Reunion Online

In June 2017, Texas became the first state in the nation to enact all of Joyful Heart’s six legislative pillars of comprehensive rape kit reform. We asked Ilse Knecht, Joyful Heart’s Director of Policy & Advocacy, what this legislative victory means for our work. Watch a video of her conversation with Christine Show, Digital Platforms Manager.

Cases like this—and all that they represent—hit home for me in many ways. They touch me deeply as someone who has been immersed in these issues all of my life, as a survivor working to heal every day from the trauma of sexual violence, and as an advocate for my entire career.

Over the past several days, we have heard and read many hurtful, disrespectful statements about sexual assault. People all over the country are speaking out and standing up to say ENOUGH to the beliefs and attitudes that misplace blame on survivors, excuse perpetrators, and allow institutions to look the other way.

Maile Zambuto, Joyful Heart CEO, responds to Stanford.

As we and our community mobilizes with the renewed commitment to change these statistics—and create a world free of this violence—I wanted to share with you some of the exciting, hopeful, important work that’s happening at Joyful Heart this month.

Last night, rape kit reform passed in Georgia. But our advocacy to bring meaningful rape kit reform around the country still carries on.

We’ve all heard the dismissive refrains—things like “that doesn’t happen to guys,” “what kind of guy would let that happen to him,” or “he seems just fine to me.”

Today, we're giving an inside look at our most recent ENDTHEBACKLOG newsletter for our email subscribers. Today's topics: a new $41M proposed in the federal budget, what we think belongs in comprehensive rape kit legislation, laws being considered in 18 states and more.