Sexual Assault Survivors' Military Lawsuit Spurs Legislation

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.

Giving credit where it's due, the military has taken steps to address its sexual assault and rape problems. The Navy has introduced flagship training programs upon which other services will build (and have built) their own, but they will only work if members take the training seriously. Restricted Reporting helps survivors who are not yet ready to be the center of a command scuttlebutt storm receive medical services and counseling, but it does not help put rapists away. They have Sexual Assault Awareness months and you can't turn on the Armed Forces Network overseas without seeing a bulletin about how sexual assault is bad, so don't do it. And how it is “everyone's responsibility” (a point that I would contend). Their course of action, however, has obvious holes, and it is long past time that it was addressed.

The suit aims to force a complete overhaul of the way that the military handles these situations. Glancing over the case-file, there are more than a few glaring examples of mistreatment; situations where chains-of-command failed to take any kind of action, or turned the case around on a survivor instead. The military keeps providing more ways to report, and their plan is to unveil a new hotline for reporting in April, according to a statement made by Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesperson. Reporting, however, seems a moot point when the conviction rate is so low, with less than one in five seeing any kind of punitive action. Many assailants will never see punishment, and often any punishment is for a lesser offense.

SWAN has, in conjunction with Change.org, driven a petition to demand that the military give more credence to the plight of survivors. Because of their hard work, and because of your support, Representative Chellie Pingree (D - ME) has introduced legislation that should, if passed, amend Title 38 of the U.S. HR 930 will demand the same evaluation procedures of the Department of Veteran's Affairs for patients reporting symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from Military Sexual Trauma as from any other military-related event. This is huge.

Similar to what Alex DiBranco recently wrote, reporting rape in the military gives survivors little hope of redress, but an almost guarantee that they will receive retaliation for causing a rift in the ranks. It is long past time we held their feet to the flames, and it will take the voices of the people these servicemembers volunteered to defend to stoke the fires.

Photo courtesy of Cathy Tate Issacs. Used with permission.