NYC's First Lady Takes On The Brock Turner Letter

On Wednesday evening, multiple people, including the First Lady of New York Chirlane McCray, read the letter Brock Turner's victim wrote to him live on Mayor Bill de Blasio's Facebook. The description on the video gave insight into why the women were reading the statement aloud, and it undoubtedly means the world to women and sexual assault survivors everywhere. It read, "Because we are her allies. Because everyone needs to hear her story. Because in the time it takes us to read this statement, at least seven women in this country will report being raped. Because we all need to follow her example and turn our outrage into action."

Joined by actress Cynthia Nixon; Azadeh Khalili, executive director of the NYC Commission on Gender Equit‎y; Erin White, communications advisor for the first lady; Carmelyn Malalis, the commissioner and chair of NYC Commission on Human Rights; several other staffers from the mayor's office; and actresses Karen Olivo and Stacey Sargeant, McCray made an impactful statement about the Turner case and what she knows is truly important: the voice of the survivor.

The tone of the women as they read the devastating words is enough to bring you to tears, if you hadn't been crying already. Men from the mayor's office joined in, too, and many commenters on the video pointed out how important it is, not just to hear these words aloud, but to see men read them as well.

Women have taken to reading aloud the victim's statement, which has also been published in full by multiple media outlets. On Monday, CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield read a majority of the letter live on air, bringing voice to words that were still so powerful even on paper. In fact, McCray began the nearly hour-long video by thanking Banfield for the inspiration for this video, and she then thanked the victim for being brave enough to put her feelings into words and inspiring McCray to "turn our outrage into action." After McCray said they stand in solidarity with the survivor and with sexual assault survivors around the world, she began reading the letter directed toward Turner. "You don't know me, but you've been inside me, and that's why we're here today," McCray read from the impact statement. And it only became more powerful from there.