30 senators vote to silence rape victims. How is that justice or doing what's right for us?

I’ve been blogging a lot about the need for bipartisanship in Washington in order to get things done. While on some issues this does not seem possible—the economy, health care, the war, etc., there is one issue up for debate that should not receive any doubters: Al Franken’s KBR Rape Amendment.

Here’s some background. Jamie Leigh Jones worked for the contract company Halliburton/KBR in Iraq, where she was subsequently drugged and gang-raped by her colleagues four days after her arrival. Upon telling her superiors about the vicious sexual assault, she was quarantined in a shipping container and denied food, water and sleep. A rape kit was performed, and has since disappeared. She was not allowed to press charges and her superiors attempted to threaten her into silence.

The not suing part was actually written into her contract. Apparently most contractor companies have clauses like this for their female workforce, which prohibits them from taking rape charges to court, and instead forces arbitration between the victim and her attackers, or even worse, forced silence of the victims.

To say I was…well, am…outraged is an understatement. What makes me more angry, though, are the 30 Republican senators who voted against Sen. Franken’s bill, which would override these contracts and give women the ability to face their attackers in a court of law and hold them responsible for their actions.

I’m leaving the list of senators here, along with links to the contact pages on their Web sites, so that you may write each and every one of them and demand that they re-examine their view on this bill. They’ve all reacted pretty strongly to the term “pro-rape” being used when being questioned by the media, so toss that term in if you can. I’ll be doing the same.

Alexander (R-TN)



Barrasso (R-WY)


Bond (R-MO)


Brownback (R-KS)


Bunning (R-KY)


Burr (R-NC)


Chambliss (R-GA)


Coburn (R-OK)


Cochran (R-MS)


Corker (R-TN)


Cornyn (R-TX)


Crapo (R-ID)


DeMint (R-SC)


Ensign (R-NV)


Enzi (R-WY)


Graham (R-SC)


Gregg (R-NH)


Inhofe (R-OK)


Isakson (R-GA)


Johanns (R-NE)

Kyl (R-AZ)


McCain (R-AZ)


McConnell (R-KY)


Risch (R-ID)


Roberts (R-KS)


Sessions (R-AL)


Shelby (R-AL)


Thune (R-SD)


Vitter (R-LA)


Wicker (R-MS)

The bill proposed by Franken would withhold defense contracts to companies “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.”

The bill passed 68-30, with the only holdouts being male Republicans. Their arguments for not supporting a bill that prohibits rape victims from being silenced vary. However, the overriding theme is that during wartime, our troops need to be supported unequivocally, and that these contract companies should not have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal feels to address allegations by a few women.

Let me say here that I adamantly support our troops. However, I do not believe that serving in the military neither justifies rape nor should lead to leniency in legal rulings.

I don’t care what their reasoning is, not supporting this is a disgusting display of sexism, misogyny and the inability to reach across the aisle no matter what the cause. I think these 30 men voting against the bill is another example in the recent trend of Republicans stopping at nothing to prevent the passage of any Democratic initiative, regardless of the positive change it will create.

I hope each of the 30 are forced to sit face-to-face with Jones, as well as any other rape victim who chooses to confront them, and are forced to listen to the gruesome details of rape—not just the physical ramifications, but the emotional, mental and spiritual harm that is done when a woman’s choice is viciously taken away from her. Because that’s what rape is. Men who rape feel entitled to a woman’s body, regardless of whether or not she wants to give it.

In a way, each of these senators have perpetrated the same crime. They forced the choice of prosecution out of the hands of victims, and instead, forced them to keep quiet and arbitrate. They forced these women to admit their bodies and well-being are not worth the time, money and bad press that would surely come about when the media finds out that Jones’ situation was not uncommon, and that dozens of women, if not more, have suffered the same fate.

All it takes for evil to prosper is for good people to do nothing. Congratulations, senators. You have done nothing, and you have sent a message to perpetrators to continue raping because there will be no consequences; and for women to just take it because they’re not useful for anything more than a sexual plaything.

This is wrong. These senators are wrong.

Thank you, Senator Franken, for working to pass this bill and ensure the rights of women and their bodies are preserved.