In just her first 6 months, Betsy DeVos has stripped away the rights of both transgender individuals and sexual assault victims on college campuses. In an effort to make campus rape investigations more "fair and impartial" DeVos has rescinded an Obama-era policy, which made the punishment of those accused of sexual assault much more likely. The standard of evidence against the accused it now much higher, so high in fact that many victims cannot provide such evidence. Know Your IX, a youth-led campaign to end sexual violence, sees this decision as a "betrayal" and believes that the rescission will make it easier for schools to stack investigations against victims and even push them out of school entirely. Many against the rescission think DeVos has not faced the all too real truth that 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted while on campus.
I honestly cannot believe she tried to make this sound positive, there is absolutely no justification, in my mind at least. My first current event was about the removal of transgender rights and it included college campuses, so I knew more about that side before reading this. I completely agree with the members of Know Your IX, the one thing the rescission will accomplish is making getting away with rape and sexual assault easier.
The reason why so many women and men don't go against their raper is because showing evidence for such a thing can be nearly impossible excpcially if the man or woman your going against is in a high status.
ReplyDeleteMy question for De Vos would be what she gains from making this decision. I can't think of any time in recent memory when members of her political base called for such an action and all it did was bring negative attention to her from the public (and deservedly so as this action is pretty abhorrent), so what motivated her to repeal the legislation?
ReplyDeleteThis is an extremely potent question because De Vos herself is a woman, and the majority of sexual assault cases are women. So from my perspective, she doesn't stand to gain much.
DeleteI agree completely with Connor. Where in the conservative platform does ur mention stripping sexual assault victims of their rights?
ReplyDelete