My Name Is Erin Williams and I Have Been a Model in New York City Since 2002

To The Commissioner on Human Rights in NYC:

My name is Erin Williams and I have been a model in New York City since 2002. During my time as a model, I have worked with well known clients, photographers and major agencies.

As these recent news events have shown, there is rampant sexual abuse and assault within the fashion industry. When I began to read the stories of other brave models had come forward, I was saddened and horrified. I had always considered myself lucky that I had not been a victim of events like that. But as I began to speak with friends, I realized that I had become so accustomed to behaviors that, anywhere else, would not be acceptable. So while yes, I am one of the lucky ones not to have been physically assaulted, there is certainly a normalization of predatory behavior. From inappropriate sexual comments, to uninvited touch, and pressures from agents, clients and photographers to “do what it takes” is par for the course.

A couple of years ago I was shooting in Miami with a photographer who was well known and shoots with all of the major agencies. It was just he and I shooting on the beach and he commented that I had “great tits”. I laughed and thanked him, later thinking how backwards it was that I heard that as a compliment and not the inappropriate sexual comment that it is.

When I was about 21 I was sent to test shoot with a photographer that the agency was using to shoot most of their female models. I was under pressure from my agency to get great photos or risk being dropped. His wife was the stylist on the shoot, there was a full team of assistants, retouchers and office management. As we shot he encouraged me to remove my bra because it was “in the way” and then my underwear from underneath my very short dress and another time from under very sheer lingerie. I was uncomfortable but felt pressure to comply, even though it made less sense to retouch any exposed genitalia than a panty line. I later heard from other models that he had entire folders of model’s genitalia and tried to get everyone to take their underwear off, regardless of age. Some of the models shooting with him were quite young. The agencies new about his behavior but continued to send models to him for years.

When I was 18 and 19 I shot Abercrombie and Fitch with Bruce Weber. Bruce liked to introduce himself personally to each of the 50 models on the first day. With the female models it was a quick introduction, always in a private room, just you and him. But with the male models, these introductions took longer. I heard from many of the guys that he would have them take their shirt off and close their eyes. He would then place a hand on their bare chest and tell them to relax. Over the course of the shoot the stylists and production people would quietly ask if you were comfortable shooting nude. I never was and said so, even though there was enormous pressure from my agent to make sure “Bruce likes you”. I continually refused to undress, even being told that I was the only one who wouldn’t be topless and it would look weird. The models that didn’t go nude were always cut on day 2, and those who did would stay for additional shoot days. The boys who would socialize with Bruce after the shoots, alone in his hotel room, would get booked for longer with the carrot of a major campaign being dangled in front of them.

The commonplace abuses, big and small, are normalized within the unregulated fashion industry. Models have little recourse to report abuse, and even worse it is often well known by agents. We are constantly in fear of losing our income and treated as replaceable. Those who speak up are no longer “bookable”. Awareness may help to hold those in positions of power accountable but to go a step further and provide protection and regulation would be even more beneficial.

Sincerely,

Erin Williams December 5, 2017

Testimony by Hugo Tillman Attention: Commissioner Malais and the NYC Human Rights Commission

I grew up in New York City and work as a photographer. I am writing to testify about sexual harassment and abuse in the fashion industry, which is pervasive and deserves greater scrutiny.

In the spring of 1996, I began working for the celebrated fashion photographer Mario Testino as a freelance assistant. During this period, we worked with the likes of American Vogue, Gucci, Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren and many other magazines and brands. I was often made to feel uncomfortable on shoots, asked to massage Mario in front of the other assistants, models and fashion editors. He was constantly flirting with me. As a straight male, and as somebody new to the workplace in the fashion context, I did not know how to deal with it. People would just say “oh Mario.”

In the autumn of 1996, Mario decided he would like to hire me full-time and wanted me to move to Paris to do so. He took my mother and I to a restaurant in New York City and convinced us that, because my father had died at a young age, he would act as a father figure and mentor me. I moved to Paris to work for him, making the equivalent of just $1,200 dollars a month in Francs.

Before getting to Paris, I was to meet Mario in London and attend meetings with him. During the first couple of days on the job, Mario tried to kiss me after dinner. I cannot stress how much this upset me, as it challenged my trust for my new boss and made me question why I had chosen to move across the Atlantic, leaving my girlfriend of two years, our apartment and my family.

Although things had been rather uncomfortable all along, I was lead to believe that Mario’s behaviour was normal for him, and he was that way with all of the assistants, models, etc. So I did not worry too much. Mario had been treating me specially compared to the other assistants, which I chalked it up to him being a mentor, as he’d promised my mother and myself in New York. I actually trusted Mario a great deal and looked to him like a father figure at that point. I was 23.

Things did not really begin to become unbearable until we went to do a Gucci campaign in Palm Springs. While working in Los Angles the week before, Mario had the assistants drive in a separate van, while he had me drive in the passenger seat of his car with no one else. Again, I thought the special treatment was because of the mentorship.

During this trip to California, I was constantly touched and spoken to in a flirtatious way, and made to feel awful in front of everybody else working on the shoots. Upon completion of the jobs, Mario sent everybody back to Paris, and said I was to travel to New York with him to attend meetings. I was happy as I was going to be able to see my girlfriend whom I missed greatly. But when in New York, I was never invited into the meetings, as I had been lead to believe, but rather asked to wait outside.

When it was time to go back to Paris, I was told to meet Mario at his hotel. I was asked to roll him a special cigarette, but I wasn’t able to. He got upset and threw me down onto the bed. He got on top of me and pinned my arms down so I could not move. At this point, Mario’s brother, Giovanni Testino came into the room and made his brother get off of me. This experience damaged me.

We flew back to Paris and I called my friend who was in London at the time, as I was so shaken up. He came to Paris. I went to Mario’s office, which was empty as it was the weekend. I left a resignation letter. I was incredibly hurt primarily, because he had broken my trust.

I flew back to New York a few days later. Soon after, another assistant contacted me saying he had a similar situation and wanted to file a lawsuit against Mario. I declined, although I think I should have done something, as I know his behaviour did not stop with me. I have an old family friend who said he had an even worse experience almost ten years after. Mario wrote me a long letter apologising and arguing that he had a problem and could not control himself. I discussed it at length with my girlfriend, and we accepted that his actions were an illness and not necessarily him. That sounds a little doltish in retrospect. The trajectory of my career and personal life were totally affected by the experience. I wish I had never met him now, and I wish I had spoken out sooner. My life and the lives of those who came after me would have been much better as a result.

I even felt bad for quitting my job for some months after until an executive at Gucci came up to me in a restaurant and congratulated me for standing up to Mario and for leaving my job in response to his unacceptable behaviour.

National Association of Women Lawyers’ Testimony in The New York City Commission on Human Rights Public Hearing on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

As the recent “#metoo movement” has shown, sexual harassment continues to play an insidious role in every aspect of our society. The legal profession is no exception. But unlike other professions, we are specially tasked with enforcing constitutional principles of equality and justice and it is our collective obligation to use the law to effectively deter and punish those guilty of such misconduct.

Sadly, the reality is that for decades sexual harassment has historically derailed the careers of the victims, not the perpetrators. Whether the victim reports the incident and feels the impact on her career trajectory or whether she chooses not to report the incident and leaves her job to avoid recurrence, her plans for the future are forever changed. If we are to make any progress, this must change.

In the legal profession women face harassment from every angle – senior lawyers asserting their power, opposing counsel looking to exploit an advantage, clients who hold women attorneys’ fates in their hands, and many others. As with other professions, women lawyers must weigh the consequences of their responses against the likely, negative impact on their incomes and careers.

In 2016, the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates passed Resolution 109 amending the model rules of professionalism, the template from which each state derives its guidelines for the ethical practice of law. This amendment prohibits sexual harassment and discrimination in the practice of law, which would be grounds for discipline, including disbarment.

Many states still have not adopted the new model rule and some actively opposed its adoption based on the rule’s potential to infringe the perpetrator’s First Amendment rights and the right to freely represent clients. In those states, women lawyers continue to face inappropriate conduct without a viable path to seek redress from the licensing agency entrusted to ensure ethical behavior by its lawyer members.

The National Association of Women Lawyers’ 2017 Survey on the Promotion and Retention of Women in Law Firms shows that despite graduating in almost equal numbers to men for two decades, women still only make up 19% of equity partnerships at the nation’s 200 largest law firms. There are a slew of reasons why that is the case, but sexual harassment has for decades most certainly played a part.

Just as lawyers advise their clients on the proper handling of sexual harassment claims, so too should they ensure that their own houses are in order. In those states in which the new model rule has not been adopted, the disciplinary body must create a mechanism for reporting, investigating, and resolving sexual harassment complaints. Law firms must enact zero tolerance policies – regardless of the status of the perpetrator and their importance to the law firms’ profits. Judges must mete out appropriate punishments for sexual harassment by lawyers before their courts. Employers must be open to receiving and resolving sexual harassment complaints from outside lawyers who have been harassed or assaulted by employees.

As the institution charged with protecting the most vulnerable in our society, the legal profession must also protect the most vulnerable within its own ranks.

New York City Commission on Human Rights Written Testimony on Workplace Sexual Harassment By Kathleen Peratis and Nina Frank, Outten & Golden LLP December 30, 2017

INTRODUCTION

We are, respectively, co-chair and member of the Sexual Harassment and Sex

Discrimination practice group at Outten & Golden, LLP. O&G is the largest plaintiff/claimant- side employment law firm in the country, with nearly 70 lawyers in four major-city offices and several one-and-two lawyer offices in smaller cities. We have represented thousands of women

(and some men) who have claimed employment-related sexual harassment and sexually hostile work environment. A significant proportion of our clients consists of highly-paid women in financial services. However, through our regular practice and our pro bono practice group, we represent workers at every point on the economic scale, including those who are underpaid and vulnerable.

We would like to begin by expressing our gratitude for the work that the NYC

Commission on Human Rights undertakes, and the standards that the NYC Human Rights Law upholds. Since at least 2005, the New York City Human Rights Law has been a model of employee protection. Due to the “severe or pervasive” standard under federal law, the deck is often stacked against sexual harassment plaintiffs when that federal standard is applied.

Furthermore, employers can and do use the Faragher/Ellerth defense to hide behind their too- often toothless anti-harassment policies and thereby avoid liability altogether. December 30, 2017 Page 2 of 8

That’s why, as lawyers representing employees in New York City, we rely on the protections of the NYCHRL every day. Because the NYCHRL was specifically drafted to be more employee-friendly than its federal or state counterparts, it allows for more justice for sexual harassment victims in myriad ways, and sets a bar that is the envy of workplace fairness advocates everywhere.

First, the NYCHRL allows for a more realistic standard to prove a prima facie case of hostile work environment sexual harassment: instead of the Title VII “severe or pervasive” standard, the employee must have been treated “less well” than other similarly situated employees because of her gender. This reflects the public policy that it is all of gender discrimination that is illegal, not simply some tiny slice of it. The Faragher/Ellerth defense is not available under NYCHRL, which means there is essentially strict liability for employers where the supervisor is the harasser. Importantly, the standard for constructive discharge – something so relevant when speaking about sexual harassment and assault victims – is eminently more reasonable than the federal standard, eschewing the federal “intolerable conditions” standard and tracking the “less well” language cited above.

