me too. International Framework

AT THE CORE OF US: m e t o o. Int ern at i o nal’s

SOCIAL & POLITICAL FRAMEWORK

TA B L E O F

CONTENTS

TO SURVIVORS, 4 WITH LOVE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE ME TOO. 8 INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL & POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW 10 ME TOO. INTERNATIONAL’S 18 ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM OUR VISION FOR A WORLD 33 FREE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE THE WORK OF ME TOO. INTERNATIONAL 34 WITHIN THE UNITED STATES (U.S.) SURVIVOR JUSTICE MOVEMENT ECOSYSTEM OUR GUIDING POLITICS, 47 VALUES & PRINCIPLES TO OUR ALLIES, WITH URGENCY 60 GLOSSARY OF TERMS 64

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WE TO SURVIVORS GOT WITH LOVE YOUR PAGE 4

You are the center of our work.

Dear Survivors,

WE BELIEVE YOU, WE ARE YOU

Whether you are one of the millions of people who said #metoo online or quietly to yourself, we are using the me too. International Social and Political Framework to speak directly to what we saw and heard in the aftermath of that transformative, viral moment in 2017. Since that time, we have continued to listen, learn, and refine our understanding of survivor justice to meet you in your homes, workplaces, community spaces, and places of worship.

Before we speak to anyone else, we want to first be in conversation with you.

Survivors and survivor justice is at the center of our work – we are bonded by and deeply committed to you because there is no movement, no organization, and no hashtag without you.

What you are about to read is all the language we could find to sum up our basic truth: we are a movement of survivors focused on healing and action. At the conclusion of this document, it is our profound desire that you not only come away with a deeper understanding about our organization, me too.

International, but also you feel like ‘me too.’ is a place where you can find a political home that genuinely supports you.

This framework is our articulation and understanding of the breadth and depth of sexual violence and the survivor-focused and -led solutions that it will take to combat the issue.

We understand that healing is also movement work and a key component in the ongoing PAGE 5

struggle for survivor justice.

We invite you to read closely and critically; then, share your feedback with us so that we may stay in conversation with you.

(www.sanctuary.metoomvmt. org). Should you need access to counseling , legal services, or additional support to navigate your healing journey, we have curated a database of resources which you can find in our Healing Resource Library (www. metoomvmt.org/explorehealing/resource-library).

For help in determining which resources may be right for you, please contact our Healing Support Specialists at info@ metoomvmt.org.

We make this offering with full knowledge that it comes in the midst of what are surely perilous times. Know that you are not alone in navigating the delicate balance of life’s challenges while pursuing healing and community. Our work is intended to guide you toward post-traumatic growth.

If you take nothing else from this document, know that the words contained within are our best attempt at saying to you, our survivors, you are not alone − we are a movement.

If − at any point − you read this framework and feel the need to pause, we encourage you to do so … and breathe. If you are in need of healing resources, we have a free library available to you online at Survivor’s Sanctuary

Forward Ever, Tarana J. Burke, Founder & Chief Vision Officer me too. International

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Thank you to everyone who participated in the development of this intentional, strategic vision: At the Core of Us: The me too. International Social and Political Framework.

We are grateful and humbled by the outpouring of voices, opinions, and questions from survivors who have the desire to see ‘me too.’ grow and flourish. Thank you, also, to everyone who engaged in the focus groups, interviews, and surveys that were used to sharpen the vision, spirit, and development of this framework.

We uplift and honor the contributions of: Survivors

Latanya Mapp Frett

Sojourner Rivers

Airam Marcano

LaTosha Brown

Sujatha Baliga

Celeste Faison

Lenore Anderson

Tashmica Torok

Chelsea Fuller

Luz Benbow

Terri Poore

Collective Future Fund

Olivia Trabysh

Fresco Steez

Orrine Oqua Pi Povi Sanchez, PhD

Thenmozhi Soundararajan

Ignacio Rivera Jasmine Graves Joanne N. Smith

Raegan L. Burden, MMC Robert Rooks

‘me too.’ staff ‘me too.’ board members

A special thank you to Dr. Ayanna De’Vante Spencer, who has been a witness to the journey of me too. International, and responded to the call to write it all down.

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CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS

TO EVERYONE READING THIS FRAMEWORK, WE THANK YOU AND WE INVITE YOU INTO THE JOURNEY WITH US

CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS CONTRIBUTORS

FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW FRAMEWORK

With these facts in mind, we invite you into − At the Core of Us: The me too. International Social and Political Framework.

This framework comes at a time when there has been a steep increase in sexual violence. Due, in part, to the global COVID-19 pandemic1 and an economic and environmental crisis that continues to threaten people’s ability to escape violent and toxic situations. We wrote this after 19 million people globally said #metoo online in the year following the viral moment, and when the collective yearning for a true and transformative justice that centers survivors compelled us as an organization to think Beyond the Hashtag.

This framework is also a direct response to government officials, religious and spiritual leaders, the police and prison apparatus, media outlets, and community leaders, who instead of listening to survivors’ interests, continue to choose enabling rapists and rape culture for the sake of power and profit.

We make this offering with full knowledge that it comes in the midst of what feels like perilous times for many. Yet despite every attempt to strike fear, mistrust, and complacency amongst survivors and our allies, we at ‘me too.’ International believe survivors remain immensely powerful.

This framework is about survivors and articulating the needs that we have heard.

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FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW

By the time you f inish reading this paragraph, someone will have experienced sexual violence.

By tonight, you will have spoken to, passed by, worked beside, and held the door open for a child, adult, and elder surviving violence.

TRIGGER WARNING This framework contains language related to sexual violence that might be activating or triggering. We encourage you to take the time you need to navigate this document, safely. We invite you to pause … and breathe. Return to our virtual healing room online at Survivor’s Sanctuary (www.sanctuary.metoomvmt.org) for real-time, grounding support.

THE FRAMEWORK SPEAKS TO THIS UNAPOLOGETIC DECLARATION THAT SURVIVORS AND SURVIVOR POWER ARE HERE TO STAY. THROUGHOUT THE FRAMEWORK, YOU WILL BE READING FIVE SECTIONS: 1.

e too. International’s m analysis of the problem

4.

O ur Guiding Politics, Values, and Principles

2.

O ur vision for a world without sexual violence

5.

To allies with urgency

3.

T hose sections are then trailed by a glossary of terms and resources (pg 64).

he Work of me too.

T International Within the U.S. Survivor Justice Movement Ecosystem

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me too. International defines sexual violence as a sexual act committed or attempted by a person without freely given consent. Sexual violence looks like, but is not limited to:

1.

erforming sexual acts on P or around someone who is unable to give consent

2.

aking sexual advances M through big or small words or gestures without consent from the other person

3.

enetration that is forced P or coerced

4.

eing forced to penetrate B someone else

5.

ondom or contraceptive C removal without the consent of the other party

6.

ressuring someone into P sexual acts

7.

Unwanted sexual touching

8.

on-contact acts of N a sexual nature without consent (e.g indecent exposure)

9.

atching someone in a W private act without their knowledge or permission

10. Revenge porn 11.

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Non-consensual posting of sexual media

FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW

In me too. International’s Analysis of the Problem, we explore the root causes of sexual violence and dispel common myths and misinformation.

Sexual violence can occur inperson or online. 3 Sexual harm and harassment, doxxing, rape, incest, molestation, grooming, and sexual violation are also part of the spectrum of sexual violence.

heard, protected, and cared for by both the institutions and community members we engage every day.

This vision is informed by the thousands of survivors and allies who have engaged in our programming throughout the years, our partners within the Survivors’ Agenda coalition, and our crossmovement partners.

While me too. International focuses on uplifting the voices, leadership, and power of people who have experienced sexual violence − whom we call survivors − we know that sexual violence can and, often, does happen in association with femicide, physical, emotional, financial, and other forms of abuse.

In The Work of me too.

