August 28, 2025 • 25 mins
In this week's bonus episode, we cover a brief introduction to military sexual violence and military sexual trauma, and highlight a few notable cases that have either set a precedent for progress in terms of the military's response to individual cases or reinforced the instinct of silence for others. In doing so, we honor the stories of Vanessa Guillen and he family's fight for justice, as well as Denisha Montgomery and LaVena Johnson, whose families are still seeking answers today.
Resources and Mentions
- President Biden's Executive Order, 2022 Amendments to the Manual for Courts-Martial [link found using the Wayback Machine, as the original link has been deactivated on WhiteHouse.Gov; original link last accessible January 20, 2025 at 16:35:32]
- FedWeek's article "Court Says Military Members Can Sue Others in Uniform"
- Liz Jassin's article about Denisha Montgomery "Family believes woman was murdered during deployment"
- Combat Sexual Assault
- Marielle Pdilla on the Feres Doctrine "The 19th Explains: How a recent court opinion could clear the way for military sexual assault survivors to find justice"
- U.S. Department of Defense, ".css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}Mark as PlayedTranscript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to another episode of The Unwanted Sorority. I'm
your host, Leetra. I hope y'all are feeling nice and
adjusted in this back to school timeline, and so I'm
really excited to bring another bonus episode as part of
the show. As a reminder, this podcast is a safe
haven and space for black women, films, and gender expansive
folks who speak our truths about our experiences with sexual violence, healing,
(00:28):
and the sisterhood that forms when we name what tried
to break us. I'm your host, Doctor Leetritate, and today's
bonus episode is a special one to me. In our
first bonus episode, we focused on kind of the overalls
anti sexual dilence movement. For Bonus Episode two, we highlighted
the social movements that led us to where we are now.
(00:52):
And for today's bonus episode, I'm going to spotlight an
area that many of us don't ever really get a
chance to be into. You may have heard about this
topic or come across it while scrolling through documentaries on Netflix,
which I am known to do, but I want to
spend some time talking about military sexual violence, our military
(01:16):
sexual trauma, and the recent reckoning that the Department of
Defense has had to navigate, and I also want to
shine a light on some of the contemporary challenges that
are facing some of those improvements and some of those
changes today. And when I say challenges, I really mean threats.
(01:37):
So we're going to talk about all of that. But
as a reminder, while The Unwanted Sorority Podcast hopes to
cultivate community and connection among Black women, you may have
experienced sexual violence, and or you may know someone who has.
The show does not serve as a substitute for guidance
from a qualified mental health, medical, or legal clinician. I
(02:00):
strongly encourage you to find the right resources of support
for you. You deserve to feel well and hope. In
full transparency. I started researching and writing this episode two
(02:22):
years ago, and it kind of came out of a
brain dump after I had an interview with a guest
that you'll hear from next week. I was both encouraged
by the conversation encouraged by the research because I was
working as a federal employee at the time and I
(02:42):
was directly responsible for supporting service members who disclosed that
they had been sexually assaulted or harassed, or who were
supporting other service members who had and most often in
that role, I was the first person that someone disclosed
to or that they shared that they had experienced this,
(03:03):
And so some of the changes you'll hear me talk
about really hit close to home for me at the
time because I was doing that work directly, and today,
as a civilian who's no longer in that role, it
really breaks my heart to see how some of those
advancements are being rolled back or have been rolled back
(03:23):
by this current administration. You'll get to hear from a
former service member next week who's directly impacted by those
policies before they were updated a few years ago, and
I hope it serves as a cautionary tale that we
quite literally cannot afford to go back to that, And
so I hope you continue even after this episode in
(03:46):
next weeks to keep an eye out on this issue,
keep yourself up to date on what the implications are
from some of these changes. And because this topic means
so much to me, I'm gonna just kind of share
that initial script with you all that I wrote back then,
and then I'm going to just add my commentary on
the end about this current moment and how it all
(04:08):
fits together, So without further ado, let's get into it.
This recent interview recording made me think of a few
important elements that are critical for me to share. These points.
(04:29):
Get into number one, what military sexual trauma is and
how service members may experience sexual violence in unique ways.
And number two highlighting the unfortunate death of Vanessa Gilla
and the historic changes made to the sexual assault and
sexual harassment related prevention programs made as a direct result
(04:51):
of her murder. And finally number three putting a spotlight
on two other military sexual assault trauma victims who I
may not have heard of, whose names are Denisia Montgomery
and Lavina Johnson, whose stories also need and deserve to
be told. So let me back it up a bit.
