“Sexual assault is more common in the military context. Rates are 50 percent higher among active-duty women and over 100 percent higher among men than in their civilian counterparts in the reserves.

“Young men and women enter our service as a patriotic act. If they find themselves a victim of violent crime, less than 15 percent report it, and 62 percent of those few who report were retaliated against by either their superior officers or their peers. [It’s] shocking, and it says something’s wrong with the misogynistic culture in the military.

“We provide peer-to-peer support, public education, policy reform and free legal representation. In two years we’ve had around 200 cases.”

Protect Our Defenders is presenting a panel discussion about the sexual assault crisis in our military at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, at The Francis. Emmy Award-winning journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault is the moderator. To purchase tickets, visit protectourdefenders.com/sarasota.