International, we position the organization within the lineage of the Survivor Justice Movement.

For as long as sexual violence has existed, there has been resistance. From Rosa Parks’ anti-rape work to the Combahee River Collective to Equality Labs’ work to abolish the caste system, survivors, advocates, organizers, healers, politicians, families, and organizations have been working on bending the curve.

People and organizations

In the analysis of the problem, we delve deeper into our assessment of the problem which paves the way for how we understand what solutions are needed, at this moment.

Then, we share Our Vision For a World Free From Sexual Violence. We describe what we believe is needed to ensure every survivor is

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their stories and participated in collective healing through community action. Tarana found herself needing to take the words “me too” that she was saying quietly, inwardly, and share them with the girls first and eventually the world.

In the past decade, we have developed our vision to bring resources, support, and pathways to healing where none existed before. And we got to work- experimenting with programs, building a community of advocates and organizations who care about survivor justice, and speaking up unapologetically when survivors’ interests are under attack.

We at me too. International see ourselves as a part of this lineage. We began in Selma, Alabama with survivor and organizer , Tarana Burke, doing youth leadership development with young Black girls inside of the organization she founded, Just Be, Inc. She quickly understood that doing community change work was impossible without directly addressing the child sexual abuse and violation her young participants were subjected to every day. Through her work, young Black girls in the program began to share

In The Work of me too.

International, we address the confusion that surrounds #metoo and the organization me too. International that harnessed the hashtag’s power.

We answer the question, “what has ‘me too.’ made possible?”

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FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW FRAMEWORK OVERVIEW

have created preventative and interventional resources like shelters and community training on how to stop teen intimate partner violence. They have also championed ballot initiatives and government candidates that support harm reduction initiatives. Even more, people have protested together to ensure that future generations experience less violence.

We boldly articulate our power and influence. Through every action, program, and ally engagement, we are responsibly building an organization and survivor power that is in service to getting to a world where survivors are safe, and our communities are protected from harm.

Lastly, To Our Allies, With Urgency offers next steps for those interested in joining the movement to end sexual violence. Ending this crisis requires each and every one of us to commit to taking big and small courageous actions.

The survivor justice movement needs volunteers, activists, organizations, funders, and corporations proclaiming that enough is enough!

Next, in Our Guiding Politics, Values, and Principles, we propose a set of practices, values, and principles that we believe should guide the movement to end sexual violence. We define to what and to whom we are accountable to as me too. International, serving as a guidepost for how other organizations and individuals can commit to a survivor justice approach.

Although it may feel scary and impossible − together − we can ensure that our families, our children, our neighbors, and ourselves no longer have to survive violence alone, or again.

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ENDING THIS CRISIS REQUIRES EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US

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ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM PAGE 18

Every 68 seconds 4 , someone experiences sexual violence in the U.S.

No race, ethnicity, tribe, gender, class, sexual orientation, religious and spiritual community, or caste identity is exempt from sexual violence − despite the media’s attempt to solely uplift middle and upper class white cisgender women’s experiences.

Nor, can the term “abuser” or “perpetrator” be reserved for any one person − despite the media’s attempts to hypervisualize the actions of cisgender men of color.

before they turn 18. 50% of transgender, gender nonconforming, intersex, and gender fluid people are living with the effects of horrifying, sexually violent experiences.5 43% of men report experiencing sexual violence in their lifetimes with 27.8% reported being abused before the age of 10 years old.6 Among adults with developmental disabilities up to 83% of females and 32% of males are survivors of sexual violence.7 People living at the margins of society − Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), poor people, persons living with disabilities, undocumented people and migrants,8 refugees, children in foster care,9 and elders in nursing homes10 − are experiencing sexual violence at an alarming rate.

The fact is that despite our desire to wish away sexual violence, to tuck it into a dark corner, to forget it, and to never address it − it still exists. Right now, 1 in 10 children in the U.S. have already, are currently or will experience sexual violence

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W H AT DO YOU DO W H E N FORGET TI NG I S NOT PO S SIBLE OR E NOUGH?

You act. You f ight for yourself and the survivors who surround you.

In order to act in service to ending sexual violence, we believe the first step is to understand and articulate the problem − the root causes of sexual violence and the myths and misconceptions that surrounds this taboo topic.

Despite being a common experience, sexual violence remains a taboo topic with many harmful myths and misunderstandings. Those misconceptions spark confusion which is then wielded by abusers, enablers, and those in power to maintain the status quo and silence survivors.

Sexual violence is any sexual act committed or attempted by a person without freely given consent.

With the broad, devastating impact of sexual violence, we are clear that the less people understand about the depths of its impact, the larger the barrier is for survivors seeking accountability and healing, as well as allies having clear pathways to support the end of sexual violence.

At its root, sexual violence is not about sex, sexual desire, religious doctrine, or the choices and obligations of the people who experience the violence. It is about powergaining, trading, keeping, and enacting power over vulnerable people and bodies.

Over our bodies.

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In this section, we clear up four myths: 1. You are not surviving alone.

While sexual violence is seen as an act that only happens to a few, it is, in fact, a public health crisis that impacts millions of people globally every day.

2. Institutions and cultures must take responsibility for Sexual Violence. Not survivors. Abusers are nurtured and socialized by institutions, media, unaddressed trauma, and a political climate that creates and supports rape culture.

3. Survivors are not one dimensional characters who are only impacted by issues related to their sexual trauma. Survivors care about the economy, the environment and planet, the education system, and all other social issues.

We are intersectional beings. Because of this, the survivor justice movement is inextricably linked to all other social justice movements.

4. Sexual violence is a global issue. While this framework details the work of me too.

International, based in the U.S., the work to end sexual violence is happening across the globe with fearless organizers, activists, and volunteers fighting against it every day.

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YOU ARE NOT SURVIVING ALONE Sexual violence is a public health crisis. By definition, a public health crisis affects large numbers of people and is determined by its longterm effects. Sexual violence impacts nearly every person in the United States − directly or indirectly. Sexual violence creates health and wellness issues for survivors and their communities, and there is a causal link between the experience of sexual trauma and the fallout from lack of adequate recovery support and resources.

Survivors’ attempts to find rest, safety, and peace through whatever means available to them are vilified. Yet, there is little attempt by the government and communities to address the potential root causes of survivors’ choices and provide adequate resources for healing. This blaming of survivors and its ramifications are evidenced by the interrelationship between sexual violence and incarceration. For example, 86% of incarcerated women are survivors of sexual violence.12 Upon incarceration, over 10% of women are further abused by those who work within the institution.

The experience of any form of violence shifts the physiological body, including the systemic trauma of sexual harm. The rise of mental health diagnoses, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks, suicide attempts, eating disorders, and other stressrelated illnesses are directly related to its affects.11

It is important to note here that sexual misconduct is the second most common form of abuse police officers commit,13 making the police actors of sexual violence at a significantly higher rate than the general population.14

A prime example is the link between sexual violence and the rise in opioid usage, poverty, and incarceration.

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dissemination of solutions that speak most directly to their needs and the needs of their various communities.

Lastly, it is abundantly clear that the proliferation of sexual violence will not

The crisis of sexual violence requires the adoption of largescale solutions. Those solutions have to be survivorled, survivor-centered actions, representative of the impact on the cross section of persons most adversely affected by sexual violence (e.g., historically and currently Black and brown women, femmes, and girls); as well as wide-ranging, and intersectional − in that they account for the ways sexual violence intersects with other structural issues and incorporate multiple interventions.

be disrupted using the mechanisms that have largely been utilized to address the issue to date.

For example, this includes:

1. Antiquated laws and mandates that don’t adequately address the wide range of ways in which harm occurs.

2. Punitive, carceral measures that don’t provide pathways to the accountability that survivors have asked for.

In order to dismantle the cultures and systems that undergird sexual violence and create a future free from sexual violence, the solutions to this crisis have to provide cultural, legal, medical, educational, religious, spiritual, economic, political, and communitybased interventions.