(05:12):
Military sexual trauma is a term that refers to sexual
assault or sexual harassment that a service member experiences during
their military service. So in terms of behaviors, according to
the Veterans Administration, it can include any sexual activity in
which a service member is involved against their will and
(05:34):
or in which they are unable to say no. Historically,
that term has not encompassed sexual harassment, but in a
study conducted in twenty twenty two, out of the over
sixty four hundred black women's service members surveyed, almost eighteen
percent had experienced sexual harassment. To meet the criteria for
(05:56):
sexual harassment, the respondents had to indicate that they had
experienced one or more of the thirteen unwanted behaviors that
were included in the survey, and they had to have
at least one experience that was so severe that it
continued after a request to stop, or it changed their
conditions of employment, or that it would have offended other
(06:17):
military members. And so what's most striking to me from
this study is that forty three percent of the respondents
reported their experiences to a Department of Defense authority, which
typically means someone in their chain of command, kind of
like a supervisor in the military, or someone in the
(06:37):
chain of command of the offender. So compared to the
general public, where only a little over thirty percent of
sexual assaults are reported to the police, black women reporting
over forty percent of their sexual harassment experiences to some
sort of authority figure is a great and important indication
(07:00):
of the needs for black women service members to have
support processes in place, as well as the general help
seeking behavior for black women in the armed forces that
they may be willing to engage in the understanding at
the unique intersections of gender and race are critical to
gaining a full understanding of the scope of military sexual trauma.
(07:26):
So let's jump back to July twenty twenty two at
an Army base named Fort Hood, which recently had its
name updated to Fort Cavazos in May twenty twenty three
to honor the first Hispanic American four star Army general
as opposed to the Confederate general John Bell Hood that
(07:47):
it was originally named after. The Army made this announcement
in a panel after an independent review, which I'll refer
to as the IRC. For the remainder of this story.
I will also use the name Fort Hood for the
remainder of this story since it reflects the name of
the base for the duration of this case, but I
(08:09):
wanted to make sure I highlighted the name change to
amplify this necessary step as of the writing of this
historical wrong and show that small steps forward are still
moving us in the right direction. By the end of
July twenty twenty, after the death of Vanessa Gien, a
twenty year old soldier, and likely several others on the base.
(08:29):
During that time, a subcommittee on Military Personnel Hearing titled
Subcommittee on Military Personal Hearing colon the military's hashtag me
Too Movement colon an examination of sexual harassment and perceived
retaliation in the DoD and at Fort Hood, and this
subcommittee was led by two United States Army veterans and
(08:53):
leaders of the organization Grassroots Movement colon Justice for Vanessa.
The IRC found that the Army investigators responsible for reviewing
complex crimes at Fort Hood were inexperienced, overwhelmed, and understaffed,
which had resulted in failures to protect service members and
(09:14):
their families. In the case of Vanessa, the claims after
her death, particularly those from her family who were pursuing
legal action against the Department of the Army for damages,
argued that Vanessa suffered mental anguish, fear, emotional distress, physical injuries,
and ultimately her life being taken as a result of
(09:37):
sexual harassment, rape, sodomy, and physical assault that she experienced
during her time at Fort Hood. Generally speaking, service members
have not been able to sue the Department of Defense,
which the military falls under, if they become the victim
of sexual harassment or sexual assault. Because the Department of
(09:58):
Defense chose to apply the fair doctrine to those situations,
and this doctrine refers to a nineteen fifty Supreme Court
decision that prevents members of the Armed Forces who are
injured or killed while on active duty from suing the
federal government due to an quote incident to service. This
(10:20):
legal decision is a complex one with history that has
encompassed many circumstances outside of the scope of sexual assault
and sexual violence, but the phrase incident to service, Vanessa
Gien's family's attorney states, is the aspect that differentiates Vanessa's
family's case and all other cases involving military sexual violence.
(10:45):
In August twenty twenty two, actually, the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled against the government's fairest defense in another
service member's case involving sexual assault and battery, citing that
quote alleged to sexualtionual assault could not conceivably serve any military
purpose end quote. As Natalie Kwam, attorney for Vanessa's family,
(11:09):
describes it, quote, our service members deserve the same rights
and protections we all have. They have been denied these
basic protections for too long. They signed up to take
a bullet for our country not to be sexually assaulted
while serving. The Ninth Circuit's ruling is a major step
in seeking justice for and all victims of sexual assault
(11:33):
end quote. This shows that there are circumstances in which
justice systems in the military are taking very necessary steps
to provide real pathways and opportunities for justice seeking when
it comes to military sexual trauma. Organizations such as Combat
Sexual Assault, a nonprofit dedicated to helping military sexual assault survivors,
(11:58):
even called this court ruling a huge win for the movement.
