There's A March Against Revenge Porn In NYC

Leah Juliett was a victim of revenge porn before it even had a name. When she was 15, nude photos of her breasts leaked online—a classmate's retaliation for not sending photos of her genitals. Now, five years later, Juliett is fighting back against revenge porn with a march in NYC.

Juliett, who is now a sophomore in college, still remembers the feeling of helplessness when another classmate showed her the photos, which he downloaded from a website. "When you're alone and in it, you're so shamed by it that you think you're the only person who has ever been through it," she told CNN.

And if the march serves its purpose, no one who has been a victim of revenge porn will have to feel like they need to go it alone. On April 1, the March Against Revenge Porn will be held in Brooklyn. According to its site, the march's purpose is to gather the "victims and allies of revenge pornography" to "raise awareness of cyber sexual crimes." Participants will march across the Brooklyn Bridge and end in with a rally at City Hall Plaza, during which they will "briefly discuss why we are fighting for anti-revenge porn legislation," according to the event's Facebook page.

According to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, 35 states and D.C. have revenge porn laws in place (New York is not one of them), but currently, there are no federal laws addressing revenge porn. This can make prosecuting revenge porn cases particularly tricky. As the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative points out, both jurisdictions and a federal law that grants website immunity from civil liability for material posted from third-party users "creates high hurdles for either civil or criminal charges against website operators who host nonconsensual pornography." That's why, from their perspective, federal laws against revenge porn are needed to properly address the issue.

Juliett, who told CNN that she fears this issue isn't on Trump's radar, said that she hopes that the march will cause more people to create grassroots campaigns to fight the issue. Although there have been bills introduced in the House of Representatives, they have yet to take root as a serious legislative priority. Until then, Juliett wants to raise awareness with her march, which she says she hopes is a "big spectacle." “The more people say: 'What is revenge porn?' The better,” she told CNN. “At least they’ll be asking the question.”