3. Institutions that have a vested interest in continuing a cycle of victimhood that doesn’t empower survivors to be centered− neither in the design nor

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INSTITUTIONS AND CULTURES MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR SEXUAL VIOLENCE. NOT SURVIVORS. Attributing the actions of rapists and abusers to only being born bad actors and rotten apples allows the institutions and cultures that developed them to avoid accountability. There are people, systems, and a global rape culture that teach violent, abusive, and harmful behaviors and actions. And these same people, systems, and cultures ensure that people who become rapists or abusers can largely avoid accountability and opportunities to unlearn their abuses of power.

We define rape culture as the subtle beliefs embedded in the way we think, speak, and act that normalize sexual entitlement and violence; deprioritizing consent. It is always rooted in patriarchal beliefs, power, and control. Rape culture informs the actions of sexually violent individuals.

Interlocking systems of power and privilege are the building blocks of the global sexual violence crisis. Rape, assault, and harassment happen through abuse(s) of power and privilege by individual people, frequently in interpersonal relationships, and upheld by institutional policies and practices.

Sexual violence is a interpersonal and political crisis created by historical, interlocking systems of domination, including patriarchy, anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, ableism, capitalism, colonization, homophobia, and transphobia and taught through rape culture.

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Rape culture is first and foremost at the foundation of the U.S., and as a result, woven into every piece of western society. While rape culture has been a part of all cultures as long as there has been patriarchy, U.S. rape culture is connected to the brutal removal of consent from Black and Indigenous people through displacement, genocide, enslavement, and forced breeding at the hands of European settlers.

acceptable, socially normative act. Institutions within the U.S dangerously, harmfully continue this legacy.

Traditional and non-traditional media systems have perpetuated the spectrum of rape culture, both in the U.S. and around the world. Rape culture is found interwoven in movies, songs, television, literature, the news, and social media. From the time a child watches Pocahontas, where a 12-year-old girl, named Amonute, is groomed and then married to a 28-year-old colonizer named John Smith; to when an adult gamer stumbles upon highly racist and sexually violent images on the dark web; to when a media outlet humiliates a survivor on air − our community is inundated with images meant to normalize rape culture and entice the viewer into participating.

During the early stages of the U.S.’s formation, rape and rape culture were normalized in a context where anyone who was not an Anglo Saxon, cisgendered man, was not even given the right to vote; let alone, have bodily autonomy.

This practice was not isolated, as Asian, Arab, Pacific Islander, and African migrants from across the world entered the U.S. and were met with repetitive sexual and genderbased violence. History books and conservative school curriculum taught children that violence was “needed” − giving way to an impression that sexual violence is an

Global media institutions support and teach cultural norms (e.g., language, images, messages, and behavior) that undermine the agency of the most vulnerable communities.

This creates an environment

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that directly puts their physical bodies, as well as their emotional, spiritual, and mental health, in danger. Even more, our children are groomed into a culture of sexual violence through interpersonal and community dynamics, including family hierarchies that maintain norms of absolute obedience and silence.

No person is born a rapist; but those who become abusers are taught throughout childhood and adulthood − from institutions and their society’s culture − that it’s appropriate to wield power over another’s body. Because of this understanding, we at ‘me too.’ believe that sexual violence is not just a private act that requires only private interventions. Sexual violence is a result of our culture and the institutions that continually manifest it.

The misinformation about sexual violence in mainstream media flows into both movement and political spaces, obscuring its longterm effects on survivors and whole communities.

Fabrication of information also draws attention away from the root causes of sexual violence − power and privilege. Normalizing ideas like sexual entitlement and survivor complicity, undermine survivors’ ability to access justice and denies safety to those most susceptible to sexual violence.

We are all responsible for the promotion and amplification of sexual violence and rape culture; therefore, we can be actors in interrupting and preventing sexual violence from happening.

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SURVIVORS ARE NOT ONE DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS WITH ONE ISSUE THAT IMPACTS THEM. The ‘me too.’ Movement was started to address the large gaps in available resources for survivors of sexual assault, particularly Black teen girls from low-wealth communities.

Including Selma, Alabama − the small, predominately Black southern city where ‘me too.’ was born − where available survivor resources were largely exclusionary, culturally inept, economically inaccessible, and not survivor-led. Unfortunately, this is true for many survivors around the world.

are deeply embedded into how sexual violence impacts their lives and their ability to stay on a consistent path to posttraumatic growth.

When we widen the lens, there is significant evidence that shows the link between sexual violence and other structural, social justice issues. The work of the racial justice movement is deeply connected to sexual violence because Indigenous women experience the highest rate of sexual violence, with Black women experiencing the second-highest rate. For Black women, this is grounded in the experience of enslavement and the massive residual harms experienced by the Black community because of white supremacy.

Because sexual violence adversely impacts groups that are historically marginalized (e.g., women, communities of color, queer and trans communities, and disabled persons), the structural issues that affect these groups − including racial, health, gender, and economic disparities −

Defined by Black feminist, Dr. Moya Bailey, as misogynoir, PAGE 28

the ongoing contempt for Black women and girls has kept sexual violence a core problem. Black and Indigenous women also experience some of the highest rates of police violence, gun violence, and institutional violence. These groups are often in low-wealth, under-resourced communities with inadequate access to healthcare facilities and innovations, exacerbating the structural barriers they experience as survivors of sexual violence.

their violent acts.15 Examining solutions to gun violence in the U.S., without also thinking about how these two forms of violence overlap, allows for the creation of methods that don’t address the core of either issue.

Similarly, another overlooked link is economic injustice. The financial cost of sexual violence is estimated at $122,461 over a survivor’s lifetime.16 The cost of housing, food, safety and protection, childcare, and legal fees are only a few examples of the burdens associated with attempting to recover from the trauma of sexual violence.

These estimations don’t take into account the consequences for survivors who cannot meet these costs because of preexisting structural barriers to economic security. Again, that would disproportionately include the aforementioned marginalized groups. These critical social justice issues are interrelated; yet, they’re often addressed in silos − with sexual violence rarely considered at all.

Over time, data has revealed the interrelationship between sexual violence and other forms of harm. In fact, it’s clear that the roots of sexual violence are often the backbone to other issues that impact survivors. In more than half of the mass shootings of the last decade, the shooter shot a former intimate partner or family member as part of the rampage. There is also evidence that several mass shooters have a history of sexual violence, aggression, or harassment of women prior to PAGE 29

We reject the notion that this complex, structural issue can be resolved by resorting to short term, punitive measures that fly in the face of what survivors have told us that they want. Currently, there is an over reliance on punitive responses to sexual violence, which is a direct result of dependence on the historical ‘crime and punishment’ framework.

However, this method truncates survivors’ decision-making power, severely limits and eschews accountability, and emphasizes state-sanctioned punishment over measures that address harm and prioritize harm reduction. Using a ‘law and order’ model for thinking about and responding to sexual violence supports the criminalization of survivors’ responses to sexual violence. me too. International seeks to reframe and expand the avenues for survivor-driven accountability and resources for safety, utilizing both transformative and restorative justice practices.

The ‘me too.’ Movement believes in the radical possibilities of a movement against sexual violence led by survivors of sexual violence.

Collectively, survivors and our allies have the knowledge, skill, experience, imagination, vision, and creativity to identify, address, and radically transform our communities and institutions. We also support an innovative model of survivor leadership, a ‘wholeself approach’ to healing from sexual violence. This method emerged from our holistic understanding of the ‘life-cycle of survivors’ − which looks at the various ways that survivors engage with their survivorship at various stages of their healing journey.

We believe that broad-based social and political change is possible through courageous individuals, survivors, advocates, and allies taking action through a multi-issue, intersectional lens.

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SEXUAL VIOLENCE IS A GLOBAL ISSUE. Although this framework is largely based on the U.S. context of the ‘me too.’