In addition to this court ruling, there were a host
of other effects from Venessa Gean's case at Fort Hood
that came to light. The Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered
an Independent Review Commission, or an IRC, to provide the
Department with recommendations on how to tackle the problem of
(12:19):
sexual assault harassment within the military when he took control
of the department in January twenty twenty one. The IRC
provided about eighty recommendations, and the Pentagon laid out a
plan to adopt all of them in September twenty twenty one,
and while the United States Army has adopted most of
(12:40):
the Fort Hood reports, recommendations and some of the top
recommendations of the IRC. Reports of sexual assault in the
Army increased twenty five point six percent from fiscal year
twenty twenty to fiscal year twenty twenty one, according to
the data on Sexual Assault in the Military that was
released earlier this month, and just as a side note,
(13:04):
this was written sometime in early twenty twenty three to
give you an idea of what I mean by earlier
this month. Increases in reports are not necessarily a bad thing, however,
It could just simply reflect that more service members are
feeling comfortable coming forward with their experiences and seeking support
(13:26):
once all of these support measures are put in place.
And on January twenty sixth, twenty twenty two, President Biden
signed an executive order to amend the Uniform Code of
Military Justice that strengthens the military justice system's response to
gender based violence and delivers on key recommendations from the IRC.
(13:50):
Another highlight of Vanessa Gean's impact is the twenty twenty
two National Defense Authorization Act, is a series of US
federal laws that detail the annual budget for the Department
of Defense, including key components of the i AM Venesigian Act,
(14:11):
which includes establishing sexual harassment as a specific offense under
the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It also strengthens the
military justice response in prosecuting cases of domestic violence and
fully implements changes to the Military Justice Code to criminalize
the wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate visual images. So
(14:38):
even the job that I'm doing today as a sexual
assault Response coordinator for a military base is a direct
reflection of the work being done by the military to
move the IRS's recommendations across all branches of the military,
not just in the army, as the IRC focused on
so at full operating capacity, these changes are thought to
(15:01):
include over two thousand personnel stationed around the world working
to develop a professional sexual assault and sexual harassment workforce
according to Gilbert's scenarios. The Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel
and Readiness of the United States. Also worth mentioning as
a significant development in terms of military justice reform is
(15:25):
the Department of Defenses implementation of the offices of Special
Trial Council. And these are folks who were put in
place to ensure independent, specialized expertise and prosecutorial decisions for
the cover defenses of sexual assault domestic violence and all
other plated crimes and so, as I mentioned earlier, there
(15:48):
are a couple of additional names that I want to
make sure are included in this story, because while we're
seeing these advances happen in relation to the unfortunate outcome
in Vanessayan's case, there are still cases like Danisha Montgomery's, however,
that remind us how far the military still needs to
(16:09):
go to ensure their policies regarding sexual harassment and sexual
assault or being adopted, disseminated and enforced. Denisha Montgomery was
a twenty five year old black mother who joined the
army in twenty twenty. She was determined to provide for
her three young sons back home. Fast forward to twenty
(16:33):
twenty two, Denisia found herself deployed or sent to a
specific location for military action, to a station in Germany
for the summer. During a video call with her family
that July, Denisia made sure that her family members recorded
the video because she wanted them to see the bruises
and the open wounds on her body. She told them
(16:56):
that she was ready to come back home and wanted
her family to see what had been done to her
Danisha informed her family that she went with a group
of military police from her unit to a water park
off base where they had all been drinking. On the
car ride back to base, they were also drinking, and
that's when Denisha said they assaulted her. She ended the
(17:17):
call with her family promising that she would report her
assault to authorities the next day. Her family also reported
what Denisha told them to the Red Cross. However, the
next day, Denisha texted her uncle saying, quote, they told
me if I report an assault, I'll be charged with
assault too, because I mushed the female and bit the
(17:39):
male that was choking me. End quote. Twenty One days later,
Denisha was found dead in her barracks. That same day,
Denisha's family received notice from the Army that Denisha had
taken her own life. The family was told that Denisha
took her own life by suffocating herself, which her her
(18:00):
