[VIDEO] Voices From the Field: Service Women's Action Network (SWAN)

Here's a statistic that'll run chills down your spine: at least one-third of all US women veterans have experienced rape or sexual assault during their service. You read that right: one-third.

The prevalence of sexual assault in our armed services is a national disgrace -- and Ms. Foundation grantee Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) is doing all it can to end to this epidemic. Through groundbreaking advocacy initiatives and innovative, community programs that focus on healing, SWAN supports, defends, and builds the power of today’s servicewomen and women veterans of all eras. The organization works to transform military culture by securing equal opportunity and the freedom to serve in uniform -- without threat of harassment, discrimination, intimidation or assault.

In recent months, SWAN has ratcheted up the fight to protect servicemembers from sexual assault -- and to improve the military's response when such events do occur -- to incredible new levels. The organization played a lead role in a groundbreaking lawsuit against the Department of Defense for its failure to investigate incidents of rape and sexual abuse, and served as a driving force behind legislation, recently introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar, that would require the DOD to establish a unified system to permanently retain digital records in all cases of military rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment, and allow lifetime access to these records by the survivor.

The following Ms. Foundation Voices From the Field video is one Marine's story of sexual assault in the military, as told to us by her mother. Her abuse at the hands of her attacker -- and the military's response to it -- make it all too clear how important SWAN's work is, and how desperately our armed services need the transformation SWAN seeks to bring about.

The Highs, the Lows: DADT and Dream Act Meet Opposite Fates in Senate

After 17 years, 13,500 dismissed service members and enough debate to have launched a thousand ships, the US Congress finally did what's right: on Saturday, December 18th, the US Senate repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the military's ban on openly serving gay and lesbian soldiers. This repeal is a tremendous win not just for gay and lesbian service members, or for women and people of color (who, we now know, were disproportionately impacted by the discriminatory policy); it is also a remarkable win for our nation as a whole, as it moves us ever closer to becoming a truly inclusive democracy --one where who we are puts no limits on what we can be, and what we can do.

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Grantee Highlights Sexism and Racism at the Heart of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Ms. Foundation grantee Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) has published an excellent and insightful piece about Don't Ask, Don't Tell (the US military's policy banning homosexuals from service) and its not-so-subtle sexist and racist roots.

Featured yesterday on the WNYC.org site, the piece was timed to coincide with the release of a new Pentagon report that revealed that 70 percent of active duty and reserve troops surveyed feel that the repeal of DADT would have a "positive or, at worst, inconsequential effect on a unit’s ability to 'work together and get the job done.'" While the battle over DADT has largely been perceived as a LGBTQ issue, Anuradha Bhagwati, Executive Director of SWAN, points out that the policy has had a negative effect on women and people of color in the military, who are particularly susceptible to punishment under the banner of DADT. She writes,

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Honor Servicewomen This Veterans Day: Stand with SWAN

This coming Thursday (Nov. 11th) is Veterans Day, and if you're in New York, Ms. Foundation grantee Service Women's Action Network (SWAN) is sponsoring a number of events you may want to attend.

• On Thursday morning, representatives from SWAN will be marching for the first time in the New York City Veterans Parade -- and they're encouraging women veterans and their supporters to march with them. They'll be marching to honor the contributions of all servicewomen, but particularly those who have experienced Military Sexual Trauma -- including PFC LaVena Johnson, who was raped, brutally beaten and murdered while deployed in Iraq.
  
  The group also hopes that their presence will help bring further attention to the plight of LGBT servicemembers and the discrimination they continue to experience as a result of policies like Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
  
  To learn more about how you can stand with SWAN in this year's Veterans Day Parade, please call 212.683-0015, ext. 324 or email kalima@servicewomen.org.
  
  
• On Thursday evening, SWAN will serve as the co-sponsor of an important discussion about the military's treatment of LGBT servicemembers.
  
  “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – Where Are We, And How Did We Get Here?” will feature commentary from Richard Socarides, former White House Special Assistant and Senior Advisor to President Bill Clinton, who will be joined in conversation with columnist Jonathan Capehart, author Nathaniel Frank and Winnie Stachelberg, Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress.
  
  The event begins at 7pm on November 11th, and will take place at the LGBT Center: 208 West 13th Street, NYC. Limited seating is available; register now if you'd like to attend.
  
  This event is also sponsored by The LGBT Center’s Young Leaders Council, Knights Out, and The Service Member’s Legal Defense Fund.
  
  
• Did you know that Don't Ask, Don't Tell disproportionately impacts women and people of color in the military? "In 2009," according to SWAN, "women made up only 15% of the armed forces, but comprised 39% of total discharges under DADT. In 2008, non-white servicemembers represented 29% of the military, but accounted for 45% of DADT discharges."
  