Movement, we know the work to end sexual violence across the globe is not new. Often referred to as gender-based violence globally, the issue of sexual violence impacts community safety worldwide. Organizers and activists in countless countries have been working as direct responders, political activists, and movement actors to interrupt the nuances of gender-based violence in their local communities.

South Asia, Indigenous women in Latin America, and Black women across the African continent − who speak of barriers to justice, healing, and services due to systems of caste and colonialism in their own cultural contexts.

Our work to convene genderbased organizers across the Global South, transnationally, continues as we connect movements and efforts to make our global communities safer.

When #metoo went viral, global groups began reaching out to the U.S.-based ‘me too.’

Movement to be in community with us around the fight to end sexual violence. Currently, me too. International is working with other marginalized survivors − Dalit women in

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me too. International envisions a world free of sexual violence. We assert that the transformation of oppressive systems, narratives, and cultures, grounded in the lived experiences and leadership of survivors, creates space for generative ideas, practices, and relationships rooted in love, respect, empathy, and wellness. We imagine communities that are abundant with joy, safety, and resources and committed to radical healing, and we are committed to the work to live toward this vision.

OUR VISION FOR A WORLD FREE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE

THE WORK OF ‘ME TOO.’ AND BUILDING THE SURVIVOR JUSTICE MOVEMENT.

SURVIVOR JUSTICE

THE MISSION OF ME TOO. INTERNATIONAL IS TO SERVE AS A CONVENER, THOUGHT LEADER, AND ORGANIZER ACROSS THE MAINSTREAM AND THE GRASSROOTS TO ADDRESS SYSTEMS THAT ALLOW FOR THE PROLIFERATION OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE, SPECIFICALLY IN BLACK, QUEER, TRANS, DISABLED, AND ALL COMMUNITIES OF COLOR. Leveraging our model and framework, grounded in existing research and theory, we center individual and community healing and transformation, empowerment through empathy, innovation, shifting cultural narratives and practices, and advancing a global, survivor-led movement to end sexual violence.

Our work is founded upon the premise that survivors deserve access to healing resources, and through healing can take action in small and big ways with allyship support, to directly combat the long-term effects of sexual violence.

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Communities committed to healing are better positioned to resist and usher in the radical changes necessary to end sexual violence. There is power in our individual healing and that power can be catalyzed to activate community healing and growth.

Healing We believe that healing is an action word. Healing is an ongoing process of grounding and reconnecting to one’s body; one’s sense of self power; one’s relationship to others; and reconnecting with one’s past, present, and future. Thus, healing is intentional, iterative, nonlinear and intergenerational.

Our theory of healing, which grounds our work, centers post-traumatic growth.

First and foremost, we see our role as connecting survivors to the people and organizations who have been cultivating quality, affordable, and culturally-responsive resources. We do that through our immense resource bank − which is regularly updated − on our website: www.metoomvmt. org/explore-healing.

We believe that healing is a choice. That choice is activated when survivors say ‘yes’ to themselves. Through that choice, we have the opportunity to reclaim our power − individually and collectively − as an act of resistance to sexual violence and patriarchy. At the Core of Us: The me too. International Social and Political Framework posits that courageous individuals cultivate courageous communities. We apply that same understanding to healing; people committed to healing create communities committed to the same.

At me too. International, we do not identify as a direct service providing organization.

We provide digital, virtual, and in-person programming and offerings that center survivor healing and invite our supporters into this healing journey. For example, our free, self-guided healing platform, Survivor’s Sanctuary, at www.sanctuary.metoomvmt.org, as well as our Survivor Healing Series that features additional modalities seek to PAGE 36

meet survivors where they are and support them along their journeys. We are also a clearinghouse of culturallycompetent local, state-based, and national resources, including those who provide direct service support, searchable on our website by zip code.

As we exercise our collective power, courageous communities engage in a movement for broad-based social and political change.

Organizationally, we are committed to cultivating courageous communities that are equipped with the narrative expertise, leadership and organizing skills, resources, political direction, and community necessary to make radical, systemic, and communal change in service to survivor justice and sexual violence prevention.

Action Sustained action amongst courageous individuals is necessary to end sexual violence. Together, those individuals cultivate courageous communities. Courageous communities work to shift norms, practices, and policies that counter sexual violence through community care, connection, education, and coalition. Working to support community members in the wake of sexual violence, courageous communities hold survivors in care and hold people who do harm accountable.

They are proactive in educating community members of all ages about bodily autonomy, consent, accountability, and systematic oppression.

Narrative Power: Narratives are any account of a series of related events or experiences told in story form. At me too. International, we are committed to disrupting harmful narratives about survivors and the issue of sexual violence, while challenging the attempts by those in power to use misinformation as a silencing fear tactic. Survivors and our supporters deserve to see media outlets and community conversations take sexual violence seriously, be responsive to their interests, and tell truthful stories about PAGE 37

the long-term impact of s exual violence on persons and communities.

As an organization, we believe in the power of the stories that survivors, allies, and movement supporters have to tell. It is our philosophy that effective narrative strategies and messaging have the power to influence individual and collective thought, and thereby drive behavior change. We see our work in building narrative power as:

is a community issue that impacts everyone and every aspect of life in our social media, press, and media engagements.

2. Public Relations: Through our robust public relations strategy and relationships with editors and reporters, we work to amplify truths about disclosure and trauma, call for accountability, and rewrite narratives that perpetuate harm by way of scrutiny, invisibility, and shame.

1. Proactive Framing and Story Threading: We are committed to weaving the threads between the issue of sexual violence, poverty, genderbased violence, and other forms of abuse − because survivors are not onedimensional characters. We refuse to allow survivors to be forgotten when politicians, community leaders, or movement leaders discuss issues that impact us. We are committed to holding the line that sexual violence

3. Communications Rapid Response: The goal of our rapid response work is to get in front of dominant and harmful narratives that emerge from current events and headlines and reorient the public around issues that impact survivors and their communities. We believe that offering nuanced perspectives can influence public opinion and change potential outcomes. In many cases, rapid response, when connected to values PAGE 38

and a call to action, creates opportunities to shift power from institutions to the people; from protecting capital to protecting the interests of survivors.

Also, those images strip away from survivors the depth of emotions, self-advocacy, and selfaffirmation they will need to endeavor upon their healing journey. As an organization, we are committed to releasing visual and audio content that interrupts that disruptive binary. This includes uplifting the faces and voices of marginalized identities and bodies of survivors of sexual violence to ensure equitable support.

4. Branded Content that is Representative and Recognizable: The images that we consume on a regular basis about sexual violence and survivors on TV, social media, and the news have misled us. On one end of the spectrum are the images of fragile white women who “did not deserve what happened to them, but were too weak to stop it”. On the other end of the spectrum are Black and Asian sex workers, for example who were “asking for it” just by being people of color, strong, and working – they are referenced without any dignity, nor concern for their well-being.

These harmful images exclude many from being seen and believed − as survivors − and deserving of healing and protection.

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Leadership Development, Organizing, and Movement-Building: Survivors of sexual violence represent the majority of community members within every city, town, suburb, and tribal reservation. Yet, we are not recognized as a political force to whom our local, federal, and tribal governments have to be accountable. Collectively, we have first-hand knowledge and actionable solutions.

Achieving meaningful change requires strategic organizing and the building of movements. me too. International is invested in growing the leadership and organizing capacity of survivors in order to determine our communities’ political, economic, and cultural direction. We see our work in leadership development, organizing, and movement-building as: Survivor Leadership Program: We believe that survivors should be directing movements for radical social change, not only on issues related to sexual harm. Because of this belief, we are committed to investing in the leadership and organizing skills of survivors. We support the development of practical skills including “how to facilitate a meeting with a call to action,” “how to organize campaigns on campuses,” and “how to interrupt sexual violence when it happens,” through our curated programming,

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such as our Survivor Leadership Training, Survivor Healing Series, and our Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) programs.