mother immediately questioned. Five days later, the Army released the
statement confirming that Denisha was found unresponsive in her barracks
or in her sleeping area if you're not familiar with
that term, and that the incident was currently under investigation
by the United States Criminal Investigation Division. Neither Denisia's mother, father, husband,
(18:24):
or aunt, who served as an Army sergeant for thirteen
years and was awarded a purple heart herself, believe that
Denisha would have killed herself. Lindsay Napp, who is the
executive director of Combat Sexual Assault, who I quoted earlier
as having celebrated the success of the decision of the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in August twenty twenty two,
(18:47):
also represents Danisha's family, and she noted that the Army
was too quick to call the suicide. Lindsay, with the
support of Denisia's family, is calling on the FBI to
take over the case and investigate immediately. Fierce advocates of
the anti military sexual trauma movement, Lynn and Michael Matthews,
(19:09):
who were featured in the twenty twelve award winning documentary
The Invisible War, which focused on military sexual assault. They
go so far as to call Denisia's case a repeat
of Vanessa Yenne and many others who have been victims
of military sexual violence. The death of Lavina Johnson in
(19:30):
two thousand and seven is another example of a black
woman dying mysteriously while deployed, whose family is told that
her death is a suicide. So, in Lavina's case, she
had not explicitly stated to her family that she had
experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault. Rather, Lavina enthusiastically enlisted
(19:52):
in the Army as a means of earning money for college.
At nineteen years old, eight days before her twentieth birthday,
Levina was found dead of a gunshot wound in a
contractor's tent on her base in Iraq. Lavina's father became
suspicious when he saw her body in the funeral home,
(20:12):
and he decided to investigate. After that, her autopsy report
and subsequent investigations revealed evidence of rape and documented injuries
that were inconsistent with suicide. So I am choosing to
spare the details of the autopsy report for the sake
of this story, but I will say that bloody footprints
(20:34):
were also found outside of her living quarters. Lavina's family
has been vocal about their belief that Lavina was sexually
assaulted and murdered, but there has been no subsequent Army investigations,
and her death has never officially been charged. So I
say all of that, I share all of these stories,
(20:56):
and I ask what can we do about it? To me,
our stories are the thing that cannot be taken away
from us. So it's important that we reflect on the
circumstances surrounding black women's experiences with sexual violence in the
military by lifting up the stories of Lavina Johnson and
Donesia Montgomery, which those stories made national news, but there
(21:20):
are countless others who have not. You're actually going to
hear from one next week, just as an aside, And
those individuals are people who have lead the foundation for
Vanessa Gean's family to seek some form of justice, but
have also made it so that Lavina and Indonesia's families
can continue to seek justice and find answers even here
(21:45):
in twenty twenty five. So just as a quick update,
we're back here in the present now. This episode really
highlighted and celebrated the fact that Fort Hood had been
changed as a reflection of one of the recommendations from
the IRC to kind of wipe that history away, both
(22:06):
of the sexual violence, the physical violence that it occurred,
and also the Confederate history of the naming of the
base period. As of this year twenty twenty five, that
name has been changed back at the request of this
current administration and I think that kind of tells you
(22:31):
a lot about the priorities and the ways in which
this administration is viewing the severity and the needs of
supporting our service members when it comes to these types
of instances. So it really is kind of a crushing
blow for everyone who celebrated the advancements of the Department
(22:57):
of Defense in response to these eighty I or C
recommendations to catch them up with what's current in terms
of sexual violence prevention policies and programming. And so I
think it's important for each of us to, as I
mentioned earlier, stay on top of this, keep ourselves informed,
(23:21):
and do what we can in terms of advocating for
continued progress, because we can't allow the regression in these areas,
because we have seen what it looks like when we
don't have these policies in place. And so I think
it's on behalf of Vanessa, it's on behalf of Lavina,
(23:44):
it's on behalf of Deniesia, and it's on behalf of
countless other service members who have unfortunately experienced this form
of violence while in uniform, that we continue to advocate
for them, we continue to tell their stories, and we.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Continue to seek justice and make progress. So I thank
you all for tuning into this bonus episode. I'm really
excited for you to hear directly from a former service
member as she shares her story with us next week
on the podcast. So for usual, thank you for tuning in.
