Local News

Rep. Kuster shares her assault stories, says ‘We are all Emily Doe’

June 23, 2016

1 minute to read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r–zatBzH4A

Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH) took to the House of Representatives floor this week and spoke about two times she was sexually assaulted. The New Hampshire representative said she shared the incidents from her past to to hammer home the point that “We are all Emily Doe,” referring to the 23-year-old unnamed victim in the Stanford rape case.

“I have never forgotten that night,” said Kuster about the night she was assaulted at a frat party on a college campus when she was 18. “I was filled with shame, regret, humiliation.”

Emily Doe’s 12-page letter to her attacker, former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner, was widely circulated online and praised for its powerful message to other survivors of assault.

Said Kuster, “She has given us our voice and we will not be silent any longer.”

In the Emily Doe case, Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Perksy sentenced Turner to six months in county jail, triggering public outrage.

Kuster vowed to fight for justice for victims of sexual assault and hold universities accountable.

“What we hear on college campuses, on military bases, in the workplace, and in the court house is that he has a future, he has potential, he was drunk, he didn’t mean any harm, he just wanted to have fun, to get some action, and then get on with his life,” said Kuster. “What about her? What about her future? The student, the soldier, the sailor, the mother, the sister?”

Kuster said she was assaulted again at age 23 while working as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. She never told anyone.

“We have been silent for too long,” said Kuster. “We also have potential. We also have a future. We are all Emily Doe. And tonight we will not be silent anymore.”