By Katie Halper • @kthalps • 10 years ago

Breaking: Cory Booker & Dean Heller join the fight against sexual assault in the military

Screen Shot 2013-11-19 at 11.07.24 AMLast night Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) took to the twitters to annoucne he’s co-sponsoring Senator Gillibrand’s Amendment which would improve how the military responds to rape and sexual assaults. Check out who else is behind this important amendment and what you can do today to help end the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the Armed Forces.

Booker is one of the nearly 50 supporters of the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA) which  “moves the decision whether to prosecute” rape and sexual assault out of the chain of command and “to independent, trained, professional military prosecutors.” This would be a step against impunity enjoyed by attackers and  embolden survivors to report the crimes because it would increase impartiality and decrease the chance of bias and retaliation.

BREAKING– as I write this, another Senator Dean Heller (R-Nev) has joined the list of supporters.

Let’s get the number even higher! We’re only 11 senators shy of the 60 needed to pass the amendment. Join another lunch-time twitter storm, which is being organized by SWAN (Service Women’s Action Network).

  1. Between 1 and 2 today, tweet at the senators who are not yet in support of the MJIA. (see the list below).
  2. To find their twitter handles, look here.
  3. Check out the sample tweets here. Use the hashtags  #PassMJIA and #EndMilitaryRape.
  4. If your senator is on the list of non-supporters listed below, call him or her at 1-888-659-8549.

List of senators who have not expressed support for MJIA.
• Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
• Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
• John Barrasso (R-WY)
• Max Baucus (D-MT)
• Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• John Boozman (R-AR)
• Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
• Richard Burr (R-NC)
• Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
• Dan Coats (R-IN)
• Tom Coburn (R-OK)
• Thad Cochran (R-MS)
• Bob Corker (R-TN)
• John Cornyn (R-TX)
• Mike Crapo (R-ID)
• Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• Michael Enzi (R-WY)
• Deb Fischer (R-NE)
• Jeff Flake (R-AZ)
• Lindsay Graham (R-SC)
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
• Dean Heller (R-NV)
• John Hoeven (R-ND)
• James Inhofe (R-OK)
• Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
• Ron Johnson (R-WI)
• Tim Kaine (D-VA)
• Angus King (I-ME)
• Mike Lee (R-UT)
• Carl Levin (D-MI)
• Joe Manchin (D-WV)
• John McCain (R-AZ)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
• Jerry Moran (R-KS)
• Chris Murphy (D-CT)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Rob Portman (R-OH)
• Jack Reed (D-RI)
• Harry Reid (D-NV)
• James Risch (R-ID)
• Pat Roberts (R-KS)
• Marco Rubio (R-FL)
• Tim Scott (R-SC)
• Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
• Richard Shelby (R-AL)
• Jon Tester (D-MT)
• John Thune (R-SD)
• Pat Toomey (R-PA)
• Mike Warner (D-VA)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)
• Roger Wicker (R-MS)

Screen Shot 2013-10-28 at 11.13.50 PMKatie Halper started identifying as a feminist at the age of 5 when she attended her first pro-choice rally and began calling out the musicals she watched instead of cartoons for being “prejudiced against women.” She realizes this is a ridiculous photo.

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Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie graduated from The Dalton School (where she teaches history) and Wesleyan University (where she learned that labels are for jars.) A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed at Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, all five Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! and has appeared with Lizz Winstead, Markos Moulitsas, The Yes Men, Cynthia Nixon and Jim Hightower. Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In These Times, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, Air America, GritTV, the Alan Colmes Show, Sirius radio (which hung up on her once) and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” Katie co-produced Tim Robbins’s film Embedded, (Venice Film Festival, Sundance Channel); Estela Bravo’s Free to Fly (Havana Film Festival, LA Latino Film Festival); was outreach director for The Take, Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis documentary about Argentine workers (Toronto & Venice Film Festivals, Film Forum); co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, a video for Museum of the City of NY exhibit, and wrote/directed viral satiric videos including Jews/ Women/ Gays for McCain.

Katie is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and New Yorker.

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