(24:24):
Take care of yourself, take care of one another, and
release whatever shame or guilt you may be feeling about
the harm that's been done to you.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
You're not alone. I'll see you next time. The Unwanted
Already is hosted in executive producer Bemy Leander Tate, Our
executive producer is Joel Mooney, our producer is Carmen Lorenz,
(24:54):
and original cover art is created by Savannah Muler. I
would also like to be have special thanks to the
I Heard Podcast Next Up program for helping bring the
show to life. Also all of the guests who have
taken a step in sharing their story with you all
on these episodes. And finally to all the members of
the sorority who will never tell their story, we see
you and your story matters.
Welcome back to another episode of The Unwanted Sorority. I'm
your host, Leetra. I hope y'all are feeling nice and
adjusted in this back to school timeline, and so I'm
really excited to bring another bonus episode as part of
the show. As a reminder, this podcast is a safe
haven and space for black women, films, and gender expansive
folks who speak our truths about our experiences with sexual violence, healing,
(00:28):
and the sisterhood that forms when we name what tried
to break us. I'm your host, Doctor Leetritate, and today's
bonus episode is a special one to me. In our
first bonus episode, we focused on kind of the overalls
anti sexual dilence movement. For Bonus Episode two, we highlighted
the social movements that led us to where we are now.
(00:52):
And for today's bonus episode, I'm going to spotlight an
area that many of us don't ever really get a
chance to be into. You may have heard about this
topic or come across it while scrolling through documentaries on Netflix,
which I am known to do, but I want to
spend some time talking about military sexual violence, our military
(01:16):
sexual trauma, and the recent reckoning that the Department of
Defense has had to navigate, and I also want to
shine a light on some of the contemporary challenges that
are facing some of those improvements and some of those
changes today. And when I say challenges, I really mean threats.
(01:37):
So we're going to talk about all of that. But
as a reminder, while The Unwanted Sorority Podcast hopes to
cultivate community and connection among Black women, you may have
experienced sexual violence, and or you may know someone who has.
The show does not serve as a substitute for guidance
from a qualified mental health, medical, or legal clinician. I
(02:00):
strongly encourage you to find the right resources of support
for you. You deserve to feel well and hope. In
full transparency. I started researching and writing this episode two
(02:22):
years ago, and it kind of came out of a
brain dump after I had an interview with a guest
that you'll hear from next week. I was both encouraged
by the conversation encouraged by the research because I was
working as a federal employee at the time and I
(02:42):
was directly responsible for supporting service members who disclosed that
they had been sexually assaulted or harassed, or who were
supporting other service members who had and most often in
that role, I was the first person that someone disclosed
to or that they shared that they had experienced this,
(03:03):
And so some of the changes you'll hear me talk
about really hit close to home for me at the
time because I was doing that work directly, and today,
as a civilian who's no longer in that role, it
really breaks my heart to see how some of those
advancements are being rolled back or have been rolled back
(03:23):
by this current administration. You'll get to hear from a
former service member next week who's directly impacted by those
policies before they were updated a few years ago, and
I hope it serves as a cautionary tale that we
quite literally cannot afford to go back to that, And
so I hope you continue even after this episode in
(03:46):
next weeks to keep an eye out on this issue,
keep yourself up to date on what the implications are
from some of these changes. And because this topic means
so much to me, I'm gonna just kind of share
that initial script with you all that I wrote back then,
and then I'm going to just add my commentary on
the end about this current moment and how it all
(04:08):
fits together, So without further ado, let's get into it.
This recent interview recording made me think of a few
important elements that are critical for me to share. These points.
(04:29):
Get into number one, what military sexual trauma is and
how service members may experience sexual violence in unique ways.
And number two highlighting the unfortunate death of Vanessa Gilla
and the historic changes made to the sexual assault and
sexual harassment related prevention programs made as a direct result
(04:51):
of her murder. And finally number three putting a spotlight
on two other military sexual assault trauma victims who I
may not have heard of, whose names are Denisia Montgomery
and Lavina Johnson, whose stories also need and deserve to
be told. So let me back it up a bit.
