<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Do you know how often sexual assault in the military happens? Well, I didn&amp;#39;t, but one U.S. Marine does--because it affected her personally. Now, she&amp;#39;s taking a stand against it, and I&amp;#39;m insanely inspired by her campaign. I&amp;#39;m taking a guess you&amp;#39;re going to be, too.\nBack in January, I had the opportunity to see Invisible War, a chilling documentary about rape in the military. I left the film feeling sick that so many women and men are raped while on active duty&amp;#8212;and that so little is done to prevent the crimes or punish the perpetrators. Take a peek at the trailer, and you&amp;#39;ll be captivated, too:\nToday, I heard about Lance Corporal Nicole McCoy&amp;#39;s Change.org petition. She&amp;#39;s petitioning the Department of Defense to create a national registry for service members convicted of sexual offenses while on active duty in the military. Remembering the stories from Invisible War, I joined more than 250,000 people in signing Lance Corporal McCoy&amp;#39;s petition.\nRape in military is a big deal: Lance Corporal McCoy cites that about one out of every three women are raped while they serve in the U.S. military (yes, you read that right--but read it again and let it sink in). And, according to the Washington Post, the number of sexual assaults in the military is* on the rise*. McCoy herself was raped twice and sexually assaulted two other times during her three years of service. On Change.org, she writes that sexual assault &amp;quot;came to happen so often that I assumed it was normal and that it must happen to everyone.&amp;quot; She also describes how the shame was put on the victims&amp;#8212;she was shunned and ostracized. No one should have to live in an environment like that. Period.\nAfter doing some of her own research, Lance Corporal McCoy realized that there is no national military sex offender registry and sex offenders in the military aren&amp;#39;t required to divulge their crimes on discharge papers&amp;#8212;which means that no one may know they&amp;#39;re sex offenders. Scary, right?\nIn less than a week, more than 200,000 people have signed the petition to help Lance Corporal McCoy change that. Hopefully, they&amp;#39;ll be able to create a national registry for sex offenders in the military. If you agree with what she&amp;#39;s trying to do (we do!), take a second to, sign the petition at Change.org, and if you want to know more about Lance Corporal McCoy&amp;#39;s fight, check out the profile in Forbes from earlier this week!\nAre you inspired by Lance Corporal McCoy&amp;#39;s petition? Did you sign it? Do you know anyone who&amp;#39;s been affected by rape in the military?\nMore activist women who inspire the OMG out of us:\nSo Inspiring: What the Women In Glamour Do After You Put Down the Issue\nThink a Woman Should Moderate the 2012 Presidential Debates? These 3 Students Do, and They&amp;#39;re Petitioning to Make It Happen\nHesitant to Label Yourself a &amp;quot;Feminist&amp;quot;? 19-Year-Old Author Julie Zeilinger Can Tell You Why That&amp;#39;s A Little F&amp;#39;d Up"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/story/rape-in-the-military-is-more-c>