US & Global MovementBuilding: Eradicating sexual violence means addressing the root causes and effects of the housing and unemployment crisis, war and imperialism, education inequality, reproductive healthcare, immigration and border control, mass incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline, among other intersecting issues. With this in mind, we are cultivating a multi-sectoral, multi-racial, and multi-gender united effort to end sexual violence through our Survivors’ Agenda coalition.

We are also convening a global network of gender-based violence organizers to work together to interrupt violence across the Global South.

ERADICATING SEXUAL VIOLENCE MEANS ADDRESSING THE ROOT CAUSES AND EFFECTS PAGE 41

Electoral Justice and Political Organizing: Survivors are not viewed as a voting bloc with political interests to whom candidates or elected leaders have to be accountable to. We, survivors, have the opportunity in each midterm and general election cycle − up and down the ballot − to fight to defend survivors’ rights. In anchoring the Survivor’s Vote initiative, we are organizing survivors and ensuring that our political interests shape local, state, and national elections, as well as ballot fights.

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IN ANCHORING THE SURVIVOR’S VOTE INITIATIVE, WE ARE ORGANIZING SURVIVORS AND ENSURING THAT OUR POLITICAL INTERESTS SHAPE LOCAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL ELECTIONS As well as ballot f ights

RESOURCE GENERATION THAT CHANGES MATERIAL CONDITIONS FOR SURVIVORS Philanthropy, as well as government agencies, have long been a fiscally conservative field that values metrics over movement. Part of the function of this Framework is to organize the philanthropic community, leveraging our individual platforms to raise and distribute substantial funds to the work of survivor justice. We see our role as a growing conduit between local, regional, and national organizations so that they/we have the resources to ideate, experiment, and implement new strategies to address sexual violence as a global, public health crisis.

violence’ or ‘crime prevention.’

Unfortunately, nonprofit organizations that focus specifically on sexual violence struggle to get attention from philanthropy. Many funders do not have an analysis for sexual violence within their strategic understanding of social justice movement work, at all. This is one of the myriad reasons we were compelled to create and share this framework.

When giving for Black women and girls is factored in, specifically, who receive just 0.5% of the $66.9 billion given by foundations in the U.S., the percentage going to sexual violence experienced

by Black women and girls is horrifyingly small.17

Funding for survivors of sexual violence and community education to combat sexual harm, is mostly contained to small, inadequate grants for government agencies that broadly address this issue; for example, ‘domestic

In 2018, Tarana Burke and the inaugural ‘me too.’ team worked with New York Women’s Foundation to create The Fund for the Me Too Movement and Allies, which provided

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$1 million dollars to organizations working to fight sexual violence in their communities. In the wake of #metoo going viral, supporters donated a momentary influx of funds to support the disruption of the rape culture status quo. Much of those donations went to mainstream, national organizations. When the viral moment passed, money shifted away from the survivor justice field, as the philanthropic community broadly continues to struggle to understand the issue of sexual violence, and has not prioritized the work of grassroots, BIPOC, women and femme organizations working to end sexual violence. In its place, each year, we set aside a portion of our budget to provide small grants to grassroots organizations as we organize the broader philanthropic community to take seriously the work of survivor justice in their portfolios.

Organizational Infrastructure That Reflects the Workplace Culture Survivors Deserve: At me too. International, we believe that action needs to happen both internally and externally. We are an organization committed to bringing survivor justice, and the values and principles that align with that framework, into our organization. We are committed to developing protocols, practices, resources, and a workplace culture that prioritizes our staff’s healing and their individual political action.

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AT ME TOO. INTERNATIONAL, OUR WORK SPRINGS FROM A DEEP LOVE AND COMMITMENT TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED SEXUAL VIOLENCE. BECAUSE OF OUR COMMITMENT TO ALL SURVIVORS, WE GROUND OUR WORK IN AN ANTI-CAPITALIST, ANTI-PATRIARCHAL, ANTI-RACIST, ANTI-CASTE, ANTI-HOMOPHOBIA, ANTI-TRANSPHOBIA, ANTI-ABLEISM, AND SURVIVOR JUSTICE LENS.

OUR GUIDING POLITICS, VALUES, AND PRINCIPLES We are Committed to Abolishing Patriarchal Violence.

Patriarchy is a social system that situates cis-gendered men and masculinity in positions of power in all sectors of society − at the exclusion of all other genders. From this imbalance of power, the gender binary (man and woman, feminine and masculine) has been imposed on communities around the world through colonization, imperialism, enslavement and widespread misinformation leading to various forms of oppression, marginalization, and misogyny.

For it to exist and thrive, the system of patriarchy relies on certain harmful cultural norms and practices being normalized and seen as “appropriate.” The required adherence to these norms and practices is called “patriarchal violence.”

Sexual violence is one practice wielded by patriarchal figures and those attempting to gain and/or trade power to force vulnerable populations into submission. Forced or coerced sexual acts, or, non-contact acts of a sexual nature have been used to:

Patriarchy exists in our governmental structures, institutions, economic system, and dynamics between individuals. While it primarily benefits white cis-gendered men, we believe all genders (including cis-gendered men) contributes to, and is impacted by, patriarchy.

1. Socialize women, children, disabled people, and LGBTQIA+ people into believing they are inferior within their family, community, work environment, and society

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We are Committed to Fighting for a World where White Supremacy, Anti-Indigeneity, Anti-Blackness, and Caste Systems Do NOT Exist.

2. Train boys to become “men” 3. “Win” wars by forcing vulnerable communities to engage in sexual activity as an insult to the opposition and to destroy the fabric of communities 4. Gain profit and power through the trafficking of children and adults

Racism stems from the belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, distinguishing them as “inferior” or “superior” to one another.

5. Control the dress and actions of children in school and social situations 6. Justify political actions (e.g., increase police and prison budgets, widespread abortion bans and transexclusionary laws)

White supremacy says that people with European ancestry (Anglo Saxons, specifically) are a superior race of people; therefore, they should control every economic, societal, environmental, land, and communal decisions.

And, so much more …

We believe patriarchy is a social system that breeds the violence that undergirds survivors’ traumatic experiences. Therefore ‘me too.’ is committed to dismantling patriarchy and patriarchal violence.

Furthermore, the ideologies of anti-blackness and antiindigeneity further strip Black and Indigenous people of their humanity. As capitalism says, “you don’t have access

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to your body,” anti-blackness and anti-indigeneity further isolate Black and Indigenous people from their right to choice and safety. The societal systems that govern the U.S. are embedded with these oppressive doctrines. The backbone of most humancreated atrocities like the enslavement of African peoples, global genocidal efforts against Indigenous people throughout the Americas, and ongoing genocide in modern history is fueled or sanctioned by the ideologies and actions of racism and white supremacy.

Caste Apartheid in South Asia, Myanmar, Uighur, Guatemala, El Salvador, and so many more contexts where sexual violence is weaponized for the power of the few over the many.

In many of these contexts, millions of survivors have yet to receive justice and healing and white supremacist forces align with the local caste, tribal, and ethnic hierarchies for the mutual benefit of power. For these survivors to receive justice and pathways to healing, we must dismantle the local nexus of power; as well as hold accountable the global power that supports the continuation of this violence.

Similarly, the establishment of caste systems and tribal and ethnic hierarchies serve the same function − to say that a minority of people are human and the majority are not.

These ideologies and social structures are used to justify and carry out the work of those with privilege and power to exploit bodies and land to grab power and increase profit.

This includes survivors who are speaking out in Ethiopia,

While sexual violence can and does happen to everyone regardless of their racial, ethnic, or tribal identity, it is a fact that sexual violence happens at alarming rates to Black, Indigenous, and people of color worldwide.

And access to who gets to be a survivor, who is believed, and who gets to receive services is shaped by who is thought to be fully human and deserving.

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Furthermore, due to racism and white supremacy, survivors of color that come forward are met with horrendous responses from the state and their communities.