(05:12):
Military sexual trauma is a term that refers to sexual
assault or sexual harassment that a service member experiences during
their military service. So in terms of behaviors, according to
the Veterans Administration, it can include any sexual activity in
which a service member is involved against their will and
(05:34):
or in which they are unable to say no. Historically,
that term has not encompassed sexual harassment, but in a
study conducted in twenty twenty two, out of the over
sixty four hundred black women's service members surveyed, almost eighteen
percent had experienced sexual harassment. To meet the criteria for
(05:56):
sexual harassment, the respondents had to indicate that they had
experienced one or more of the thirteen unwanted behaviors that
were included in the survey, and they had to have
at least one experience that was so severe that it
continued after a request to stop, or it changed their
conditions of employment, or that it would have offended other
(06:17):
military members. And so what's most striking to me from
this study is that forty three percent of the respondents
reported their experiences to a Department of Defense authority, which
typically means someone in their chain of command, kind of
like a supervisor in the military, or someone in the
(06:37):
chain of command of the offender. So compared to the
general public, where only a little over thirty percent of
sexual assaults are reported to the police, black women reporting
over forty percent of their sexual harassment experiences to some
sort of authority figure is a great and important indication
(07:00):
of the needs for black women service members to have
support processes in place, as well as the general help
seeking behavior for black women in the armed forces that
they may be willing to engage in the understanding at
the unique intersections of gender and race are critical to
gaining a full understanding of the scope of military sexual trauma.
(07:26):
So let's jump back to July twenty twenty two at
an Army base named Fort Hood, which recently had its
name updated to Fort Cavazos in May twenty twenty three
to honor the first Hispanic American four star Army general
as opposed to the Confederate general John Bell Hood that
(07:47):
it was originally named after. The Army made this announcement
in a panel after an independent review, which I'll refer
to as the IRC. For the remainder of this story.
I will also use the name Fort Hood for the
remainder of this story since it reflects the name of
the base for the duration of this case, but I
(08:09):
wanted to make sure I highlighted the name change to
amplify this necessary step as of the writing of this
historical wrong and show that small steps forward are still
moving us in the right direction. By the end of
July twenty twenty, after the death of Vanessa Gien, a
twenty year old soldier, and likely several others on the base.
(08:29):
During that time, a subcommittee on Military Personnel Hearing titled
Subcommittee on Military Personal Hearing colon the military's hashtag me
Too Movement colon an examination of sexual harassment and perceived
retaliation in the DoD and at Fort Hood, and this
subcommittee was led by two United States Army veterans and
(08:53):
leaders of the organization Grassroots Movement colon Justice for Vanessa.
The IRC found that the Army investigators responsible for reviewing
complex crimes at Fort Hood were inexperienced, overwhelmed, and understaffed,
which had resulted in failures to protect service members and
(09:14):
their families. In the case of Vanessa, the claims after
her death, particularly those from her family who were pursuing
legal action against the Department of the Army for damages,
argued that Vanessa suffered mental anguish, fear, emotional distress, physical injuries,
and ultimately her life being taken as a result of
(09:37):
sexual harassment, rape, sodomy, and physical assault that she experienced
during her time at Fort Hood. Generally speaking, service members
have not been able to sue the Department of Defense,
which the military falls under, if they become the victim
of sexual harassment or sexual assault. Because the Department of
(09:58):
Defense chose to apply the fair doctrine to those situations,
and this doctrine refers to a nineteen fifty Supreme Court
decision that prevents members of the Armed Forces who are
injured or killed while on active duty from suing the
federal government due to an quote incident to service. This
(10:20):
legal decision is a complex one with history that has
encompassed many circumstances outside of the scope of sexual assault
and sexual violence, but the phrase incident to service, Vanessa
Gien's family's attorney states, is the aspect that differentiates Vanessa's
family's case and all other cases involving military sexual violence.
(10:45):
In August twenty twenty two, actually, the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals ruled against the government's fairest defense in another
service member's case involving sexual assault and battery, citing that
quote alleged to sexualtionual assault could not conceivably serve any military
purpose end quote. As Natalie Kwam, attorney for Vanessa's family,
(11:09):
describes it, quote, our service members deserve the same rights
and protections we all have. They have been denied these
basic protections for too long. They signed up to take
a bullet for our country not to be sexually assaulted
while serving. The Ninth Circuit's ruling is a major step
in seeking justice for and all victims of sexual assault
(11:33):
end quote. This shows that there are circumstances in which
justice systems in the military are taking very necessary steps
to provide real pathways and opportunities for justice seeking when
it comes to military sexual trauma. Organizations such as Combat
Sexual Assault, a nonprofit dedicated to helping military sexual assault survivors,
(11:58):
even called this court ruling a huge win for the movement.