The NYCHRL also helps a greater number of employees than Title VII. Sexual harassment can occur at any employer, whether big or small, but federal law only applies to larger employers, usually fifteen or more. In contrast, NYCHRL applies to employers with as few as four employees – covering many start-ups, domestic workplaces, small firms, and nonprofits, which make up a large proportion of employees in New York City. Further, the

NYCHRL, unlike its federal or state counterparts, covers independent contractors and interns, two extremely vulnerable groups of workers who, were it not for the NYCHRL, would have no December 30, 2017 Page 3 of 8 protections against sexual harassment whatsoever. The NYCHRL also allows for more time for victims to come forward – if a victim has missed her 300-day deadline to file with the EEOC, she still has the option of filing with the Commission if she does so within a year.

A perfect law, however, is only as good as its enforcement, and for a dozen years, the enforcement of NYCHRL was a source of frustration to advocates of worker rights. That frustration has lately turned to hope. Outten & Golden and other advocates of workplace fairness are increasingly willing to turn to the Commission and work with its highly professional staff of investigators, lawyers and adjudicators. Knowing that the Commission is taking claims seriously, investigating them, and working on behalf of fairness for all employees keeps the pressure on employers to do the right thing. It is heartening that New York City has a well- staffed, well-funded, and well-run Commission that is committed to furthering the cause of workplace justice.

In this testimony, we briefly lay out 1) what we know of the conditions facing the women we represent, 2) practical issues on the ground and unique hurdles in financial services, and finally, 3) our modest proposal for an additional practical remedy.

1. CONDITIONS FACING THE WOMEN WE REPRESENT

Sexual harassment affects workers in all sectors, from low-income workers paid “off the books,” all the way up to the highest earners in business and finance. Women make up the overwhelming majority of workplace sexual harassment victims, and women of color, LGBTQ individuals, and immigrants are disproportionately affected. Regardless of race, religion, job title, seniority, or employer, women who are just trying to do their jobs continue to be subjected December 30, 2017 Page 4 of 8 to unwanted sexual advances, inappropriate or hostile comments or jokes, and groping or sexual assault. Further, they continue to be subjected to retaliation by their employers if they do not submit, or if they speak up and complain.

It is important to underscore that sexual harassment is, at its essence, gender discrimination, and its effect on women and men in the workplace cannot be overstated. A workplace culture where sexual harassment is tolerated serves to prop up existing gender disparities and power structures, and makes it that much harder for women to rise up in the ranks.

With the public revelations regarding Harvey Weinstein, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, and many others (as well as the election of Donald Trump, an employer who has admitted to sexual assault), a sea change is occurring (and we hope a backlash is not brewing). Not only are people beginning to listen to victims of sexual harassment, but high-profile harassers are finally suffering consequences for their actions. Some employers are beginning actually to practice what they preach, and firing harassers under what was an in-name-only, and now suddenly robust, “zero-tolerance” policy. And legislatures may soon consider legislation addressing some endemic issues including forced confidentiality.

We are heartened by, and hope for the sustainability of, what seems to be a cultural shift.

But this is just the beginning, and it is occurring only in a select number of employment sectors, for the benefit of a small number of high-profile victims. Women are still faced with the realities of the workplace, and are wary of speaking up because it may cost opportunities, promotions, or even their job. December 30, 2017 Page 5 of 8

2. PRACTICAL ISSUES ON THE GROUND AND UNIQUE ISSUES IN FINANCIAL SERVICES

We do not know for sure if this remarkable moment we find ourselves in is a blip or a real paradigm shift. Of course, this “blip” did not spring from nowhere– it has been brewing since Anita Hill’s testimony in 1991. Workplace sexual harassment has been ubiquitous in all the decades since, but hiding in plain sight. This year the #MeToo movement burst forth and shed klieg lights on thousands of heretofore dark corners.

As with all seismic shifts, the potential for backlash and backsliding are apparent.

Suddenly, there is concern for “due process” when harassers are accused, and calls for fairness and balanced inquiries. We too support due process, fairness, and balance, but these calls can seem like crocodile tears: those who are the loudest voices calling for such “due process” apparently failed to notice that most states, New York included, are at-will employment states, where employers may (and do) fire employees for any reason and no reason at all. Suddenly, in a bitter example of the phenomenon of “deflected limelight,” accused male harassers are cast as victims because they were not afforded the legal protections that no employee ever gets (unless he or she has a union or an employment contract). And few tears have been shed in the past for the female victims who had their expectations upset and derailed, whose trajectories got flattened, who had to leave their jobs and never got fully back on track. It is ironic indeed that this moment – where employers have an easy tool to rid workplaces of harassers – is bringing with it an overdue examination of the at-will employment doctrine.

But we can and should take this lemon and make lemonade. The #MeToo movement has the potential for bringing with it broad changes for employee protection – sustained shifts in the ways employers recognize hostile work environments, punish harassers, and listen to and support December 30, 2017 Page 6 of 8 victims. Sexual harassment victims in the upper echelons of business and finance, with their increasing willingness to speak out, are leading the way.

Women in financial services face somewhat different hurdles, and it is high time to examine those too, for they are part and parcel of a culture of silencing victims. Many if not most workers in financial services are subject to arbitration agreements, which cut off victims’ ability to file lawsuits in court and shield the employer from the deterrent effect of bad publicity.

Many of these arbitration agreements come with class action waivers, which bar victims from coming forward in a group, even if they have all experienced the same or similar discrimination or harassment. Outten & Golden is committed to working to end the ubiquity of forced arbitration, especially in the sexual harassment context, as it allows employers to continue to employ serial harassers with little to no consequences. These are issues that may soon be addressed by legislatures—New York’s and others.

We know from experience that a negotiated settlement is sometimes in the best interests of our clients, however even in that context, victims who work in finance can be disadvantaged.

Most employers will insist on a confidentiality or non-disclosure agreement in exchange for a severance payment in order to resolve a complaint of sexual harassment. These NDAs can also serve to conceal sexual harassment and protect serial abusers because victims are silenced and cannot raise the alarm about a harasser who may victimize someone else. We are hopeful that legislatures limit the use of NDA provisions in sexual harassment settlements in an intelligent and nuanced way, protecting privacy and also promoting the public interest .

Retaliation can have long term consequences for any victim, especially in the current internet age. This is even more pronounced in the world of finance. Employers may demand as December 30, 2017 Page 7 of 8

part of the price of settlement that claimants agree never to apply again to the employer or any

affiliate—which may comprise a large swath of the industry. Strict non-compete clauses in

settlement agreements may essentially bar a victim from finding a new position in her industry.

And publicity or gossip can also have the practical effect of blackballing the claimant in the

industry. We have also seen employers who use misleading statements in the Form U-5, a public

document for licensed finance professionals, to retaliate against victims who speak up.

3. MODEST PROPOSAL TO INCENTIVIZE EMPLOYEES TO MAKE SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS We have alluded to the necessity of confronting the anti-public policy aspects of nondisclosure agreements, forced arbitration, class action waivers, and at-will employment. All of these techniques, commonly used by employers, work against workplace fairness. They are the exact opposite of the #MeToo movement—they shroud the truth.

The deep problem, however, as many have agreed, is the reality of retaliation. We see good claims go unasserted every day—women who decide not to make a claim, even a confidential one, to HR or the relevant anti-discrimination agency. Women know there are risks, and many choose not to take those risks. An employer-side lawyer said to one of us (Peratis) many years ago, “The first thing any client wants to do when he hears of a discrimination complaint is fire the claimant. I spend my first few hours talking him out of it.” This is why the anti-retaliation laws are so strong—because the problem is so severe.

The retaliation impulse needs to be attacked and redressed on many fronts, and we are

glad to see that is happening. Most common is employer announcements of Zero Tolerance.

This is a step in the right direction, but in truth, in many workplaces, it has had limited success. December 30, 2017 Page 8 of 8

We have an additional proposal to throw into the mix: incentivize the protected behavior of making a discrimination claim.

Employers can say, and mean it, that retaliation will be punished. Still, distrust of HR runs high. Fear of retaliation is real and reasonable. Employers need to take an additional positive step—they should not merely forbid bad behavior but incentivize good behavior, and in this moment of history, good behavior includes reports of harassment and hostile work environment.

Employers know how to incentivize behavior and conduct—it can be with recognition, with money (bonuses and other forms of compensation), with points on performance reviews, or with appointments to prestigious groups, committees, and task forces. If employees were rewarded for making claims, regardless of whether the claims were substantiated, what a sea change that would be. What if supervisors were rewarded for the number of claims made by subordinates? Would the impulse to retaliate gradually erode? Would the stigma claimants rightly fear turn to its opposite? We believe it is an idea worth exploring.

CONCLUSION

We at Outten & Golden are committed to zealously representing victims of workplace sexual harassment, assault, and discrimination, and we thank the Commission for its tireless efforts to educate the public and further the cause of worker justice.

Women’s Bar Association

OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

PRESIDENT Written Testimony Presented on behalf of Amy Baldwin Littman Women's Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY) Post Office Box 936 Planetarium Station to the New York, NY 10024-0546 New York City Commission on Human Rights Public Hearing (212) 362-4445 (212) 721-1620 (FAX) by [email protected] (e-mail) www.wbasny.org Amy Baldwin Littman, Esq., WBASNY President, Deirdre Hay, Esq., Co-Chair,

PRESIDENT-ELECT WBASNY Equal Opportunity in the Profession Committee, Elizabeth Kraengel, Greta K. Kolcon Esq., Co-Chair, WBASNY Equal Opportunity in the Profession Committee VICE PRESIDENTS Leyla Kiosse Kelly A. Pressler Lourdes M. Ventura The Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (“WBASNY”) applauds the TREASURER Dawn Reid-Green New York Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) for holding a public hearing on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace across New York City and how New CORRESPONDING SECRETARY York City Government can best address these issues. Joy A. Thompson

RECORDING SECRETARY WBASNY is an organization of over 4,200 female and male attorneys and judges Jennifer P. Brown dedicated to the advancement of women in the law and in society. WBASNY has 19 IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT chapters across the state and its members come from private practice, government, Jacqueline P. Flug academia and the courts. WBASNY advocates for legislation that promotes equal access CHAPTER PRESIDENTS to justice and gender equality throughout New York and the United States. WBASNY Adirondack Margaret D. Place also has consultative status at the United Nations and supports women and girls around Bronx Lisa M. Licata the world. WBASNY has five chapters located in New York City. Brooklyn Michele S. Mirman Capital District WBASNY has drafted a member survey which specifically addresses these issues for its Dana L. Salazar Central New York 4,200 members throughout the State of New York and we expect to have the results of Bryn Lovejoy-Grinnell that survey in January 2018. Del-Chen-O Kathleen Campbell Finger Lakes Anna J. Smith Although we will be in a much better position in January next year to provide Mid-Hudson information, we have anecdotal evidence from our members in New York State that there Melissa Manna-Williams Mid-York is indeed sexual harassment occurring in New York in the legal profession. For example, Julie Giruzzi-Mosca Nassau one member related a story at our last board meeting of how just recently at court (not in Maureen McLaughlin New York New York City), the following conversation occurred: Myra L. Freed Orange-Sullivan Christina Randazzo Attorney: "I have to ask, do you comment on the attire of male attorneys too?" Queens Alexandra Zervopoulos Rochester Officer: (patronizing mansplaining tone) "Ugh, what? Oh not usually no.... Aww, Jodie L. Ryan Rockland Oh [name of attorney] did I hurt your feelings? You really didn't think I meant Christine K. Wienberg Staten Island anything by it, did you?" Manju Sunny Suffolk Megan M. Tomlin Attorney: "Oh I'm sure you didn't, it's honestly just sexist to comment on my Westchester Lisa M. Denig appearance as I'm preparing for court, regardless of whether you meant anything Western New York Anne E. Joynt by it. I truly don't care at all if my briefcase or my shoes match, I care that I am

able to provide quality representation for my client. Does that make sense?" EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Linda A. Chiaverini Officer: (bright red) "Um okay, yes. I apologize. "

Attorney: "Thank you, I really appreciate your apology."