Without dismantling white supremacy, racism, antiBlackness, casteism, and anti-indigeneity from our communities, there is no protection for all survivors.

It is because of this that we at me too. International are unapologetic about ending racism, centering the voices and leadership of Black − and other survivors of color − who have carried the brunt of sexual violence.

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We are Committed to Ending Capitalism.

Survivors are workers across industries and economic statuses. We are coal miners, janitors, sex workers, actors and artists, politicians, nonprofit members, and corporate executives. Capitalism and the economic uncertainty and distress that comes from it limit the choices survivors have to find resources to escape from violent situations and get healing.

Capitalism is an economic and financial system that exploits the labor of all workers, especially Black, Indigenous, poor people, people with no income, people in the underground economic system, homeless, and migrant people, to build wealth for the ruling class. Capitalism also extracts from the planet and, through ecological distress, causes more climate disasters that provide further instability for workers.

At me too. International, we believe that safety for all survivors is only possible if a social net exists that ensures all people have free and highquality housing, reproductive care, health care, food, water, universal income, and education systems.

For capitalism to thrive, culture is produced through media and other means to train the masses from birth to sacrifice their boundaries, needs, and desires to conform to the wishes of an authoritative figure. Capitalism also normalizes a culture of violence and exploitation, which teaches people seeking power and privilege that forcing, coercing, and exploiting labor (like sexual labor) from another person is appropriate.

Capitalism does not offer the most life-affirming choices that survivors deserve.

Furthermore, capitalism is directly linked to a culture that sanctions rape and rape culture. Because of this, we uphold an anti-capitalist lens.

It needs to be dismantled and replaced with a new economic system to ensure survivors have the resources they deserve.

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We are Committed to Fighting for a World Where Homophobia and Transphobia Do Not Exist.

We have adopted a Black, trans-affirming feminist lens because we are committed to foregrounding Black cisgender, transgender, and gender non-conforming survivors’ experiences, expertise, and visions for collective healing and action for a world free from sexual violence.

Freedom from sexual violence requires dismantling antiBlack, cis-heteropatriarchy − a kaleidoscope of power imbalances between people and groups − created through historical, interlocking systems of domination based on race, gender, sexuality, sexism, class, and more. AntiBlack, cis-heteropatriarchy is a cultural, political, and economic system of power imbalances that shape how survivors experience sexual violence and the roads (and roadblocks) to healing. This system impacts all survivors, but differently.

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Black queer and trans survivors’ experiences of violence and the aftermaths of violence form a unique tapestry. The journey for Black queer and trans safety and healing are fundamental to building a world free from sexual violence for all of us − not some of us.

Queer and trans-affirming spaces to individually and collectively heal, organize, and lead are crucial within the survivor justice movement and the future world. We aim to address the inequitable distribution of impacts, differing conditions for sexual violence, and disaffirming pathways to healing experienced by these communities.

We are Committed to Fighting for a World Where Every Person’s Body (All Sizes, Shapes, and Disability Types) are Protected.

These numbers are staggering.

And instead of receiving accessible and culturally responsive support that respects their autonomy and choice, people with disabilities and different body types are often met with words like:

Our communities are not safe until survivors of all disabilities and body types can live free from ableism and fatphobia.

The laws, policies, practices, and cultural institutions that govern the U.S. are guided by an oppressive belief that people with disabilities and people with body types that are deemed socially unacceptable (e.g., “fat”, “thick,” or “anorexic”) are inferior − and therefore, do not have an inherent right to autonomy and choice. This oppressive belief system increases the likelihood of people subjected to ableism and fatphobia experiencing sexual violence and decreases the chances of them being seen, protected, and resourced in their survivorship.

“Why did you say no? You should feel grateful that someone desires you.”

“We don’t have resources or support customized for someone like you.”

These forms of systemic and inhumane responses encourage a culture of silence by disabled survivors of sexual violence. These prejudices exclude persons with diverse bodies from being able to be seen as survivors and, therefore, access lifeaffirming resources.

Survivors receiving the resources they need is at stake if we − as the survivor justice movement − do not adopt an anti-ableism and anti-fatphobia lens to our work.

In the United States, 61% of people with disabilities reported being sexually assaulted in their lifetime.18

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We are Committed to Creating New Systems of Justice that Serve all Survivors.

caused harm have found treatment in prison systems, even more people are killed, abused, incarcerated, and further traumatized when they engage with police and prison institutions.

Survivors of violence have been told the lie that police and prisons are the only systems that can keep our communities safe from sexual violence. Yet, these same systems were not created to provide restorative programs (at best) and reproduce sexual violence and rape culture (at worst).

We envision a world where survivors can access traumainformed and culturally relevant healing resources. A world where community healing is normalized and persons who commit harm receive the help necessary for self-restoration and future prevention of sexual violence.

Sexual violence, in the simplest definition, is the absence of consent. As an organization, we affirm a survivor’s right to choose what justice means for them on their pathway to healing.

Finally, we are committed to supporting existing frameworks and creating new models of accountability to transform the conditions which manifest sexual violence in our global communities. We do this because we know that locking people into cages, statistically, does very little to keep survivors safe longterm. We firmly believe that the divestment from the lucrative business of policing and incarceration needs to happen to create those new models and ensure everyone can access and benefit from them.

And we are explicitly fighting for more tangible, restorative, and transformative options that both survivors and persons who commit harm can access that are not grounded in harmful, punitive measures like police and prisons. While some survivors of sexual violence have been able to access safety through state intervention and some people who have

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And that instead of those systems, resources should be reallocated to high-quality and affordable therapy, sex education for all ages, shelters, clinics, transformative justice models, and other proven community-led safety models.

s e l p i c n i r P g n i d i Gu a n d Va l u e s : Ending sexual violence for all means dismantling oppressive structures and investing in new ways of being with each other systemically, as a society.

While we are clear about what we don’t want and what has been harmful to us, the question of where we go next happens within community discussion, political alignment, and ongoing practice.

As an organization, we are committed to operating within a set of life-affirming politics, values, and guiding principles.

We believe embodying our values and inviting our members, movement partners, and allies to do the same will get us one step closer to a world without sexual violence.

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The guiding principles of me too. International are: We affirm that me too.

International is led by and for survivors of sexual violence.

We affirm that me too.

International welcomes all survivors of the spectrum of sexual violence and their supporters.

We affirm that me too. takes leadership from Black, Indigenous, People of Color, poor, queer, and others who are most marginalized.

We affirm that me too.

International uses an intersectional approach to ending sexual violence. We are committed to articulating the problem and a vision in a way that includes all survivors and grapples with multiple axes of oppression like patriarchy, classism, racism, homophobia, ableism, and other forms of violence.

including but not limited to: transgender and gender nonconforming people of color, disabled persons, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, young people of color, undocumented people, lesbian, gay, and queer people, Black women and girls, Latinx women and girls, Indigenous women and girls, Pacific-Island women and girls, Asian, South Asian, and Southeast Asian women and girls especially the caste oppressed from these communities, African women and girls, men and boys of color, and all people from lowwealth communities.

We affirm that empowerment comes through empathy as an engine for healing and collective action.

Empowerment through empathy is a radical recognition of the connection between survivors that confirms that we have experience(s) with shared roots that connect us. Survivors are empowered to heal, learn, and organize for social change through an empathetic connection to each other.

We affirm that ‘me too.’ highlights sexual violence against historically underserved and multimarginalized communities, PAGE 57

We affirm that me too.

International rejects othering and distancing oneself from other survivors, whether it’s how they respond to sexual violence in their life or how their various identities differ from one’s own identities.

of growth, grounding, and reconnection between body, mind, spirit, and community.

We believe there are many tools of healing and pathways to post-traumatic growth.

We affirm that interrupting sexual violence requires addressing the various ways in which sexual violence is entangled with patriarchy, racism, ableism, cissexism, imperialism, colonization, and other systems of oppression.

