A Fishkill woman is overjoyed that President
Joe Biden will sign a new bill into legislation that changes the
way military sex crimes are handled.
The
law called MIRA will allow victims of sex crimes, domestic violence and child
abuse to report crimes outside of a service member’s chain of command.
Jenelle
Mendez is a Marine who founded
the
military sexual trauma movement. She has pushed for
numerous changes in the way sex crimes are reported and prosecuted in the
military since launching her
organization.
The
MIRA law will also ensure military charges will be pursued and provides an
automatic discharge for any service member found guilty of abuse.
On July 2, Mendez says she received a call from a Biden administration
representative that the bill passed
Congress and would be signed into law.
“I started crying. I literally -
I broke down and called my dad. I’m going to cry right now because I went
through this,” says Mendez. “It’s been such a struggle for me.”