Be better than that

I know I’ve posted and commented a fair bit about the upcoming American election lately. I also know many of you are Canadian and wonder why I care, and many of you are American and think it’s none of my business.

I care because what’s happening in this election affects the world, not just the US. Every American election does matter to a degree to everyone given their status in the world as a super power, but this one more so given the candidates.

So for those of you that don’t care, forgive me, the election will be done soon enough. But just like everything else I post about things that are social justice related I have no intention of stopping. My voice is just one, but if enough single voices speak up and stand together change happens.

To that end I want to comment on the recent events, and posts I’ve seen coming from Trump supporters about the allegations of sexual assault against Trump.

What’s bothering me the most are the “liar” posts. The idea that these women are all somehow political shills that are saying these things to sway the voters, and they’re making these claims against the victims because of the timing of their accusations.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on the trauma of sexual assault, but one thing I do understand through years of hearing about it is that the victims often don’t report the crime, hell many of them get the idea that it was somehow their fault (an idea propagated by the idiotic “she shouldn’t have worn those clothes” crowd) or that they won’t be believed, or that if they just let it go the trauma of what happened will just go away. In cases where the assailant is a powerful person this is even more prevalent. It is my understanding that the majority of sexual assaults are never reported for whatever reason.

What I have also witnessed (take Bill Cosby as an example) is that once there is a trigger the flood gates open. Once the victims realize they aren’t the only ones they open up. Every single one of you has seen this happen, teachers, people in religion, cases that are decades old where the victims never spoke up until something triggered them to do so.

Calling these people liars based on timing is abhorrent, it leads to the reasons so many use when deciding not to report being victimized in the first place.

Everyone should be innocent until proven guilty (although it would be incredibly hypocritical for any Trump supporter to make that claim) but Trump was caught on audio tape admitting this was his modus operandi, to question the validity of the claims makes you part of the problem.

Be better than that!