Utah coalition to host first St. George MeToo town hall

June 20, 2018 Utah Channel 3

ST. GEORGE — For the first time in St. George, the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault will hold a MeToo town hall meeting where survivors of sexual assault in the community will have a safe place to openly discuss what happened to them.

Laurie Hofmann, board chair for UCASA, will be leading the town hall in St. George on June 27 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the St. George Library.

Hofmann said she got the idea at a Christmas party in 2017 with staff members, supporters and donors of UCASA. They were waiting to hear the election results of Roy Moore, a judge who ran to fill a Senate seat for Alabama and was eventually defeated by Doug Jones. Moore was accused of sexually assaulting multiple women.

“I was horrified that we could possibly be electing a man to the United States Senate who had been accused of sexually assaulting young women,” Hofmann said. “I thought, ‘How in the world in this day and age could we possibly put this kind of person in that kind of position of power?‘”

She announced to the guests at the party that regardless of the results of the election, UCASA would start holding MeToo town halls all across Utah to address the issue of sexual assault.

“I thought we need to have conversations in a safe place where people who have been silenced for maybe decades can openly talk about what happened to them,” she said.

Hofmann said these town halls allow communities to understand sexual assault from a survivor’s perspective and recognize what conversations need to happen, like bystander intervention.

It’s the UCASA hopes that with the results from the town halls in Utah, they will be able to gather information to better understand what is happening in the state and how to help victims and survivors of sexual assault, she said.

“This is really a listening tour,” she said. “Because of MeToo, Times Up and what we’ve seen across the country, people are finally feeling like maybe they can open up and speak about these horrific experiences they’ve had.”

To learn more about the town hall, visit UCASA’s website.

Event details

What: St. George MeToo town hall.
When: Wednesday, June 27, 6:30-8 p.m.
Where: St. George Library, 88 W. 100 South.
Cost: Free and open to the public.

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