Intro: Military Sexual Assault
The deservedly viral clip of Gen. Milley’s wonderful response to Rep. Gaetz’s question about teaching critical race theory at West Point (during which he managed to give a brief summary of what it actually is, clearly attribute Jan. 6th to white rage, and put in a strong plug for learning as much as possible about everything because learning is not the same as indoctrination) took away from another stand-out moment in his joint testimony with Sec. of Defense Lloyd Austin, who gave his support to taking sexual assault cases in the military out of the chain of command.
“As you know, my first directive as secretary of defense, issued on my first full day in the office, was to service leadership about sexual assault,” said Mr. Austin, who appeared before the House Armed Services Committee with Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
“In the coming days, I will present to President Biden my specific recommendations about the commission’s finding,” Mr. Austin said. “But I know enough at this point to say that I fully support removing the prosecution of sexual assaults and related crimes from the military chain of command.”
www.nytimes.com/…
This is a breakthrough after more than 10 years of trying — I remember hearings with victims of assault testifying about their experiences with the system as it stood, and still having generals decide the chain of command was necessary for troop cohesion, or something — which too often meant getting rid of the woman making the complaint. This video from this past February is a brief summary of the problem in recent years.
It’s not a done deal yet. Advocates are working to make the change cover a wider group of offenses. Currently some, but not all, domestic violence is covered, for example, and felony sexual assault is covered while misdemeanor offenses may not be. But whatever the finished product, this is a huge step — and thanks to Rep. Jackie Speiers, Sen Kirsten Gillibrand, and all the survivors and advocates who don’t give up.
For a fuller and discussion, of the frustration that led up to this change, here is a Senate committee hearing from March in full, if anyone has time. You don’t have to go very far to see what the problems are.
Other News
A French woman was convicted for shooting the man who started abusing her when she was 12, a repeat abuser and rapist the authoorities never took seriously. He was her stepfather, then her husband (it’s unclear whether either marriage was legal). Read the whole story; it’s harrowing.
During the week-long trial, members of Polette’s family and former partners stepped up to the bar to describe him as a “monster”. His sister, Monique, told how he also raped her from the age of 12.
“He told me to go into the bedroom, asked me to sit and then lie down on the bed, and held a knife to my throat. He said: ‘Listen up: what happens stays between us. You don’t tell anyone, or there’s a bullet for mum and a bullet for you.’ That continued every week. It was more and more violent,” Monique said.
She was sentenced to five years, with four suspended, and the fourth completed by time served, so she is now home and free. The prosecutor did not want her in prison, but would not go along with the defense attorney’s argument that there should be no conviction.
www.theguardian.com/…
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Women continue to have their medical needs minimized, and to be abused by the doctors who are supposed to help them. Now it has a name — medical post-traumatic stress disorder. Think about that — what kind of systemic abuse could lead to that diagnosis.
When my therapist told me that she suspected I have medical post-traumatic stress disorder, it took me by surprise — although maybe it shouldn’t have after two decades of experiences as a patient that left me distrusting of doctors and unsure of myself.
Although I live with chronic pain, a traumatic brain injury and a history of cancer that has to be checked on every year, I am constantly doubting what’s actually happening in my body. Am I really as sick as I feel like I am? Am I making it all up? I cling to proof of my diagnoses. Sometimes it calms me to feel the vessels throbbing in my temples during a migraine because it is physical and undeniable. On bad days, I reread notes I’ve taken during doctor’s appointments and underline the facts — I have a traumatic brain injury; there was a bleed in my brain; it will take years to heal.
Often, I find myself asking doctors I trust the same questions over and over again: Is this normal? Is this what you would expect? Will I ever get better? And underneath each of these questions is a deeper, more true one: Is this real?
www.thelily.com/…
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Alabama, a state known for many illiberal policies including an almost-total abortion ban, has reached a new low — arresting a woman who took prescription medication prescribed for a demonstrable medical condition during her pregnancy.
The case that could decide whether or not Alabama gets to prosecute pregnant people for following the advice of doctors rests on one woman, Kim Blalock. Blalock is a mother of six with debilitating arthritis and degenerative disc disease who suffered a car accident and complications from surgery before becoming pregnant who told her doctor post-delivery that she had taken hydrocodone prescribed by a doctor in the last six weeks of her pregnancy. Blalock’s honesty with her doctor triggered social services investigation, arrest, and months of harassment by the police, who barged into her house with loaded weapons on a search warrant while her two teens were home alone. Per al.com:
“[Blalock’s disclosure] triggered a brief investigation by the Department of Human Resources, which closed the case after Blalock showed them the prescription bottle and allowed a case worker to count the pills. But that didn’t satisfy the Florence Police Department or Lauderdale County District Attorney’s Office, which investigated and charged Blalock with prescription fraud for not telling her orthopedist she was pregnant.”
This case could make it a crime for a woman not to tell a doctor that she is pregnant, whether or not she is asked, or whether or not the pregnancy is obvious.
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At the end of Pride Month, I bring this critical look at the treatment of black transwomen within the LGBTQ community. I am an outsider, so I can’t have a meaningful opinion on this, but I have had lesbian friends say things to me that tend to confirm some of the attitudes discussed. Is there structural racism, and perhaps classism, at work as well? One paragraph caught my attention especially:
But the split between the gay and lesbian movement and STAR’s politics came to a head in 1973. That year, the gay liberation movement won one of its first major victories when the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. What is less often noted is that the next edition of the manual was the first to include entries for “transsexualism” and “gender identity disorder of childhood.” The gay and lesbian movement found it profitable to sell out trans folks by insisting on their gender normativity and leaving those they had rejected after Stonewall to bear the brunt of psychiatric power and social stigma.
I would be interested in comments from those in the LGBTQ community.
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The House Committee on Oversight and Reform met Thursday to discuss a new bill that would provide 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for all federal employees. The bill would allow approximately 2.6 million workers to take time off for their own medical issues, or to care for a sick child, spouse or parent without sacrificing their salary.
(clip)
The ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), came out strongly against the legislation, dismissing the proposed paid family and medical leave as an “enhanced work perk.”
Maloney immediately challenged on the idea of paid family leave as a “perk.”
“I doubt that the women in the great state of Kentucky think that having a child is a, quote, ‘perk,’” she said. “It is not a ‘perk.’”
This follows the removal of paid family leave from the American Jobs Plan, with the rest of the American Families Plan, leading advocates to feel there is less likelihood of its passing. That is, once again, the status of “human infrastructure” is unlikely to become law.
www.thelily.com/...
Action Item
UltraViolet petition on child marriage.
act.weareultraviolet.org/…
As always, my thanks to the WoW team for sharing stories. This week that included mettle fatigue, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, elenacarlena, Angmar, and Clio2.