Amita Swadhin warns against confirming Sessions.
An Indian American woman, Amita Swadhin, who is a lesbian and survived child sexual abuse, warned a Senate panel Wednesday that confirming the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions for Attorney General would threaten the safety and well-being of rape victims and the LGBT community.
“As a bisexual woman with a transgender romantic partner, and as an advocate working to support sexual assault survivors in the LGBT community, the prospect of Senator Sessions as attorney general is personally and professionally alarming,” said Swadhin, a survivor activist for LGBT victims of sexual abuse, reported The Washington Times.
Swadhin, who recounted how she was raped by her father regularly as a child, between the ages of four to 12, was called to testify by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee on the second day of hearings on Sessions’ nomination.
“I endured psychological, physical, and verbal abuse from him for years,” she told the committee, reported NBC News. “I also grew up watching my father abuse my mother in a textbook case of domestic violence and marital rape.”
Her testimony sharpened the point of the attacks on Sessions, a former U.S. attorney and Alabama attorney general who Democrats have labeled a racist, sexist, anti-Muslim bigot and homophobe.
Swadhin said that Sessions should be disqualified from becoming attorney general because of his dismissive comment about the 2005 hot-mic recording of President-elect Donald Trump saying his celebrity allowed him to kiss and grope women — as should Sessions’ votes against the Violence Against Women Act, reported The Washington Times.
“I’ve done a lot of public speaking sharing my story over the past twenty years, but I’ve never testified before Congress until now,” Swadhin told NBC News. “What makes testifying before the Judiciary Committee different of course is that there are opposition leaders there who had free reign to challenge me through their questions. So I had to prepare for that possibility.”
Vermont’s Sen. Patrick Leahy and Hawaii’s Sen. Mazie Hirono, both Democrats, were ultimately the only senators who asked Swadhin questions after her testimony. Both focused on the impact the attitudes public officials have about sexual assault have on survivors and their decision to go forward and get help.
Speaking to NBC News after her testimony, Swadhin said survivors had to know they would be believed and respected by law enforcement officials in order for them to feel comfortable enough to reach out for help. She urged senators not to confirm Sessions as attorney general in light of his record on sexual assault and LGBTQ issues.