Christine Blasey Ford Has Been Nominated for UNC Distinguished Alumna Award
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, one of the three women who accused Supreme Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, has been nominated for a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Distinguished Alumna Award for “speaking truth to power,” according to CNN.
“What Dr. Blasey Ford did on September 27, 2018 was something that was extraordinary in how ordinary it was: she told the truth about a sexual assault she experienced when she was fifteen years old at the hands of Judge Brett Kavanaugh,” wrote University of North Carolina English professor Dr. Jennifer Ho in the letter she wrote to nominate Ford.
“We live in a society that does not believe women,” Ho wrote. “The many indignities that women experience in their day-to-day lives is proof of this, as is the continued attacks on Dr. Blasey Ford after her testimony. We know that people who are survivors of sexual assault do not experience justice for their trauma; we know that many of them choose not to report to the police and choose not to reveal their assault out of fear that they will not be believed.”
“Dr. Blasey Ford giving her testimony, speaking truth to power, was an inspiration for so many of us,” Ho wrote. “Her accomplishment is to be an alumna of integrity, who despite great personal cost to herself and her family told her story of her sexual assault and emboldened others to also find the courage to speak out against injustice.”
To read the full letter, click here.
Ford, who graduated from UNC with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1988, accused a then-17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh of drunkenly attempting to sexually assault her along with his friend Mark Judge at a high school party in 1982.
Christine Blasey Ford nominated for Distinguished Alumna award at alma mater https://t.co/ioOgg8JaSI pic.twitter.com/EQeoYO8CjD
— The Hill (@thehill) October 9, 2018
Dr. Ford willingly appeared in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and gave testimony about her experience that even the president found “credible” before going on to mock her in front of a crowd at a rally in Mississippi.
Both Ford and Kavanaugh testified in front of the Committee, prompting the call for a week-long investigation to dig deeper into Ford’s accusations against Kavanaugh before the Senate pushed Kavanaugh through and confirmed him with a 52-48 vote on Saturday.
Kavanaugh has denied all of the allegations against him.
According to the University of North Carolina awards web page, nominees for the award need to have made “an outstanding contribution to humanity in any walk of life” and must be nominated by the October 15 deadline.
