Christine Blasey Ford's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday brought up memories Melissa Baker had buried long ago.
Ford's testimony — and the nonstop news coverage of her allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when she was 15 — brought the Lincoln woman to the state Capitol steps Thursday afternoon.
“It started coming up,†said Baker, at a rally organized to support Ford. “It made me ill. I felt compelled to do something, and that’s what led me here now.â€
Baker was among about 40 people — many of them survivors of sexual assault — who gathered Thursday to tell their own stories and support Ford and two other women who have accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.
“When people bring up an allegation we should start by believing,†said Mar Lee, who organized the rally after she missed a flight to Washington, D.C., where she and others planned to talk to Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer.
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She said six other women did get to the nation’s capitol, met with Fischer and participated in a rally there in support of Ford.
Kavanaugh angrily denied the allegations during the hearing Thursday and called the confirmation process a “national disgrace.â€
But those who gathered in Lincoln said they believed Ford and the two other women who have come forward.
Morgan B., the campus service coordinator for Voices of Hope who said she doesn’t use her last name for safety purposes, said coverage of the allegations have been rife with victim-blaming.
But the Twitter hashtag #whyididntreport has been a powerful platform for women to tell why they didn’t report being assaulted — or did report and were shamed or ignored.
“To all the survivors out there, whether you report or not, I hear you, I see you, I support you,†she said. “We believe Christine Blasey Ford.â€
Participants read the written statements of Ford, and Baker and other survivors shared their own stories of being assaulted on dates and by acquaintances, employers and boyfriends. Some reported the incidents; others had not.
Alicia P., who asked that her last name not be used, said when she was 16 she was a troubled kid who’d dropped out of high school and was assaulted by a 30-year-old man at her boyfriend’s apartment. Two years later it happened again, this time by the owner of a fast-food restaurant where she worked.
Years later, she said, she still hesitates to name her attacker because of the harm she fears she will cause his family, who she knew and liked.
Baker said she had been assaulted as a teenager, and more recently was harassed and assaulted by fellow employees at the distribution company where she worked until recently.
Ford, she said, reminded her why it’s important to speak up.