We affirm that survivors control when, where, and how they disclose their experience, if at all.

We affirm that survivors have an inherent right to respect, bodily autonomy, and selfdetermination. This is the inherent dignity that we all have as human beings.

We affirm survivors have a right to healing and coping from their traumatic experiences free from criminalization, and that it is our institution’s responsibility to provide life affirming, healthy, and culturally responsive resources to all survivors.

We affirm survivor healing as the core of the Survivor Justice Movement. We value survivor healing as a self-directed, individual and communal endeavor. Survivor healing happens in a community with others where survivors have self-empathy and shared empathy within their communities.

We affirm that there is no “one size fits all” solution. Different survivors with various identities and backgrounds deserve culturally relevant resources and support.

We affirm that survivors have the right to choice in their healing journey, as an act of reclaiming power. This is an ongoing, non-linear process

We affirm that we need a broad-based, multi-racial and multi-tactical Survivor Justice Movement comprised of survivors and allies to end PAGE 58

sexual violence. Creating organizations inside and outside the legal apparatus is necessary to sustain this work.

We affirm the importance of community healing; or, survivor-centered and community-based action in interrupting sexual violence.

Grassroots power is necessary to end how sexual violence impacts communities across the globe.

We affirm that long-term, systemic radical change is possible and that collectively we have all we need to end this crisis.

Lastly, we are committed to evolving and sharpening our political analysis through ref lection, feedback, and experimentation. As a leader in the Survivor Justice Movement, we lean into our expertise and humility to build a global, survivor-led movement to end sexual violence.

We affirm survivors’ knowledge, experiences, and skills as strengths and do not engage a deficient view of survivors. We instead view the multiple gaps in services, policy, resources, research, and more as indicative of the fault of our societal systems.

We affirm the need to address sexual violence in homes, schools, workplaces, religious institutions, foster care facilities, prisons, and everywhere people are harmed.

We affirm cultural and societal shifts away from survivor shaming, blaming, silencing, isolating, misgendering, and other forms of intimidation.

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!

TO OUR ALLIES, WITH URGENCY

A letter to our Allies with urgency.

represents our offering to the world − to answer not only the “what” but also the “why” of me too. International.

We have worked for four years to build our foundation − At the Core of Us: The me too.

International Framework − having evolved the language from an internal framing we established in creating the me too. International organization.

There have been many minds contributing to what has been shared here. We hope you have been made clear on why and how we do the work of interrupting sexual violence; why we begin with the needs and demands of survivors; why we center Black women and girls, alongside all marginalized communities; why we operate with urgency; and why it will take all of us to end the public health crisis that is sexual violence.

Tarana and I co-founded me too. International in 2018 to undergird the work of ‘me too.’

Movement with her vision for a world free from sexual violence.

We have heard from groups across the globe seeking to be in community together and we felt the responsibility to answer their call. We are a young organization, built on a solid foundation, and this framework

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We have all witnessed

in the years to come. Our success in releasing our social and political foundation to survivors, advocates, and allies is measured by the ongoing work it fortifies and the calls to action that it inspires. We hope to see the ‘me too.’ Movement grow in the wake of this framework’s release and look forward to joining you both in the virtual and physical streets!

the co-opting of #MeToo for political or social gain, and the many who are still committed to misunderstanding our work.

No matter what they attempt to say about the ‘me too.’

Movement, the reality is that the hashtag was a pivotal, revolutionary moment built upon decades of organizing around the fight to end sexual violence. The me too.

International organization is going Beyond the Hashtag to push this global conversation forward and demand the conditions required to reimagine safety in our communities.

If you feel called to action after reading this framework, we invite you to take action with us and survivors in the following ways: 1. Dive into your healing journey and support the healing journey of survivors you know.

2. Join our community of survivors and allies taking action in their local communities by texting METOOACTION to 24020.

In completing this framework, we are already collecting more data and elements to add for the next edition. This document will live in a rapidly shifting world, requiring updates

3. Share the framework with a survivor or ally in your life.

In solidarity, Dani Ayers | CEO, me too. International

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WE HOPE TO SEE THE ‘ME TOO.’ MOVEMENT GROW AND LOOK FORWARD TO JOINING YOU BOTH IN THE VIRTUAL AND PHYSICAL STREETS! PAGE 63

GLOSSARY GLOSSARY GLOSSARY GLOSSARY

01.

Ableism: “​​Ableism refers to bias, prejudice, and discrimination against people with disabilities. It hinges on the idea that people with disabilities are less valuable than nondisabled people.” (Source: Medical News Today)

02.

Adultification/Age compression: “[Adultification is a] term used… to refer to the perception of Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than white girls of the same age.” (Source: Rebecca Epstein, Jamila J. Blake, and Thalia Gonzalez’ Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls’ Childhood)

03.

Ally: A supporter of a community, in theory, this includes private acts of support, reading about the issue of that community, and or, extending empathy to said community.

04.

Black Feminism: “Black feminism, itself, resists easy definition.

There are many versions of it, each of them doing very different, important kinds of work. Still, for the sake of clarity, “Black feminism,” here, refers to robust efforts to generate, continue, and/or promote activism, advocacy, research and/or theory that might change the current plight of Black people, specifically cis and trans* Black women, girls, and gender-nonconforming people.” (Source: Kristie Dotson’s Between Rocks and Hard Places: Introducing Black Feminist Professional Philosophy)

05.

Bodily autonomy: The ability to govern one’s own body and exercise their agency over every choice related to their body.

06.

Capitalism: An economic and political system in which individuals and corporations privately own the means of production and distribution.

07.

Cisgender people: “[Cisgender is] an adjective used to describe people who are not transgender. “Cis-” is a Latin prefix meaning “on the same side as,” and is therefore an antonym of “trans-.” A cisgender person is a person whose gender identity is aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth.” (Source: GLAAD) PAGE 65

08.

Cisheteropatriarchy: Cisheteropatriarchy is a social, political, and economic system in which cisgender and heterosexual people (especially cisgender, heterosexual men) have power to dictate, exploit, exclude, and otherwise benefit from the organized oppression of transgender, gender non-conforming, asexual, and queer people (especially people with the capacity to gestate).

09.

Co-conspirator: A person whose supports extend beyond private acts of support for a specific community and chooses to work alongside that community.

10.

Consent: Consent is communicated permission, voluntarily expressed through words and body language, for some action to occur or continue. Every person has a right to withhold, amend, or revoke sexual consent as they determine.

11.

C ybercrimes: violent activities carried out by means of computers or the internet.

12.

Digital Violence: An act of violence perpetrated by one or more individuals that is rooted in gender inequality and gendered norms and that is committed, assisted, aggravated, and amplified in part or fully by the use of information and communication technologies or digital media, against a person on the basis of their gender. (Source: United Nations Population Fund.

Reporting Tip sheet on Digital Violence)

13.

irect Service Organization: An organization that provides services D directly to a population. This is distinct from organizations seeking to change social conditions.

14.

Doxxing: Intentionally searching for an individual’s personal information or an organization’s internal work for the purpose of exposing the individual or organization on the internet. Information may include legal names, home addresses, financial statements, and other sensitive information.

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15.

Electoral Justice: Ensuring that procedures related to elections are carried out fairly and legally. In addition, this includes supporting voters who believe their electoral rights have been violated.

16.

Empathy: Empathy is the act of understanding and connecting to another person’s experience(s) and feeling(s) with kindness and genuineness

17.

Femicide: femicide describes hate crimes toward women and girls because of their gender.

18.

Gender non-conforming people: “[Gender non-conforming is] a term used to describe people whose gender expression differs from conventional expectations of masculinity and femininity.” (Source: GLAAD)

19.

G rooming: The intentional act of establishing a relationship and emotional connection with a child in order to manipulate them.

20.

H arassment: Any form of repeated unwelcomed actions toward a person that causes mental and or emotional distress.

21.

