NOTE: Yes, there will be sarcasm, snark and profanity. That's what you get when people co-opt the struggles of military survivors for political or ideological arguments unrelated to their traumas. My PTSD is not all that calm today either. It is what it is.
A request to those callously using the traumatic experiences of military rape survivors to argue for gun control:
Please think for a minute. Be a buddy and please REFRAIN from promoting the GIANT LIE that men and women subjected to sexual violence in the military walked around armed on base 24/7, yet could not stop a rapist no matter how hard we tried, despite our ever-present stockpile of imaginary weapons.
Contrary to your arrogantly ignorant assertions, we didn’t have weapons at our disposal whenever we wanted. There are they nifty things called ARMORIES. They have existed in professional military services for CENTURIES on MULTIPLE CONTINENTS, through the rise and fall of MANY EMPIRES. Guess what they hold? WEAPONS. They aren’t stored in the barracks, our cars, or our BEQ rooms. They are LOCKED UP TIGHT in secure vaults in a FUCKING ARMORY. Believe whatever you want about access to weapons in society and whether you are a Democrat or Republican means nothing to me. You are both wrong most of the time anyway. Please, just stop making shit up out of whole cloth. Many of us feel bad enough as is about what happened to us while we were warriors. We don't need you adding to it by making it seem like we were armed to the teeth and still couldn't defend ourselves.
Those of us raped on active duty are living, breathing survivors deserving of respect and empathy. We do not exist to be used as your fucking talking points for gun control. If you aren’t interested in helping us, then please, stop co-opting our traumas to score points in your ideological political battles. We deserve better. If you really care about what happened to us, how about getting involved with our organizations (POD, SWAN, MRCC) and fighting to help us remove the chain of command from oversight of sex crimes in the military? How about that?
Thanks bunches. You’re the best.
James Landrith is a healing rape survivor, public speaker, internationally syndicated blogger, civil liberties activist and the notorious editor and publisher of The Multiracial Activist (ISSN: 1552-3446) and The Abolitionist Examiner (ISSN: 1552-2881). Landrith can be reached by email at: james@jameslandrith.com or at his personal website/blog.