Donate to Help Change the AL Law
SemDem wrote a diary describing the horrifying case of a woman in Alabama whose uncle raped her multiple times. The man who raped her has succeeded in ordering the court to allow him visitation rates with the children. The judge is threatening to jail her for 48 hours for every time she prevents him from visiting the children. I wrote this as a comment in that thread, but I fear it will get lost in the hundreds of other comments.
One thing missing from the diary was anything about how we can channel our outrage and help out.
I talked with Portia, a staff person at Family Services of North Alabama, where this survivor went for assistance. Portia said this is not the only case of this kind, she is just the only survivor who has gone public. If we donate to Family Services of Alabama, with a note saying it’s for “informing legislators about the impact of the visitation laws for rapists” she said that would be useful. (I donated).
Portia also said that we should support the Alabama Coalition Against Rape (ACAR). They can’t directly lobby either, but I talked with staffmember Kathleen Connolly (sp?), and she said that there are good people in Alabama who are embarrassed by awful policies such as these. The ACAR was successful last year in testifying before the legislature and informing them of the importance of changing the antiquated sexual assault law, and it was changed for the better. Kathleen Connolly said that she believes it might be possible to get the AL legislature to change the law this year, and that publicity from around the country could help. I asked if they could use donations to help with this effort, and she said yes.
Unfortunately, ACAR has a new website, and when I tried to donate the online donation button is not currently working. I told them about this, and they are rushing to get this fixed. In the meantime, one can call them to donate at 334-264-0123.
I have not yet found a legal defense fund to help this particular survivor appeal the judge’s horrible ruling. But by supporting these two organizations, we could help prevent more survivors from enduring this nightmare.