Encouraging the STOP Act

This is Lavena Johnson; she was raped and murdered while serving with the United States Army in Iraq.

Many of the posts on this blog have centered on sexual assault within the military.  It is not because assaults are suddenly happening more often, or more severely.  Sexual assaults have been occurring in the military for a long time.  The military has recently been in the news due to a Department of Defense report and subsequent hearings on the topic in Congress.  Another reason military sexual assault is in the news is the allegations against superior officers at Lackland Air Force Base.

Representatives in the House have met with victims of military assault and are working toward the passage of the STOP (Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention) Act.  Representative Jackie Speier, D-Calif, introduced this legislation, which would eliminate the chain of command from having the authority to investigate sexual assault allegations within the military.  The investigation would instead be performed by an outside Sexual Assault Oversight and Response Office. 

I had the opportunity today to watch several survivors’ stories from Protect Our Defenders.  Protect Our Defenders is an organization that works to “honor, support and give voice to the brave women and men in uniform who have been raped or sexually assaulted by fellow service members.”  These heroes’ stories moved me.  We as civilians do not know what it is like to go to war.  Many of us thank service-members for simply signing up, as we should.  However, many of these people went through not only the hell of a warzone, but the hell of sexual assault.  Instead of the support they needed, they found closed doors.  But those same people and their families found the strength to keep going and to speak up.  Let’s reward them by contacting our representatives and encouraging them to pass the STOP Act.  We often ask you to contact your representatives because that is how change can happen.  We can only work within the confines that we are given, and those confines are often created by our representatives in the government.  They determine what programs receive funding, and how laws are written and interpreted.  We must communicate with our lawmakers so that they understand how important it is to ensure that service members who are victims of sexual assault are believed when they report, and that reporting will not come at a cost of their jobs.