With Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden facing allegations that he sexually assaulted Senate aide Tara Reade in 1993, many people are drawing comparisons to the sexual assault allegations Christine Blasey Ford levied against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his 2018 confirmation process. The biggest difference between the two cases is the treatment of assault victims by liberals in the media and Democratic leadership.
It was during Kavanaugh’s hearing when I realized that the traumas of sexual assault survivors like myself were being used to further Democrats’ political goals.
At the time, I lamented our extortion and wrote about my own assault experience for the Detroit News. In high school, a boy aggressively groped my genitals as I exchanged books between classes. An array of teachers and students enhanced the pain of that initial assault by ostracizing me after my complaint to school authorities got the well-liked boy expelled from our private high school for the remainder of the school year.
In 2018, I did not have the courage to explain how the lessons from that previous attack shaped my actions after a more serious assault in college.
I was a 21-year-old intern when I was date-raped by a law student in Washington, D.C. He disregarded my words when I told him not once but twice, that I was uncomfortable with him kissing me. Several hours later, after his and my friends left my apartment, he dragged me back to my bedroom. I managed to escape, only to have him carry me, sobbing, to my bed. As smart rapists do, mine was sure to leave no physical evidence.
My psyche was still scarred from the battle I faced years before to be believed. I was also fully aware that my privacy and character would be further assaulted if I were to achieve any modicum of restitution. I chose not to file charges. The man who raped me is now a respected lawyer practicing in Texas.
Today, I share my full story to stand with all victims and survivors. I know how difficult it is to come forward and to be victimized all over again by those with no understanding of the pain of one’s own assault. I understand how the fear of being socially cast out and disbelieved can keep survivors from pressing charges against those who hurt them. I also believe that if survivors reassert our truths now, we can create an environment in which future victims receive support and care while their charges are investigated, regardless of their assaulter’s identity and privileges, and for the difficult months and years to come.
While the #MeToo movement initially seemed to indicate that the United States was creating such an environment, its presence was only fleeting.
In September 2018, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, purported to “#BelieveSurvivors” in response to Blasey Ford’s “deeply moving opening statement” at Kavanaugh’s hearing. However, on April 30, when Biden had still failed to personally address Reade’s allegations, Pelosi claimed to be “satisfied with how he responded.”
On May 1, Biden finally responded personally to Reade’s accusations, insisting the incident “never happened.” He elaborated that “women deserve to be heard, not silenced,” and that their “stories should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny.” While the response was reasonable, it was a far cry from his 2018 reaction to accusations made by Blasey Ford about Kavanaugh, when Biden stated, “For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time.”
The women who are front-runner contenders for Biden’s coveted vice presidential ticket, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, are likewise standing by their man, regardless of the allegations against him.
“Believe all women” was always a prop that Democrats used to harness assault survivors’ frenzied anger to cudgel a Republican whose power they feared. In 2018, watching their sanctimonious false pity left this survivor enraged. Seeing Democrats now largely dismiss uninvestigated allegations against Biden and propel vehement attempts to discredit Reade for activities unrelated to her charges has me seeing red.
The differing reactions to Reade’s and Blasey Ford’s allegations have unequivocally demonstrated the shifting goalposts for victims. Victims deserve more objective standards for having their claims taken seriously than those that have been presented in the past two years.
Current developments will not only affect the country’s youngest victims who are navigating coming forward with their own allegations amid shifting attitudes toward assault victims. The sliding scale of victims’ believability will likely be weighed by power-seeking rapists and would-be-rapists alike.
As a sexual assault survivor, I am dismayed by Democrat leadership’s abdication of its previous, albeit spurious, support for sexual assault survivors. I only wish that I could also say I am surprised.
Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.
