By Sara Benincasa, TakePart At 21, Jacinda considered her male coworkers in the Navy to be her brothers. That was before she awoke in a drunken haz...
This week, it's a good time to remember Ron Ridenhour. He refused to let the horrors of My Lai get covered-up by a military brass that just wanted the story buried and forgotten.
We're never going to get rid of all sexual assault in the military any more than we can get rid of it in civilian life. As long as it's out here, it's going to be in there. But the military is a controlled environment and your behavior is watched and dictated.
Remember 2012 when America was awash in "legitimate rape" stories? Seems some of the networks forgot that rape is rape and that all survivors deserve justice. So to our friends in the media right and left, here is a refresher course: Rape is rape.
Why did anyone think that on a night that is supposed to honor the best of Hollywood, a town that has broken so many barriers and moved us forward in so many ways, banal sexist, racist and anti-Semitic jokes would be funny and appropriate?
California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom attended the Academy Awards on Sunday night with his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who was up for an Oscar...
The 85th Annual Academy Awards took place Sunday in Los Angeles, with "Searching for Sugar Man" taking the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Mal...
The facts alone are staggering; Fifteen percent of all military personal get raped by a fellow soldier or a commanding officer over the course of their military careers.
Here are some more digestible categories. We're calling them the Fauxscars, and we're hoping that the phrase "Fauxscar Bait" catches. We're looking forward to you explaining that expression to Helen Mirren.
With or without the Oscar statuette, in forcing an unflinching, uncomfortable look at ourselves, in making the invisible visible, and in sparking lasting change, The Invisible War takes the gold.
To my Isabella, as with most three-year-olds, Valentine's Day is innocence and chocolate. But for far too many women and girls in our community and around the world, Valentine's Day innocence is broken.
I urge every American to watch The Invisible War and hear the stories therein. And to those few in the position to influence this year's Oscar considerations, I urge you to consider what your vote in the documentary category can mean for America
Like the checks and balances that are currently in place for civilians, all we are asking for is the same. While civilians have various routes of redress to get justice for the crime perpetrated against them, service members are too often dependent on one person's individual discretion.
The invisible war is fought each and every day by the brave men and women in uniform who say to their peers, "enough is enough." It is fought by the survivors of military sexual assault who say, "never again."
Sexual violence is a prevalent problem within every community and environment. Key differences exist around the issue of military sexual assault. The structure and organizations of the military are very different than in the civilian world and it can be difficult to navigate the legal process.
Sexual assault in the military is a critical issue that strikes at the heart of force readiness, morale, and significantly erodes trust between servicemembers. The pervasiveness of the problem and the systematic burden placed on the victims is alarming.
It is hard to be a Military Sexual Trauma spouse -- not hard to be with a survivor, but hard because at times I feel so helpless to the trauma.
Since this is Academy Award month, I've decided to focus on Oscar-nominated documentaries, with one ringer to lighten the tone of these mostly-serious films. However, I can't let the moment pass without putting in a good word for a film that went all but unnoticed in theaters last fall.
In the 22 years since the Tailhook scandal, we have witnessed a cycle: scandals of sexual violence within the military, the revelation of abuse of power, and then congressional hearings during which the military promises to do better. Rinse and repeat. Our military members deserve better.
Those veterans returned home to a bleak landscape of flashbacks of rape, post-traumatic stress, and displacement. These are brave, courageous people, survivors of military sexual assault, and I am committed to helping them rebuild their lives.
While sexual violence in the U.S. military is not a new problem, the widespread media coverage, growing awareness and sense of urgency to stem this epidemic gives us hope that now is the time to end this human rights abuse.
Some have pointed to "the rape issue" as a reason to maintain the ban on female combat service. But ending rape in the military and integrating women into combat roles are far from mutually exclusive.
VAWA fails to address a population notably vulnerable to sexual violence: military personnel. VAWA can and should serve as tool for empowering them just as it does for members of other culturally unique communities.
The Invisible War is a brave attempt to change the culture of rape in our armed services. But make no mistake, in talking about the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard, the film is talking about America at large.
It is not surprising that the decision to lift the ban preventing women from serving in combat led immediately to widespread debate regarding the implications of the change for the military and for our society.