In addition to this court ruling, there were a host
of other effects from Venessa Gean's case at Fort Hood
that came to light. The Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered
an Independent Review Commission, or an IRC, to provide the
Department with recommendations on how to tackle the problem of
(12:19):
sexual assault harassment within the military when he took control
of the department in January twenty twenty one. The IRC
provided about eighty recommendations, and the Pentagon laid out a
plan to adopt all of them in September twenty twenty one,
and while the United States Army has adopted most of
(12:40):
the Fort Hood reports, recommendations and some of the top
recommendations of the IRC. Reports of sexual assault in the
Army increased twenty five point six percent from fiscal year
twenty twenty to fiscal year twenty twenty one, according to
the data on Sexual Assault in the Military that was
released earlier this month, and just as a side note,
(13:04):
this was written sometime in early twenty twenty three to
give you an idea of what I mean by earlier
this month. Increases in reports are not necessarily a bad thing, however,
It could just simply reflect that more service members are
feeling comfortable coming forward with their experiences and seeking support
(13:26):
once all of these support measures are put in place.
And on January twenty sixth, twenty twenty two, President Biden
signed an executive order to amend the Uniform Code of
Military Justice that strengthens the military justice system's response to
gender based violence and delivers on key recommendations from the IRC.
(13:50):
Another highlight of Vanessa Gean's impact is the twenty twenty
two National Defense Authorization Act, is a series of US
federal laws that detail the annual budget for the Department
of Defense, including key components of the i AM Venesigian Act,
(14:11):
which includes establishing sexual harassment as a specific offense under
the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It also strengthens the
military justice response in prosecuting cases of domestic violence and
fully implements changes to the Military Justice Code to criminalize
the wrongful broadcast or distribution of intimate visual images. So
(14:38):
even the job that I'm doing today as a sexual
assault Response coordinator for a military base is a direct
reflection of the work being done by the military to
move the IRS's recommendations across all branches of the military,
not just in the army, as the IRC focused on
so at full operating capacity, these changes are thought to
(15:01):
include over two thousand personnel stationed around the world working
to develop a professional sexual assault and sexual harassment workforce
according to Gilbert's scenarios. The Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel
and Readiness of the United States. Also worth mentioning as
a significant development in terms of military justice reform is
(15:25):
the Department of Defenses implementation of the offices of Special
Trial Council. And these are folks who were put in
place to ensure independent, specialized expertise and prosecutorial decisions for
the cover defenses of sexual assault domestic violence and all
other plated crimes and so, as I mentioned earlier, there
(15:48):
are a couple of additional names that I want to
make sure are included in this story, because while we're
seeing these advances happen in relation to the unfortunate outcome
in Vanessayan's case, there are still cases like Danisha Montgomery's, however,
that remind us how far the military still needs to
(16:09):
go to ensure their policies regarding sexual harassment and sexual
assault or being adopted, disseminated and enforced. Denisha Montgomery was
a twenty five year old black mother who joined the
army in twenty twenty. She was determined to provide for
her three young sons back home. Fast forward to twenty
(16:33):
twenty two, Denisia found herself deployed or sent to a
specific location for military action, to a station in Germany
for the summer. During a video call with her family
that July, Denisia made sure that her family members recorded
the video because she wanted them to see the bruises
and the open wounds on her body. She told them
(16:56):
that she was ready to come back home and wanted
her family to see what had been done to her
Danisha informed her family that she went with a group
of military police from her unit to a water park
off base where they had all been drinking. On the
car ride back to base, they were also drinking, and
that's when Denisha said they assaulted her. She ended the
(17:17):
call with her family promising that she would report her
assault to authorities the next day. Her family also reported
what Denisha told them to the Red Cross. However, the
next day, Denisha texted her uncle saying, quote, they told
me if I report an assault, I'll be charged with
assault too, because I mushed the female and bit the
(17:39):
male that was choking me. End quote. Twenty One days later,
Denisha was found dead in her barracks. That same day,
Denisha's family received notice from the Army that Denisha had
taken her own life. The family was told that Denisha
took her own life by suffocating herself, which her her
(18:00):
mother immediately questioned. Five days later, the Army released the
statement confirming that Denisha was found unresponsive in her barracks
or in her sleeping area if you're not familiar with
that term, and that the incident was currently under investigation
by the United States Criminal Investigation Division. Neither Denisia's mother, father, husband,
(18:24):
or aunt, who served as an Army sergeant for thirteen
years and was awarded a purple heart herself, believe that
Denisha would have killed herself. Lindsay Napp, who is the
executive director of Combat Sexual Assault, who I quoted earlier
as having celebrated the success of the decision of the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in August twenty twenty two,
(18:47):
also represents Danisha's family, and she noted that the Army
was too quick to call the suicide. Lindsay, with the
support of Denisia's family, is calling on the FBI to
take over the case and investigate immediately. Fierce advocates of
the anti military sexual trauma movement, Lynn and Michael Matthews,
(19:09):
who were featured in the twenty twelve award winning documentary
The Invisible War, which focused on military sexual assault. They
go so far as to call Denisia's case a repeat
of Vanessa Yenne and many others who have been victims
of military sexual violence. The death of Lavina Johnson in
(19:30):
two thousand and seven is another example of a black
woman dying mysteriously while deployed, whose family is told that
her death is a suicide. So, in Lavina's case, she
had not explicitly stated to her family that she had
experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault. Rather, Lavina enthusiastically enlisted
(19:52):
in the Army as a means of earning money for college.
