland, OR and Amy Dickenson, of Fresno, CA are among the 220 attendees.
Elizabeth Luras of Portland, OR, joined the military in 2000, and worked on coding in military intelligence. She was forced out against her will after three separate rape incidents.
Amy Dickinson was in the Navy in the 1990s, during Gulf War era and was one of the first women on a warship, stationed mostly in Iceland. She lives in Fresno, CA.
Amy says, "It was the chain of command that was more of a problem than the rape itself, we have no safe place to report."
Elizabeth: "Right."
Amy: "Once you rock the boat. God forbid you rock the boat."
Elizabeth: "The retaliation, I think is the hardest part, because when you join the military you raise your right hand, and you sign a blank check payable up to your life, and we don't realize it also includes our innocence, and anything that comes along with your dignity, and to have that taken away from you by something that you would die for, is I think the hardest part; the betrayal."
Amy: "And then to be ignored once you leave the military. So, we go through the trauma in the military, and then chain of command that perpetuates the trauma. It's this extreme harassment, and bullying and demoralization. And when we get out we're ignored, or they tell us, 'oh, you have bipolar disorder.'… I don't think so. Try something else."
"I didn't know what was wrong with me, because they wouldn't give me a diagnosis… I had no help. My family literally called me 'crazy Amy' for a long time."
Elizabeth also struggled for ten years to get reinstatement of her full Veteran Administration benefits. The VA tried to avoid delivering benefits by diagnosing her with personality disorder, rather than post-traumatic shock disorder. They could then claim it was a prior-existing condition (although she had already passed such an exam before being admitted into the service).
Asked about the ethics of a doctor who would do this, Amy Dickerson says, "They're pressured. If they're in the military they are pressured by their chain of command to not diagnosis because they don't want the rating, because we'll put in a claim. And if they work for the VA, they have the same pressure. One of my docs sat me down and told me he was pressured by the upper echelon of the VA Paulo Alto to not help me anymore because I should be going somewhere else."
Elizabeth: "They had put on my paperwork that I had PTSD, I was hospitalized, I was sent home by the Red Cross for the first situation, and I was retaliated against for months. I did not want to get out of the military, in fact, I was up for West Point predatory. It wasn't anything where I wasn't a good soldier, it had nothing to do with whether I was mentally capable of doing it. It was just to protect the people that were involved in the situation." [Meaning the men who assaulted her.]
"I didn't talk to any JAG people, I didn't talk to any attorneys. It was just "boom" you're going home."
"In fact, the Red Cross sent me a bill, I had it deducted from my pay, for being sent home for emergency leave after being hospitalized. To get my benefits, it took ten years, and I just got them last August."
Amy finds she can not even drive by a military base without feeling flashbacks. Elizabeth however choose to do ROTC with University of Oregon, intending to return as a JAG officer and now is now working at an internship at the Chaplain's social work office in the Portland VA hospital.
Amy continues to work with military sexual trauma victims and says she's helped more men than women write military sexual trauma claims. Elizabeth concurs claims by men are rising. Elizabeth and Amy consider their advocacy on this issue as a continuation of their service, to help women still in the military avoid what they've been through.
"Those are my battle buddies," Elizabeth says.
Congratulations to all the brave women—and men—that participated today and an excellent job by SWAN organizing the event with the support of many
partnership sponsors. Over 100 people who might not otherwise been unable to attend were able to bring their message to Capital Hill thanks to SWAN scholarship program.
• This is the fouth in a series of posts on SWAN's Truth and Justice summit. See previous diaries here and here and here.