[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9618-9620]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          WE ARE ALL EMILY DOE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New 
Hampshire (Ms. Kuster) for 30 minutes.
  Ms. KUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I want to commend Judge Poe for his eloquent 
words tonight. I appreciate the bipartisan sentiment.
  I rise tonight in solidarity with my courageous colleagues from 
across the country who spoke last week and, as Judge Poe joined us, we 
read the eloquent words of the survivor in the Stanford University 
case.
  We rise tonight to show our continuing support for the woman known to 
the world as Emily Doe and to join with all of our sisters at Stanford 
and on college campuses and in communities around the Nation with one 
simple message to America: We are all Emily Doe.
  I am going to start my remarks tonight 40 years ago on a cold winter 
night at a prestigious college campus--this time on the East Coast--I 
was an 18-year-old student. I was going to a dance. The dance was at a 
fraternity, and I intended to enjoy the evening with my friends. We 
danced. We listened to music. We enjoyed the evening and we enjoyed the 
party until one young man assaulted me in a crude and insulting way, 
and I ran alone into the cold, dark night. I have never forgotten that 
night. I was filled with shame, regret, humiliation while he was egged 
on by everyone at that party standing by.
  Several years later, I was working as a legislative assistant right 
here on Capitol Hill, and I was assaulted again, this time by a 
distinguished guest of the United States Congress. I was 23 years old. 
And as Judge Poe referenced tonight, I did not say a word to anyone. 
And, in fact, until I wrote these words to share with you tonight, I 
had never told anyone this story. My family didn't know, my husband, my 
children, my friends. I was 23.
  A few months after that evening, I was walking home from dinner at a 
diner right here on Capitol Hill. If I named it, you all would know it 
well. I was mugged. I was grabbed in the dark, and I fought free. And 
when I broke free, I ran, again, alone into the cold, dark night.
  I tell these stories tonight on the floor of the United States 
Congress not because they are remarkable or unique. Sadly, I tell these 
stories because they are all too common.
  You see, all of us--Members of Congress, college students, soldiers 
and sailors, mothers and sisters--we are all Emily Doe. And the message 
we hear

[[Page 9619]]

and the message that the court sent in Stanford is that we are not 
safe, we are not secure, and we do not deserve to be free, free from 
sexual assault, free from rape, free from rude, crude, obnoxious 
offensive assaults on our bodies, on our beings, on ourselves.
  What we hear on college campuses, on military bases, in the 
workplace, and in the courthouse is that he has a future; he has 
potential; he was drunk; he didn't mean any harm; he just wanted to 
have fun, to get some action, and then get on with his life.