At nineteen years old, eight days before her twentieth birthday,
Levina was found dead of a gunshot wound in a
contractor's tent on her base in Iraq. Lavina's father became
suspicious when he saw her body in the funeral home,
(20:12):
and he decided to investigate. After that, her autopsy report
and subsequent investigations revealed evidence of rape and documented injuries
that were inconsistent with suicide. So I am choosing to
spare the details of the autopsy report for the sake
of this story, but I will say that bloody footprints
(20:34):
were also found outside of her living quarters. Lavina's family
has been vocal about their belief that Lavina was sexually
assaulted and murdered, but there has been no subsequent Army investigations,
and her death has never officially been charged. So I
say all of that, I share all of these stories,
(20:56):
and I ask what can we do about it? To me,
our stories are the thing that cannot be taken away
from us. So it's important that we reflect on the
circumstances surrounding black women's experiences with sexual violence in the
military by lifting up the stories of Lavina Johnson and
Donesia Montgomery, which those stories made national news, but there
(21:20):
are countless others who have not. You're actually going to
hear from one next week, just as an aside, And
those individuals are people who have lead the foundation for
Vanessa Gean's family to seek some form of justice, but
have also made it so that Lavina and Indonesia's families
can continue to seek justice and find answers even here
(21:45):
in twenty twenty five. So just as a quick update,
we're back here in the present now. This episode really
highlighted and celebrated the fact that Fort Hood had been
changed as a reflection of one of the recommendations from
the IRC to kind of wipe that history away, both
(22:06):
of the sexual violence, the physical violence that it occurred,
and also the Confederate history of the naming of the
base period. As of this year twenty twenty five, that
name has been changed back at the request of this
current administration and I think that kind of tells you
(22:31):
a lot about the priorities and the ways in which
this administration is viewing the severity and the needs of
supporting our service members when it comes to these types
of instances. So it really is kind of a crushing
blow for everyone who celebrated the advancements of the Department
(22:57):
of Defense in response to these eighty I or C
recommendations to catch them up with what's current in terms
of sexual violence prevention policies and programming. And so I
think it's important for each of us to, as I
mentioned earlier, stay on top of this, keep ourselves informed,
(23:21):
and do what we can in terms of advocating for
continued progress, because we can't allow the regression in these areas,
because we have seen what it looks like when we
don't have these policies in place. And so I think
it's on behalf of Vanessa, it's on behalf of Lavina,
(23:44):
it's on behalf of Deniesia, and it's on behalf of
countless other service members who have unfortunately experienced this form
of violence while in uniform, that we continue to advocate
for them, we continue to tell their stories, and we.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Continue to seek justice and make progress. So I thank
you all for tuning into this bonus episode. I'm really
excited for you to hear directly from a former service
member as she shares her story with us next week
on the podcast. So for usual, thank you for tuning in.
(24:24):
Take care of yourself, take care of one another, and
release whatever shame or guilt you may be feeling about
the harm that's been done to you.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
You're not alone. I'll see you next time. The Unwanted
Already is hosted in executive producer Bemy Leander Tate, Our
executive producer is Joel Mooney, our producer is Carmen Lorenz,
(24:54):
and original cover art is created by Savannah Muler. I
would also like to be have special thanks to the
I Heard Podcast Next Up program for helping bring the
show to life. Also all of the guests who have
taken a step in sharing their story with you all
on these episodes. And finally to all the members of
the sorority who will never tell their story, we see
you and your story matters.
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