What could I have done differently?

[Sen's Revenge]

In one of my organizations, I was on an awards committee.

A person from my chapter was nominated for an award by a past national officer, who was also a member of my chapter.

I had personal knowledge of an incident which occurred between the nominee and another member of the chapter. I did not have express permission from the alleged victim to discuss the incident with the awards committee, but I did have their permission to state why I was voting against the nominee.

I told the awards committee that I would not be voting favorably because of character issues with the nominee.

The chair dug for information, but I refused to provide details to respect the privacy of the alleged victim. The chair dug further and I told him what details he needed were outside of the scope of the awards committee. I reiterated that I was voting no based on character.

I know for a fact that one other committee member voted no, but I just found out that the nominee would be receiving the award.

I resigned from the committee in protest and I will not be attending the ceremony.

In the background of all of this, I sought advice from various people, each of which saying the same thing: there was really no more that I could say and that I'd just have to hope that the other committee members trust my word. If I had divulged more details, the alleged victim would have been put "on trial" if you will, and the nominee STILL could have received the award anyway.

It was really the nominee's words against the alleged victim the whole time.

That made me think about rape culture more acutely. I was sympathetic before, but now being put in a position of.... not really defending the victim, but to make sure people understood I was not in favor of rewarding this guy... like, people were either going to think I was being coy and petty, or they would just believe me that the guy didn't deserve the award.

The alleged victim was aware of the proceedings and did not want to be named, and she told me even MORE details that make me want to punch the guy. (I won't, of course.)

Anyway.... it's over now, and I feel decent about sticking to my principles, but I was wondering if anyone else might have done anything differently in this situation.