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Georgia Advocate Appalled by Sen. Chambliss’ Comments on Military Sexual Assault

June 5th, 2013

Controversial remarks on sexual assaults in the military made by Georgia U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss Tuesday aren’t sitting well with the head of a local organization dedicated to preventing sexual assaults. The comments were made during a Senate Armed Services committee hearing with military leaders.

During the committee hearing, Chambliss spoke out against a growing number of sexual assaults in the armed forces.

“…guys, we’re not doing our job. You’re not doing yours, and we’re not doing ours with the rates that we are seeing on sexual assaults as I said to start with, you recognize it, we recognize it, and we’ve got to figure this thing out because we simply can’t tolerate it.”

But when speaking about making changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice … Chambliss also made comments which have been criticized on the Internet, by Democratic leaders and those working to prevent sexual assaults.

“… the young folks that are coming in to each of your services are anywhere from 17-22 or 23, gee whiz. The level, the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur. So we’ve got to be very careful in how we address it on our side…”

Those words are appalling to Jennifer Bivins. She’s president and CEO of the Georgia Network to End Sexual Assault.

“That’s the kind of comments that totally, basically tear down any work that anyone that’s in the sexual violence community has done to really shed light on sexual violence.”

And Bivins says research doesn’t support the Senator’s comments.

“Homones have nothing to do nothing to do with someone committing sexual violence. Sexual violence is about attempting to gain power and control over another individual.”

Bivins says Chambliss should apologize. She says the senator and a number of other elected officials need to be educated about sexual assault.

In a statement, Chambliss says, “Sexual assault is a deplorable crime that has no place in our military or in our society. I will continue work with my Senate colleagues and the leaders of the Department of Defense to ensure we solve this problem. While we cannot simply pass a law and expect military sexual assault to disappear, we can ensure that military commanders and the chain of command take the appropriate actions to change the culture of the military, to prevent sexual assault from ever occurring, and to guarantee the guilty are punished.”