MSNBC: Gillibrand’s tireless fight against military sex assault
Tailhook whistleblower and Protect Our Defenders Advisory board member Paula Coughlin is featured in this MSNBC article:
When Gillibrand excoriated military leaders at a Senate Armed Services Committee for defending a system that lets commanders who can’t – or won’t – distinguish between “a slap on the ass and a rape,” as she put it, it was a signal that she would take on sexual assault in the ranks as tenaciously as she did her drive to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of allowing gays in the military to serve openly. Opposition from the Pentagon and fellow legislators could doom Gillibrand’s proposal, the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA), which could come up for a vote in February but still needs seven votes to ward off the threat of a filibuster.
Even so, opposition from Congress and from top military brass may have done more to help than to doom Gillibrand’s cause.
“If there wasn’t that much pushback, there wouldn’t be so much notice,” said Paula Coughlin, a former Navy lieutenant who exposed the rampant sexual assault by Navy and Marine Corps officers at the infamous 1991 Tailhook Convention. “If her efforts weren’t being so outrageously thwarted by the Defense Department, if they hadn’t responded in such a ridiculous and antiquated way, it could have just gone away.”
