I am sick to death of special rules for congressmen. Nearly everybody else in the US is subject to work place rules including training concerning sexual harassment. Why not congress. What is really sick is the victims are expected to go to mediation/counselling for months before they can file a complaint. This is unconscionable.
Victims have to attend mediation or counselling for three months to make a complaint.
That is utterly disgusting and corrupt.
Well at least the old white guys who developed this “system” removed the mandatory ultrasound procedure.
“Speier plans to introduce legislation to update the process for reporting sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill through the Office of Compliance, hoping to make it easier for staffers to report and address inappropriate behavior.”’
I’ve got a suggestion: a giant billboard sized list of accused people right outside the Capitol building’s entrance. Got accused and some minimum standard of proof was produced? BOOM! Name in lights! See how they like that.
Not only that, all of Congress is EXEMPT from the “Insider Trading Rules” of the SEC.
They passed a law saying that last year, in response to accusations of; “insider trading” by congressmen.
I love Jackie Speier so very, very much. I first learned about her while watching a documentary on Jonestown. She was a congressional aide to Leo Ryan and went with him on the trip to Jonestown after many of his constituents had contacted him about family members there who they were worried about. Rep, Ryan was killed on the tarmac as they were trying to leave, Speier was shot five times and made it through nearly an entire day drinking rum. She’s bad ass. If anyone can get it done, it’s Jackie.
Under the current system, victims must attend mediation or counseling for up to three months before they can file a complaint, and members and staffers are not required to attend sexual harassment training, per Politico.
Seems a little upside down. Of course, the mediation or counseling wouldn’t include suggestions that the victim just forget about the entire incident(s), because…your humiliation, reputation, career, opportunities, and Rep. X really is a good man and you wouldn’t want to ruin his reputation and career.
Several years back my nephew worked as a congressional intern, and he had some stories to tell about how they told the female interns which creeps to avoid. The one specific Instruction I recall was that they should never ever get in the same elevator as Strom Thurman. Rampant harassment.
Me too it’s amazing how plucky she is. Survived Jonestown as well as an assault. A few years ago she shared to congress her story about having an abortion. Quite moving.
Congressman Leo Ryan was interested figure. One of those people who would actually go to places when his constituents would have concerns. He even spent a night in San Quentin just to see the conditions.
They really need to name something for him in the congress.
What opened the floodgates? What brought about this moment when powerful white males in numerous industries, the press and now congress are being exposed? The rules explained by Speier explain why victins could not defend themselves but why now?
Ailes? O’Reilly? Halperin? Weinstein? Trump? The first woman nominated for president? Clearly the idea that these aggressive assaults that have been perpetrated for decades with rules in place to protect them, explain why it happened with impunity for generations.
Once I researched the puzzling happening of so many people “hating Hillary”, I found sexism endemic in our culture. Academics have written about this but in general it was not understood. Certainly not by me. It is so insidious. Seems this is the background for this to iccur. Think about what opponents of female political candidates have done for years. Look at what they did to Hillary. Everything from baseless investigations to dog whistles to “lock her up”. Would this have happened to a male candidate? I doubt it.
These assaults where the perpetrators thought it was humor or consensual or their due happened in a system that offered no remedies for victims. Worse, the male dialogue blamed the victims. Now what? Will they be prosecuted? Settle with their victims? Forgotten once media moves to the next topic?
Ghosts from the past come haunting. I’ve had my fair share of sexual abuse, none of which were physical. I know me and I would’ve freaked out on whoever tried to touch me in a sexual manner, especially when it was not mutual. There are those who would use their sexual favors to advance themselves in the workplace, which I’ve been a victim from it’s rippling effect. Robbed of my ability to move ahead into a job which I was more qualified than the sexual predator who used her sexual behavior to take it from myself and others, There a fallout from their bad behavior.
I can honestly say I have NEVER used sexual favors to advance myself in the workplace.
Tweeting, groping, lying, and cheating. It’s the GOP way
I’m proud Speier is my rep, and even more proud she’s speaking out about this.
It still boggles my mind that, apparently, entire generations of men learned that groping and assaulting women was perfectly OK. (And I say this as a gay white male.)
I hope more and more victims start speaking out and publicly naming and punishing those responsible. As was already mentioned, I too am positive this phenomenon was a big factor in Hillary’s treatment during the election.
More power to you, Ms. Speier.
That does it. I have had my last flabber gasted. How can something so obviously wrong have been put in place and tolerated for so long? Does the complainant have to undergo a vaginal ultrasound, too, just to make sure she’s serious?
My opinion is that Trump is why.
A lot of women will know what I mean just by my saying that. He is a serial sexual harasser. When he was “elected” it made hundreds of thousands of American women sick because we felt as if every man who ever put his hands on us without asking had just been “elected” president.
I think it has tipped the balance over to women saying O hell no! Enough. And it’s a cascade affect at this point.
Speier plans to introduce legislation to update the process for reporting sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill through the Office of Compliance, hoping to make it easier for staffers to report and address inappropriate behavior.
And now I think we have our explanation as to why so many GOPosaurs decided to retire this year. Maybe they knew this was coming. And it sure as hell wasn’t Trump, because GOPosaurs will lament him one day and vote in lockstep with him the next. They value tax cuts and Wall Street Welfare more than they value their own dignity…
Oops! I read the headline while distracted, and thought it was a crazy story even by Friday news dump standards. My original reading was “Spicer shares his own sex harassment story calls Congress breeding ground.”
For the mental health of all of us, and in gratitude that we won’t wake up screaming in the night, I’m glad I misread.
I used to teach this in federal gov’t in the 90s. Always an uphill battle. We always emphasized “sexual harassment prevention” training as the guys would all make jokes about how they already knew how to harass.