The bill that Gillibrand reintroduced in April, the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act, has far more bipartisan support than ever. In May, Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated that he no longer opposes the bill. Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, a sexual-assault survivor and a retired lieutenant colonel in the National Guard, is now co-sponsoring the legislation, after previously opposing it. Ernst has said that she had a change of heart because she spent years working to address the issue of military sexual assault within the existing system, yet "we are not seeing a dent in the numbers."
吉利布兰德在四月份重新提出的《军事司法改进和加强预防法案》得到了前所未有的两党支持。五月份，参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利将军表示，他不再反对该法案。来自爱荷华州的共和党参议员乔尼·恩斯特是性侵幸存者，也是已退役的国民警卫队中校，她此前反对该法案，但现在是这一法案的共同提案人。恩斯特表示，她改变了主意，因为她多年来一直致力于解决现有体制内的军事性侵犯问题，但“我们没有看到数字有所下降。”
At least 70 senators and President Biden have indicated their support for Gillibrand's bill this year. But it still faces staunch opposition from the leaders of the Armed Services Committee — Senators Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, and James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma. Reed blocked an attempt by Gillibrand in May to bring the bill to a floor vote, saying that he found the legislation too broad because it seeks to change how the military handles all serious crimes, not just sexual assaults. In July, a bill with provisions put forward by both Gillibrand and Reed was incorporated into the annual defense bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, which will most likely be taken up by Congress for a vote later this year.
除拜登总统外，今年至少有70名参议员表示支持吉利布兰德的法案。但该法案仍面临着来自武装部队委员会领导人的坚决反对，持反对意见的主要是罗德岛州民主党参议员杰克·里德和俄克拉何马州共和党参议员詹姆斯·M·英霍夫。今年5月，里德阻止了吉利布兰德将该法案提交议会投票的尝试，称他认为该法案过于宽泛，因为它试图改变军队处理所有严重犯罪的方式，而不仅仅是性侵犯。今年7月，由吉利布兰德和里德共同提出的一项法案被纳入年度国防法案《国防授权法案》，该法案极有可能在今年晚些时候由国会进行表决。
Yet support for change is also now coming from the Pentagon itself. In late April, a Pentagon-organized independent commission on military sexual assault made the first of a series of recommendations to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III that included removing commanders from prosecutorial decisions for sexual-assault and related crimes. In a statement in late June, Austin said that he supported this recommendation, and in early July, Biden said that he, too, supported the change.
然而，现在五角大楼本身也支持变革。4月下旬，五角大楼组织的一个军事性攻击问题独立委员会向国防部长劳埃德·J·奥斯汀三世提出了一系列建议中的第一条建议，其中包括取消指挥官起诉性侵相关犯罪的决定。奥斯汀在6月底的一份声明中表示，他支持这一建议。7月初，拜登表示，他也支持这一改变。
Col. Don Christensen, a retired chief Air Force prosecutor who is now president of Protect Our Defenders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing rape and sexual assault in the military, says that this year is different in large part because of the murder of Specialist Vanessa Guillén, whose body was found in Texas in June 2020. Guillén had reportedly been sexually harassed by a fellow soldier before her death, and an Army investigation revealed a culture of harassment and bullying at Fort Hood where she was abused. "The independent review of what was going on at Fort Hood was incredibly damning," Christensen told me. In April 2021, according to The Intercept, the Army also had to suspend 22 instructors from Fort Sill in Oklahoma after a trainee was sexually assaulted.
退役空军首席检察官唐·克里斯滕森上校现在是“保护我们的捍卫者”组织的主席，该非营利组织致力于减少军队强奸和性侵犯，他表示，今年情况不同，很大程度上是因为专家瓦妮莎·吉伦被谋杀，其尸体于2020年6月在得克萨斯州被发现。据报道，吉伦在死前曾遭到一名战友的性骚扰，陆军调查发现，她遭受虐待的胡德堡基地存在骚扰和欺凌文化。克里斯滕森告诉我，“对胡德堡发生的事情进行的独立审查令人难以置信地震惊。”据The Intercept网站报道，2021年4月，俄克拉何马州锡尔堡的22名教官因一名学员遭到性侵而被陆军停职。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
评论
打印
