A quick thread on coming forward about being sexually assaulted:
People are predictably questioning Christine Blasey Ford's credibility for "only now" publicly disclosing that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her years ago.
There are a host of reasons why victims stay quiet.
I know this from personal experience. I waited 7yrs before I spoke a word about my rape, which happened when I was 15. I knew my rapist well & struggled to come to terms with what he had done to me. 2/
I was also terrified it would happen again, leading me to completely shut down emotionally. And I couldn't bear the thought of my parents knowing; I didn't want to break their hearts the way mine had been. 3/
I’m running for borough council in my community of Allendale, NJ. It’s a small town in northern Bergen County where Democrats haven’t won a local election since 1973. They started losing, kept losing, and eventually stopped trying.
For 30 years nobody made a serious attempt at running for local office here as a Democrat – until last year, when a brave political novice wrote herself in on the primary ballot, won the nomination & came within striking distance of an incumbent R running for re-election.
That paved the way for where I am now. I’m running for council along with @Burrite, a professor at Rutgers, & a Cuban-American attorney named Carolina Curbelo (a former Republican!) who is running for mayor.
(Thread) Tonight, @SenateMajLdr is advancing a vote on a national 20-week abortion ban.
I understand that this strikes a chord with MANY people, especially those who are anti-abortion. To terminate a pregnancy that far along seems barbaric.
But it's often necessary.
Anyone who has been pregnant and who has received proper prenatal care knows that you don't get the anatomy scan until 20 weeks.
This is when serious defects & fetal fatalities are determined, often for the first time during a pregnancy.
Women who are this far along in their pregnancies are, generally speaking, planning to give birth.
They are like Alicia Hupprich, who was thrilled to be pregnant with her second child, only to find out after 20 weeks that her pregnancy was doomed. womenshealthmag.com/health/late-te…
"I want to come home to a home cooked dinner at six every night, one that she fixes and one that I expect one day to have daughters learn after they become traditional homemakers and family wives" - @SykesforSenate
"I don't buy into radical feminism's crazed definition of modern womanhood and I never did...And I don't buy the non-stop feminization campaign against manhood." - @SykesforSenate