Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford makes rare public appearance to accept ACLU award and says ‘I was simply doing my duty as a citizen’

In a rare public appearance to pick up an award, the woman who accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault says she had a responsibility to come forward.

Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, spoke Sunday after she accepted the Rodger Baldwin Courage Award from the ACLU of Southern California in Beverly Hills.

‘When I came forward last September, I did not feel courageous. I was simply doing my duty as a citizen providing information to the Senate that I believed would be relevant to the Supreme Court nomination process. I understood that not everyone would welcome my information, and I was prepared for a variety of outcomes, including being dismissed,’ she said as she accepted the award. 

‘I thought anyone in my position would of course do the same thing.’ 

‘I was not prepared for the venom, the persistent attacks, the vilification, the loss of personal privacy and the collateral damage to my friends and my family. I was not prepared to be physically threatened, or be forced out of our home for over three months,’ she continued.  

‘I’m thankful that sharing my experience prompted over 200,000 people from across our country and around the world to send messages of support. Many handwritten, sharing their own stories of assault and abuse,’ she said.

‘That’s why it means so much to me not just to be recognized by you tonight, because I know you will continue the work of protecting sexual assault survivors and preventing sexual assault. 

Blasey Ford testified in September 2018 during Kavanaugh´s confirmation hearings that Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were teenagers at a gathering of friends in suburban Maryland in 1982.

She alleged Kavanaugh pinned her down and groped her before trying to remove her clothes. She also said he put his hand over her mouth when she tried to scream.

Kavanaugh strongly denied the allegations and was then narrowly confirmed to the Supreme Court the following month. 

Speaking about her testimony, Ford said: ‘I simply thought that it was my duty as a citizen and that anyone in my position would do the same thing.’ 

‘It’s funny, I was inspired by Anita Hill when I was deciding whether to testify, but it didn’t occur to me at the time that I would be inspiring anyone else,’ she said, referencing the woman who famously accused Justice Clarence Thomas, then a Supreme Court nominee, of sexual misconduct at his confirmation hearing in 1991.   

Last month, she received a similar award from the YWCA of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara, California. 

During a short speech, she noted that coming forward is rarely so simple for survivors of sexual violence.

‘There are many, many people who aren’t as lucky as I am. When my family was forced out of our home last year, we had resources,’ she said.

‘So many women do not. So many women don’t have the privilege that my professional position afforded me.’

In the year since her bombshell testimony, Blasey Ford has remained largely outside the public eye.

She released a statement in November 2018 thanking her supporters on a GoFundMe page raising money to help her family as it was overwhelmed by media attention after the hearing.

The following month she presented Sports Illustrated’s Inspiration of the Year award to Rachael Denhollander, a survivor of gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

Blasey Ford was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in April but did not appear to attend any related media events.

Ford has rarely been seen in public since giving her testimony.

After speaking out, Ford had to engage the use of security and body guards to protect her family after receiving death threats.

Kavanaugh, who has also  rarely appeared in public since he was confirmed last year, vehemently denied the allegations against him.

In addition to professor Christine Blasey Ford, two other women accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct dating to the 1980s. He denied all the allegations. 

The 54-year-old conservative jurist was confirmed in October 2018 on a 50-48 vote in a U.S. Senate controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, one of the tightest margins ever for a Supreme Court justice

Last week protesters blew rape whistles and chanted ‘we believe survivors’ at Kavanaugh’s first major public appearance since his Supreme Court confirmation a year ago.

Dozens of protesters, assembled with ‘Impeach Kavanaugh’ signs outside Union Station in Washington DC and several of the activists crashed the dinner where Kavanaugh was addressing the crowd.

Chants of ‘we believe survivors’ and ‘you lied under oath’ were heard from others in the back of the room.

Addressing the crowd, the justice said friends ‘paid a heavy price, too heavy a price’ for their support during the hearings, including losing business and being insulted and threatened.

‘I’m well aware of that and it pains me daily,’ he said.