Cast the First

Thursday, June 27th, from 12:00 to 1:30pm ET

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Presented by Terri Spahr Nelson, author of For Love of Country: Confronting Rape and Sexual Harassment in the U.S. Military; and Debby Tucker, National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence.

This webinar will discuss the incidence and nature of sexual assault in the military, the current DoD policies, the challenges for victims and some solutions for the future. Participants will also learn what they can do to assist victims, increase offender accountability and affect change through military-civilian partnerships.

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Recognize the prevalence and challenges for victims of sexual assault in the military;
• Identify the current policies and structures in place to address sexual assault in the military; and
• Consider new solutions to the problem and the need for a cultural shift.

Reminder: Jewish Women International has a new webinar provider, ReadyTalk. You will receive a separate confirmation from ReadyTalk within 48 hours of registering through the JWI website. Each individual who wishes to access the webinar on his or her computer must register separately on JWI’s website using their login ID.

CEUs available free to National Alliance members.

HAVEN and NOMAS (The National Organization of Men Against Sexism) are pleased to announce Forging Justice: Creating Safe, Equal and Accountable Communities, a three day (August 8, 9 and 10) conference in Detroit exploring gender-based violence through a social justice lens.

Centering the lives of folks who are marginalized is key to creating social justice. The keynote speaker will be Lauren Chief Elk, of the Save Wįyąbi Project, who will be offering guidance on centering the lives of women of color, specifically North American Indigenous Women, in our cultural narratives.

There will also be a plenary panel on recognizing how intersecting identities impact gender-based violence our response to it. The panel will be Jessica Luther, Emi Koyama, and two speakers to be named later. The third plenary panel will be on feminism and new media, and how we create the world we want through technology and media. Speakers on this panel will be Alexandria Goddard, crime blogger who made Steubenville more than a small town in Ohio; Ashon Crawley of the Crunk Feminist Collective, Heather Corinna, doyenne of the amazing sex ed site for teens Scarleteen, and the inimitable tour de force Melissa McEwan, founder and editor-in-chief of Shakesville.

There will be other great things as well, like the 38th Annual Men’s Studies Association Meeting, spoken word performances, a workshop sponsored by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence on the connections between intimate partner violence and HIV infection and much more. We’re also really excited to offer a dedicated space for Healing Justice, with yoga, meditation, art and other self-care workshops. We are committed to creating a space that is accessible, trans* inclusive, and strongly rooted in consent-based interaction.

This conference matters because for 40 years, we’ve focused a lot of energy in the movement to end gender-based violence on fortifying the criminal justice response to intimate partner violence and sexual assault. While that has worked in some regard, calling the police should not be our only option. We need to address toxic masculinity, institutionalized and systemic violence, and center the lived experiences of marginalized folks, especially women. Until we do that, all we’re doing is putting on bandages. I choose, every day, to work to end gender-based violence. Will you join me?

If you want to join us in Detroit, or just find out more information, you can do that here. You can also donate to the Forging Justice Scholarship Fund (making the conference financially accessible) by contacting me at prevention (at) haven-oakland (dot) org. No amount is too small. You can also find the event on Facebook.

MARYLAND DECISION ALLOWING RAPIST TO GO FREE

SILVER SPRING, MD.  The US Supreme Court has upheld a Maryland law permitting DNA testing of people arrested for serious crimes.  The case, State of Maryland v. King, involved a perpetrator who broke into a 53 year-old woman’s home wearing a scarf over his face, ordered the victim not to look at him, and raped her while holding a gun to her head. The 2003 crime went unsolved until 2009 when Alonzo Jay King, Jr. was arrested on an unrelated charge that resulted in his DNA being collected and entered into Maryland’s then-new “arrestee” DNA database, where it matched with DNA collected from the victim.  King was arrested for his sexual assault, and he was convicted of first-degree rape and sentenced to life in prison.The Supreme Court found the DNA arrestee law constitutional, overturning a Maryland Court of Appeals decision.  The Court noted, among other things, that “[f]or example, a defendant who had committed a prior sexual assault might be inclined to flee on a burglary charge, knowing that in every State a DNA sample would be taken from him after his conviction on the burglary charge that would tie him to the more serious charge of rape.”  The Court said this type of situation illustrates how DNA testing of arrestees provides critical information about public safety and whether an arrestee should be detained prior to trial.The Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MCASA), joined by twenty-six other state sexual assault coalitions across the nation, had filed an amicus brief in support of the law.  William C. Sammons, Kristin P. Herber, and Lydia S. Hu at the Baltimore law firm Tydings & Rosenberg represented the coalitions .  MCASA’s Counsel and Executive Director, Lisae C. Jordan, expressed appreciation for the Supreme Court’s decision, stating  “sexual assault survivors undergo invasive and difficult exams which allow evidence to be collected from intimate places; the King decision will help ensure that this evidence is used to bring rapists to justice.”

Lisae C. Jordan, Esq., Executive Director and Counsel

Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault

Email address: lisae.jordan.esq@gmail.com