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The wave of appeals began to arrive long before Brett Kavanaugh was appointed to the Supreme Court. They began when Bill Cosby's victims appeared on the cover of New York Magazine and were picked up over the course of Harvey Weinstein's story.
And yet, the Portland Sexual Assault Resource Center saw a 400% increase in the number of people who asked for long-term help to cope with their trauma after a sexual assault, said Executive Director Amy Beard. Even more I just wanted to talk in the moment.
On Thursday, Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Brett Kavanaugh, a Supreme Court candidate, of assaulting her at an evening in high school, testified before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary during the evening. one of the most public moments of the #MeToo movement. She was immediately followed by Kavanaugh, who also answered questions and denied having assaulted Ford.
Two other women accused Kavanaugh of aggression and harassment during his high school and university studies.
The television broadcast of the allegations has made many women – and all people of all genders – aware of seeking help privately or publicly sharing their own experiences.
The National Sexual Assault Hotline, led by RAINN, a non-profit organization against sexual violence, reported that appeals had increased by 201% during hearings.
When someone called the helpline, said Beard, he joined extremely tired and disturbed staff members by the hearings, which few people seemed able to turn away.
With the exception of Jen Downer, who did not attend hearings on Thursday. She said that she was exhausted and outraged even before that, like many women. Instead, she spent the last few days watching her friends tell their own stories of survivors of sexual assault.
And she was moved to tell her own story for the first time.
"I just had enough," she said, standing on the steps of the World Trade Center.
On Friday, she joined dozens of people from downtown Portland to gather around Ford. The event, organized by NARAL Pro-Choice, was intended to bring people together to say publicly that they believe in Ford's history and oppose the appointment of Kavanaugh. .
"In the current state of things, we can find solidarity and the whole society, support that we can find," Downer said at the end of the rally, with the slogan "Justice for Survivors." , not for Judge Kavanaugh ".
Cicely Thrasher was standing next to her, holding a simple black sign with "Believe Survivors" in white letters.
She woke up Friday morning crying uncontrollably. She shook her head in her bed.
She had "watched the anger" nearly a dozen hours of testimony and expertise the day before and had not managed to erase that feeling.
Thrasher said that she had been struck by Ford's restrained restraint while she was answering senators' questions and that she contrasted with that of a furious and angry Kavanaugh. She said she was angry that so many people praised Kavanaugh's behavior when she felt that women are often considered hysterical for expressing their anger and emotions in professional contexts.
"I think the injustice of everything, the unfairness of everything, has driven me here today," Thrasher said.
The need to be heard has almost penalized the staff of nine people at the breaking point of support services to victims of sexual assault in Eugene. Director BB Beltran said that the normally calm summer for the only sexual assault agency in Lane County was gone this year.
The current influx of people seeking help after the public hearings coincides with a routine rise early in the school year for the University of Oregon, as well as for Lane Community College and Northwest Christian University.
Students who do not know drugs and alcohol, who experience freedom for the first time, often end up being hurt or causing harm. Others are attacked in dormitories by new or old friends.
The Beltran staff is there to tell the victims of sexual assault that we believe them, that we take care of them and that we take them seriously. The majority of his associates are not mandatory reporters – people required by law to warn authorities when a minor has been abused – and that is on purpose. While school counselors may be forced to start legal proceedings if a student reveals an assault, Beltran wants people of all ages to choose the extent of their charges.
A large number of people do not want to denounce their assaults to law enforcement, Beltran said, for many of the reasons given at the Kavanaugh hearing: they fear that their experience will be dismissed or downplayed.
"Survivors have always borne the burden of their experience and the perpetrators have for the most part not been held responsible," Beltran said. "What is happening is why survivors are not very sure whether they should or should not manifest themselves or not."
But this time, something strange happened. The perpetrators of sexual violence began calling the helpline of Sexual Assault Support Services. They asked what they could do to be forgiven – a problem that Beltran staff was not prepared for.
"We do not know, it is not our role," said Beltran.
They try to prevent these wrongs. Sexual Assault Support Services in Eugene and the Sexual Assault Resource Center in Portland address professional and community groups and work in colleges and high schools to educate students on the topic of sexual assault. consent and borders to avoid events such as the one described by Ford, in hope less calls next time that a survivor tells her story.
"If we want to imagine a world in which these things just do not happen, we have to imagine how this world would be different," Beard said in Portland. "Then we must create them in this world today."
– Molly Harbarger
[email protected]
503-294-5923
@MollyHarbarger
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