H arm Reduction: Tactics and strategies to reduce the impact of socially harmful behaviors. This term originated in relation to reducing the harmful effects of drug use.

22.

Incest: Sexual intercourse between family members or close relatives.

Incest is a crime.

23.

Intersectionality: Coined by legal scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, intersectionality is a Black feminist theory of group discrimination as a complex phenomenon best analyzed with a view of multiple overlapping, or intersecting, systems of oppression (like cissexism, racism, and classism), rather than a singular view of one system of oppression as the primary (or only) form of discrimination for a group

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24.

I ntracommunal Violence: violence that happens at the hands of yours in your own community. (Source: Beth Richie)

25.

M arginalized communities: Marginalized communities are groups of people who experience systematic social, political, and/or economic exclusion and discrimination relative to some majority groups, who hold significant social, political, and economic power.

26.

M ass incarceration: Describes the overpopulation, and overuse of prions as a result of the prison industrial complex which uses prisons as a lucrative form of profit.

27.

Misogynoir: The anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience, particularly in US visual and digital culture.1 Misogynoir is not simply the racism that Black women encounter, nor is it the misogyny Black women negotiate. Misogynoir describes the uniquely co-constitutive racialized and sexist violence that befalls Black women as a result of their simultaneous and interlocking oppression at the intersection of racial and gender marginalization. (Misogynoir Transformed by Moya Bailey)

28.

P atriarchal violence: Patriarchal Violence (PV) is an interconnected system of institutions, practices, policies, beliefs, and behaviors that harm, undervalues, and terrorize girls, women, femme, intersex, gender non conforming, LGBTQ, and other gender oppressed people in our communities. PV is a widespread, normalized epidemic based on the domination, control, and colonizing of bodies, genders, and sexualities, happening in every community globally. PV is a global power structure and manifests on the systemic, institutional, interpersonal and internalized level. It is rooted in interlocking systems of oppression. (Black Feminist Future)

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29.

Philanthropy: the desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes.

30.

Post-traumatic growth: Post-traumatic growth is defined as the positive psychological change that is experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances” (Calhoun and Tedeschi, 1996).

31.

ape: “Rape is when a person uses force, threat, coercion or R manipulation to make another person engage in sexual intercourse.” (source: Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape)

32.

Rape Culture: (a.) Rape culture are the subtle beliefs embedded in the way we think, speak, and act that normalize sexual entitlement and violence; de-prioritizing consent; it exists everywhere. (b.)

“Rape culture is an environment or a culture in which rape and sexual violence is normalized due to the societal attitudes and actions about gender and sexuality. Such a culture extends from rape jokes, casual sexism, acceptance of toxic masculinity, victim blaming, and violent acts against women.” (Source: Feminism India)

33.

Revenge porn: The act of posting or sharing sexually explicit images or videos of an individual, usually a former intimate partner without their permission to embarrass them or cause mental anguish.

34.

Settler colonization and colonialism: Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one group of people over another people. It describes the process of European settlement, violent dispossession and political domination over the Americas, Australia, and parts of Africa and Asia. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

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35.

Sexual Harm: Any type of non-consensual sexual activity; can include sexual harassment, physical touch, rape, and online acts.

36.

Spectrum: A term used to describe the classification of a thing between two extremes.

37.

Survivor’s Agenda: A coalition of organizations who believe that survivors should be the ones shaping the national conversation on sexual violence. Survivors’ Agenda is moving forward a vision of survivor justice that precedes their work, and one that will continue for decades to come. Survivors’ Agenda began its work in 2020, committed to how it lays the foundation for future movement building, policy change, narrative shifts, and accountability efforts over the long term. (Source: https://survivorsagenda.org/)

38.

Survivor justice: Is an expansion of the work of the anti-rape movement that uses a wider lens to look at the issue of sexual violence beyond just a criminal issue that affects individuals but a social justice issue that impacts society at large. Survivor Justice takes into account all of the ways survivors of sexual violence are affected because of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, immigration status or economic standing.

39.

Systemic oppression: The intentional disadvantaging of groups of people based on their identity (gender, race, class, sexual orientation, language, etc.) while advantaging members of the dominant group.

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40.

Transformative Justice: Transformative Justice (TJ) is a political framework and approach for responding to violence, harm and abuse. At its most basic, it seeks to respond to violence without creating more violence and/or engaging in harm reduction to lessen the violence. TJ can be thought of as a way of “making things right,” getting in “right relation,” or creating justice together. Transformative justice responses and interventions 1) do not rely on the state (e.g. police, prisons, the criminal legal system, I.C.E., foster care system (though some TJ responses do rely on or incorporate social services like counseling); 2) do not reinforce or perpetuate violence such as oppressive norms or vigilantism; and most importantly, 3) actively cultivate the things we know prevent violence such as healing, accountability, resilience, and safety for all involved.

(Source: www.Transform Harm.org)

41.

Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/ or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.

(Human Rights Campaign)

42.

Transphobia/Cissexism: An irrational fear, disdain or discrimination of transgender people . A systematic prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination against queer and trans people on the basis of perceived gender non conformity.

43.

V ictim-blaming: Saying or implying that a victim of a violent or abusive act is the cause for the abuse.

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APPENDIX 01.

https://data.unwomen.org/publications/vaw-rga

02.

https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/Publications_NSVRC_Factsheet_ What-is-sexual-violence_1.pdf

03.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/12/1018222/deepfake-revengeporn-coming-ban/

04.

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem

05.

AMES, S. E., HERMAN, J. L., RANKIN, S., KEISLING, M., MOTTET, L., & ANAFI, M. J (2016). THE REPORT OF THE 2015 U.S. TRANSGENDER SURVEY. WASHINGTON, DC: NATIONAL CENTER FOR TRANSGENDER EQUALITY.

06.

LACK, M. C., BASILE, K. C., BREIDING, M. J., SMITH, S .G., WALTERS, M. L., B MERRICK, M. T., STEVENS, M. R. (2011). THE NATIONAL INTIMATE PARTNER AND SEXUAL VIOLENCE SURVEY (NISVS): 2010 SUMMARY REPORT. RETRIEVED FROM THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION, NATIONAL CENTER FOR INJURY PREVENTION AND CONTROL

07.

ENDSEXUALVIOLENCECT.ORG

08.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT

09.

ENDLE, J., LEVE, L. D., VAN RYZIN, M., NATSUAKI, M. N., GE, X. (2011).

M ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN EARLY LIFE STRESS, CHILD MALTREATMENT, AND PUBERTAL DEVELOPMENT AMONG GIRLS IN FOSTER CARE. JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, 21, 871-880.

10.

NURSINGHOMEABUSECENTER.COM

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11.

https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/2016-01/saam_2016_impact-ofsexual-violence.pdf

12.

VERA.ORG

13.

https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/77th2013/Exhibits/Assembly/JUD/ AJUD338L.pdf

14.

NATIONAL POLICE MISCONDUCT REPORTING PROJECT

15.

https://everytownresearch.org/report/guns-and-violence-againstwomen-americas-uniquely-lethal-intimate-partner-violenceproblem/?_gl=1*19ivoml*_ga*NDcxMDUwOTc5LjE2NjQ0MjgzNjc.*_ga_ LT0FWV3EK3*MTY2NDQyODM2OC4xLjEuMTY2NDQyODQ0My4wLjAuMA

16.

PETERSON C, DEGUE S, FLORENCE C, LOKEY CN. LIFETIME ECONOMIC BURDEN OF RAPE AMONG U.S. ADULTS. AM J PREV MED. 2017 JUN;52(6):691-701. DOI: 10.1016/J.AMEPRE.2016.11.014. EPUB 2017 JAN 30.

17.

https://forwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Pocket-Change-Report.pdf

18.

2015 US TRANSGENDER SURVEY REPORT, NATIONAL CENTER FOR TRANSGENDER EQUALITY (NCTE)

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