Veteran military Women rally at the Pentagon to speak out against sexual harassment and assault
Is this a #metoo moment for the military?
“This is an opportunity for military women to ask: Where is our #metoo reckoning?” said Lydia Watts, CEO of the Service Women’s Action Network and the one of many who organized the rally. “When is it our moment where offenders will be held accountable and is going to be taken as seriously as it’s…being handled in the civilian world?”
On Monday, Jan. 8, Veteran women and men service members, veterans and those who supported them, approximately 50 in all, assembled outside of the Pentagon, near the metro station, enduring the cold weather for 1 hour, to voice their concern about the military’s lack of punishment for service members who sexually assault and harass their colleagues.
Advocates weren’t just there to showcase their picket sign creativity. They were there to speak out. Organizers of the rally made space for sexual assault and harassment victims to speak about their tragic experience while serving in the Armed forces and working at military installations.
“[The Pentagon] is where I joined the club — the #MeToo club. This club is not one I wanted or even admitted being a part of until a couple of months ago, said Monica Medina, former special assistant to former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. “Today I am here to tell my story in public for the first time. I was sexually harassed here, and it changed the course of my career. When it happened, I was young and had no one to help me do anything about it.”
Medina added: “Time is Up. Time is UP. Sexual assault is finally recognized as the morale-killing scourge that it is. But the military should do more… I am here to say that sexual harassment is the problem that really needs our attention and needs it now. This is the moment.”
Navy veteran and advocate Heath Phillips also shared his story about being sexually assaulted by 10 different men over a period of 6 months while serving in the Navy. To cope with trauma, Phillips started abusing alcohol and using drugs.
In 2016, Phillips told The Guardian what life was like after leaving the military.
He said: “I did what I knew how to do: I drank. From drinking, I started popping pills. I couldn’t hold a job because I couldn’t handle being near anybody. I couldn’t be near men. If they reminded me of something, I’d walk off a job … All I cared about is: I want to be drunk, I don’t want to remember this.”
Phillips said he attended the rally so he could help people.
Nichole Bowen-Crawford, who traveled from Seattle to be at the rally, told her story of sexual assault. Crawford mentioned to Stars and Stripes, a publication the covers the military, that she was scared to be at the rally and to public ally share her story.
“Survivors from the military will not be ignored, our voices matter and the status quo is no longer acceptable,” Bowen-Crawford said to the crowd at rally.
The Department of Defense report shows — issued by Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office — that in 2016, 14,900 service members experienced “some kind of sexual assault.” Yet, only 32 percent of victims reported the assault, an increase from 2104, 23 percent. However, according to the report, in 2016, 68 percent of victims didn’t report sexual assault or harassment. For organizers and advocates this is a problem.
Fear of retaliation from bosses and work colleagues — among other key reasons, for example, according to the report, 52 percent of women felt ashamed or embarrassed and 39 percent of men didn’t want more people to know — is a reason why some don’t report. According to the same DOD report: “58 percent of active duty Service members (58 percent of women and 60 percent of men) indicated experiencing a negative outcome they perceived as professional reprisal, ostracism, and/or maltreatment after reporting sexual assault.”
“True progress will be measured when there is a wholesale culture change in which retaliation is not tolerated, survivors feel safe coming forward and there are swift and fair prosecutions,” Watts said. “The DOD and all the branches need to do something about that retaliation.”
The #metoo movement has resulted in swift actions against offenders. Prominent, and wealthy figures in Hollywood and in other sectors of American society have issued public apologies and some have even lost their jobs. There is no doubt that the actions taken by businesses and corporations against offenders were prompted by the women who shared their stories via the media. In the civilian world, victims of sexual assault sometimes have the choice of leaving their jobs to look for another. This isn’t so for military service members.
Unlike civilians, service members who experience ongoing sexual assault and harassment can’t just leave their jobs. They could be potentially penalized by their superiors, which could result in a loss of benefits.
“It’s that kind of difference, the real-life ramifications that need to be taken into consideration when were thinking about how best to support survivors [in the military],” said Watts. The ability to change up your life is very limited.”
Watts continued:
“It’s not so much that it happens more frequently in the military, it’s the sensitivity and the consideration of all those factors that make it more difficult for all of those victims to actually see the justice their looking for and to be free of further harassment.”
