Today, people around the country that wish to support Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers and victims and survivors of sexual assault everywhere, walked out of their office, home or wherever they were at 1p.m. in solidarity.
Time’s Up, the legal defense fund for women that have faced sexual harassment, posted a Facebook event page titled “National Walk Out: Support Dr. Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez.” As of press time, the event had 19,000 people going and 25,000 interested. This event called for the national support of Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez in the allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, as Cosmo notes.
Survivors must be heard. Wear black and join the national walkout on Monday, Sept. 24 at 1 pm ET/10 am PT in solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. https://t.co/XcLucrziMJ #BelieveSurvivors #TIMESUP pic.twitter.com/s3RQY40Mf5
— TIME’S UP (@TIMESUPNOW) September 23, 2018
The event encouraged participants to wear black and post to their social accounts with hashtag #BelieveSurvivors. The walkout lasted from 1 p.m EST until 2 pm EST. If you participated or were interested in walking out, check out these other people that shared their messages of solidarity and support:
Women must be heard. Today I am wearing black in solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. #BelieveSurvivors #TIMESUP #StopKavanaugh pic.twitter.com/pSZhEIr0Xe
— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) September 24, 2018
I believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. I’ll be joining the nationwide walkout with my sisters and brothers across the country on Monday at 1pmET/10amPT to stand in solidarity with her and survivors everywhere. #BelieveSurvivors
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) September 22, 2018
We had a full minute of silence on set to support Dr. Ford. #BelieveSurvivors #BelieveWomen #TimesUp pic.twitter.com/7zcHeRw13k
— Emmy Rossum (@emmyrossum) September 24, 2018
This walk-out serves as yet another moment for real conversations about the realities of sexual assault and rape culture in the United States (and all over the world.)
This event also came after President Donald Trump tweeted out a defense of Kavanaugh, naming Blasey Ford and wholly misrepresenting the facts about why victims and survivors don’t always come forward about their experiences or press charges — which led to another devastating hashtag campaign #WhyIDidntReport, where survivors and victims of assault shared the reasons they didn’t report their assaults.
Again: According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), only 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported to the police and about six perpetrators out of every 1,000 assaults actually serve jail time. So statistically there’s a whole mess of intersecting reasons that make reporting a sexual assault more complicated and difficult than another kind of crime. So it’s absolutely important that we make sure victims and survivors are heard and believed during this large-scale national conversation and beyond.