Fog and rain did not stop students from holding a women’s rally on Fairfield way this past Tuesday to speak out in support of Christine Blasey Ford and against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
“Thank you to Professor Ford whose courage gives us courage and strength in these turbulent times.”
The UConn Youth for Socialist Action has organized the rally and around 40 people attended.
Daily Campus staff writer Gabriella DeBenedictis says many organizations contributed to the rally, including Revolution Against Rape, UConn branch of the National Council of Negro Women, the Graduate Employee Union and many others.
Though it was raining all day, there was a moment where no raindrops fell during the rally. Photo: Daniela Doncel
“Our next speaker is Annastasia from Revolution against Rape.”
“My name is Annastasia Martineau and I am the president of Revolution against Rape.”
Revolution against Rape is a club dedicated to ending rape culture on college campuses. Martineau is a junior psychology major and women’s gender and sexuality studies minor.
She says Revolution against Rape advocates ending rape culture as well as believing and supporting the survivor. She says the club also facilitates consent workshops at local high schools and collaborates with the women’s center at UConn.
“People of color. LGBT people. Undocumented people. Indigenous people. They’ve all been left out of these narratives, and I’d like to pause and recognize these voices now,” Martineau says.
“I am a survivor of sexual violence and I know how important it is when you have people in your corner and when you have people standing up for you and I can’t just stand by and not stand up for someone else. So, I really wanted to get behind this issue. I absolutely believe Dr. Ford,” Martineau says.
Martineau says she supports the event to stand with Ford and to make sure a person accused of sexual assault or harassment is not appointed to a position on the US government. Martineau brings up Clarence Thomas as an example. President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court after Anita Hill testified that he had sexually harassed her when they were work colleagues, according to Vox.
Across the UConn seal on Fairfield way stood protesters with “Sin Awareness Day” signs. Martineau says the organizers of the rally did not plan to be across from them. Photo: Daniela Doncel
“Kind of the ideas of letting this happen again, it’s — we can’t do that. It’s like now or never. We’re not going to go backwards. We’re going to keep pushing forwards,” Martineau says.
Martineau says having the rally in a public place makes a statement.
“You know when you hear those rallies being chanted across campus, you can’t turn away from it and you can’t pretend that this isn’t an issue that doesn’t exist, because it is so prevalent in our society,” Martineau says.
Martineau says she wants to remind people to take care of their mental state, especially when such a triggering topic is on the media almost every day.
Revolution against Rape will hold their eighth annual march to end victim blaming. Martineau says the focus this year is rape culture through a multidimensional lens. To do this, the march will speak on a multitude of topics from policies to diverse communities such as people of color and the LGBT+ community. It’ll be on October 19 on Fairfield Way.