NEWSWOMEN IN UNIFORM

When women join the military, they double their likelihood of getting raped -- not by an enemy, but by fellow soldiers, the people they should be able to trust as they serve alongside. The Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) and over 18,000 Change.org members who signed their petition believe that the women who defend our country deserve better. We demanded that Congress take action against epidemic rates of sexual violence in the military, and today, we came a major step closer to that goal: the House passed provisions to prevent military rape as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

"Today's historic vote is yet another positive step forward in the prevention and elimination of what continues to be a crisis in the military," stated SWAN Executive Director Anu Bhagwati. "Last year the Department of Defense estimates that over 19,000 sexual assaults occurred in the ranks. ... In the military you cannot quit your job, so you are forced to work with and deploy overseas with your assailant. ... This forced co-location causes the victim to be traumatized again and again. These legislative provisions would prevent this from happening." (Press release)

The high rates of sexual assault in the military have been blamed on a culture that blames victims while letting perpetrators off with a wink and a slap on the wrist. Yet 95% percent of rapes in the military are committed by repeat offenders, which means that letting off a rapist doesn't just deny his victim justice and make her continuing work environment a hostile one -- the military is putting other women in danger. Protecting serial rapists at the expense of others' safety is beyond unacceptable.

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.

"Rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment are a plague upon the United States military," Anu Bhagwati, Executive Director of Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), stated at a Tuesday press conference announcing that a lawsuit had been filed over the military's failure to protect women in its ranks. "American youth should not sacrifice their right to bodily integrity when they step forward to serve our nation." Seems like that should go without saying, doesn't it?

The lawsuit is being levied against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates for negligence in addressing the sexual assault or rape of 17 plaintiffs. Three of the survivors appeared in person at the moving conference where Bhagwati spoke. Herself a former Captain in the United States Marine Corps, Bhagwati spoke of her disappointing experiences watching the senior officers accuse decorated female servicemembers of lying, while letting sexual predators get away without consequences. "I saw some of the nation’s finest servicemembers leave the military after their abuse and betrayal, while their perpetrators and the officers who willingly protected them to this day remain in uniform."

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.

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.

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."

While I like to believe that I am not alone in the thought that war is not an ideal situation, I am not so naïve as to believe that we live yet in a world where it can be avoided. As long as we have wars, we will need military forces. So long as we will need military forces, anyone willing and capable of serving should be permitted to do so freely without fear of harm, prejudice, or anything else that will hamper them from performing the job that they step to the line to do every day. That is part of what I advocate for: a military that throws wide its hatches for everyone irrespective of what is under their uniform and regardless of their orientation, and pushes to ensure we send those troops to fight fair wars.

But the way that we insist on segregating and tucking our women in uniform away, as if they are second rate military tools to be called upon at will, puts them at risk and subverts that ideal.

Despite what our laws may say officially, we can not deny that women are already kicking ass by doing jobs that must be done, in and out of combat zones. I find it incredibly shady, to put it lightly, that we will write laws with one hand that say they can not be in combat, yet put them there nearly every day, sometimes without proper training because of the laws we write.

It makes it more difficult for them to speak out when violent things happen to them, often at the hands of their own peers.