Me Too

In a post-Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo world, most people are well aware sexual harassment occurs in the workplace. But across the US, women are subjected to it in a far more intimate setting - their homes.

Every year, hundreds of state and federal civil lawsuits are filed against landlords, property owners, building superintendents and maintenance workers alleging persistent, pervasive sexual harassment and misconduct, covering everything from sexual remarks to rape. This includes so-called "quid pro quo" sexual harassment, wherein the perpetrator demands sex in exchange for rent or repairs.

"In employment, you leave. It's horrible, but you can leave and go home," says Kelly Clarke, a supervising lawyer at the Fair Housing Project of Legal Aid of North Carolina. "This is somebody who can invade your home."

Martisha Coleman, a young mother who brought a case against her landlord in East St Louis, Illinois, says after repeatedly rebuffing advances, she became so scared of him that she started pushing her bed against the door at night. She says he retaliated when she wasn't home. (The case is awaiting a judge's ruling.)

"He unlocked my door, came inside my house, looked through my items and left a five-day eviction [notice] on my bed."

Situations like Coleman's are virtually unstudied. There has never been a comprehensive national survey of tenants to track the frequency of sexual harassment in housing, or to determine where or to whom it occurs most often. Most advocates and experts believe poor women and women of colour are disproportionately affected, though that is based mainly on experiential evidence and a single, 30-year-old study. Advocates say victims who are undocumented or who do not speak English are also easy targets, as are women fleeing domestic violence.

The lack of affordable housing stock in major American cities compounds the desperate circumstances renters can find themselves in. A single eviction can preclude victims from huge swathes of the public and private housing market.

"The link is vulnerability and poverty," says Kate Sablosky Elengold, a clinical associate law professor at University of North Carolina who prosecuted sexual harassment cases for the justice department's civil rights division. "The risk to a woman standing up against it is homelessness."

due process was necessary

that due process was necessary before banning people from their jobs, the airwaves or politics.

It's been the standard here on the political front for at least 30 years when there are accusations of financial wrongdoing etc. Accusations re sexual abuse etc should be considered no less important.

Meanwhile, the accusations are now understood to have involved three women, but they seem forgotten in the whole story. I guess their allegations will never be investigated -- and if they were true, they won't find justice.

was he manipulated by somebody for political or other motives, somebody who found a few people ready to falsely accuse him (or exagerate the importance of something), under the cover of anonymity, to ruin his career?

nimh wrote:

Meanwhile, the accusations are now understood to have involved three women, but they seem forgotten in the whole story. I guess their allegations will never be investigated -- and if they were true, they won't find justice.

The accusations by the women should continue to be investigated. Way too much sweeping under the carpet is accepted, condoned, praised.

If I were in Whitewall, I would like to know if someone has manipulated (and potentially still is manipulating) UK politics by throwing dirt at UK politicians, killing careers in the process, and now killing an actual life. If I were his wife (or if my wife had taken her life in similar circumstances, if that's more realistic), I might wish to know why my partner had to die such an awful death.