  On Monday, November 15th at 6:30pm, SWAN will be providing an opportunity for military veterans of color to share their stories and opinions about DADT and how the policy has impacted their lives. The panel will be moderated by Anu Bhagwati, former US Marine Corps Captain and Executive Director of SWAN, and will take place at the LGBT Center in NYC: 208 West 13th Street, NYC.
  
  For more information about this unique event that seeks to uplift the voices of those too often silenced, please visit SWAN online.

And for those of you who are photography buffs, renowned photographer Jo Ann Santangelo will be exhibiting her multi-media touring show “Proud to Serve" at The Center, as well. The show -- which runs through January 30, 2011 -- features images of LGBT servicemembers who served their country in silence or were discharged under Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Don't miss it!

Dream Act, Don't Ask Don't Tell Blocked in the Senate

It looks like both the Dream Act and the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell will have to wait until after the November midterm elections for a vote.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted not to take up a significant piece of military legislation that includes a provision that would have made way for the repeal of the military's current ban on openly gay and lesbian soldiers, as well as the immigration reform policy known as the Dream Act, which would have provided thousands of undocumented young people a path to US citizenship.

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SWAN Sets Record Straight on Costs of Military Sexual Assault

Did you know that:

• 3,230 military sexual assaults were reported in 2009, an increase of 11% from fiscal year 2008?
• 79% of women serving in the military since Vietnam report experiencing sexual harassment?
• 62.9% of female combat veterans and 74.5% of female noncombat veterans seeking treatment for PTSD report experiencing a sexual assault while in service?

Military Sexual Trauma (or MST) has become an epidemic in our armed services. So much so, in fact, that the Veterans Administration is now spending more than $820 million annually to treat health-related sexual assault issues among veterans -- the majority of them women.

While the Department of Defense remains largely silent about the pervasiveness of sexual assault in the military -- and about their inability to punish servicemembers committing these crimes (only 8% of perpetrators are prosecuted) -- grassroots groups are now putting pressure on the Pentagon and Congress to take a more hands on role in ending MST.

To help draw attention to the insidiousness of sexual crimes in the military, Ms. Foundation grantee SWAN (Service Women's Action Network) has just released a useful fact sheet [pdf] on MST. In addition to data on the number of crimes committed, and the barriers victims face if and when they seek justice, SWAN also crunches the numbers to show just how much this epidemic is costing the American people each year. "Perhaps when the Pentagon and Congress realize that this issue amounts to millions of dollars of taxpayer money... they might decide to finally do something to curb the epidemic sexual assault and harassment in the military," says Anu Bhagwati, Executive Director of SWAN.

With studies now showing that sexual harassment causes the same rates of PTSD in women veterans as combat does in men, the time has clearly come to put an end to what certainly qualifies as a national disgrace. Kudos to SWAN for doing the hard work and getting the facts straight. Our women and men in uniform are lucky to have advocates like you, fighting on their behalf.

Homelessness on the Rise Among Female Vets

Did you know that women veterans are more than four time as likely as males to end up homeless? Or that over the last decade, the number of homeless women vets has more than doubled -- hovering right now at about 8,000 women nationwide?

Those aren't statistics you're likely to read on the front page of your local newspaper, but they nonetheless speak to the challenging experiences of thousands of women soldiers returning home from our multiple wars. A weak economy has left them jobless; health issues and emotional traumas have left them vulnerable to drug abuse and feelings of alienation from society at large. As a result, the numbers of women vets who find themselves homeless, living in cars and on the streets, is decidedly on the rise.

As NPR reported this week, the US Department of Veterans Affairs has begun to address this demographic shift by targeting women, particularly those with children, for "priority funding." They're also strengthening their outreach efforts by deploying staffers to tour communities and encourage homeless women vets to take advantage of transitional housing programs the VA has set up to meet their specific needs.

But the government isn't doing this work alone. Community organizations are also playing a vital role in helping women find security after their service has ended.

Take Ms. Foundation grantee SWAN for example. SWAN (Service Women's Action Network) was established in 2007 to provide women vets with the resources and community support needed to heal their wounds and readjust to civilian life. Today, SWAN runs two peer-staffed helplines to address service women's diverse needs; offers free trainings, workshops and activities designed specifically for women veterans; and advocates for all military women, to increase their visibility and access to equal protection, opportunities and benefits.

Led by Anuradha Bhagwati -- who is a veteran herself -- SWAN is dealing firsthand with the challenges service women face, and helping to ensure that women vets are not forgotten once they're no longer in uniform. We're proud to count ourselves among the many supporters of their work.