House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is pushing many projects for federal funding, and one of them is a “Courage Museum” in San Francisco to be established by a group that celebrated Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s chief accuser in his nomination hearings, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, giving her a “Courage” award.
The Courage Museum is to be established by a group called “Futures Without Violence,” which is asking for a grant of $1 million. Pelosi’s website notes:
Futures Without Violence, a health and social justice organization that develops, implements and advocates for groundbreaking programs and policies that strive to end violence against women and children, is requesting federal funding to establish the educational curriculum for the Courage Museum. This bold new national platform for public education and action engages individuals in challenging the inevitability of violence as part of the human experience. The first West Coast installation by nationally renowned designer Jake Barton, whose work includes the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum and Legacy Museum, it is located on the Main Post of the Presidio, underscoring our nation’s priority to ending violence – particularly gender-based violence, an issue that impacts 1 in 3 U.S. women.
KQED reported that Christine Blasey Ford, who accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school, spoke at a fundraiser in February 2020 hosted by Futures Without Violence, which presented her a “Courage” award.
“Ford, whose appearance was a surprise to audience members, was welcomed with gasps and a standing ovation,” KQED wrote.
According to KQED, Blasey Ford told the crowd she testified against Kavanaugh because “I decided I did owe it to the citizenry of this country, to future generations and to other people to share the information.” She added, as KQED reported:
As psychologists and sociologists, we expect that survivors of sexual assault will experience what we call DARVO (Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender). The victim becomes the offender and the offender becomes the victim. So we see that playing out on the news right now. We see that in just about all public cases of sexual assault. And I think it’s really important that we all learn to recognize that and call it out while it’s happening and understand that paradigm.
Futures Without Violence spoke at the event of the Courage Museum, which they intended to open in San Francisco’s Presidio in 2021, saying it would be “designed to simulate a world in which violence is not an inevitable part of the human experience.”
The male members of the National Board of Futures Without Violence wrote in September 2018 of Blasey Ford as a “survivor”:
As men who are leaders and allies in the fight to end interpersonal violence and harassment, particularly against women and girls, we write to express our strong support and appreciation of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford for her willingness to speak out publicly and testify before the Senate about the sexual assault that she says was perpetrated against her by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. We believe survivors, and we believe that it is both Dr. Ford’s right and a public service for her to tell her story in a public forum and have it heard and judged on its merits.