At an Austin City Council meeting in January, a large number of people had signed up to give public testimony on the last item on the agenda. Most were women; each wore a yellow bandana 鈥� a sign of solidarity for sexual assault survivors.
was one of them.
鈥淚 know survivors who鈥檝e never been contacted by their detectives, who never got the results of their rape kits. I know survivors who were told their tortures sounded consensual,鈥� she told council members. 鈥淢ore importantly, I don鈥檛 know a single survivor whose case made it into a courtroom.鈥�
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Garrett was advocating for calling for a third-party evaluation into how the Austin Police Department investigates and processes sexual assaults.
鈥淎sking you to pass this resolution 鈥� to help myself and the thousands of survivors of Austin get full transparency into a process that鈥檚 not giving us justice 鈥� doesn鈥檛 feel like a big ask,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t feels like the first step toward justice.鈥�
The resolution passed unanimously with one council member absent.
Garrett said she remembers looking up and seeing each council member鈥檚 microphone tied with a yellow bandana. She said it felt as if her leaders were standing with her and it made her feel hopeful for the first time in a long time.
Garrett started working within the advocate community in April 2016. She鈥檚 spent much of her time since then trying to persuade city officials to do more for sexual assault survivors, so the resolution was a big win. But Garrett says society must still reckon with the fact that rape is one of the easiest crimes to get away with 鈥� and the fact that the overwhelming number of victims are women.
It鈥檚 been almost a year since Garrett joined the class-action lawsuit alleging the city and county discriminated against women in their handling of sexual assault cases. She says she鈥檚 better educated on sexual assault investigations through her work as an advocate and that鈥檚 left her convinced some sort of in her case.
Her belief is compounded by the rape kit backlog and the finding that police were misclassifying cases. Mainly, though, it鈥檚 because of all the lingering questions she has about her own case.
Garrett says she had to do a project for an anthropology course that involved listening to hours of advocate testimony given before the Austin City Council.
鈥淭hey all just say DNA isn鈥檛 needed for most of these [cases], and I was told for two years that it was needed,鈥� Garrett said, choking back tears. 鈥淪o, it鈥檚 just hard to do this work sometimes.鈥�
Her lawyers also point to the one case that made it before a jury in 2017. The victim in that case was a man, and his rapist was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. According to court documents, the man had a history of sexual assault charges; at least two women accused him of rape in 2013 and 2014.
鈥淚 don't know what the difference was except in one case the victim was a man. I think the presumption is a man would never say he was sexually assaulted unless he truly was,鈥� said Elizabeth Myers, one of the lawyers representing Garrett and seven other victims. 鈥淭here is a gender discrimination presumption that that鈥檚 not true of women.鈥�
Law enforcement and prosecutors in Austin and Travis County are adamant the only reason these cases don鈥檛 move forward is either because a victim refused to participate or there鈥檚 simply not enough evidence.
Garrett doesn鈥檛 buy it.
鈥淚t just makes you wonder what is enough evidence?鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat do we as survivors have to go through for them to think we deserve justice?
No毛l Busch-Armendariz, director of UT鈥檚 Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, says the question itself shows the complexity of this crime. When asked if she believes gender discrimination plays a role in the outcome of sexual assault cases, she says yes 鈥� but it鈥檚 not so cut and dried.
鈥淚 think you鈥檙e going to find individual cases where women have been mistreated and their cases have been very poorly handled,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd you鈥檙e going to find police officers and prosecutors who have handled cases beautifully.鈥�
Busch-Armendariz says if people really want to change the way these crimes are handled, they can鈥檛 look at the criminal justice system alone.
鈥淚 think we have to move upstream [and ask], 鈥榃hat is it about our society that allows this to happen?鈥欌�� she said.
Busch-Armendariz says any time there鈥檚 a national dialogue about sexual assault, it opens a conversation that can have a profound influence. Take, for example, Brett Kavanaugh鈥檚 Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 2018 and testimony from Christine Blasey Ford that he had sexually assaulted her in high school.
For many, this was a defining moment of the #MeToo movement and the country鈥檚 long-overdue reckoning with sexual violence. For others, it was an example of how the movement had gone too far. The overwhelming response from the public sent a stark message to sexual assault survivors.
According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the organization saw during the hearings. RAINN also says the day after Ford and Kavanaugh testified was the National Sexual Assault Hotline鈥檚 busiest day in its 24-year history.
It鈥檚 possible some of those calls came from .
鈥淭he person sitting next to you, the person living in the bedroom next to you when you grow up, the person who sits in a cubicle next to you 鈥� one of those people will experience this injustice, this crime, this trauma,鈥� Busch-Armendariz said. 鈥淚f not that, then you will experience this kind of violation.鈥�
If society wants to see any meaningful change, she says, communities need to allocate more time and resources into understanding this crime better. Right now, we simply do not have the legal mechanisms in place to unpack the more difficult aspects of sexual assault, such as how to define consent. Busch-Armendariz says it will likely stay that way until society makes it a priority.
鈥淥ften people say, 鈥榃ell, this isn鈥檛 rocket science鈥� and I say, 鈥業t鈥檚 not; it鈥檚 a lot harder than rocket science,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淵ou try dealing with human beings on a mass scale and tell me how it goes for you.鈥�
Garrett graduated from UT Austin with honors in May, but the effects of the night she was attacked, as well as what came after, continue to impact her life. She got a degree in cultural anthropology and wrote her . She also recently got a job working with survivors of sexual assaults.
Garrett says she鈥檒l continue her work as an advocate and speak publicly about her rape even though reliving that experience takes its toll. She reported her rape, in part, because she wanted to make sure it didn鈥檛 happen to anyone else. Her attacker is still out there 鈥� along with countless others who have never been charged.
Garrett鈥檚 hopeful about the City Council鈥檚 decision to start reviewing sexual assault cases. But, she says, until Austin starts putting more offenders behind bars, it is failing victims.
鈥淪urvivors are still in this community not getting the resources we need, not getting the justice we need and not getting the healing that we need,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e absolutely have the power and the ability to [fix] that in this city.鈥�
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If you or anyone you know needs help following a sexual assault, call the 24-hour SAFEline in Austin at 512-267-SAFE (7233) or the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673).
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