Biden And Lady Gaga Team Up For An Epic Program Launch

sexual assault

Former Vice President Joe Biden is teaming up with Lady Gaga on a special project they hope makes the world a better place for victims of sexual assault. Monday at Glamour’s Woman of the Year Summit, Biden said:

We (want to) set up trauma centers where women can go to get the long-term help they need to deal with these crises. We finally are recognizing the long-term impacts on the health of women and men who’ve been abused. It’s the next great frontier I want to be a part of.

Biden and Lady Gaga, together with former president Barack Obama, launched the “It’s On Us” campaign in 2014 to help victims of campus assault and to work on preventing sexual assault. The program urges everyone to step up and just do what is right because “It’s on us” to stop the pattern of abuse, victim blaming, and turning the other way. On their web site they ask people to take a simple pledge — and hold true to it:

  • I pledge to be an active bystander and always take responsibility when I witness something that does not seem right.
  • I pledge to talk about consent with my friends.
  • I pledge to host events on my campus to raise awareness.
  • I pledge to believe and support fellow survivors of sexual assault.
  • I pledge to never be silent.
  • I pledge to never stop fighting to ensure that all victims or survivors’ voices are elevated every step of the way.

In a Public Service Announcement recorded last month, Lady Gaga relates part of her our story and why this cause is so important to her:

I am a sexual assault survivor, and I know the effects, the aftermath, the trauma — psychological, physical, mental. It can be terrifying waking up every day feeling unsafe in your own body.

But we’re here to remind you that it’s important to reach out to someone in your life that you can trust, and to know that they will be there to help you; there will be someone to listen. Because you know what? It’s on us.

While still in the planning phase, the new trauma centers are expected to provide support for victims, in mental health and physical health areas, including an array of general resources for survivors.

Featured image from Twitter video