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Military veterans demand justice for victims of sexual assault at Balboa Park rally

San Diego Union-Tribune - 8/1/2020

What they lacked in numbers, they made up for in passion.

Nearly a dozen people attended a protest at the Veterans Memorial Garden in Balboa Park on Saturday to draw attention to victims of military sexual trauma, the San Diego rendition of a broader awareness effort that stretched across the country.

Ariana Hudzinski, the local organizer for a national advocacy campaign called the Our Sister's Keeper Movement, said more than 20,000 military members are victims of sexual assault and harassment each year.

While officials at the Pentagon recently have committed to investigating complaints more vigorously, far more needs to change, she said.

Hudzinski said she was one of the lucky ones.

She was never sexually assaulted, but as a 19-year-old Marine trying to focus on her work, she was harassed by a colleague. Instead of disciplining the man peppering her with sexually explicit questions, she was upbraided for responding to the harasser.

"This is why we are here," Hudzinski said.

The Our Sister's Keeper Movement was organized to help spur justice for women like Vanessa Guillen, a U.S. Army soldier who reported being sexually harassed at Fort Hood, Texas, before going missing in April. Her remains were discovered June 30 and the prime suspect, a soldier named Aaron Robinson, killed himself as law enforcement sought to apprehend him.

The campaign effort is committed to improving protections for other victims of military sexual trauma.

The hour-long event, which was replicated in New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Sacramento and a host of other American cities, featured guest speakers invited to share their own experiences of sexual assault in the U.S. military.

Marine Corps veteran Mia, whose last name is being withheld, said Saturday that she was raped by another service member during her decade of military service.

"It's not that we didn't report it," she said. "Oftentimes we did, but then nothing would happen. More women I speak with say the same thing — they reported what happened but somehow they'd get swept away and the incident is just gone."

The vast majority of the tens of thousands of sexual assaults reported in the military each year go unpunished and unresolved. In 2018, just 363 cases were referred to court-martial, and only 138 of those resulted in convictions, Hudzinski said.

The Our Sister's Keeper Movement is pushing key reforms aimed at protecting victims — and preventing future attacks.

Among other measures, it wants civilian counterparts assigned to every sexual assault complaint, a move Hudzinski said would weed out bias common to many military investigations.

The group also wants victims' identities shielded until a court martial is convened to prevent them from being ostracized or retaliated against during investigations.

And they want military officials to compare the DNA of every new recruit with the national repository known as CODIS to see if their genetic codes matches any unsolved rapes or other crimes.

"Contact your member of Congress," Hudzinski said. "We need legislation."

Another victim named Alison shared her experience Saturday. She said she was sexually assaulted at two different military bases — both times by the boyfriends of her friends.

"I told (my commander) what happened and he said 'You just need to get some new friends,' " Alison said, her voice cracking at the recollection. "They tell you it's not that big a deal."

She brought her two teen-aged daughters to the event Saturday to teach them how to prepare for potential abuse when they get older. After Alison shared her story, Hudzinski and Mia both asked for hugs, and were obliged.

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