Alyssa Milano's presence at the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh made
big headlines.
The actress is a survivor of assault, and stands in solidarity with Dr. Christine Blasey
Ford​, who she believes is also a survivor of assault at the hands of Judge Kavanaugh.
She can relate
Milano revealed in a essay for Vox that it took her years to tell her closest friends
about her assault, channeling the #WhyIDidntReport movement of survivors.
She wrote, in part,
"It took me three decades to tell my parents that the assault had even happened.
I never filed a police report.
[...] For me, speaking up meant reliving one of the worst moments of my life.
[...] Telling our stories means being vulnerable to public attacks and ridicule when our only
'crime' was to be assaulted in the first place."
Despite Milano's attendance at the hearing and outspoken support of Dr. Ford, the actress
said she had yet to speak with Ford.
She told The Hollywood Reporter on September 28th, 2018,
"I am hoping to speak with her in the future and I've extended all of my contact information
to her through her attorney."
"I'm happy to be in there standing by her side in her quest for justice."
The #MeToo movement
Activist Tarana Burke created the #MeToo movement in 2006, and it became a movement among women
of color before hashtags were even a thing.
Milano, however, is credited with helping the movement pick up steam in 2017.
After #MeToo blew up, the actress told The Guardian,
"It was the perfect storm to happen and I feel really blessed I was the vessel, the
messenger.
It's very special, probably the greatest thing I've felt."
"We're not going to be silenced anymore, we're gonna speak out."
Congress connections
Milano's activism caught the attention of Senator Dianne Feinstein , who reportedly
invited the actress as her guest to the Judge Kavanaugh hearings.
Milano told The Hollywood Reporter that she'd been in touch with Feinstein for about 18
months — before the hearings were even a twinkle in Congress' eye.
She explained,
"Fatima Goss Graves [president and CEO of the National Women's Law Center] and Tarana
Burke were [seated] behind me.
We all needed to be there to support Dr. Ford and it was definitely a feeling of hope."
Upcoming election cycle
Part of why Milano is so vocal is because she wants Democrats to take back Congress
in the 2018 midterm elections in November.
Her visibility at the Kavanaugh hearing was, in part, a tool to create a Blue Wave at the
polls and to get more women engaged with the electoral process.
She told The Hollywood Reporter,
"Everyone needs to go volunteer for a candidate that they believe in, that is going to protect
the rights of women and that is going to fight for women.
[…] I will lobby as hard as I possibly can to get the Democrats in the House to put forward
the policy for impeaching Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court."
Social media updates
Milano was actively updating her social media accounts at the hearing, but contrary to reports,
she insists her phone wasn't confiscated.
She was, however, subjected to two minor slaps on the wrist.
One was for a sign that she had on her clipboard that read, "I BELIEVE SURVIVORS.
VOTE NO ON KAVANAUGH."
The other was for recording videos of the hearing with her phone.
Milano told The Hollywood Reporter,
"I completely forgot that sign was even on my clipboard.
I had protested the day before.
[...] I got a warning about taking video, but my phone was never taken away from [me]
— which is clear by the amount of times I tweeted!"
'It was important for me to be able to support her and support survivors everywhere."
What cameras didn't catch
Milano told The Hollywood Reporter that TV cameras at the hearing didn't capture everything
that was going on, so she wanted to be sure she was there to witness it in person.
She explained,
"Throughout [Dr. Ford's] testimony, what you could not see as someone watching at home
were the senators on the Republican side being disengaged, looking at their cell phones.
[…] It made them look like they didn't care.
It gave them the opportunity to disengage, not be present and not have to look her in
the eye or feel any sort of sympathy."
Milano observed Judge Kavanaugh's actions too, from her vantage point behind the Supreme
Court nominee.
She said,
"I was seeing under the table that his knee was bobbing up and down.
I could see him breathing heavy."