NORTHAMPTON — On the day that Christine Blasey Ford testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., about 100 people gathered in downtown Northampton to share and listen to powerful testimony about rape and sexual assault.
In an event organized by the Pioneer Valley Women’s March in front of City Hall to support Ford, one woman after another, as well as some men, came forward with their own personal experiences as survivors of sexual violence.
Theresa Giera, of Easthampton, told how she was molested in kindergarten by a janitor at her Catholic school.
“He never caught me again, but he went after girls for the next five years,” she said.
However, she said that when the janitor was caught, a nun took all the boys out of the classroom and said: “If he did this to you it’s because you led him on, and if he didn’t do it, you ruined a good man’s life.”
Giera said the janitor stayed employed at the school until he retired to spend time with his grandchildren.
Dina Friedman, of Hadley, described how when she was camping in Europe with her then boyfriend, a hand reached into the tent and molested her while she slept. After she was awoken by this, she roused her boyfriend.
“I woke up my boyfriend and he said, ‘Well I can kind of understand where the molester is coming from because he saw all those topless women at the beach,’” she said, saying that this kind of discrediting of women continues to this day.
Shel Horowitz, Friedman’s husband, described how when he was a boy he was taken off the streets by a stranger in the Bronx and raped, an event he characterized as the defining trauma of his life.
“I didn’t even have the words for what was happening to me,” he said. “I didn’t tell anyone until I was 16.”
He later added, “I can tell you unequivocally that it is totally possible to go through high school and not rape people,” his voice rising with anger.
These were just some of the more than a dozen stories people came forward with at the event, which saw brief opening remarks before the floor was turned over to the public. Around 100 people were present.
“Pretty floored actually,” said Rachel Maiore, the primary organizer, on the outpouring at the event. “I’m amazed.”
One woman talked about how her mother revealed at age 75 that she’d been molested as a 12-year-old.
A trans man said that he’d delayed his transition because of the trauma he’d suffered from two sexual assaults.
And a woman described her experience as a survivor of spousal rape, at a time when it was still legal for a husband to rape his wife.
“I called the police at the risk of my life and when they arrived at the house they said, ‘Just be a good girl,’” the woman said. “I will never forget that and I will not let us go back to that.”
The outpouring of emotion came on the same day as Ford’s testimony in Washington. She has alleged that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a gathering when they were both in high school, and in her testimony before the Senate Thursday she said she was afraid that Kavanaugh would accidentally kill her during the incident.
Kavanaugh, who currently serves as a federal judge, also testified Thursday, and angrily denied the allegations, characterizing their use as a partisan smear by Senate Democrats.
At the Northampton rally, support for Ford was omnipresent and explicit. Indeed, many people wrote words of support on their palms to show their solidarity, as well as with sexual assault survivors in general. Meiora said that the event itself was a “solidarity speak out” for people to show their support for Ford, but also to hear one another, and that similar events were taking place in hundreds of cities that day.
“I am so done with not believing survivors,” said Lindsay Sabadosa, in the opening remarks, who said that she’d spent a lot of the day crying and a lot of the day angry.
Sabadosa, a founder of the Pioneer Valley Women’s March, is running unopposed for the 1st Hampshire District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
“I was too young and ignorant to know what was happening when Anita Hill was testifying against Clarence Thomas,” said one of the women who spoke. “I am too old and angry to stand by and see it happen again.”
In his Supreme Court confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hill testified that Thomas had sexually harassed her. Thomas was subsequently confirmed to the Supreme Court.
One woman said that she was a survivor, and that the incident took place when she was 14.
“People know what they’re doing when they’re 14,” she said.
Another woman who spoke said she was sexually assaulted as a child and raped as a teenager, and that she has four sisters who have been sexually assaulted. She said that seeing events unfold on the national stage brings it all back for them.
“It brings back every hurtful act and every sleepless night and every bad dream that we all lived with,” she said.
She also said that it’s important for good men to stand up for those victimized.
“I totally believe that Christine Ford was not ready to tell her story at the time it happened,” said Horowitz. “I wasn’t ready to tell mine for a long long time.”
“She is a hero to me,” said another speaker.
Toward the event’s end, a man in a car on Main Street interrupted it with loud declarations of support for President Donald Trump. This caused a confrontation with one of the men at the rally, but the situation was defused by other members of the crowd.
“We believe her,” was subsequently chanted loudly by the crowd.
In wrapping up the event Maiore leaned into the power of the testimony of survivors.
“That’s why we’re survivors, not victims,” she said. “Because of that power.”
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.