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Sexual assault survivors see some hope for justice as rape kit backlogs finally clear

Tens of thousands of backlogged rape kits have been processed since the problem came to light.

Photo credit: Canva

Some rape survivors have waited years for their rape kits to be processed.

Some good news for survivors of sexual assault is coming in from jurisdictions around the country as rape kit backlogs are finally being eliminated.

East Tennessee is almost finished clearing its rape kit backlog, with only about 20 kits to go and a much faster processing time. According to WVLT News, processing a rape kit in the region took more than 10 months on average in 2022. Currently, the wait is just 10 weeks, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation hopes to have the catch-up on the backlog completed in October of 2024.


Washington state has also declared that its rape kit backlog is "essentially eliminated” after processing more than 30,000 kits over the past decade. In 2015, Washington took inventory of all of its unprocessed rape kits and began implementing a system to expedite their processing. A House bill passed in 2019 required that by May of 2022, rape kits would be tested within 45 days. According to KPTV News, 95% of kits are tested and DNA entered into a database in 45 days, as reported by the Washington State Patrol’s Vancouver Crime Lab, where most of the state's kits are processed.

North Carolina, West Virginia and other states have also successfully brought their backlog to at or near zero.

Rape kits can provide vital evidence in sexual assault investigations

What this means for some rape survivors is justice finally being served, as their rape kit evidence backs up their case. For others, it means answers, as some don't know the identity of the person who raped them and DNA analysis from the kit provided that information. For many, it's a sense of relief that there's at least some chance that the person who hurt them will be found and convicted and won't be able to hurt anyone else.

The abysmal state of rape kit processing in the U.S. was one of the little-known realities that came to light during the Me Too movement. A sexual assault victim could report a rape right away, go to the hospital to endure hours of invasive procedures to collect bodily fluids and DNA to help prove the crime, only to wait years for their rape kit to even be processed, much less submitted as evidence.

Actor Mariska Hargitay has been at the forefront of the movement to eliminate rape kit backlogs with her Joyful Heart Foundation's End the Backlog campaign.

“To me, the backlog is one of the clearest and most shocking demonstrations of how we regard these crimes in our society," Hargitay shares on the campaign's website. "Testing rape kits sends a fundamental and crucial message to victims of sexual violence: You matter. What happened to you matters. Your case matters. For that reason, The Joyful Heart Foundation, which I founded in 2004, has made ending the rape kit backlog our #1 advocacy priority.”

The six pillars of rape kit reform

End the Backlog established six pillars of reform to help jurisdictions process rape kits more expediently and catch up on processing untested kits. Those pillars are:

1. Implement an annual statewide inventory of kits.

2. Mandate the submission and testing of all backlogged kits.

3. Mandate the testing of all new kits.

4. Create and use a statewide kit tracking system.

5. Implement mechanisms for survivors to easily find out about the status of their kits.

6. Allocate appropriate funding to submit, test, and track kits.

Washington is one of more than a dozen states that have implemented all six pillars, which has enabled the state to turn its backlog around.

“Each of those kits is a survivor whose voice was never heard, who didn’t have a path to justice, and left a lot of predators in the community to re-offend,” Washington representative Tina Orwall told KPTV. "We have a system in place where this is never going to happen again. Those kits will never sit on a shelf. The survivor will have a voice. They can check the status of the kits and the process.”

Why have so many rape kits gone untested?

The status of rape kit backlogs varies greatly by state. A few states still have thousands of kits awaiting processing, some hundreds, some zero and some don't have enough trackable information to even know how many there are. According to End the Backlog, many jurisdictions don't have systems for counting or tracking rape kits.

But making sure rape kits are tracked and processed is important, not just for survivors but for the safety of the public as well.

“Since so many sexual assailants are serial offenders … the DNA from a rape kit is often the material difference between a sexual predator going to jail or remaining free to reoffend,” said U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) at aSenateJudiciary subcommittee hearing in 2015. “When rape kits remain untested and sitting on a shelf, the consequences can be nothing short of devastating.”

So why have so many rape kits gone unsubmitted and untested? According to an investigative report from Sofia Resnick of Rewire News, the "he said, she said" nature of rape allegations has been used to "justify the systemic failure of police and prosecutors nationwide to properly process forensic evidence that could lead to more sexual assault convictions." Rape by definition revolves around consent, which is often difficult to prove one way or another. Resnick reported that police would often only push for rape kit testing in cases that didn't hinge on the consent question or where the assailant's identity was unknown. It's taken time for the importance of testing all rape kits to be understood by everyone involved in the investigative and prosecution process, as those kits contain a wealth of information beyond just DNA that can aid investigators in determining which parts of the victim's and assailant's narrative are backed up by evidence.

However, reality is rape is a difficult crime to prove, even with physical evidence. Despite more rape kits being tested, convictions are still hard to come by and many survivors don't find justice. Anything that provides relevant information about an alleged assault is important, however, and survivors deserve to have their rape kits processed in a timely manner, whether they end up ultimately proving their case or not.

