CT legislator comes out as rape survivor
I'm a bit late on this one, but it's worth reporting.
Connecticut State Rep. Deborah Heinrich (D-Madison) has been a strong advocate for emergency contraception for rape victims in Connecticut. Yesterday, in a press conference that preceded hearings on the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims Act, shared with the press and her colleagues that she had been a victim of rape and wanted to ensure that other rape victims would not have to live with the fear of pregnancy following rape because some hospitals refused to carry emergency contraception.
This was the first time that Heinrich had shared her story--with the publicly or her family. I'm pretty in awe of her bravery, I have to say.
Video news coverage of the story after the jump.
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Wow--SUCH bravery. Here's hoping her actions have some impact on this proposed legislation!
I have to say, I have extreme discomfort with calling survivors of sexual violence "brave" just for speaking about their experiences. On the one hand, yes, we're speaking up in a culture that wants to blame us and stigmatize us for what happened to us, and that's brave (as I was reminded not so long ago when I mentioned my own history in an article I wrote). On the other hand, in reality, nothing shameful happened to her. Would we think it was brave of her to simply say she had been kidnapped? I just fear there's some weird way we re-inscribe the idea that this should be a shameful and difficult thing to talk about when we emphasize the word "brave." (Not that anyone here intends that meaning, just that it may wind up being received by the larger culture and by other survivors in that way.)
I hear what you're saying, Jaclyn, and I know I may not be speaking for the larger culture, but I do think it's brave whenever anybody sacrifices or sets aside their deep feelings of discomfort to talk about a personal experience for the greater good. So maybe not if she'd been kidnapped, but I would call her brave if she talked publicly about, I don't know, the death of someone important to her in a similar context (funding for national health care, maybe?).
I was at this marathon nine and a half hour publc hearing (I didn't get to testify myself until 10 PM...and it was also the first time I've ever talked about a personal experience with sexual assault in public).
Rep. Heinrich's testimony was incredibly moving. I cried through most of it. She is truly a hero.
Jaclyn, I would call her brave if she spoke about her kidnapping. It's not because she should be ashamed, but because rape is a HORRIBLE experience, and speaking about it involves reliving it.
jaclyn, that's a valid point. i suppose it comes down to whether calling it brave encourages more women to speak up, or perpetuates the notion that staying silent is the norm and only the brave women speak up when they're raped.
it comes down to whether we are obligated to say, "hey, that guy raped me (don't be alone with him), and given all the other women saying so, it's clear that men rape a lot."
i kind of feel like we do have a duty to speak up, but that carries with it the notion that we have to identify and prosecute our rapists. and that is allowing a rapist to take charge of a really significant amount of a woman's time and effort. in my case, it probably would have also affected my career. sure, this congresswoman hasn't suffered any fallout yet. just wait.
I'm not as concerned with calling her brave for sharing her story as I am for the number of times the newscast referred to it as "her secret." The phrasing made her experience seem tawdry instead of traumatic.
Go, lady, go.