NEWSBYBRANDANN HILL-MANN

Some might say that doing something as radical and huge as suing the military for failing to properly address high levels of unaddressed sexual assault might be a bit over-the-top. I would not fall under the category of “some.” Not after reading this update from the Service Women's Action Network (pdf) announcing the release of the DoD's annual Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) annual report.

The Annual Report of Sexual Assault in the Military comes out every year from SAPRO to give us a "State of the Union" of sorts on the status of sexual assault, the incidences, and all the gory details legally allowed from each branch for each fiscal year (October through October). This year's report showed that things in the military have become more grim than a fairy tale of the same name. Of 3,158 total reported rapes and assaults, only 529 ever saw a day in court. That is not a large number.

To bust down the way the military handles things, this is only reported incidences. The military itself puts this 3,158 number at about 13.5% of total rapes and sexual assaults, bringing the grand total up to somewhere around 19,000 rapes and assaults total happening in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010. That is a large number.

In all of my time writing about Military Sexual Trauma, I never expected (but certainly think it is long past time), that someone would do something as noticeable as suing the Department of Defense for anything, let alone failing to take the proper steps to protect its servicemembers against rape and sexual assault. Who would be brave enough to do something as monumental as bringing a class-action lawsuit against the military, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and current Defense Secretary Robert Gates?

The Service Women's Action Network, an incredible organization lead by Anuradha Bhagwati, has backed a lawsuit filed by Susan L. Burke, known for other high-profile cases: one against Blackwater, and one on behalf of five Abu Ghraib torture victims. The class-action suit claims that the Secretaries were negligent in leading a military that not only failed to prevent sexual assault, but failed to properly prosecute it according to its own Uniform Code of Military Justice. In many of the seventeen cases presented, the perpetrators were rarely dealt with punitively while in frequent instances the survivors were punished for the expected ramifications of being forced to interact with their assailants daily. Even though the complaints went up the proper chains-of-command, the crimes were largely ignored, even by upper echelon personnel.

OK folks, we have to talk.

We had a brutal, yet predictable, midterm election, there is no doubt about that. I am not one to hop up and down and yell "I told you so!" at administrations, especially when I need something from them (well, perhaps I am), but I am getting desperate and they haven't been pulling their weight. We have very little time to accomplish some important things before this session ends.

Military women are in need of many things, not the least of which is the right to have the same range of medical care that is available to the civilian women whom they defend back in the States when those servicewomen are stationed overseas. A range of overseas countries from the Republic of Korea to Iraq have laws making abortion services inaccessible; the only way to make certain that military women and civilian women who depend on military health care systems retain full access to all reproductive health care services is to allow privately funded abortions in military treatment facilities.

I am of the same mind as Nancy Keenan and NARAL Pro-Choice America in that I would support a dream world where abortion was publicly funded and TRICARE picked up the tab for a military beneficiary in need. But as a necessary immediate measure, I fully support the bill introduced by Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) that would at least allow for pre-paid, privately funded abortions in military facilities.

People have been calling out for the head of John The Baptist Pistole, TSA Administrator, on a platter for a couple of weeks now, and it seems that, at least in the legal sense, they might be getting their wish.

California's prosecutors, including San Mateo's District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, are preparing to look into claims of inappropriate touching during the new, more aggressive pat-down procedures at airports that come courtesy of the Transportation Security Administration. Wagstaffe explains the difference between the misdemeanor and felony offenses being as little as Transportation Security Officers touching over or under clothing.

Not exclusive to California, the complaints are piling in around the country, including one on behalf of a resistant three year-old girl in Tennessee being aggressively grabbed and searched as she screamed "Quit touching me!" States including Florida, New Jersey, and New York are even considering legislation banning the full body backscatter x-ray machines.

Also in the wake of the so-called "choice" between strip searches and sexual assault, comes a nursing mother named Erin from Dayton who was sexually assaulted while attempting to board a flight to San Antonio for a half marathon. The agent didn't inform her that she would be placing the fronts of her hands on Erin's buttocks, labia, or breasts, and never offered her a private place for screening. According to Erin's lawyer, it is a clear case of sexual assault. She wasn't even trying to opt out of the full body scanners, which aren't currently in use in Dayton.

Having worked with security measures myself I know that doing anything "routinely" is a good way to fall into the kind of lackadaisical situation that causes security breeches. This is only one reason why I make my biggest frowny face at the extremely stringent TSA Fourth Amendment violations being tossed around at airports now. When security becomes standard procedure it becomes easy to circumvent the measures. In other words, if someone wants to avoid your screening, they are going to unless you randomize the encounter.

The TSA's new full body scanners are a step down from involuntary strip search of travelers. The images show x-ray-like shots of people without clothing to a TSA agent in a booth, which is rumored to be a measure meant to reveal if that potential passenger is potentially muling weapons or explosives. But the things that it might also reveal, to some, are not worth the so-called security exchange.

The images show people, of all ages, without their clothes. Whether you are nonchalant about nudity or uncomfortably shy, these images are taken with forced consent and shown to another person. Women who don't want to divulge private medical information, such as having pacemakers, prostheses, or certain types of birth control, shouldn't have to have it revealed forcibly. For trans, intersex, and genderqueer people, a full body scan could reveal information that has been shown to put their lives in danger from the hateful attitudes of anti-QUILTBAG* rights individuals who could be working as TSA agents. Women in headscarves and wheelchair or insulin-pump users will be singled out and whisked away for the "choice" of being sexually assaulted having a physical inspection.

