Amanda Nguyen

Amanda N. Nguyen[1] (born c. 1991)[2][3] is the founder and president of Rise.[2] She was the power behind the Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act.

Education and career

Nguyen earned a Bachelor of Arts and Science at Harvard University, graduating in 2013.[1][4]

She interned at NASA in 2013,[5][6][7] and has also worked at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.[8] She worked as the Deputy White House Liaison for the U.S. Department of State.[2][4] She left her job at the State Department in 2016 in order to work full-time at Rise.[9] She is currently training to become an astronaut.[4][8][10][11]

Activism

Rise

In 2013, Nguyen was raped while she was in college in Massachusetts.[2][5][12] Nguyen chose not to press charges immediately since she did not feel she had the necessary time and resources to participate in a trial that could potentially last for years.[13][14] After police officers informed her there was a 15-year statute of limitations for rape in Massachusetts, she decided she would press charges at a later date when she was ready.[15] She had a rape kit performed and discovered that, if she did not report the crime to law enforcement, her rape kit would be destroyed after 6 months if an extension request was not filed.[5][10][16] This was despite the statute of limitations for rape being 15 years.[10] She was also not given official instructions on how to file for an extension.[2] Nguyen considered this system to be broken, partially because the extension request would be an unnecessary reminder of a traumatising experience.[5][10] Nguyen met other survivors with similar stories and concluded that the current legal protections were insufficient.[10]

In November 2014,[17] Nguyen founded Rise, a nonprofit organisation which aimed to protect the civil rights of sexual assault and rape survivors.[4][5][10] Nguyen headed the organisation in her spare time[11][17] until September 2016.[9] Everyone who works with Rise is a volunteer,[8] so the organisation has raised money through GoFundMe.[2] Nguyen explained that the organisation was named Rise to "remind us that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can rise up and change the world."[10] Nguyen's aim is for Rise to successfully pass a Sexual Assault Survivor Bill of Rights in all 50 U.S. states as well as on the national level.[2] She has also travelled to Japan where a similar bill was presented.[9][14]

Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights Act

In July 2015,[13] Nguyen met with New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen in order to discuss legislation that would protect survivor rights on the federal level.[5] Legislation that Nguyen had helped draft was introduced to Congress in February 2016 by Shaheen.[2][5] Nguyen collaborated with Change.org and comedy website Funny or Die in order to draw attention to the legislation and encourage voters to support it.[18] Nguyen launched a Change.org petition that called on Congress to pass the legislation.[17] The Funny or Die video and Change.org petition received support from Judd Apatow and Patricia Arquette on Twitter.[19] As of 28 February 2016, the Change.org petition gained 60,000 of the 75,000 requested signatures.[17] By October 2016, there were more than 100,000 signatures.[20]

The bill passed through the Senate in May[2] and the House of Representatives in September.[13] It passed unanimously in both chambers of Congress,[2][13] and was signed into law in October 2016 by President Barack Obama.[2][4][5][6] The new law protects, among other rights, the right to have the evidence of a rape kit preserved without charge for the duration of the statute of limitations.[5]

On October 12, 2017, California's Gov. Brown approved AB-1312.[21]

Recognition

Nguyen was the recipient of a Young Women's Honors Award by Marie Claire magazine in 2016.[22] Nguyen was named on Foreign Policy magazine's list of the leading global thinkers in 2016,[6] and was featured on Forbes' 2017 "30 Under 30" Law & Policy list.[5] She was an invited speaker at the 2017 Women's March on Washington.[5] In 2018, she was nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize.[23]

Personal life

Nguyen's home state is California,[19] and she currently resides in Washington, D.C.[2][4]

References

  1. 1 2 "Students Help Draft Sexual Assault Legislation". The Harvard Crimson. 19 January 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 "How a 24-Year-Old Rape Survivor Is Pushing Congress to Change the Way the U.S. Handles Sexual Assault". People. 30 August 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  3. ↑ "Who Is Amanda Nguyen? The Young Women's Honoree Worked With President Obama To Protect American Women". Bustle. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Amanda Nguyen". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "'30 Under 30' Honoree Amanda Nguyen Is Fighting for Sexual Assault Survivors' Rights". NBC News. 2 February 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  6. 1 2 3 "Global Thinkers 2016: Amanda Nguyen". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  7. ↑ "Rising Stars 2017: Advocates". Roll Call. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  8. 1 2 3 "Rape survivors have fewer rights than you'd think. Amanda Nguyen is trying to change that". The Boston Globe. 7 April 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  9. 1 2 3 "Sexual Assault Bill Author Encourages Youth Activism". The Harvard Crimson. 25 October 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ""Navigating the broken system was worse than the rape itself"". The New York Times. 4 February 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  11. 1 2 "Meet the 24-year-old who could change how the US handles sexual assaults". The Guardian. 23 February 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  12. ↑ "The woman behind the sexual-assault survivor 'bill of rights'". PBS. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  13. 1 2 3 4 "How One Victim's Fight Got Sexual Assault Bill to Obama". Roll Call. 7 October 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  14. 1 2 "24-Year-Old Rape Survivor Is Pushing Congress to Pass Sexual Assault Survivor Bill of Rights". Time. 7 September 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  15. ↑ "Obama Expected To Sign Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill Of Rights Into Law". NPR. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  16. ↑ "To combat rape, a 'bill of rights' for survivors". The Christian Science Monitor. 21 March 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  17. 1 2 3 4 "Do We Need a Bill of Rights for Sexual-Assault Survivors?". TakePart. 28 February 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  18. ↑ "Here's What a Bunch of 'Supervillains' Think About U.S. Sexual Assault Laws". Fortune. 26 February 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  19. 1 2 "This Rape Survivor Just Helped Get a Huge Bill Passed Through the House". The Cut. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  20. ↑ "Obama Just Signed The Sexual Assault Survivors' Bill Of Rights". Refinery29. 8 October 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-27.
  21. ↑ "Bill Text - AB-1312 Sexual assault victims: rights". leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. Retrieved 2018-09-20.
  22. ↑ "Marie Claire Magazine Young Women's Honors Award Recipients 2016". Marie Claire. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
  23. ↑ "The Rape Survivor Who Turned Her Activism Into A Nobel Peace Prize Nomination". HuffPost. 21 July 2018. Retrieved 2017-10-08.
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