Joe Biden Pens Emotional Essay About Sexual Assault
In an emotional essay for Marie Claire, former Vice President Joe Biden speaks candidly about sexual assault, and how the world should combat it.
“This is a battle I’ve been fighting for more than 20 years—since before I wrote the Violence Against Women Act that was passed in 1994—and it’s one I thought we’d been winning,” he wrote. “Since 1994, domestic-violence rates have dropped by 63 percent. Rape crisis centers, battered-women’s shelters, and survivor hotlines have sprung up across the country. But it seems like time has stood still on college campuses.”
He continued: “It is abundantly clear that we still live in a culture in which violence against women is allowed—even encouraged—to persist. There are still men who believe they have the right to hurt a woman, and women who believe they must have done something to deserve it. That’s why I launched It’s On Us with President Barack Obama in 2014. Starting with college campuses, we want to make it clear that everyone—from the dean to the swimming team—has a moral obligation to speak up against violence and to stop it from happening.”
“I’ll be visiting college campuses and meeting with students around the country to deliver a simple message: It’s on all of us to stop sexual violence,” he said. “I invite you to join It’s On Us for the Fall Week of Action, October 22 to 28… The time is now: Sign the pledge at itsonus.org and make a change.”
Read more at Marie Claire.