HCR 20-SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH  8:19:27 AM CHAIR LYNN announced that the next order of business was HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 20, Proclaiming the month of April 2010 to be Sexual Assault Awareness Month. 8:19:52 AM REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH, Alaska State Legislature, as prime sponsor, thanked the committee for hearing HCR 20. 8:20:08 AM KAREN SCHUESSLER, Staff, Representative Anna Fairclough, Alaska State Legislature, presented HCR 20 on behalf of Representative Fairclough, prime sponsor. She stated that sexual assault affects men, women, and children of all racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Furthermore, a person is 2.6 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in Alaska than any other state in the nation. Ms. Schuessler said sexual assault leaves a long-lasting physical [and] emotional scar that can influence every aspect of an individual's life. She urged the committee to support the proposed resolution. 8:20:58 AM REPRESENTATIVE GATTO directed attention to language on page 1, line 8, which read: "one in 11 men will report being victims of sexual violence". He asked if there is a ratio of reported versus probable incidents. He said it is surprising and almost unrealistic that 10 percent of men have sexual violence done to them. 8:21:41 AM REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH responded that the number reported was gleaned from a survey. She offered her perspective that men experience more difficulty in reporting having been a victim of sexual assault. Representative Fairclough said there is a specific way in which rape is defined, but there are "many other things that are inappropriate" that are not "counted." She stated that sexual assault is in itself difficult to talk about, and people report it on blind surveys, which is the source of the aforementioned statistic. In response to a follow-up question, she said if a person is assaulted repeatedly, that would be counted as one person being assaulted, but multiple incidences of violence. If the state were to prosecute, there would be individual infractions against the perpetrator. 8:24:06 AM CHAIR LYNN said he imagines there are far more incidences [of rape] of men, women, and children, than are ever reported. REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH related that she used to work as the executive director of Standing Together Against Rape (STAR), and she reported that rape crisis centers, domestic centers, and suicide lines receive hundreds, if not thousands, of calls every year that "don't really count in the numbers that you see before you today." 8:24:37 AM REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH, in response to a question from Representative Gruenberg, said 95-98 percent of the clientele receiving service at STAR's physical location were women. She stated, "That leads me to believe that if one in eleven men are effected, they are less likely to seek support services, but that's [antidotal]." REPRESENTATIVE GRUENBERG said he doesn't know what needs to be done, but hopes that both men and women would feel equally comfortable in seeking out services. He noted that security of the crisis centers is an issue, and he mentioned legislation that was introduced a few years ago related to that issue. 8:26:24 AM CHAIR LYNN, after ascertaining that there was no one else who wished to testify, closed public testimony. 8:26:32 AM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON encouraged continued emphasis on public awareness and "other mechanisms" to bring down the high rate of sexual assault in Alaska. He thanked the sponsor for bringing forward HCR 20. CHAIR LYNN invited other legislators to co-sponsor the resolution. 8:27:18 AM REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH invited the committee to take place in a governor-sponsored walk from the steps of the capitol, which she said would take place on March 31, 2010, at noon. CHAIR LYNN requested that Representative Fairclough make that announcement on the House floor and to put notices up in the capitol building. REPRESENTATIVE FAIRCLOUGH noted that representatives from the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault are present in Juneau today and tomorrow and should be visiting offices around the capitol. 8:28:27 AM REPRESENTATIVE SEATON moved to report HCR 20 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, HCR 20 was reported out of the House State Affairs Standing Committee.