Sexual assault is a serious issue that should be dealt with seriously. But the proposed solution for this problem on college campuses creates an entirely new problem. It eviscerates due process for accused students in the name of helping accusers.
The fight over campus sexual assault and due process has somehow devolved into a Republican vs. Democrat issue. The most vocal supporters of draconian sexual assault policies are Democrats like Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Claire McCaskill of Missouri. There are several prominent Republicans on a Senate bill to curb sexual assault, but none have made a name for themselves as a proponent.
Meanwhile, the print and online commentary voices defending due process rights for the accused have been mostly right-leaning. The only television voice on the issue of due process has been Fox News.
There have been exceptions to this, but unfortunately, the issue has become a way for political opponents to score points against each other. Those who favor due process are accused by liberals of being “rape apologists,” while those who favor the accusers are excoriated by right-leaning media.
That sentiment has muddied the issue. Due process used to be deeply important to liberals. Toughness on crime was more commonly associated with Republicans. Now the tables have turned and it makes no sense.
Due process should concern everyone. So should sexual assault.
Tiffany Hunt, who promotes due process with the organization Families Advocating for Campus Equality, told me that this issue shouldn’t have turned in to a political one.
“This issue, to me, isn’t one of Left or Right politics; it is one that concerns all of our students on campus,” Hunt said. “All students’ lives matter, and trust me, as a parent, the day you get the phone call that your child has been wrongly accused on campus, you are not thinking Democrat or Republican, you’re thinking about their safety, their future, their life.”
At a conference I spoke at earlier this year, one parent of an accused student asked another how she could still be a Democrat after what her and her son had gone through. The answer was not too difficult — a potentially false accusation against one’s son doesn’t affect one’s feelings on foreign policy or taxes or welfare.
“The families of FACE are Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent. We are mothers, fathers, daughters and sons,” Hunt said. “Our stories are all a little different, but we share the same pain. We have all experienced injustice on campus, and we are working to have our voices heard.”
It isn’t hard to see how we got to this point. It’s easy to stand up for someone who accuses another of sexual assault. Feminist firebrand Jessica Valenti acknowledged as much in the aftermath of the Rolling Stone gang-rape debacle.
“I choose to believe Jackie,” she wrote in The Guardian. “I lose nothing by doing so, even if I’m later proven wrong — but at least I will still be able to sleep at night for having stood by a young woman who may have been through an awful trauma.”
No one is pro-rape (though activists claim otherwise), and no one wants to be against an accuser. But when an accuser’s story doesn’t add up, she is not a victim — the victim becomes the person wrongly accused.
In today’s climate, it is impossible to stand up for someone wrongly accused without being attacked. Once someone is labeled a “rapist” — even without evidence — he apparently forfeits his right to exist and must be expelled and have his life and future ruined.
That, of course, is ridiculous. The truth must matter above all else, not what category someone belongs in — and due process is that tool by which we figure out whom to believe. If an accuser is a victim, she (or he) deserves all the support in the world. If the accused is innocent, he deserves support. That’s not even getting into situations where the evidence is unclear one way or the other.
It shouldn’t be up to Republicans to stand up for due process or up to Democrats to stand up for victims. Both sides should be working toward the truth in each case.
As Hunt said: “This is not a left or right issue, it is a life issue.”
