Down at the Legislative Office Building on February 14th, the One Billion Rising event — speeches and a flash mob — called for an 
end to violence against women. Governor Malloy, stopping here after speaking at the March for Change, said “this is a day of important rallies.”
Malloy drew the connection between anti-bullying initiatives in schools and the efforts taken to curb domestic violence, along with other forms of violence against women.
Among the participants in the One Billion Rising flash mob were students from Miss Porter’s School.
Cathy Malloy, also asked to speak at the event, said, “we want everybody to wake up.”
Last year, over 57,000 individuals were served by domestic violence programs in Connecticut.
This was not only a call to stop domestic violence. It was also a demand to end rape and sexual assault.
Laura Cordes, the Executive Director of Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, explained the reason for the gathering: “We rise because […] nearly one quarter of women in college will experience a completed or attempted rape, most often at the hands of someone they know or trust.”
The statistics are always hard to hear, but the message was not one of despair. Cordes said, “we believe that rape and abuse are not inevitable, and because we believe we can create a safe and just world for our daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, and friends.”
The Judy Dworin Performance Project brought dancing to the atrium of the Legislative Office Building. Dworin explained that “the trauma lives in [the body]” and that “it is through movement and dance that the body speaks.”
