"This Is How Victims Are...Silenced": Ramirez Makes Statement

BOULDER, CO - US Senators were set to vote on what would be a successful confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh's to the US Supreme Court. but Boulder's Debbie Ramirez still had something to say. Nearly two weeks prior, Ramirez had become the second woman to accuse Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct when she spoke publicly their history as Yale students in a New Yorker article.

Though Ramirez was interviewed last weekend as a part of an FBI probe into accusations by Kavanaugh's first accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, as the investigation concluded she and her lawyers were clear in their belief that it had been incomplete.

Ramirez released the following statement through her lawyer, Boulder's John Clune, on Saturday:

Thirty-five years ago, the other students in the room chose to laugh and look the other way as sexual violence was perpetrated on me by Brett Kavanaugh. As I watch many of the Senators speak and vote on the floor of the Senate I feel like I'm right back at Yale where half the room is laughing and looking the other way. Only this time, instead of drunk college kids, it is US Senators who are deliberately ignoring his behavior. This is how victims are isolated and silenced.

But I do have corroborating witnesses speaking for me, although they were not allowed to speak to the FBI, and I feel extremely grateful for them and for the overwhelming amount of support that I have received and continue to receive during this extremely difficult and painful time. There may be people with power who are looking the other way, but there are millions more who are standing together, speaking up about personal experiences of sexual violence and taking action to support survivors. This is truly a collective moment of survivors and allies standing together.

Thank you for hearing me, seeing me and believing me. I am grateful for each and every one of you. We will not be silenced.

We stand in truth and light,
Debbie Ramirez
(pronouns she, her, hers)

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Photo Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images