We Are The Marquette Movement making its way through the community

MARQUETTE — A local movement has been making an impact on the Marquette Community recently.

Earlier this year the Prosecutions office had a credible source of a sexual assault that happened on Northern Michigan University’s campus in 2016.

The defendant of the case was found not guilty. Michigan Law states you can give consent in a number of different ways.

“It does not have to be affirmative, it doesn’t have to be verbally. It doesn’t have to signing a contract to have sex. Consent can be communicated in a number of different ways,” says Karl Numinen, Defense Attorney.

However sexual assault cases are still tried every single day.

Even if the victim is the only witness and the victim is credible, Prosecutors will often move forward with the case.

“We’ve done this for other cases and we will continue to do that in the future. We want people who are sexual assault survivors, who are victims of sexual assault or sexual violence to know that their voices are going to get heard,” said Matt Wiese, Prosecuting Attorney.

The outcomes of cases like this one, have sparked a local movement supporting victims of sexual assault. We Are The Marquette Movement is all about education and outreach to the community about sexual assaults and consent.

“I think its really powerful and a lot of people feel really validated and vindicated, because they know that they’re not alone. We’re about raising people up, this is about raising people up and helping the survivors continue to survive and thrive. This isn’t about knocking people down and about one case. It’s a drop in the bucket of a much much bigger problem,” said Hannah Syrjala, Co-Founder of We Are The Marquette Movement.

The movement is selling t shirts that say “silence is not consent”.

The t shirts are $25 and $15 of that goes to support the Women’s Center in Marquette.

To buy on of these t shirts click HERE.