Protest Marks Tailhook Anniversary

About 160 members of the Women’s Action Coalition marched on Miramar Naval Air Station on Saturday, marking the one-year anniversary of the Tailhook Convention in Las Vegas that brought about allegations of widespread sexual assault and harassment in the Navy.

The group gathered at noon at the base’s west gate and demanded that the Navy prosecute personnel involved in the Tailhook incident, said Carla Kirkwood, a WAC organizer in San Diego. Other demands included granting women equal status in the military and stopping discrimination against gays and lesbians in the military.

During the 2 1/2-hour demonstration, women formed a gantlet through which a 15-foot-tall effigy of a naval officer was passed, Kirkwood said. The women shouted “Shame!” and tore strips of paper that simulated the officer’s uniform. The action was in reference to a gantlet that aviators formed in a Las Vegas hotel corridor where the alleged sexual abuse occurred during the convention.

Women’s Action Coalition is a New York-based group advocating women’s rights. About 100 members of the group’s Los Angeles chapter and 60 from the San Diego chapter attended Saturday’s demonstration, Kirkwood said.