Abuse survivors and advocates will fight for justice in 2-day Albany rally

By Margaret Markey
New York Daily News
May 02, 2016

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/abuse-survivors-fight-rightness-two-day-albany-rally-article-1.2622534

Margaret Markey is a New York State Assembly member and co-sponsor of the Child Victims Act.		New York State lawmakers have prevented sex abuse victims from seeking justice as adults.

Dedicated advocates who want to see children protected from predators and many others are offended by the persistent cover-up child sex abuse crimes in schools, religious, sports and youth organizations are rallying in Albany for two days this week.

They are calling upon legislators to ask them to reform our statute of limitations laws that prevents most victims of these crimes from ever getting justice. These same too-short statute of limitations also encourages too many organizations and institutions to hide perpetrators and permits them to continue to molest new generations of children.

They want the Child Victims Act to become law to completely eliminate the statute of limitations for child sex abuse crimes. New York is among the very worst states in America for how it treats victims of childhood sexual abuse. The advocates and survivors of abuse who are coming to Albany this week want to change that deplorable situation.

During two days of public programs, we will hear from adults who are survivors of abuse. They will tell their stories of how they were molested as children and the consequences for their lives in a world that permits pedophiles to get away with their crimes. Survivors range from a world champion ice-skater, a teenage hockey player, a budding hip-hop artist, private and parochial school students and some abused by family members and neighbors. What they have in common is that their pleas for help were ignored, and their abusers have been protected by the existing statute of limitations.

We are also devoting a whole day to the message of the Academy Award-winning movie “Spotlight,” which tells about the Boston priest scandal where church hierarchy covered up for a notorious pedophile to continued his evil deeds.

The message for New York State legislators from all of these survivors is that denying victims of child sex abuse crimes to have their day in court is wrong. The present law protects pedophiles. Their victims, the survivors, deserve their day in court and organizations and institutions that cover up abuse deserve to be held accountable. This outcome is good for victims, good for their friends and families, and good for society.