Feminist ire echoed through the cavernous streets surrounding Foley Sq. as survivors, students and organizers shouted “I Am Jane Doe,” calling for an end to rape culture, demanding accountability for the Cornell 7 and justice for Cornell’s Jane Doe.
Making demands as part of a nationwide #StopSexualViolence Day of Action, over 200 rallies against sex and gender-based violence on campuses and in communities were planned across the U.S. — organizers of the flagship protest gathered in front of NYC’s Triumph of the Human Spirit monument, outside the NYS Supreme Court where Cornell’s Jane Doe filed her civil suit against the University and Chi Phi Fraternity.
In a similar fashion to the #MeToo movement, “I am Jane Doe” is said to have gained momentum from posts by women using the nondescript moniker in solidarity with students wearing Jane Doe name tags at campus rallies.
“As a little girl, what people will tell you is, ‘don’t wear this or don’t wear that,’ there are people who try to control and violate your body. This is something that you know before you’re even 10 years old,” said Executive Director of Women’s March, Rachel O’Leary Carmona. “Women are taught to move in ways that protect us from men, from the threat of violation, the threat of kidnapping or coercion at a very, very, very young age. And that is at the core of authoritarianism — action without consent.”
In between chants of “enough is enough” and “from Cornell to LSU, survivors, we stand with you,” remarks expressing aggravation, disgust and outrage were delivered by members of the rally’s Co-Anchoring organizations, Women’s March, Feminist Generation, me too. International, and FEMINIST.
“We know that one-in-four women who were sexually abused on campus are not statistics, they’re not headlines, they are our friends, our classmates, our sisters and our siblings,” said Organizing Director of Feminist Generation Ella Duncan-High, in her address to the masses. “We should not have to beg these powerful and rich institutions for basic protection. We are here because every campus in this country has survivors and deserves a movement fighting for them. We are here today to stop sexual violence now.”
Duncan-High, who is herself a student at George Mason University, would not comment on whether she or any of the organizers in attendance were calling for the resignation of Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff.
“I am following Cornell students’ demands,” she said.
Included in Duncan-High’s address were the five demands that Cornell students have put forward to the university, which the co-anchoring organizations are giving their full-throated support to:
- Cornell expel or revoke the degrees of all perpetrators of the gang rape of Jane Doe
- Rewrite policy 6.4 to require independent hearings and minimum sanctions for sexual assault.
- An external investigation of Cornell’s administration and their return to an independent judicial system.
- Mandatory sexual assault prevention trainings for students, and trauma-informed training for Cornell University police.
- Cornell’s full compliance with the New York State Enough is Enough law.
Other demands from the co-anchoring organizations include federal protections for survivors and the restoration of title nine enforcement powers, justice for Epstein survivors and the resignation of all Epstein affiliates from all universities, publication of the Equal Rights Amendment, justice for Kendall Francis — an LSU student found to have been sexually assaulted by a student athlete also attending the college — and the abolition of ICE, who they describe as an agency that is “terrorizing our communities and inflicting sexual violence against women in immigration detention.”
“The Declaration of Independence says that Power of the government is created by virtue of the consent of the governed,” said O’Leary-Carmona. “Certainly we’re living inside a time of misogyny and sexism — we’re in a political moment that is very dangerous for women.”
O’Leary-Carmona shared her deep concern over the public’s seeming unwillingness to come together over the issue of sexual assault and gender-based violence.
“It is an obvious hypocrisy,” she said. “Then what that means is that 50% of the US population does not have fundamental autonomy.”
To O’Leary-Carmona, the issue of the debate over policy is made all the more difficult by the actions of think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, with its publishing of Project 2025.
“I mean they don’t make it a secret. They don’t throw rocks and hide their hands,” she said. “They have this all written out in policy.”
And the slow pace of government when it comes to changing the law also doesn’t help.
“The Women’s March position is that any delay from an elected official in reviewing any law or policy that would delay or obstruct justice for survivors is unacceptable,” O’Leary-Carmona said. “Full stop.”
Of all the hopes and demands of organizers at the rally, one thing rang out clear and true: protesters are pushing to do more than simply have their voices be heard. They are after material change that promotes the safety and well-being of all people and women in particular.
“I’ll tell you what my hope is,” O’Leary-Carmona said. “I would hope that Anybody that says you can grab them by the pussy doesn’t get put in the oval office. I would hope that anybody who texts free pussy would not be protected by their school, and I would hope that anyone found to have raped but without malice — and I would still like to know what [without malice] means — is not playing on a football team for you.”
