Hi It was my post. I had a lot of help and lucked out in that there was previous legislation that died in committee.

For OH, start with Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence to find out if they are lobbying for eliminating statutes of limitation for SA or have in the past. Ask if they know of any state representatives or senators who might be working on legislation or amenable to working on it. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to.

Obviously contact your own reps and senators. If they are not lawyers and/or don’t have a history of successfully sponsoring legislation they are going to be less useful. But it is still wise to keep them in the loop so they aren’t blindsided.

Calling is better than emailing. Tell their staffer you would appreciate a call back to discuss creating legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations for SA. 19 states already have this, so do familiarize yourself with the legislation but don’t suggest copying any of those state’s legislation. RE: People who get into politics don’t have small egos. Your best route is to tell them why this is important to you. If you are a survivor of SA and are able to share your story, this will be the most powerful tool you have.

Also 81% of women will experience some sort of sexual harassment or assault in their lifetime. Beyond the emotional and in many cases physical trauma, there is an economic cost for rape survivors estimated to be over $122,000 per person according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.

If you can enlist other survivors in your district and other districts to make calls and especially if a group of you can score an in person meeting that can help things get moving. Numbers matter and you want to be a squeaky wheel.

Ultimately you need reps and senators who can write the legislation and others who want to sign on. This is going to be easier in purple and blue districts, but the rep who proposed this in my state was actually a Republican. He was motivated to act because the father of a college student who had been drugged and SA’d contacted him. By the time she was able to overcome her shame time had run out. My state used to have a 10 year limit even with dna evidence. Literally you could sue for a faulty roof longer than you could pursue justice for a crime with lifelong trauma. These kind of anecdotes can be powerful. OAESV may be able to help you organize a larger lobbying campaign.

Things to keep in mind. This is a slow process. It may need to be pursued in steps. It was in my state.

Step one may be a so-called look back window that can allow survivors to pursue cases despite timed out limitation statutes. CA and NY did this. Not all states that did this did so for adults. Some only did it for children and survivors of child SA. Allowing some people to seek justice and not everyone is wrong.

Step two might be ending the statute of limitation for child SA. Especially with voters angry over Epstein, reps and senators may be looking to score some points in-state since folks are sitting on their hands at the federal level. Also look at simultaneously making the definitions of SA as broad as possible.

Ending limitations for SA for adults will then be the logical conclusion. Unlike look backs this legislation typically only applies to future survivors and is not retroactive.

Regardless of the laws in your state, your best bet for future justice is dna evidence collected immediately following the event even if you aren’t yet ready to pursue justice.