Page 2

Following a post in social media, the Presiding judge from the city court called the attorney an hour after the post was posted and apologized for what had transpired on behalf of his courtroom and made a complaint to the county sheriff’s department. The undersheriff of the department also called the attorney and explained that as a result of the judge’s complaint, the office had instituted new sexual harassment training. WBASNY believes that raising awareness and educational programs can help address the problem.

We have further reports (again outside of New York City but in New York State) of instances of sexual harassment.

For example:

1. "Ma'am, can I tell you something? It's always great to see you and although I hate saying goodbye, I love watching you leave (winking at female attorney)" - court officer in supreme court 2. "Excuse me, do you see this (pointing to a calculator app on his phone), I've just calculated you're the hottest attorney in whole county" - court officer inside the courtroom, whispering to female attorney, standing and leaning over, while the attorney was sitting and waiting for her family court case to be called. 3. "[first name]” (using attorney’s first name which is on the court calendar as attorney of record, although unknown personally) “If I wasn't a married man I'd tell you I wanna kiss you" - court officer right outside family court letting attorney know her case was up next. 4. "you're perfect you know,....in eeeevery way (motions an hourglass shape)" - court officer outside the county clerk's office near the metal detector as female attorney walks in to file divorce paperwork.

WBASNY plans to forward the report of our member survey to the Commission once it is complete and hope that it will provide useful and more specific information about how widespread the issue is and the nature of the problem.

NY City Council Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations

Testimony regarding “Amending the definitions of sexual orientation and gender in the New York City human rights law” on behalf of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York, Local 802, AFM

January 22, 2018 ______

On behalf of the 7,500 musicians of the Associated Musicians of Greater New York, American Federation of Musicians Local 802 (Local 802), I would like to thank the Committee on Human Rights for the opportunity to provide testimony regarding the climate and culture of sexual harassment and abuse that is pervasive in our society, and how it impacts the music community. This is an extremely important discussion, and we applaud the City Council for ensuring that New York City remains a leader in what is a national issue that plagues every industry.

Local 802 is the largest local union of professional musicians in the world, comprising musicians performing and teaching in all styles of music and backgrounds, from Lincoln Center orchestras and Broadway, to the TV show bands and thousands of musicians performing in recording studios, jazz clubs, and venues across the city every day and night.

Music, performance, and the arts are a part of our common heritage and identity, providing the life-blood of our City’s culturally diverse communities and helping to drive our economy. The New York City Council and Mayor de Blasio have shown their

recognition of the important role live music and the arts play in our community, passing legislation that has created the Create NYC cultural plan, created the Office of Nightlife, and repealed the Cabaret Law. We applaud the Council and the Mayor for their strong leadership and support, and look forward to continuing to work with the City and Council to ensure that all musicians have an opportunity to earn a living as musicians in New York City.

While it cannot be denied that a great number of musicians struggle to achieve financial and artistically fulfilling careers, it also cannot be denied that New York City’s music industry is incredibly diverse. Musicians from across the world and from all five boroughs perform, teach, and hone their craft in New York City. However, though the music industry’s diversity is exceptional, it is not free of abuse, harassment, or discrimination.

Recent national conversation about sexual harassment in the workforce — within the entertainment industry and beyond — as well as the #MeToo movement and allegations about musicians here in New York City have deeply touched the musicians of our union, and we recognize the importance of addressing these challenges head on. We take sexual harassment in the workplace extremely seriously, and believe that while it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure a safe workplace free of discrimination, labor unions must play an important leadership role if we are to ensure that our societal values reflect the industries, communities, and neighborhoods in which we work.

Due to the nature of the music business, different areas of the industry are structured in ways that create varying types of interpersonal relationships, hiring practices, performance expectations, and cultural norms among both employers and performers. Orchestral musicians are often hired during an audition process held behind a

screen to protect anonymity during the initial stages. Broadway musicians, however, are hired based upon a “contractor” model, one in which a single individual identifies and hires musicians to comprise an ensemble based upon their musical talent and skill, their experience, and their ability to perform extremely diverse and difficult styles of music every night. Other musicians, including jazz musicians, world-music performers, pop musicians, and others are hired by “band-leaders” or individual musicians, blurring the lines between employer and employee in a way that frequently results in difficult-to- define payment structures that have serious and negative implications on employment law, from employee status to employer responsibilities.

Beyond the diverse hiring practices of different types of music within the industry, a climate of power-wielder or industry influencer is both deep and pervasive within the music community, both locally and internationally. Powerful individuals, often acknowledged power-brokers within instrument types, conductors, or band-leaders, can act or be seen as gate-keepers to the industry. As a result, individuals who find themselves subject to abuse, bullying, or harassment do not feel they can afford to report a claim, for fear of the potential impact upon their career. This fear of retribution is particularly felt in an industry like music, where skill, talent, musicality, artistry, ability, and success are almost entirely subjective. Furthermore, because of the nature of the industry, fear of career impact or retribution is rarely, if ever, confined to a single organization or city, and is instead felt nationally or even internationally.

Addressing such fundamental challenges is extraordinarily complicated and requires serious reflection by all members of the community, artists, employers, unions, and the City. Our union has strong protections within our collective bargaining agreements that ensure that musicians cannot be hired, fired, disciplined, or treated in any discriminatory or harassing manner. Additionally, though the nature of the industry and

the exploitation many musicians face makes it increasingly difficult, we work closely with both producers and employers to ensure that they meet their Title VII obligations to ensure a safe workplace. Sadly, this work only addresses a small portion of the problem, failing to support both musicians who do not work on a collective bargaining agreement, nor those who fear that reporting abuse will negatively impact their career.

To address these more insidious challenges, our union has put a newly augmented and strengthened Sexual Harassment Response Procedure into effect, one designed to facilitate both due process investigations and allow musicians to safely report harassment directly to the union representatives. This process provides the necessary flexibility to allow us to support those who have been abused or harassed or to refer them to the appropriate resource, while simultaneously allowing our union to address these systemic issues through both collective bargaining, contract administration or enforcement, public disclosure, and/or workplace education as warranted. We will be working closely with such esteemed partners as the Actor’s Fund, as well as the City Commission on Human Rights, and we are very appreciative of their support and expertise.

This must be just the beginning, and the City and Council can play an important role in helping to address the climate that has allowed harassment and abuse to flourish and ensure that employees feel comfortable reporting abuse and harassment. Large employers where reports of sexual harassment are brought to light should be required by the City to provide City-sanctioned or City-led training for employees, helping to train and educate both employers and employees of their responsibilities, raise awareness for the issue, and help provide access to valuable resources when needed. In situations where a collective bargaining agreement is in effect, the City should work closely with relevant labor unions or workforce representatives to confidentially investigate claims and work to identify mechanisms to best protect workers and employees.

Additionally, if we are to truly address sexual harassment in our society, we must also be actively looking for ways to support those who do not feel safe or able to raise their voice in the first place. The #MeToo movement could not exist if not for the bravery of the first person to come forward, and we must continue to find ways to ensure that those who have been harassed or discriminated against have the strength and ability to step forward. In this way, the Labor community, New York City Council and the City are natural allies.

We recommend that the Mayor and City Council convene an Entertainment Industry Commission, comprising experts in Labor, performers, employers and worker advocates, to comprehensively study the causes, impacts and effects of sexual harassment in the entertainment industry, and make recommendations on how to address them. Such a commission could help all stakeholders better understand the depth and pervasiveness of harassment, as well as identify strategies and develop resources for the industry to use to create real, impactful change.

Our union believes that this is a moment in history to make progress, closely examining the greatest strengths and most fundamental weaknesses of our industry. If we succeed, the role the arts play in our economies and in our society as a whole will be stronger. Thank you again for allowing me to speak. I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.

N E LA / N Y ADVOCATES FOR EMPLOYEE RIGHTS NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAWYERS ASSOCIATION

Testimony of Margaret McIntyre on behalf of the

National Employment Lawyers Association / New York Affiliate (NELA/NY) on the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace across New York City and how New York City government can best address these issues.

December 6, 2017

My name is Margaret McIntyre. I am Chair of the Legislative Committee of NELA/NY and offer this testimony on behalf of NELA/NY. NELA/NY is an Affiliate of the National

Employment Lawyers Association, a national bar association comprised of attorneys dedicated to representing employees rights in the workplace NELA/NY’s nearly 400 attorney members have been on the front line of fighting in court to vindicate the civil rights of New Yorkers, including victims of sexual harassment. We see first-hand the ways in which sexual harassment remains an intractable problem. Litigation alone has not and will not eliminate it. We offer some ideas on how the City of New York, through the Commission on Human Rights and the City’s other agencies, can help end sexual harassment.

First we need to recognize that the issue goes deeper than the harassment which is merely a reflection of the imbalance of power in the workplace. In other words the heart of the problem stems from the lack of a critical mass of women at every top level of the workforce; the failure to pay women for the real value of their contribution and the continued de facto sex segregation of jobs. For so long as we fail to rectify the imbalance and women continue to be in vulnerable positions many of those in power will continue to abuse their power.

Addressing the more limited issue of sex harassment, we have learned through experience that addressing the issue on a one on one basis does not work. Women are intimidated from bringing claims; fearful of losing their jobs; or where they have the courage to raise claims are forced to settle by leaving their job and entering confidential settlements.

What NELA proposes is that the Commission establish a special sex harassment unit which will investigate industries or particular employers where there is reason to believe that sex harassment is a systemic problem. Investigation of systemic issues is out of the reach of individual complainants and their attorneys. Recognizing that,the Human Rights Law, under

Section 8-105(4), vested the Commission with the power to investigate systemic discrimination issues and to bring actions where appropriate. Thjs would have the benefit of protecting women from having to jeopardize their jobs, and would protect women from having to stand up alone in a hostile environment. Moreover, the Commission can provide an expertise and finances that could impact entire industries. Further, such unit could provide expertise to employers on establishing workable anti-harassment programs and could train HR representatives to conduct appropriate investigations.

There is a desperate need for employees to get legal redress for sexual harassment that gets the harassment stopped while keeping the person employed and thriving. This is critical for women’s advancement in the workplace. NELA/NY proposes that the New York City

Commission on Human Rights set up a special unit designed to address discriminatory harassment as it is happening. The Commission could intervene in an employer’s investigation of

a complaint rather than simply assess the adequacy of the employer’s response after the fact.

Swift and certain enforcement of the law would be first and foremost, but the goal would be to actively assist in a resolution that ends harassment with the employee remaining in place, to save both employers and employees litigation costs and change the workplace culture at the same time. If swift cannot be achieved, enforcement procedures follow.

Changes made to the New York City Human Rights Law in 2005 and 2016, along with the courts’ eventual recognition of the scope of those changes offers promise of protecting women from sexual harassment. However, much of the legal analysis and media discussion of sexual harassment continue to be shaped by the doctrines that have emerged from Supreme Court rulings on sexual harassment. Two doctrines stand out: for a hostile work environment to be actionable the conduct must be severe or pervasive and the availability of an affirmative defense for the employer if the employee unreasonably fails to report harassment.

In Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 21 (1993), the Supreme Court ruled that for harassment to be actionable, it had to be “severe or pervasive.” The concept has a certain element of common sense. No one wants to encourage people to file lawsuits over small matters.

But over time, as courts tried to give meaning to the phrase “severe or pervasive,” there evolved an implicit legal standard wherein a little bit of sexual harassment was effectively allowed. And not surprisingly, judges have differing views of what sets of facts amounted to insignificant offenses that do not break the law and what sets of facts do break the law. That has meant that while many employers may espouse, on paper, “zero tolerance” for sexual harassment, in practice employers are aware that zero tolerance is not necessarily what the law requires, except under city law, but that still needs to be more widely recognized by employers. The problem was compounded by the Supreme Court’s attempt, in 1998, to set better guidelines on what practices could be adopted by employers to evade liability. See Faragher v.

City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (1998) and Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742

(1998). Again the idea was to try to create a common sense framework for ensuring that victims of sexual harassment would complain if they felt harassed and employers could address the problem before it became legally actionable. It made sense on paper. In the nearly 20 years that the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense framework has been in place it has not had the intended effect of reducing sexual harassment. We have had endless litigation over the affirmative defense with the result that the rights and obligations of employees and employers are anything but clear to people actually living with the law.

Hence, it is quite promising that under the New York City Human Rights Law, liability for discrimination is determined by “the existence of differential treatment" and a plaintiff’s burden is to show that he or she has been treated less well at least in part because of a discriminatory motive. Williams v. N.Y.C. Hous. Auth., 61 A.D.3d 62, 76 (1st Dep’t 2009).

Employers may limit their damages for sexual harassment through efforts to limit discrimination in the workplace but they cannot evade liability if discriminatory harassment is proven to have happened at all. The responsibility is on the employer to make sure harassment does not happen, not to simply adopt policies that may or may not work. A simpler legal standard is likely, over time, to create incentives to comply with the law or quickly resolve situations where the law is broken.

The challenge is how best to get to that place as quickly as possible. Any problem that involves the law has to take into account the effect that the tremendous costs of litigation have on individuals and how that impact comes to inform the way law is practiced. One of the biggest

barriers to employees who want to protect their rights is the high cost of legal fees. It is true that many cases can be handled by attorneys on a contingency basis where the attorney is paid a percentage of the employee’s recovery in exchange for the employee not having to pay the attorney up front or as the representation proceeds. Contingency fee arrangements, however, are particularly unhelpful for employees who are experiencing sexual harassment on the job and need help in getting the harassment stopped. If a contingency arrangement is the only way for the employee to get legal help, there will need to be monetary damages available. It is highly uncommon for employers to pay an employee any amount of money unless she agrees to leave her job, waive all claims and never speak of the harassment again. A person who lives paycheck to paycheck will often not take that risk and opt to endure harassment if complaints to her employer are not yielding change.

It is impossible, in today’s legal climate, to settle a case with a private employer without the employee being required to sign a promise not to speak of her harassment again. Many people believe that this situation in turn enables sexual harassment to continue unabated. The members of NELA/NY are putting our heads together to address this problem. In the meantime, it must be borne in mind that many people opt to sign confidentiality agreements because of the enormous cost of litigation in terms of time, money and energy. Confidentiality can protect people but it can also silence people, so it must be deployed in new ways in the resolution of sexual harassment disputes, in a way that protects victims, not predators and not employers that don’t want to replace predators on their staff.

Not all harassment is the same and different responses to it should be brought to bear.

There are many instances where immediate termination of a harasser is warranted, but there are many others where employees simply need to work together in an atmosphere of respect. One tool that could be utilized for those situations is mediation. The Commission would not have to conduct the mediations but could partner with organizations that specialize in workplace mediations to bring in professionals to help employers and employees end the conflict themselves and figure out ways to make sure harassment does not recur. (New York Peace

Institute is one.) Such a process could draw upon the benefits that confidentiality can confer without operating to silence the victim. Perhaps safeguards could be put in place by the

Commission such that any confidentiality agreements reached in the context of early resolution would not preclude further Commission investigation and/or enforcement efforts if the same employer had recurring problems.

The idea would be that the special unit at the Commission would be a command center to sort out the best tools to address each situation as it arises. If there is interest on the part of the

Commission, NELA/NY could formulate more detailed ideas that the Commission could consider.

Many employees could be helped by the unit without having to hire an attorney.

Nonetheless, members of NELA/NY could help in situations where the employee needs her own attorney as she assesses the options available. If a system is in place to obtain real redress and relatively quickly, attorneys will be in a better position to offer flexible fee arrangements that will work for the employee as well.

City agencies must be the first to implement programs that more effectively than today stop harassment as it happens. The City Law Department also should review its approach to defending legal claims for sexual harassment, with an eye not just to protect the city from liability but also to stop harassment from recurring.

Lastly, NELA/NY wants to emphasize that while sexual harassment is in some ways a uniquely intractable problem, many of the strategies that will prove successful in stopping sexual harassment are also likely to help victims of discriminatory harassment in all of its insidious and illegal forms.

NEW YORK CITY COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Public Hearing on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace The CUNY School of Law, Dave Fields Auditorium located at 2 Court Square, Long Island City, New York 11101, on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 at 5:30 PM Mazeda A. Uddin “South Asian Fund For Education, Scholarship and Training (SAFEST)

Hello all, it is an honor to be speaking in front of all of you today. I am the Executive Director of a nonprofit called South Asian Fund for Education, Scholarship and Training (SAFEST) and I have built this organization from the ground up. It is where many immigrant families, both documented and undocumented, have come to tell their stories. We empower our communities through activism and through education. We believe that our power is community power. Some of our works include adding the Bengali language on the NYC ballot and translating the NYS voter registration form from English to Bengali - amongst many other notables works. I am standing before you today to give my stance on sexual harassment at the work place. I believe even the least bit of sexual harassment should not be tolerated. Unfortunately, most women are being targeted. They are our sisters, mothers, daughters, granddaughters and nieces. Sexual harassment should be taken very seriously. Many documented and undocumented immigrants are being targeted. I hear about it almost everyday. It is way too common and women are suffering. Sometimes they fear telling their boss in fear of getting fired or sometimes the assaulter is their boss. Creating the SAFEST environment for women is very important for the well being of our country. It is what’s most important to me and the work that I do. Many women cannot defend themselves or speak up and I am here to tell them that they are not alone. Sexual harassment can affect anyone, not just women. We need to do more to bring this to light so we can come up with a viable way to treat this long overdue epidemic. There has to be a much harsher punishment for those that harass and/or assault others. That is the job of the Human Resources department. In some cases, the department overlooks such behaviors and that cannot be tolerated. I am a Bengali interpreter for many city agencies so I’m very familiar with the many cases of sexual harassment at the workplace. We have to come together to make sure justice is served each and every time. I work as a national Bengali interpreter for immigrant families, for both documented and undocumented families, that have no other option but to turn to me during hard times. I work on about 2-3 cases a day and I hear some of the most heartbreaking and hardest times that many immigrant families are facing daily. Many are sexual harassment cases or worst, rape. But, I still wish I could do more for them. They deserve the very best. Our immigrant families deserve better. Our country deserves better. And, we must do better.

BEFORE THE New York City Commission on Human Rights New York, New York

COMMENTS OF THE SCREEN ACTORS GUILD – AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TELEVISION AND RADIO ARTISTS ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (“SAG-

AFTRA”) welcomes the opportunity to offer written testimony on the issue of sexual harassment. SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcasters, journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals. Sexual harassment is a systemic issue that affects employees in every industry. The news and entertainment industries in which SAG-AFTRA members work are no exception. The scale and severity of the problem within these fields has become increasingly clear in the wake of the recent wave of sexual harassment allegations that have toppled studio heads and newsroom managers alike.

SAG-AFTRA is committed to ensuring a safe workplace free of harassment for all of our members. We have a ZERO TOLERNACE policy against unlawful discrimination against our members and others who are employed under our collective bargaining agreements. As part of the ongoing fight for safe and healthy workplaces, the American Federation of Labor and

Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), of which SAG-AFTRA is an affiliate, passed a resolution in 2017 calling for new legislative and regulatory protections against workplace violence, including sexual assault and harassment. SAG-AFTRA echoes this call for expanded protections as well as for the strengthening of existing laws in this area and the redoubling of enforcement efforts.

SAG-AFTRA encourages the New York City Commission on Human Rights

(“NYCCHR”) to expand the protections of the New York City Human Rights Law

(“NYCHRL”) by lengthening the statute of limitations for discrimination complaints from the current one year limit to at least three years from the date of the last harassing act. Many of the women who have recently come forward in the media with allegations of workplace sexual harassment have complained of actions that are significantly older than the one year limit, and in some cases the abuse they experienced happened multiple decades in the past. Their stories illustrate the importance of giving women more time to bring a complaint. Women who have suffered from sexual harassment in the workplace may still be experiencing the effects of their trauma in the immediate aftermath and may have other, more pressing needs in the short-term.

The statute of limitations to bring a claim of sexual harassment under New York State law is three years, thus the longer limit is clearly workable. Increasing the NYCHRL statute of limitations to three years would have the added benefit of reducing the possibility of confusion on the part of claimants between New York City and the State limits.

SAG-AFTRA also encourages the NYCCHR to require mandatory sexual harassment training for all private and public sector employers in New York City. California, Connecticut, and Maine already require such training for all employers.1 New York City should be a leader in

1 See California Government Code Section 12950.1; Connecticut General Statutes Section 46a-54 (15) (B) and 46a- 54-204; and Title 26 of the Maine Revised Statutes Section 807.

New York State in the push to eradicate discrimination on the job. Sexual harassment training is a critical first step in educating employers and employees about appropriate workplace conduct and on their rights in the workplace.

We thank the New York City Commission on Human Rights for this opportunity to provide written testimony on this important topic.

