Going public with sexual harassment allegations is always scary, and even more so when the alleged perpetrator is a powerful figure. One of the great successes of the #MeToo movement has been to slowly but surely shift the culture towards believing survivors, but as we’ve seen, there is still a large contingent of knuckle-dragging misogynists who refuse to join us in these slightly more enlightened times. I’m not saying it’s because they’re all guilty of harassment or assault themselves… but the Venn diagram most certainly has some overlap.
Down in Georgia, the government was rocked this fall by a series of stories by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about over 200 accusations of sexual harassment across the state government and their poor handling. One of those allegations was against a former State Senator, a Republican named David Shafer who allegedly harassed a lobbyist in 2011. That must have spooked his former colleagues, who on Tuesday announced new rules that will make it harder to report sexual harassment and could scare many people off from doing so.
via the AJC:
Senate leaders were lambasted for adopting rules narrowing the time for lodging complaints against its members. The rules also said alleged victims who talked publicly about being harassed could have their complaints dismissed and could even be fined.
Sen. Renee Unterman, one of only two women Republicans in the chamber, blasted the rule in a charged speech from the well Tuesday.
“It’s a shame,” she said. “In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had sexual harassment against me. I know personally what it feels like. It’s not a good feeling. We need rules and regulations, desperately, to protect people.”
Now, newly elected Gov. Brian Kemp did fulfill a pledge he was forced to make during the campaign and issue an executive order that will eventually reform some of the state government’s mechanisms for dealing with accusations, while also requiring training for some employees. But some of the most powerful Republicans in the state just took a crisis and made it worse by limiting reporting time to just two years, spitting in the faces of brave women and many other victims who had yet to come forward. It’s hard to think of a worse message to send — or a more typically Republican policy to install.
Update: The new Lt. Governor has said he will review the new rules, though he’s not promising much:
Duncan said his office will study the rule change approved by the Republican majority Monday — the first day of the legislative session — which requires an accuser to make formal claims against a senator or Senate staffer within two years of the incident. Previously there had been no time limit.
“It’s important for us to go back and take a look at it,” Duncan said Tuesday after the Senate adjourned. “But the Senate is an independent body. I’m not a senator. I’m a lieutenant governor. My job is to come up there and proctor the process up there.”
He likely said that to placate senators who expressed concern. There are 13 Democratic women and two Republican women in the Georgia State Senate now, and their concerns are not limited to the harassment rules:
Lawmakers from both parties are calling it a #MeToo uprising on the floor of the state Senate.
Speakers included Sens. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), Elena Parent (D-Atlanta), Gloria Butler (D-Stone Mountain) and Zahra Karinshak (D-Lawrenceville).
"We have sat back for a long time in the Georgia state Senate. We're not going to sit back any longer," said Unterman, who spent six years as chair of the Health and Human Services committee.
"There are zero women on regulated industries, there is only one woman on transportation, finance, and judiciary," Parent said. "They do not want to put talented newly elected women on important committees."
Committee assignments are given out by a committee including Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and a small group of GOP leadership.
If only Kemp hadn’t purged over a million voters from the rolls there — we’d have Gov. Stacey Abrams and probably a lot more Democrats in the legislature, with much more fair rules and assignments.
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