Alaska hosts "Choose Respect" rallies across the state in the spring.

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Editor's note: John D. Sutter is a columnist for CNN Opinion and head of CNN's Change the List project. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. E-mail him at ctl@cnn.com.

Juneau, Alaska (CNN) -- Quick: Name the governor of Alaska.

Nope, not Sarah Palin.

He's no reality TV star. Isn't on anyone's list of 2016 presidential candidates. And the local press thinks he's so bland they call him the "Oatmeal Governor."

But Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell deserves national name-recognition for one reason: He's taking on one of the most important issues of our time.

He's trying to get Alaska to talk about the "resident evil" of rape.

John D. Sutter

"It's culturally permissible to be silent about it," and that must change, Parnell told me in a recent interview at the governor's office in Juneau. (You commissioned that trip, by the way, as part of CNN's Change the List project. More on that here.)

Read the original here:

Gov. : 'An epidemic'