See where your state ranks and learn more about what's being done to end rape kit backlogs at endthebacklog.org. If you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, check out the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Hotline by calling 1-800-656-HOPE or use the Online Hotline: hotline.rainn.org/online. (En Español: rainn.org/es)

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'Gilmore Girls' actor Scott Patterson gets real about being objectified during 'uncomfortable' scene

'Just because it was 2003 didn’t mean it was OK. It’s never OK.'

"Gilmore Girls Set 1" by Noelle And Mike is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

"Gilmore Girls" was set in the fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut.

"Gilmore Girls" is one of those TV shows that's easy to judge negatively until you actually watch it. The fast-paced dialogue, quick-witted humor, colorful characters and surprisingly smart cultural references can take you by surprise if you're not expecting them.

The show was moderately popular when it aired on the CW, but it got a huge second life thanks to DVD and streaming services. However, like every show, not every element has stood the test of time. Since its creation, we've been through some major cultural shifts that have shone a spotlight on problematic tropes and forced us to reexamine what we find funny.

The "Me Too" movement brought into focus the ubiquity of sexual harassment and sexual assault against women. That conversation included the problems with objectifying women's bodies. But objectification can happen to—and hurt—both women and men, as "Gilmore Girls" actor Scott Patterson shared on a recent episode of his podcast.

Patterson played Luke Danes, one of the primary love interests of the show's main character Lorelai (played by Lauren Graham). Patterson's adorably grumpy, flannel-shirted character was a fan favorite, and for the first time, the actor is rewatching the whole series and giving scene-by-scene commentary in his podcast "I Am All In" (named for one of his most swoon-worthy lines).

Most of what he shares in the podcast is positive, but while watching an episode from Season 3 ("Keg! Max!"), he shared an experience that bothered him. One of Patterson's podcast cohosts pointed out what she called "the butt scene" in the episode. In that scene, Lorelai and her best friend Sookie (played by Melissa McCarthy) spend an inordinate amount of time discussing Luke's butt after Sookie accidentally touches it. The cohost said she didn't know if that scene would fly today and that acknowledgment prompted Patterson to share how he felt about it.

"You want to ask me how that feels?" he said. "Yeah, that was disturbing. I realized it wasn’t OK, and it didn’t make me feel comfortable at all. It made me feel really embarrassed, actually."

“It's infuriating to be treated that way," he continued. "It is infuriating because you’re being treated like an object. And it’s disturbing, and it’s disgusting. And I had to endure that through that entire scene and many takes. It was all about the butt, the butt, the butt, the butt. When we weren’t filming, we were sitting down and people were still talking about the butt, the butt, the butt. It was the most disturbing time I have ever spent on that set, and I couldn’t wait for that day to be over.”

Patterson's female co-hosts debated the appropriateness of the scene within the context of the relationships of the characters. On the one hand, it felt like the type of flirting a couple might do, and Luke and Lorelai do eventually get married on the show. But at the time of that scene, Luke was dating someone else and the repeated nature of going back to his butt pushed it from a singular flirtation (which still may have been questionable) to something that made Patterson feel like the character was being humiliated and having his dignity taken away.

"It wasn't OK with me. I hated that scene," he said. “It’s as disgusting for women to objectify men as it for men to objectify women and it’s as harmful. It was just the most offensive day I've ever spent on a set. Just because it was 2003 didn’t mean it was OK. It’s never OK. And I didn’t feel comfortable doing it and it pissed me off.

"I never said anything, so I was angry at myself for never saying anything," he added. "But, you know, I had this job and I didn’t want to make waves and all that.”

Patterson said he hadn't planned on sharing those feelings on the podcast, but rewatching the episode brought back how uncomfortable he'd felt at the time.

As his cohosts pointed out, if you reversed the genders and switched out "butt" for "boobs," it would be a glaringly inappropriate scene. Of course, there's always been a different power dynamic between men and women that has made it extremely difficult for women to speak up when they are being objectified, so the experiences aren't exactly comparable. But in this case, the showrunner was a woman with power over Patterson as an actor. Some women might say, "Well now he knows how it feels to be a woman," with little sympathy, but that reaction feels less than healthy. Objectification is objectification, and Patterson has every right to feel disturbed by how he and his character were treated in that scene.

Here's to the hard conversations that have led us to this point where people being objectified can speak out about how it feels and actually be heard, and here's to Scott Patterson for moving those conversations forward.

You can listen to the podcast episode here. And watch Patterson share why he started the podcast with TODAY:

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In emotional testimony, U.S. gymnasts lambaste investigators of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse

C-SPAN

When the "Me Too" movement sparked a firestorm of stories of sexual harassment and abuse, the world learned what most women already knew. Sexual abuse isn't rare. And far too often, it is covered up, with the perpetrator being protected while victims are left to languish.

Few stories have made that reality more clear than the uncovering of the years-long, widespread sexual abuse of young female athletes on the U.S. women's gymnastics team by the team's physician, Larry Nassar. The scope of his abuse is mind-blowing. The fact that it was happening all the time, behind the scenes, while the young women he was abusing were in the spotlight winning medal after medal, is shocking.