A popular meme going around on Facebook in honor of Veteran's Day is asking people to change their profile pictures to one of a veteran. It showed up in my inbox of messages a few days ago. "It doesn't have to be a picture of your husband! Anyone who has served, living or dead would be wonderful!" it proclaimed to me. How amazing, I thought, and not at all condescending, especially not if you happened to be both a woman and a veteran, since being women and servicemembers are not mutually exclusive.

I haven't changed my Facebook picture in about a year.

I also spent the next morning at the Veteran's Day ceremony — which the President was supposed to attend (security switched at the last minute) — not having my hand shaken by VFW members and not being talked to by anyone going around talking to and thanking veterans. I am fairly certain that it had something to do with having accompanied the Brownies who were handing out programs, and having a friend's baby strapped to my chest because he was on duty. Women with children could not possibly be veterans. Add to that the fact that the General's speech brought tears to my eyes as I sat next to a Korean Non-Commissioned Officer, thinking about the career I lost from disability. Servicemembers don't cry I suppose. I felt invisible.

Lt. Dan Choi.

He's an Arabic Linguist, accomplished soldier, West Point Grad, and unapologetic Champion of LGBTQ rights and the DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) repeal. He isn't a poster boy to either the military or the mainstream LGBTQ rights movement, but he has been a force for reconciling their common interests. However, he seems to have gotten himself into a bit of a verbal pickle as of late.

That's right, the same Lieutenant who can be seen next to Pam's House Blend's very own Autumn Sandeen, chained to a White House fence in the name of equality in the military, still seems to have some searching to do when it comes to propagating deeply ingrained misogynistic attitudes about women.

The fuss started when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a bold move and attached the repeal of DADT(DP) to the Defense Appropriations Act, which was filibustered down by Republicans. This was a move that should have shown Republicans as transparent, since this bill is passed routinely for years. It also contained many things that Republicans demanded be included themselves, such as the right to not Mirandize Al Qaeda detainees. True story. But when Choi held Reid responsible, he said Reid was a "pussy and he will be bleeding once a month."

Every year amidst the "Save Your Ta-tas" and the barrage of pink soup labels at the Commissary (grocery store for you civilians) another awareness campaign gets lost while everyone is coyly posting "on the kitchen counter" in their Facebook status. This is one, however, that I really think could be boosted with awareness gimmicks, but somehow I don't think "green and purple, around my throat" would be as fun in 140 characters or less.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It is something I hear and read about a lot less than I do about Breast Cancer Awareness in October. Honestly I don't think either gets fair coverage when it is covered, but DV certainly isn't the hot pink ticket of the month.

But the military, and certainly the Army from where I am sitting on a U.S. Army Garrison overseas, picks up the ball and runs for the month, boosting its anti-violence awareness programs. The Defense Department and President Obama issued a proclamation making domestic violence a priority for the month of October (and the entire year), highlighting programs available to the military community and emphasizing the importance of early recognition and structural support for victims.

For all that conservative organizations and some media blame progressives for sexualizing teenagers, teen sex is the one topic that they cannot get off of their brains. This is especially true when twisting science and statistics in studies related to teenage sex and its effects.

A new study on the impact that teens' sexual activities had on their academic ones drew conservative media like sharks to a chum-filled cove. Unlike the sharks, however, those who reported on this study were not honest about the findings.

Most news sources reported the same poisonous tripe: While admitting that teens who engaged in bedroom activity in the confines of a committed relationship didn't have trouble with school, and showed no negative effects towards planning a future involving college, they over-emphasized the idea that teenagers who engaged in "flings" tended to be delinquents with no futures.

When I contacted Heather Corina of Scarleteen fame for her thoughts on the coverage of the study, I found out that it is members of the media who are interpreting the findings this way. In her post, she interviewed one of the study's authors, Bill McCarthy, to clear up some of the confusion.

Turns out, words like "commitment," "fling," "hook up," or any word defining the length or depth of a relationship between teenagers is absent from the study. The study's data was self-reported by teenagers who were asked if they had sex in romantic or non-romantic settings, based on a series of statements about various situations regarding those relationships. The projection of adult concepts of relationships onto teenager situations by the media has clouded the actual findings, and shifted the focus from things that could be useful into harmful stereotypes.

The United States Navy, founded in October of 1775, celebrates its 235 birthday this month.

The Navy has always seemed, to me, a front-runner in pushing for equality. It does, after all, do a lot that requires the teamwork of many people that civilians don't think about when they think of military. How do you think all of those troops and planes get where they have to go? Military has become synonymous with Army, but it is the Navy who has made strides, in my humble opinion (which is admittedly biased), in pushing for a military that welcomes everyone equally.

It hasn't been too bad of a year for the Navy, if I say so myself. I am proud to say that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, has been an incredible advocate for social justice and for equality this past year that I have been writing with Change. He was a vocal supporter of integrating women onto submarines, and has been a proud proponent of the Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal. He's been a strong leader for the Navy.

Speaking of women on submarines: the first 13 female officers to be specifically selected as submariners should be hitting the books in "Nuke School," which is Navy slang for a portion of submarine training. Sometime next year we can expect them to be a new set of "bubble heads."