Respectfully submitted, December 28, 2017

Jeffrey Bennett Executive Director, New York Local & Chief Deputy General Counsel, New York Local Rebecca Hayes Broadcast Manager and Labor Counsel, News and Broadcast

Carol Robles-Román, President and CEO TESTIMONY ON SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE BEFORE

BOARD OF DIRECTORS THE NEW YORK CITY COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Chair: G. Elaine Wood Duff & Phelps, LLC

First Vice Chair: Loria B. Yeadon Submitted by Seher Khawaja, Gender Justice Fellow, Yeadon IP LLC Vice Chair: Deborah L. Rhode on behalf Legal Momentum, The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund Stanford Law School Vice Chair: Jay W. Waks American Kennel Club December 6, 2017 Vice Chair: Laura A. Wilkinson Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP General Counsel: Beth L. Kaufman+ Schoeman Updike Kaufman & Gerber LLP Legal Momentum is a national women’s civil rights organization. Advocating on behalf of Secretary: Eileen Simon Mastercard women’s equality for over 40 years, we continue to harness the law to advance economic and Treasurer: Robert M. Kaufman Proskauer Rose LLP personal security for all women and girls by challenging barriers to equal treatment and Executive Committee At Large: pursuing access to equal opportunity. We commend the New York City Commission on Human Elizabeth J. Cabraser Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP Rights for holding a public hearing on the longstanding problem of sexual harassment in the

Dede Thompson Bartlett workplace and welcome the opportunity to submit testimony on ways to address this critical Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence Sabine Chalmers issue. Anheuser-Busch InBev Ethan Cohen-Cole, PhD, MPA, MA Econ One Research Inc. As high-profile sexual harassment complaints proliferate, shedding much needed light on the Alexis S. Coll-Very Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP endemic nature of sexual harassment in the workplace, it is essential that we capitalize on this Meena L. Elliott Aviat Networks, Inc. opportunity to safeguard the most vulnerable members of our workforce who remain in the Kim Gandy National Network to End Domestic Violence shadows. Low-wage and immigrant workers in New York City and across the United States (NNEDV) Vilia B. Hayes remain particularly vulnerable to exploitative workplace conditions, a hardship that has Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP become all the more acute for immigrant workers as a result of current federal immigration Matthew S. Kahn Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP policy. Amy Dorn Kopelan Bedlam Productions, Inc. Lori B. Leskin Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP Through Legal Momentum’s Helpline, we regularly speak with, advise, and represent women Susan B. Lindenauer The Legal Aid Society (retired) facing sexual harassment in the workplace. What we know, and what we continue to see, is Carol A. Baldwin Moody CAB Moody LLC (on leave) that sexual harassment often results from an imbalance in power. Sexual harassers target

Stephanie A. Sheridan individuals they perceive to be vulnerable: women who are in positions with less authority; Sedgwick LLP Karen E. Silverman who have something to gain or lose; or who are perceived to lack economic stability, self- Latham & Watkins LLP Brande Stellings esteem, or credibility. And while sexual harassment often emboldens perpetrators, it isolates Catalyst Inc. victims.

HONORARY DIRECTORS Muriel Fox, Chair For low-wage immigrant women, this power imbalance is all the more pronounced, and the Barbara M. Cox Etta Froio vulnerabilities are all the more severe. They include: fear of deportation or loss of eligible Women’s Wear Daily (retired) Stephanie George immigration status, lack of economic security, limited English proficiency, lack of education Fairchild Fashion Media Inc. regarding existing legal protections and reporting procedures, lack of access to legal counsel or Ralph I. Knowles, Jr. (deceased) Doffermyre Shields Canfield & Knowles LLC legal resources, and physically isolating workplaces. Taken together, these factors significantly Michele Coleman Mayes increase the costs and risks of reporting abuse for low-income immigrant women. New York Public Library Lisa Specht Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP Well aware of these vulnerabilities, abusers exploit them. Consequently, sexual harassment is +Non-Board Officer *Organizational affiliations for purposes of identification only.

Headquarters: 16 E. 34th Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016 212.925.6635 www.legalmomentum.org

especially prevalent in low-wage sectors and industries with higher levels of labor and employment violations such as agriculture, manufacturing, retail, hotel and restaurant services, home health care and child care, and cleaning and janitorial services.1 Moreover, the most vulnerable women tend to be subject to the worst violations: sexual harassment in this context frequently involves sexual violence and abuse.2

Through Legal Momentum’s work, we have found that just as sexual harassment itself is endemic, employer inaction, reticence, and misguidance is also commonplace, and we need to shine more light on this problem. Working with victims of sexual harassment, we have seen that even large employers often lack legitimate investigatory protocols for investigating sexual harassment claims, even when they appear to have anti- harassment policies in place. Employers are frequently unfamiliar with legal requirements or purposefully misinform employees about the type of conduct that constitutes sexual harassment or about whether they are entitled to legal protection based on their immigration status.

While many organizations and agencies have recently reported a surge in sexual harassment complaints, this coincides with a decline in sexual abuse complaints in jurisdictions with large immigrant populations.3 In light of New York City’s “sanctuary” status, we have an obligation to ensure that all workers in this City can access much needed benefits, report crimes, and seek accountability for sexual harassment without fear of retaliation. We also have an obligation to ensure that all individuals—regardless of their gender, class, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or immigration status— can participate and benefit from this growing movement.

In order to safeguard the most vulnerable workers in New York City, we need to hold employers to higher standards for investigating and responding to sexual harassment and guarantee that low-wage workers, particularly undocumented workers, have access to information, support services, and privacy protections when it comes to reporting sexual harassment in the workplace.

For the reasons stated above, we respectfully urge the New York City Commission on Human Rights to consider the following recommendations on steps the City can take to better address sexual harassment:

1. Educate Employees: Often misled or uninformed, immigrants are frequently unaware that various provisions, including anti-harassment and anti-retaliation protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the NYC Human Rights Law, apply regardless of one’s immigration status. The City should allocate resources to execute a broad outreach and education initiative on available protections for low-wage immigrant workers in New York City.

2. Penalize Retaliation: The City should consider implementing more robust measures and penalties to disincentivize retaliation. Employers should never be able to use their employees’ immigration status as a bargaining chip in perpetuating sexual harassment.

1 See AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION & NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAW PROJECT, NO FREE PASS TO HARASS: PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT WOMEN WORKERS IN SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASES 4 (2007), https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/womensrights/no_free_pass_20071119.pdf. 2 Katie Johnston, For Low-Wage Workers, Many Obstacles to Reporting Sexual Harassment, THE BOSTON GLOBE (Nov. 27, 2017)., https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/11/26/for-low-wage-workers-many-obstacles-reporting-sexual- harassment/UVAXy8XrnkkzWUCyShC8oJ/story.html. 3 Jennifer Medina, Too Scared to Report Sexual Abuse. The Fear: Deportation. N.Y. TIMES (April 30, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/us/immigrants-deportation-sexual-abuse.html?_r=0.

3. Improve Reporting Mechanisms: The City should develop dedicated and confidential channels for low-wage immigrant workers to report sexual harassment in the workplace or seek legal guidance, taking into account the specialized risks and barriers these workers encounter.

4. Improve Reporting Deadlines: Low-wage immigrant workers are more likely to miss essential reporting deadlines because of language barriers, a lack of familiarity with legal requirements and reporting procedures, and fear of retaliation. The City should consider revising reporting deadlines for sexual harassment complaints or establishing applicable tolling provisions.

5. Monitor Industries: The City should establish mechanisms to better monitor low-wage industries and sectors where exploitation is more likely.

6. Improve Employer Practices: In Legal Momentum’s work we regularly see employers perpetuate a culture of sexual harassment in the workplace by turning a blind eye and failing to take corrective action. We need a citywide assessment of employer practices in order to identify gaps in procedure and protocol and potential ways to fill those gaps.

7. Train HR Employees: For various skilled or technical trades, the City imposes mandatory training and assessment requirements. Identifying and responding to sexual harassment is similarly a skill that requires specialized training. Human Resources (HR) staff are often the first point of contact when an employee makes a sexual harassment complaint, and yet we frequently see HR staff providing legally inaccurate and discouraging guidance to complainants. Imposing mandatory, comprehensive, and high quality training will better equip HR employees to appropriately respond to sexual harassment complaints in a more consistent manner across the City and in a way that safeguards both employees and employers.

Statement for NYC Commission on Human Rights December 6th, 2017

Dear Commissioner Carmelyn Malais,

My name is Tina Davis and I am a former model. Currently I live in England and I am writing to submit testimony to the Commission on Human Rights in New York City.

At age 13, in 1993, I was scouted in Saint Louis by an organization called Manhattan Model Search and attended their modeling convention in Chicago. I was one of thousands of aspiring models who attended the convention to meet representatives of modeling agencies from across the U.S. in hopes of signing a modeling contract.

Soon after, I signed with Ford Models in Miami, Florida. My mother chaperoned me and we stayed at a hotel near the agency in South Beach. There were many other models living in the hotel and one photographer. My mother returned to Saint Louis with the understanding that the agency would look after me. However, that was not the case.

The photographer living with me at the hotel would come to my room daily, grab my bottom and tell me that I needed to work out. He said that he would tell my agency if I didn’t start working out soon. The modeling agencies would use scare tactics to keep the models in control by regularly threatening to drop them if they didn’t do as they were told. The photographer used that to his advantage. Eventually he came in to my hotel room and he raped me. He made me believe that if I told anyone, I would be in trouble.

In 1994, when I was 14, I signed with American Models, an agency in New York City. My mother chaperoned me for the first couple of weeks. The agency assigned me to live temporarily with a woman by the name of Anna, who was to look after me. However, the owner of the agency would take me out to parties regularly and offer me alcohol.

My New York agency booked a job for me with a magazine in Tokyo, Japan at very short notice. My booker told me not to let customs know that I was there for a photo shoot since they did not have time to get me a visa. When I got to Tokyo, I said that I was visiting a relative who lived in Tokyo. Customs stopped me because I did not provide an address. I was held for 12 hours and was interrogated for child trafficking. The photographer and client who came to pick me up at the airport were also detained and interrogated. I was made to sign papers that I could not comprehend, and eventually was flown back to New York and was banned from entering Japan for two years.

A few weeks later I was signed with an agency in Paris called Karin Models. I did not know that the owner, Jean Luc Brunel, had previously faced lawsuits for allegedly drugging and raping models, and ultimately sex trafficking. My mother chaperoned at first and then, again, was told I will be looked after. When my mother left I was immediately moved into Jean Luc Brunel’s house. He took me and several other models living with him to parties and client dinners nightly. We were given a table in the VIP lounge with alcohol and we were “treated” with cocaine and ecstasy. Often we were left with the promoters of the club to attend after parties where we were supplied with drugs and made to take part in sexual acts that we were too drugged to understand. Often times these situations involved prominent figures and celebrities. This happened regularly throughout the duration of my modeling career.

In 1995, when I was 15, I moved back to New York and signed to Elite Models. There, I was left to my own accord without adult supervision or care. There were two prominent club promoters who would take me to parties and give me drugs and alcohol. I was introduced to the owner of a prominent photography agency in New York. We flirted over the course of weeks and one night he asked me to come home with him. When we got to his home he undressed me, pushed me to my knees and forced me to give him oral sex. When he was finished, he told me to get dressed and leave and that he would give me “jobs.” I was shocked by what had happened. I was not intending to give sex for jobs.

It was not uncommon for photographers to ask me to stay after a shoot and “make some art,” which I learned meant taking nude photographs. This happened from the age of 13 until I stopped modeling at age 23.

In 1997, whilst I was in Paris, I started dating a promoter/producer by the name of Thierry Kleminuk. Thierry and I went to parties regularly. He would beg me for money and make me pay for extravagant things for him. After a few months of dating, he started inviting other models and his friends over to his house. We would take ecstasy and cocaine and be given bottles of alcohol. Once we were drugged he would force me and another model to dance on his table for him and his friends and take part in orgies.

Kleminuk took me to Ibiza, Spain for a holiday. He made me upgrade his ticket to first class, rent a car, and pay for the house where we were staying. He was always intimidating me and threatening me. One night, we went to a mansion for a party. There were several other men and women there. After the drugs and alcohol took effect, he stripped me naked in front of them with my arms bound behind me, asked them to touch me, and then raped me in front of them. The other men tried to coerce me into intercourse, but I said no. I woke up on a bed with two women and two men who were trying to penetrate and get me involved in an orgy. I tried to leave but was not allowed.

Although some of my accounts do not take place in New York City, which is the focus on this hearing, I have included these stories in an effort to help you understand the pervasive exploitation and abuse that takes place in the modeling industry, which is an international business that relies mostly on young women and girls. I hope that by sharing my story, the City will take a closer look at the abusive working conditions in the modeling industry. In particular, I hope you will explore the connection between the lack of regulation of the modeling industry and sex trafficking. These abuses of young models have been going on for far too long and I hope the City will take steps to address them.