Now we're finding out how bad the investigations were, how these women were dismissed, ignored, and neglected, how investigators allowed the abuse to continue despite ample evidence that it was happening. That is simply enraging.

In emotional testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols, and Aly Raisman spoke frankly about what they experienced. Their stories deserve to be heard and their criticisms of the investigations need to be taken seriously.

Simone Biles took a moment to collect herself during her opening statement.

"I sit before you today to raise my voice so that no little girl must endure what I, the athletes at this table, and the countless others who needlessly suffered under Nassar's guise of medical treatment, which we continue to endure today," she said. "We suffered and continue to suffer, because no one at FBI, USAG, or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us. We have been failed, and we deserve answers. Nassar is where he belongs, but those who enabled him deserve to be held accountable. If they are not, I am convinced that this will continue to happen to others across Olympic sports...

"A message needs to be sent: if you allow a predator to harm children, the consequences will be swift and severe. Enough is enough."

McKayla Maroney was blunt in her assessment of what happened to her and offered a scathing rebuke of the FBI investigators. who she says falsified what she told them and "conceal Nassar's crimes from the public, the media, other law enforcement agencies, and most importantly, other victims."

"They chose to protect a serial child molester, rather than protect not only me but countless others," she said.

(Warning: Detailed descriptions of sexual abuse.)

Maggie Nichols' opening statement personalized her abuse: "I was named as Gymnast 2 in the Office of Inspector General's report and previously identified as Athlete A by USA Gymnastics. I want everyone to know that this did not happen to Gymnast 2 or to Athlete A. It happened to me, Maggie Nichols."

Aly Raisman detailed what an abysmal failure the investigations into Nassar were, and shared her frustration that they are still seeking answers six years later.

"The FBI and others within both USAG and USOPC knew that Nassar molested children and did nothing to restrict his access," she said. "Steve Penny and any USAG employee could have walked a few steps to file a report with Indiana Child Protective Services, since they shared the same building.

"Instead they quietly allowed Nassar to slip out the side door, knowingly allowing him to continue his "work" at MSU, Sparrow Hospital, a USAG club, and even to run for school board. Nassar found more than 100 new victims to molest. It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter."

Each of these women's testimonies matters. It takes strength and courage it takes to speak about abuse you've experienced in a public forum, much less to call out powerful institutions for their failures. Kudos to these fierce defenders of justice and protectors of children for sharing their stories and for attempting to ensure that the systems that failed them will not continue to allow harm to others.







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Seth Rogen says he's stopped working with James Franco after accusations of sexual exploitation

via Wikimedia Commons

Seth Rogen and James Franco have made some of the funniest and most popular films over the past two decades. The two have starred alongside each other in comedies such as "The Interview," "Sausage Party," "Pineapple Express," and "This is the End."

However, the two haven't worked together since 2017's "The Disaster Artist" and, according to Rogen, a lot of it has to do with the sexual misconduct allegations made against Franco.

In 2014, Franco was accused of soliciting a 17-year-old girl on Instagram. After the teenager revealed her age, Franco still pursued her asking, "You're single? What's the hotel? Should I rent a room?"


via Instagram

Since the first allegation, five more women came forward in 2018. They were inspired to share their stories after he wore a "Time's Up" pin at the Academy Awards. The five of the women accused Franco of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior. Four of them were students at his now-defunct acting studio and another claimed Franco was her mentor.

At the time, Franco denied the accusations but applauded the women for speaking up which many called out as a hypocritical attempt to have things both ways.

"The things that I heard that were on Twitter are not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn't have a voice for so long. So, I don't want to shut them down in any way. It's a good thing and I support it," Franco said.

Earlier this year, Franco reached a settlement with two former students at his acting school.

In a recent interview with Britain's Sunday Times, Rogen spoke out about his professional relationship with Franco.

"What I can say is that I despise abuse and harassment, and I would never cover or conceal the actions of someone doing it, or knowingly put someone in a situation where they were around someone like that," Rogen said when asked about actress Charlyne Yi's claim that he enabled Franco.

Rogen also apologized about a joke he made on "Saturday Night Live" in 2014 where he pretended that he pranked Franco by posing as a 17-year-old on Instagram.

Rogen Journal Monologue - Saturday Night Livewww.youtube.com

"I do look back at a joke I made on 'Saturday Night Live' in 2014 and I very much regret making that joke," adding: "It was a terrible joke, honestly. And I also look back to that interview in 2018 where I comment that I would keep working with James, and the truth is that I have not and I do not plan to right now."

Rogen told the newspaper that the allegations have created a rift in his relationship with Franco, but sympathies should lie with the accusers.

"I can say it, um, you know, it has changed many things in our relationship and our dynamic." However, he believes his own situation is "not as painful and difficult as it is for a lot of other people involved. I have no pity for myself in this situation."

Although Rogen once joked about his former co-star's behavior it's good to see him coming around to understanding that Franco's alleged behavior should be condemned. It took a while for Rogen to publicly discuss his true feelings about Franco, but his ability to put the health and safety of women before his professional and personal relationship with the actor is commendable.

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