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A self-described civil rights astronaut, Amanda Nguyen lives up to her title. The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize nominee studied to become an astronaut at Harvard, shortly after became a deputy White House Liaison under the Obama administration, and in 2014, founded Rise, a human rights advocacy organization. Her transition into activism followed her own experience of injustice as a rape survivor. After becoming a victim of sexual assault in her senior year of college, Nguyen faced the convoluted criminal justice system and found that under Massachusetts law, her rape kit could be destroyed after six months, even though the statute of limitations for the state is 15 years. Refusing to accept that she would have to petition the state twice each year to keep her forensic evidence on file, Nguyen took matters into her own hands and launched Rise. She then penned the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, granting protections and civil rights to rape survivors, which passed unanimously in Congress at the federal level and is working to become passed in all 50 states.
Nguyen recently spoke on the third annual panel hosted by Gucci and Equality Now in partnership with Chime for Change to discuss youth working for everyday activism. She sat among other young activists making headway in social rights involving race, LGBTQ+ rights and trans visibility, and climate change. Ahead of the event, Nguyen met with CR to discuss her love for space and activism in equal measure, progress at Rise, and being a woman of multitudes.
Before founding Rise, you were studying to become an astronaut. Have you found any overlap between your activist work and your passion for space?
“Yes, definitely. So the overview effect is this cognitive psychological shift that happens when astronauts go into space that is documented in psychiatric literature as essentially [the astronauts] seeing everything that has ever lived or died on this pale blue dot. You realize that we are all on this planet together. I call it an existential crisis. A lot of Apollo astronauts went through this. They leave earth as technicians but return to Earth as humanitarians. A lot of them are profoundly moved. One of [Rise’s] board members is Leland Melvin. He is a former astronaut, a former NFL player, and also a rape survivor. Leland was my mentor at NASA when I was going through the programs to be an astronaut candidate. I told Leland I want to do some rights activism and he said space is going to be there, it’s going to be there long after you are gone, so do your civil rights work, and then come back to space. So, yes there is a lot of overlap. In fact, we [at Rise] are still deeply engaged with the science community, with NASA. I still go to rocket launches every year and I bring a lot of people–we call our organizers “Risers”–to rocket launchers. I love both things.”
Have both activism and space been a part of your healing process?
“I love space because it is inherently so aspirational. I think that activists and astronauts have to be pathologically optimistic. For activism, you are trying to solve these really tough issues and it can seem daunting. For astronauts, you are literally being strapped on a missile. You are guinea pigs for engineers. But I think healing is different for everyone. For me, it’s being able to do things I love, that bring me joy. But also, doing things that bring me justice. Justice also changes people who are affected.”
How has Rise grown since 2016?
“We started nearly five years ago, in 2014. 2016 is when president Obama signed the [Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights]. At that point, I was running Rise at the same time as working in the Obama administration. When the federal law was signed, over a million people came out saying ‘I am a survivor and I need these rights, too. I saw that you were able to do it, can you help me pen my own rights into existence.’ So, I jumped ship and scaled up Rise full-time. Since then, we have grown to over 206 people. We are in 48 states and four countries. Most importantly, we have passed a total of 27 laws affecting 72 million people.”
Has social media played a part in this as well?
“Enormously. One is about raising awareness. But two is about specifically promoting something that is really important to me–a value and principle. And that is in a lot of nonprofit public service work. There is this kind of martyrdom that usually goes along with activism and I really reject that. I think it’s so important for people who are engaged in these really different subjects to also have joy. Tarana Burke talks about this a lot, as a co-founder of #MeToo. Also, Nadia Murad, a dear friend of mine who won the Nobel [Peace Prize] last year, is an Isis sexual violence survivor and has talked a lot about this, too.
Especially for activists who have trauma that is related to personal life experiences, sometimes we are expected to be on a glass pedestal in a glass box, just recounting our trauma, and living it over and over again. I specifically structured Rise to be in recognition of that, as a place for people to move on from that. Rise recognizes you from somewhere, going up. But also, the culture of it is centered around hope. Hope and joy. Recognizing that we are working on something really difficult but moving forward.”
Rise is also working to affect change globally. What do those plans look like?
“For the past couple of years, we have been negotiating at the United Nations for a Universal Survivors Bill of Rights. The General Assembly has never before passed a resolution that focuses specifically on sexual violence. It has always talked about rape in the context of a subcategory of another issue. For instance, weapons of war–rape, violence against women–rape; but sexual violence happens to all types of people and most rape happens outside of war. What we are calling on world leaders to do is recognize and prioritize that rape is an issue that merits prioritization in and of itself. We have already secured three countries who are officially locked in: the UK, Argentina, and France. These three have been working hand in hand with us and we are really excited to work with our international partners to negotiate these human rights and access to justice. Their ambassadors have been so supportive. The United Kingdom, for instance, invited us to give a talk at the Queen’s birthday at the United Nations, which is great. They required that I wore a fascinator and I wore Philip Lim. I am so glad that the fascinator matched the dress that Philip gave me.”
Speaking of fashion, what type of role has it played in your career?
“In the international space specifically, when we are looking for an icebreaker, fashion is a really big thing. For instance, the United Kingdom’s ambassador really loves fashion. She loves Phillip Lim. So, I am really lucky that Phillip dresses me for events. Fashion plays a really big part of diplomacy. It signals so many things and I think it can be a wonderful way to bridge cultural divides because everyone has their own sense of fashion.”
Has fashion been an outlet for you personally, too?
“Fashion is a huge part of that. I realize at one point I would never make everyone happy. People say, ‘Why are you into fashion? You should be working more.’ When I am working too hard, people say, ‘Why are you working too hard? You should be self-caring more.’ At some point I decided that I am just going to be me. I’m going to be a civil rights astronaut who loves fashion. You can deal with it. So that’s actually really important to me because women, especially young women, need to know that we are multitudes. We can be so many different things. If Elon Musk can do PayPal, Tesla, and SpaceX, then I can be an astronaut, astrophysicist, and a civil rights activist who loves fashion.”
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