                              {time}  2115

  What about her? What about her future? The student, the soldier, the 
sailor, the mother, the sister? We have been silent for too long. We 
also have potential. We also have a future. We are all Emily Doe, and 
tonight we will not be silent anymore.
  Tonight we stand together--Republicans and Democrats, mothers and 
sisters--from across the country to take a stand for liberty and 
justice for all. We will fight for consequences for the 3 percent of 
men on college campuses and in our communities who are sexual predators 
and a menace to women everywhere. We will fight for bystander education 
and sexual assault prevention.
  For the 97 percent of men on college campuses and in our communities 
who can be part of the solution, join us in taking a stand against 
sexual assault. We will reward college campuses that are open, 
transparent, and not only change their policies and programs but 
actually hold the perpetrators accountable and provide real and 
effective counseling and support for those students who have been 
assaulted.
  And we will impose sanctions on college administrators who fail to 
act, fail to change, fail to prevent, fail to protect. Every student 
deserves to be safe; every student deserves to be secure, to live her 
life and to live her future. So remember, tonight we are all Emily Doe. 
She has given us our voice, and we will not be silent any longer.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. 
Clark), my good friend and colleague.
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from 
New Hampshire for her personal story. It is moving, it is courageous, 
and it makes a difference. We so appreciate your words because your 
story is our story, and it is the story of our daughters, our nieces, 
our granddaughters, and ourselves.
  Approximately 20 percent of women who go to college will be sexually 
assaulted, and according to the Department of Justice and the Center 
for Public Policy, 95 percent of those women will not report their 
crimes because they don't think they will be believed. They think they 
will be humiliated and shamed.
  As Emily Doe said so eloquently and brutally frankly in her statement 
to her rapist Brock Turner, the judicial system and institutions will 
blame the victim. She had her consent questioned even though she was 
unconscious.
  Another college student recently in the news in Massachusetts went to 
WPI, and when she was lured to a rooftop and raped by a university 
security guard, she was questioned in the courtroom on her so-called 
risky behavior of drinking alcohol, not getting off the elevator when 
the guard followed her on, and that she had ignored training on 
personal safety.
  Recently at Harvard, an alumni group president of an elite men's club 
offered that the suggestion of making the club coed was not a good one 
because it would potentially increase sexual assault at the club, not 
decrease it.
  Alcohol, trusting security guards, the mere presence of women, none 
of it justifies rape. Alcohol highlights the deeply rooted ideas of 
entitlement that we have, and in rapists--and in, too frequently, mass 
shooters--it is what Michael Kimmel terms ``aggrieved entitlement,'' a 
powerful toxic world view that justifies violent action against 
children, women, elderly, or the LGBTQ community because the 
perpetrator believes they can act with impunity.
  So how do we begin to change this horrifying landscape? First, we 
need to collect data. We need to understand who is perpetrating these 
crimes to understand how we can get to better solutions. A lack of 
accurate capture and analysis for understanding perpetration has caused 
us to not be able to frame the questions for better solutions.
  Second, we have to look at funding. Cuts to social services for 
domestic violence and sexual assault are ones that we simply can't 
afford in our very first line of defense and the funding that is so 
necessary to build communities. We also need to talk to our children 
about sexual assault. A No More study revealed 73 percent of parents 
with children under the age of 18 have never talked to them about 
sexual assault, domestic violence, or even alcohol. And we certainly 
aren't talking about double standards, power imbalances, bias, and 
bigotry.
  Finally, we need to look at our institutions: higher education--our 
colleges and universities--community policing, and our criminal justice 
system. We must enable transparency and accountability and counteract 
our deep cultural questions and questioning and disbelief of victims 
and stereotypes that enable entitlements to flourish violently.
  The work that Representative Kuster has called for tonight begins 
with us, and I thank her again for her leadership and her bravery and 
her friendship not just to me, but to all women.
  Ms. KUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Clark.
  I now yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Bustos), my good 
friend and colleague.
  Mrs. BUSTOS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congresswoman Kuster for 
organizing this Special Order this evening and for bringing attention 
to such a critical issue. I also want to thank Congresswoman Clark for 
her story as well. I appreciate so much her taking the time tonight. 
Most importantly, I want to thank both gentlewomen for sharing their 
stories. I thank Congresswoman Kuster for having the courage to share 
her personal story, which I think will give hope and strength to women 
and survivors across the country. Sexual assault is an epidemic that 
knows no boundaries. It is a crisis on our campuses that mandates the 
attention of every Member of Congress.
  I was in college in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, and I know 
what happened back then is sadly still happening today. I know of a 
college gang rape that happened when I was in school. I know of men who 
would brag about taking turns on drunk or unconscious women who could 
not give consent. They were not in a position to give consent. We would 
hear about these experiences later when a survivor was brave enough to 
confide in her friends about what happened on that night.
  But every time, without exception, she felt powerless, with little 
hope that justice would be on her side if she reported the crime. That 
is because the rape culture is suffocating for women all across 
America. She knew then that they would ask her what she was wearing, 
was she showing cleavage, were her jeans too tight. She knew they would 
ask her how much she had to drink, if she were asking for it because 
she had a few cocktails, and she knew that they would ask about her 
sexual history, if she were promiscuous, if she egged him on. This is 
the rape culture that sexual assault survivors live through each and 
every day.
  All of these memories came rushing back to me when I learned about 
the brave survivor at Stanford University. She courageously shared her 
vivid, graphic, and horrifying story of what happened before and after 
she was raped. Now, I didn't say during, because she was unconscious 
when she was raped behind Stanford University's dumpster.
  Mr. Speaker, I am sick. I am sick and tired about this epidemic while 
we have meaningful legislation that sits and dies in committee. Those 
of us here tonight strongly support this legislation that will reform 
the way sexual assaults are handled on our college campuses. But where 
is the movement? Where is the vote on this floor of this Congress? The 
silence and the inaction

[[Page 9620]]

from Congress is deafening and appalling.
  For example, the Campus Accountability and Safety Act only has 34 
cosponsors. That is right, 34 cosponsors out of 435 Members of the U.S. 
House of Representatives. Just as troubling is the HALT Act, the HALT 
Campus Sexual Violence Act, which has only one Republican cosponsor--I 
repeat, one Republican cosponsor.
  And why I bring that up is because rape is not a partisan issue. It 
does not have a label of Republican or Democrat on it. Rape victims are 
not Republicans; they are not Democrats. They are human beings, and 
they deserve better. At bare minimum, they deserve a hearing and a vote 
on this floor of Congress.
  Let me just say this. If women made up more than our measly 20 
percent of Congress, if Congress truly reflected the makeup of America, 
where 50-plus percent of Americans are women, I guarantee that sexual 
assault wouldn't be a back-burner issue because this has impacted all 
of us: our friends, our sisters, our daughters. They have lived this 
experience.
  As a woman in Congress, I will not stay silent because why be 
Congresswomen if we can't help other women and do so vigorously and 
boldly? I will not stay silent while one in five college women 
experiences sexual assault during her undergraduate years. As a woman 
in Congress, I will not stay silent because every female staffer I work 
with knows of a woman who was raped in college.
  How many more college women will be raped before Congress will act? 
We are here tonight for Emily Doe, who was sexually assaulted behind 
that fraternity dumpster while she was unconscious. We are all here for 
all survivors because we see you, we hear you, we respect you. As women 
Members of Congress, we will amplify your voice until there is action. 
Let me be clear. We will not be silent until meaningful action is 
taken. We will continue to challenge the status quo so all survivors 
are given the adequate justice they deserve.
  Ms. KUSTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Bustos and 
Representative Clark. There were others who planned to join us, but 
because of the weather, their flights were not able to land. With these 
stories, we hope to show that Emily Doe is not alone and, in fact, we 
are all Emily Doe.
  These types of experiences happen to every type of woman across the 
country--not just students, not just young women--mothers, daughters, 
teachers, and, yes, even Members of Congress. And that is why we must 
all come out of the shadows and the silence and demand action be taken 
to put an end to the victimization of women and other individuals by 
their abusers.
  So tonight, Mr. Speaker, we want to speak to America to say: we will 
be silent no longer. We hear you. We hear the stories of the survivors. 
And we plan to make this Congress take the action that needs to be 
done.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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