Thank you,

Tina Davis My name is Vasuki Pasumarty. I had worked in financial services for over two decades up until April 2016. I can unfortunately only speak on myself when I state that the intimidation and vulnerability in the industry was very much real in my interactions with any males and sadly, with many females as who I felt were just as fearful as I was but somehow went into pure survival mode. I had tried several times during my tenure to voice my opinion but there was never a resolution. The following detail most of my experiences.

2003 - Citigroup - Permanent Employee - I was fired from a top-tiered global banking institution for “not meeting expectations” of my manager. It was disappointing on how there appeared to be such great efforts in supporting my manager’s decision to fire me but there was callous ignorance around what I was promised during my interview for that role and how that manager had treated me. It is important to note that I had made it quite clear during the interview that I was not too comfortable with the role. I mentioned there were aspects to this secretarial position I was unfortunately not qualified for and it would be unfair to both sides. But foggy rationale that followed the trauma of the 9-11 attacks made leave an extremely respectful manager (male) for a department that had lied to me all along. I reluctantly joined the group and during the first year, what was evident was a management change bringing in a manager that would fire me but no opportunities in store for me. What made it worse were the intimidation tactics that began by the male who had interviewed me and I was discounted within the department for secretarial skills I already knew I had lacked and those to which I had communicated. When I tried to bring up the initial interview, I was laughed off.

It is also important to note that my manager felt entitled to make racially and sexually charged comments to me. He would monitor the cleaning staff and would come over to me stating in frustration that they were taking advantage of the phone in the conference room. “They are calling Guatemala!,” he would keep saying over and over again. One time after a weight loss challenge in the department, he came over to tell me to take off my underwear to weigh in less than I had. These may seem funny but my entire experience in that group was a failure. I always felt there was some status that I did not have that restricted any upward moves. FYI, I had mentioned the manager’s comments to human resources on my last day there and it was almost as if the woman understood but needed to protect herself given her own struggles.

2010 - Credit Suisse - Permanent Employee - I sued a top-tiered international bank for sexual harassment and a hostile environment. What was highly unethical was that 1) my manager was dating the lady who would put me on probation, 2) my colleague was making inappropriate sexual advances towards me, and 3) the team in London consisting of the group head was best friends with his subordinate. I brought the lawsuit on after I was threatened to be fired by my manager, whose girlfriend (her role in the department was similar to that of a Human Capital/HR contact) put me on probation. The hostile environment was evident as my colleagues would try and take credit for my work and little to no credit was ever given to me on the foundation I had provided for a significant group initiative. To further worsen the situation, my manager would complain of issues within files and blame me when in fact he had provided all those files to me and never explained their constraints and details. I had set up multiple meetings with him and he would come into work in the late morning and/or cancel them.

Then, a colleague on the team would constantly make sexual advances towards me. This man would contact me on several occasions and make disgusting comments and would ask me where I lived so he can come over. He also one time told me I had to be involved in a threesome with his significant other (not sure if that was his wife or his girlfriend at that time). I tried to laugh it off and was too scared to get into an argument with him. When I spoke to the bank’s legal representation on this (I never mentioned the relationship between my manager and that lady), they stated they had taken all of this into consideration but after they had conducted their investigation, it seemed that this colleague who had made these inappropriate comments to me was friends with me and so the laws around sexual harassment would not apply. And my case was “dismissed.” I was denied any further opportunities within the bank and my tenure there abruptly came to an end. It was quite sad that this man who had made all these inappropriate comments to me had also carried out a non-compliant (and serious) act (this was mentioned to legal as well) which was deleting data from our manager’s computer, and had also spoken poorly to me on other females in the group was allowed to continue working at the bank when I was subject to being fired and be blacklisted by the bank. It was also sad that my manager, who was put on probation for almost the same exact issues plus sleeping during work hours, continued on at the bank because of his relationship with that lady.

In 2013, I joined Barclays as an Independent Contractor where apparently my manager and the colleague who had made inappropriate comments to me were also working. I tried to ignore them but my colleague would approach me outside and/or at a deli attached to the bank building (there should be cameras..it is midtown Manhattan). It was quite unbearable. Why would they want to approach me? Did Credit Suisse write off the harassment to a point where any interactions thereafter would be deemed appropriate?

And lastly, I had hired a lawyer that just kept taking more money from me without any resolution. He mentioned he had dealt with sexual harassment and hostile environments in the past but yet he just set me up for failure in my meeting/s with the Legal and Human Resources at Credit Suisse. I didn’t understand that. It almost seemed as if he was given an incentive by Credit Suisse legal to force me to fail.

2011 - Citigroup - Independent Contractor - During my interview, the head of the department (who spoke the same language as I did, Telugu), asked on whether I had learned traditional Indian dance. It was awkward but I felt obligated to answer his question. He then asked me to dance for him in his office. During my assignment, I hardly saw this man and while what he specifically said to me may not have affected me directly, how the other men (and women) in that department treated me affected me. My immediate manager, a female, would question me on hours I wanted to put in (and that I had actually worked) and she let another contractor just take three weeks of pay (he didn’t work those hours) and leave. I was subject to male Directors asking me if I got the job because I was friends with the head of the department. I would be told that all the “girls” who were in my role were friends with the Head and that’s how they got their jobs. I was let go after 6 months and unsure why I was treated unfairly. I hadn’t done anything wrong and was given the runaround when I said I wanted to apply again in the future. I suspect my manager’s hostility towards me was due to so many women and men in that department telling me that she was incompetent and had no business doing what she was doing.

2014 - GE Capital - Permanent Employee - l moved to another state for work. Did I think it would be any different? No. Just a different state. I had no choice but to leave after my manager told me there was no further opportunity and that my leaving would be a mutual decision between my company and me. I tried to speak to several people on this but was told they could do nothing to help the situation because I had already given in my resignation and my manager would not let me speak further to them. He would keep asking me who I spoke to and if I had spoken to HR (and the Head of the department), Thousands of dollars spent to move to a different state and at the end there was no opportunity as told by my manager. It was also brought to my attention that this manager and a female colleague were engaging in an unprofessional relationship according to the company itself.

2015 - Citigroup - W2 Employee - From the minute I got there, there was nothing but questions like “Are you married? Do you have children? No? Why not?” by both men and women. It was at this assignment I also suspected that people were stealing my keys and going through my bags when I was away from my desk and they would go to my apartment. There were certain items in my bag that would be moved around throughout the day. And also, my apartment was 20 minutes away from work. I firmly believe they would not have done this to a man but also I was unsure as to why I was being targeted. Furthermore, a colleague on the team would joke that he would need to get a female director of another group flowers to soften her up because of some mistakes he had made. He would also keep telling me that Muslims were to blame for the political chaos in Bangladesh. I am not sure if this is racially/ethnically motivated and worsened by the fact that I am a female and it is at your discretion. But I struggle to understand how in a professional environment, there is a lack of safety and how employees are raised to think violating another person’s privacy is a non-issue. FYI, I am an East Indian, brown-skinned and a Hindu.

This one experience of people violating my privacy worsened a condition I had had to a point where I felt disabled. I am not sure if Citigroup’s building in LIC has security cameras on each floor but I would appreciate viewing tapes to see if anyone was entering that office room I was put in. Citigroup is a corporation and they must have security cameras on each floor to monitor if anyone is entering and accessing highly confidential and sensitive banking material. I had spoken to a Director at Citigroup (who was my manager in 2011 at Citigroup) and was told there was a family connection. She didn’t care when I mentioned someone was deleting my emails and documents from my folder. She didn’t care when I mentioned someone may have unauthorized access to other employee’s computer accounts. Her entire approach to handling my situation was poor and I now realize I should not have expected anything more given that she would just let her male subordinates walk away by reporting false time.

When I called the police in April 2016 to my apartment given some items that had been strangely misplaced in my apartment as well as significant data compromise, they mentioned I needed a court order to view the recordings of the lobby security camera. They also stated that it is not within their jurisdiction to deal with unauthorized data access on mobiles/personal computers. The super mentioned he needed money and he would share the recordings. And when I was frantic and crying and asked the super’s wife if anyone had been asking about me and/or wanting to know where I lived, the super’s wife joked that the FBI had been to the building asking about me. I contacted the FBI, by the way, and they have a long detailed report on all of this online as well as via phone. The police and the landlord’s employees of my apartment building all wrote this situation off. In 2017, during a Housing court case, I came across some information on another tenant having reported wire tapping in his/her apartment. This person’s complaint was logged in on the HPD website. I am curious to know if the person who reported this was a male or a female as I had complained on similar issues plus a couple of others and my issues were ignored and never addressed. Just FYI, my situation on Housing has also been communicated to the Attorney General’s office.

2016/2017 - I reached out to a political organization (Libertarian Party) to enquire on a job opportunity. I was unemployed and was in need to get any job I could. I was running out of money and struggling to pay my bills. I contacted the Chair of the Manhattan division of the party and was told to come to their meetings. The meetings seemed to be more happy hours than actual professional meetings. To add to the frustration, the Chair decides to bring up the name of an Indian man to entice me to help them. There was no actual plan in the upcoming weeks on any projects I would be helping them on but I didn’t understand why he brought up some man’s name a couple of times to forge my loyalty. After a couple of meetings, I decided to walk away. I unfortunately was not looking for a meatmarket. I was only looking for a job. I suppose it is ethical for big leaders to exploit the little people helping them out and I didn’t realize the extent of that party’s goals. But who am I to fight a political party.

As I end my testimony, I feel the need to emphasize how violated, threatened, fearful and targeted within my employment and employment efforts I had felt. I had done nothing but be respectful to my male counterparts and to the other females. Is it logical to assume that culture is passed down and the tone is set by company management? So if I am being subject to such unwarranted hostility, be it sexism or racism or criminal, is there a possibility in investigating the Heads of these organizations along with the subordinates who have committed such acts?

Thank you for your time. If there are further details you require, please feel free to contact me at 917-675-1721 and/or [email protected]. New York City Commission on Human Rights Public Hearing on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Testimony of Women’s City Club of New York December 6, 2017

Contact: Women’s City Club, 212.353.8070 Amy Schwartz, [email protected]

The Public Policy Committee of the Women’s City Club of New York (WCC) would like to thank the New York City Commission on Human Rights for convening this Public Hearing on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.

The Women’s City Club is a century-old membership organization that shapes public policy through education, issue analysis, advocacy, and civic participation. Throughout our history, we have been passionately and actively dedicated to improving the quality of life for all New Yorkers.

As Eleanor Roosevelt, one of our earliest members, once said, “With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” Now more than ever, it is vital to advocate for gender, racial and social equity, and to mobilize, respond and make a difference now, and into the future. This is what has motivated us to testify at such an important public hearing today.

We are profoundly troubled by the climate of fear that exists for women in this country, as evidenced by the now-daily disclosures of prominent men in leadership roles – in government, in entertainment, in media, in technology, and the list goes on – accused of sexual harassment, abuse, and even crimes. Many of the public apologies have rung hollow in the face of the rising tide of women who are now speaking up, and speaking out. Many have felt powerless, vulnerable, and unwilling initially to disclose the harassment or abuse for fear of losing their jobs, their respect, and their reputations. Sadly, many have conceded their victimization began at an early age.

This is why we feel it is critical to address these behaviors at an early age, to ensure that sexual education in our schools is comprehensive and includes training for all genders on what constitutes improper behavior.

1 Most sexual victimization of women, beginning in adolescence, is committed by men of all ages and in any type of relationship. Researchers found that among female rape victims surveyed, more than half (54%) were younger than age 18; 32.4% were ages 12-17; and, 21.6% were younger than age 12 at time of victimization1. Further, the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that 60% of rape or sexual assault victims said that they were assaulted by an intimate partner, relative, friend or acquaintance2. Planned Parenthood of New York City reports that women aged 16 to 24 experience the highest rate of intimate partner violence.

To prevent sexual harassment and violence, especially children need comprehensive sex education that is age-appropriate and medically accurate, culturally sensitive, and gender inclusive for grades K-12. The curriculum must teach students, from a young age, about developing healthy relationships, and promote healthy sexual behavior that is focused on respect for oneself and others, communication, and consent.

In 2014, the Women’s City Club founded the Sex Education in New York City Public Schools Task Force out of concern that students were not being taught comprehensive sex education, despite a New York City mandate that required schools to teach at least one class in middle and high school. Confirming our concern, the New York City Department of Education released reports revealing that many students were not receiving even the bare minimum of recommended sexual health education. According to a 2017 report by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer, only 57% of eighth grade public school students completed the New York State-mandated requirement of one semester of health taught during the middle school years". Throughout all public schools, there were only 153 licensed health educators in New York City, and only 7.6% of all health education instructors attended any training on sex health education in the previous two years.3

Sadly, many New York City public school students are not learning about sexual health, and many are clearly not taught about healthy sexual behaviors and what constitutes sexual assault and harassment. Students are often not even being taught by health instructors who are licensed and trained in sexual education. Schools need the resources to hire more health educators, train current teachers, and implement accountability measures so that schools can provide the health education that students deserve and that is required by State law.

1 Tjaden, P. and N. Thinness. Prevalence, Incidence and Consequences of Violence Against Women Findings From the National Violence Against Women Survey. Washington, DC: Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, November 2000, NCJ 183781.

2 Fisher B.S., F.T. Cullen, and M.G. Turner. The Sexual Victimization of College Women. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Institute of Justice, NCJ 182369.

3 Healthy Relationships: A Plan for Improving Health and Sexual Education in New York City Schools, NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer. September 14, 2017 2 It is promising that, in May 2017, the New York City Council passed Intro. 1028-B, which recognizes the immediate need for a thorough assessment of how sexual health education is being implemented in public schools. The law required the creation of a Sexual Health Education Task Force to review the sexual education curricula and implementation and submit recommendations for improvement for grades K-12. To learn from leaders from the frontlines of sex education in NYC and nationally, the Women’s City Club recently co-sponsored a program with the Teachers College, Columbia University. With our colleagues of the Sex Education Alliance of New York City, we are actively advocating to ensure all students are taught city-mandated comprehensive sex education. That is their right.

More needs to be done to prevent the rising rate of sexual harassment and abuse. Our hope is that the NYC Sexual Health Education Task Force recommendations and continued broad-based advocacy will lead to a deeper understanding of healthy sexual behavior and greater respect as our children grow up. We are at a moment in our history where such abuses of power, of unprofessionalism, and of recklessness are thankfully being denounced. Sadly, we predict even more revelations on the horizon. But through this we believe our younger generations will pass through the classrooms and then the board rooms with an awareness, and an understanding that all people must be treated fairly, with dignity, with respect, and with an appreciation for each other’s talents, skills, and rights.

In conclusion, the Women’s City Club of New York is proudly guided by one of our earliest leaders, Eleanor Roosevelt, who was appointed Chair of the United Nations Human Rights Commission and was instrumental in formulating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the fight against sexual harassment, and to protect the rights of women and men, we are inspired by Eleanor’s bold words, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t”.

Thank you.

3 I am just an average woman who happens to be a lesbian. I have had four different jobs this year because every place quickly becomes intolerable because of sexual harassment.

The first place I worked was the New York Society Library. I endured daily harassment from my gay supervisor, who told me I “ought to be ashamed of myself” for being a poet because “it’s the most self- indulgent form of artistic expression.” I was trying to have an intellectual conversation with him about poetry and he said something along the lines of “if we both like poetry, we would just be staring at each other.” Um, no. Actually, I wouldn’t go “straight” for you. (Lesbians, wake up. In a context in which you have to be “nice,” (i.e. under patriarchal pressure and silencing) gay men are not our allies.) Why is this even being discussed? Under his puritan authoritarianism, the elitist and prudish atmosphere at the library continues to make it roughly philosophically in alignment of the 1%, many of whom probably live on the Upper East Side. This is the oldest library in New York City, where George Washington and Henry David Thoreau came and checked out books. It was founded by a group of aristocratic men calling themselves the “New York Society” because they were the only ones who could afford to create an archive. The society was not democratic and never attempted to be. Now that we have a “democratic” public library system, the Society Library remains outside of it, which is grossly inappropriate because it is at the historic core of the library system in NYC and (should be) the most valuable library we have. The treasure that is NYC intellectual history is being kept in this library (in a very disorganized and unintelligible manner) away from the public, instead of being open for all to be able to see, if not cherish. We also need to admit that it doesn’t deserve to be cherished. Instead of becoming a beacon of “democratic” thought (the NYSL advertises itself as a place where revolutionary era men were coming to write and think), the birthplace of the concept of library in NYC and consequently of collective thought and writing has failed to keep up with the times enough for people to even have heard of it. History matters. It’s great that the NYPL was founded with better politics and has kept those up, but it’s an insulting outrage that people will say “the beginning was not important.” Of course it was. Is it not important that the first black people here were slaves? Does it not affect us today? We need to reclaim this history and make improvements to things that are outrageous and undemocratic now. It is insulting to know that the most important American revolutionary writing is in a place that may as well be the safe in the 1%’s cellar. This library should be incorporated into the NYPL system. The fact that historically they were does not change the fact that the intelligentsia should not be elitists. It is not just. It is unacceptable that this library is outside of the NYPL system. It should be the hub of intellectual (lesbian) revolutionary conversation in New York City.

My second job was at a French restaurant in Bushwick where the husband-wife team do not train their employees or pay them an adequate salary, and they do not recycle or compost or know how to properly use and clean an espresso machine. I was working with a 16-year-old Latina girl with a 1-year- old baby to feed at home who made $8/hr in the kitchen before taxes to my $11 for working the cafe and bar. Neither of us were trained there; I had prior experience in my areas but she did not. I scrubbed my entire area my first week there because the dust and grime was extremely thick and sticky in some areas and I cannot work under such conditions. I have no idea how they managed to pass health inspections with such filth behind the bar. My 16-year-old co-worker (there was only one other employee who I never met) was the constant object of yelling from the wife when she did something wrong because she didn’t know any better. I began feeling more and more uncomfortable with our lack of sanitation and I took it upon myself to try to do another even deeper cleaning and start putting recyclables in a separate bag. I knew I was overachieving and because of this increasing the level of the slave mentality you already get from working these types of jobs, but I figured it might be a way to not get fired for “not making enough tips,” (compared to her) as the wife with the fashionable accent who had been established there for years said. For some reason she still thought she was entitled to half of my tips. Wrong. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. Also, not recycling is illegal. I refuse to be complicit in your illegal activity.

As a lesbian, I cannot also not be an environmentalist. The connection between these things has always been abundantly clear to me. Women are treated by men as part of the environment, or as assistants or emotional supporters who can be picked like cherries. Women are 70% of the 1 billion of the earth’s poorest people and are the most damaged by environmental disasters. They also care more about the environment because they are accustomed to being treated like a part of it or it being assumed that they are the ones who should care for it when men don’t. If we go out on a limb and say lesbians treat each other with the highest level of respect (because it’s respect for women, and it’s deeply buried if at all existent in society) of all relationship types, it follows that lesbians care the most about the environment. We care about what’s not there. We care about what is deeper, and it’s often what is right that is buried somewhere deep. We care about the conservation of national parks that are not in our backyard or that you can easily see like a nice piece of ass. Just because you have a penis doesn’t mean that everyone who doesn’t is “the background” or you can toss dirt on us that we then have to excavate ourselves out of. Not caring is not cool. Not having a global consciousness, which not only includes but has as its foundation an environmental consciousness is not cool, and it is not right, and frankly it is unacceptable. In schools we are taught to respect Mother Earth. Why do people forget this so quickly? The amount of people at work who completely fail to even consider that they are doing wrong by tossing trash and compost in the recycling bin is astounding. So is their refusal to do it when that request is specifically made of them. As we are consistently reminded, the earth is an active actor in all of our lives. It is not the background. It is not something we can forget about. It is the most important thing. It makes me wonder, is a woman who lets herself be abused by her husband allowing this to happen due to a lack of confidence in herself that comes from her refusal to acknowledge her love for other women and for the environment? Lesbian theorists have said things like “women don’t just like each other; they love each other, and they are oppressed in the form that men destroy this love between them.” More radical lesbian writers like Jill Johnston have even said that all women are lesbians. I really believe this. Everyone is gay. She also said no true revolution is possible until all women admit they are lesbians and stop denying each other physical and sexual love for each other. The next time you hug your female friend, mean it. The sexual is always part of the physical, but that doesn’t mean it has to be creepy or intrusive. It can just be not non-existent. In fact, it has to be. Be a badass. The next time you shake your female boss’s hand, mean it. If you don’t respect her enough to be able to do that, quit or take over. Maybe if the French wife started enforcing rules about environmentalism in the workplace and treating her female friends with a higher degree of dignity and the methodologies I just mentioned, and demanding that in return, she wouldn’t be a target for abuse from her creepy husband and three arrogant male sons. Maybe she would start treating her employees better.

The third job was at a sports store in Manhattan. In retrospect, it was an insanely terrible decision to work at an athletic store with several thousand employees whose culture is basically jock culture, i.e. replacing decent and appropriate behavior with endorphins. But I needed a job, and I am good at sports. They hired me on the spot. I was wearing my rainbow pin every day. I didn’t come there to be friends with everyone. Since it’s jock culture, they would have soon tried to take advantage of me once they saw that I wanted my confidence there to be based on actually knowing things. The so-called training was extended to an incoherent random influx of information over the course of several weeks from random employees who weren’t qualified to train and who didn’t co-ordinate anything with each other. I was catcalled by one of the employees with a Lady Gaga remark and when I found out who it was and confronted him later, this middle—aged man supposedly “had no idea” that catcalling is not a compliment. I wanted to know whether any companies allow customers to order custom ski goggles, and a man somehow twisted my interest in invention and customization around and made a backhanded jab at me about my being an asshole and thinking “in my kingdom there is only one perfect pair of goggles.” A young man asked me if I was OK after getting sexually harassed and when I said no he laughed and passed out high fives to his male colleagues. I informed the female supervisor and female H.R. representative and they were “nice” about it and vouched for the men being “really sweet.” In a city where everyone knows “nice” is not a compliment, why are these women damaging themselves? For the sake of men? My thoughts go back to the skis labeled “honey badger.” Honey badger: a female meninist. Why not make and enforce a better sexual harassment policy and require all employees to go through a training (30 seconds spent on a half of a powerpoint slide is not a training), instead?

I am currently at the fourth job at the front desk of a co-working space and have received multiple Lady Gaga catcalls and other random unwelcome and inappropriate remarks in the building, in the elevator, and in the office. I have been noting everything down and philosophizing about it. Can men ever not be the enemy? And if they are the enemy, when can I start acting like it, like men already do with their rap songs degrading women? Do I want to? No, I’m not that kind of woman. How would I even function in society unless I were rich? The fact is, lesbians are way more oppressed than gay men. Men assume we’re straight and that we’ll pay lip service to them simply because they’re men. I owe you nothing. My job is to welcome guests and help them navigate the space, not to chit-chat about Nazi convection ovens with a failed architect. In fact, you owe me. How do you tell a male higher-up to stop wasting your time and eroding your focus in a democratic way? Why is it assumed I don’t have an agenda to get women to have equal rights? Sometimes you’re not prepared to quickly pivot and redirect let alone send back the damage and insults being sent your way. It’s the “nice” men who try to get away with things like pretending to ask for practical advice and then turning out to just be on a mission to dump extremely heavy emotional weight on you about hating people and wanting to escape society. If it’s always a fight against men, we need to acknowledge that it’s largely underground and not only women are sneaky fighters (just look at every man in politics.)

The problem is we don’t know what democracy is. Reporters tell us to fear the Russians because they “don’t believe in democracy.” Democracy shouldn’t be something we blindly believe in; it should be something the definition of which we agree on. What does democracy mean to you? What does community mean to you? What is American “culture”? Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness? Supposedly it’s not based on race, and it’s definitely not based on decency and compassion (which is the only true religion) because in that case we would definitely have universal health care. What about justice and human rights? Aren’t those more important than the happiness you can get from doing any random thing? What about the cover-up of our entitlement to property, guilt over our rape of the Native Americans, and subsequent failure to acknowledge the idea that the earth’s resources are limited and natural life should be treated with respect and nature sanctuaries should be preserved? Without care for the very environment we are in, what value can we even claim to regard life with without being liars? Environmentalism, liberty, and justice need to be protected. I’m sure there are many people, not just Russians, who believe in those things. People aren’t going to spend time looking up philosophical definitions of democracy, so let’s not only believe in those things but be activists for them by enforcing laws and boundaries in our personal and professional lives. You don’t have to be “Native American” to respect the land, although that is a lesson we could have learned from them long ago. I wish you didn’t have to be open about your personal life or tell stories in order to be able to get these things heard. I wish it were irrelevant that I am a lesbian and I could have skipped having to invite everyone to know that aspect of my life, or to have neglected to mention failures in my professional life, and I wish I didn’t have to spend time justifying that these were not my personal failures; they were societal failures and other people’s failures to treat me like a human being.

Lesbians are not allowed to exist in some (most) situations in the way they ought to be allowed to exist. If we were all good people who respected the environment, sexual harassment would be happening much less and I wouldn’t have to be talking about some people not being free. But it’s actually that slavery is still rampant in America, in forms that are sexual, violent, styled like rape, in the form of sexual suppression and bullying, imposed censorship of free speech, of thoughts, of the body, of emotions, and in other ways. There is a lack of equal opportunity that extends beyond racism. People are afraid to express themselves in ways that are not mediated by the white man, whether Mark Zuckerberg or someone else. Getting a Donald Trump seal of approval is failing as a human being. Revolutionaries are seen as “silly” because the George Washington crew were silly. They took a bad system and replaced it with one that was hardly better. And now, so much dialogue simply is not possible for lesbians in male spaces. If men hate lesbians (or all women, because of their guilt), it doesn’t matter. They shouldn’t be allowed to harass us and women should not let this harassment slide or go unseen or tolerated. We need to be alert and vigilant. I am a lesbian, hear me roar over all this mess that was created by men for men in this city I call home. I was also a poll worker this year when we were celebrating 100 years of women’s right to vote, but you wouldn’t know it based on the bland sticker about it they gave us and the fact that that’s not what the election was about even though it should have been our day. I try to make my day every day, and that’s what we all need to do. You’ll find in a lot of situations that it’s extremely difficult if not impossible because of the way people treat you and the things they think they can do or say to you. It’s a fallacy that if we all accept a notion of “culture” like a BBC accent, we will become civilized and civil to each other. This is something we have to act out every day and lead by doing and by example. But I can’t do it somewhere where I am the only person taking out hundreds of people’s trash and by sticking out by wanting to be better and set a positive example, I’m opening myself up to the extreme likelihood of sexual and other harassment because other people view me as a threat to their own power and selfhood. We need a national culture that isn’t based on Bob Dylan and propaganda fakery or “sex sells” or on abusing people or on “happiness,” which is just a fleeting feeling, or any other vague notions people don’t understand. What we need is environmentalism and enforced equal rights for everyone. We need mandatory sexual harassment trainings for employees and sexual harassment manuals that highlight mens use of it for psychological manipulation and degradation of women. How many brilliant inventions were never made because women simply could not exist or even imagine a way in which they could exist in order to come up with and create them? We can’t afford not to have a revolution.

"I was physically assaulted on a job in my 3rd yr of apprenticeship. It went on for 6 months and would’ve continued had I not told my mother what happened that last day in the tower. She said something that really scared me. She said this time he’s pushing you up against a wall and sticking his tongue in your mouth, the next time he will be in the cell with his dick in his hands... so I finally had the courage to tell my teacher at school. I was afraid, ashamed and about to become a Journeyman. My entire life and what I worked for was on the line. As it stands today I’ve been in the union 10yrs now and if that ever happened again it would’ve been a different story." - Anonymous Iron Worker, Local 40 and 361 (NYC)

The above testimony is from my friend. I can vouch for her honesty. I've heard her speak on this with selective groups of tradeswomen more than once.

Here is my testimony. Perhaps you will disagree with my story being sexual harassment but I honestly believe it is a form of sexual harassment; this is because the men and women on my construction crew were treated differently on a consistent basis. I came into the Local 157 Carpenters Union with four years of non-union experience. I also have been in grad school since 2015 to be in executive leadership and management within my union in the future. I was working on a project from April to August 2017, and was one of five women on the project out of about 20 on our team. The acting shop steward (Jesse Kirchoff) put me in harms way four times in moving traffic as we moved our large crane from one part of the site to another. Even though, I told him that I was in a dangerous spot and wasn't safe, he didn't listen and in fact responded by shouting at me, getting angry with me for moving to a safe spot, and for "slowing down" the task. Others witnessed what he did and how four cars throughout the process almost hit me. Even when I complained about his actions, nothing was done.

Additionally, this same acting steward constantly spoke negatively of all women on the job even visitors coming to check out our high profile site on Staten Island. He told me that one woman on our team shouldn't even be there because essentially she was "extra" and unnecessary to get the job done. He also frequently called one of my female journeymen a "bitch". On the flip side, I heard him praise the male apprentices. When I did rigging with him, a dangerous task that I enjoyed but was learning, he had me running everywhere constantly screaming at me and often tools out of my hand to use rather than let me learn. I complained about this and finally my foreman put his partner in charge of me. His partner was someone I could learn from, someone who didn't scream and who mentored me, and generally a nice person.

On one particularly bad day, my team of 6 guys was moving the large crane again to another part of the site. The official steward (Pete Aluotto) was told not to give a particular tool away to a coworker, but he did anyways. Then he had me go get the replacement. I asked him where it was, but he didn't know. I went as quick as I could, but had to go to three different spots all far from each other to find the right tool. When I came back, my foreman was there and immediately started screaming at me. He was screaming at me why did I leave, why had I taken so long, why was I not helping my team, etc. I told him that the steward had sent me to get the replacement tool. He kept screaming at me and the steward never once stopped him and stood up to say that it was his fault I had been gone. From there, it badly escalated. I had both the acting shop steward and my foreman shouting contrary orders to me about how to move rocks to balance and level the plates for the crane's legs; at no time was I given any tools to make the job easier. We finally finished moving the crane, but I was humiliated in front of my team and only after about a month did my steward apologize for his actions. Before that, he repeatedly stated that he was in the right for what he did and how he acted.

I would also like to add that my foreman constantly "tested" me like having me move 16,000 pounds of steel plates by myself so that if I failed he could fire me. My steward told me so. The foreman constantly touched male coworkers and made them feel very uncomfortable. He was also known to make sexual jokes frequently and said on my second day on the job that he had "beat" two different sexual harassment cases brought against so he couldn't be beat. The official steward did little to nothing to curb such inappropriate behaviors on the job and essentially told me to deal with it or get a job elsewhere.

Statement for NYC Commission on Human Rights December 6th, 2017

Dear Commissioner Carmelyn Malais,

My name is Audra Callo and I work as a professional fashion model in New York City. I decided to testify at this public hearing because sexual harassment is a pervasive problem in the modeling industry. I and many other models have been burdened with feelings of shame, embarrassment and unnecessary guilt for the abusive behavior we have faced on the job. We have been suffering silently and some models are still too afraid to speak out.

With few outlets to turn to for help, I have quietly internalized experiences of workplace sexual harassment. For years I’ve tried to block out the memory of a test shoot at a photographer’s apartment. Although this was supposed to be a professional meeting arranged by my agency, the shoot took place in the photographer’s bedroom, where he forced me to take off my clothes, including my underwear, and took embarrassing photos of me. Even though I explicitly said “no” to his demands, and told him I wasn’t comfortable, I felt completely powerless. I was young and just trying to cooperate and do my job.

After the shoot, I feared that the photographer would share these nude images with my agents, and I believed that even if I reported his misconduct to my agency, they would likely brush off my concerns and continue to send girls to work with him. It was not clear where I was supposed to turn for help.

Thinking back, I should not have been put in this situation in the first place and it pains me that I did not feel that I could report this incident to my agency. Unfortunately, most modeling agencies care only about their bottom line and models are treated as a disposable commodity. Modeling agencies do not provide support or helpful resources to their models. Many industry professionals bend the rules and are not held accountable for their actions.

I have suppressed this and other painful memories, as have other models. But we should not have to suffer in silence. Models need legal protections and offenders must be held accountable. As a model, I have few rights and protections as a worker. I deserve to be treated respectfully and protected within my working environment. Am I warranted less protection because I am a model? With the absence of protective legislation in place, I and many other models are made to feel so.

I hope the City will take a closer look at the problem of sexual abuse in the modeling industry. As models, we deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Audra Callo

Hello Edwin,

Here's my testimony for Academia and Non-Profit Homeless Shelters:

In Washington, D.C., I worked at a private university for two Associate Deans. During that 2-year stint, I experienced three uncomfortable incidences relating to sexual harassment and assault. The first incident was when a male faculty member lustfully looked at me, with his mouth hanging open, as I knelt to open the bottom file drawer. He was sitting in an Associate Dean's office and the door was open. As the Associate Dean spoke to the professor, the professor's gaze was fixed on looking up my skirt. I didn't realize what he was doing until I looked up, and he didn't even stop as he appeared to be in a trance.

The second incident was during a crowded event in the reception area of the Dean's suite. One of the Associate Deans that I supported was standing in the path of a dolly that the Facilities staff member had to navigate through the crowded suite. To be sure that the staff member didn't hit my supervisor, I stood behind him with his back to my back. As he was talking to someone, I didn't want to disturb him. However, within seconds of standing behind him, he cackled loudly as he bent over into a forty-five degree angle and his genitals pressed against mine. I was shocked and immediately pulled away. It was sickening due to the fact that he didn't apologize for what could've been a misstep, so I knew it was intentional. Anyone else would've simultaneously been startled and pulled away, but he didn't.

Finally, I accepted the responsibility of house-sitting for a law school professor. Unfortunately, a graduate student from another university didn't accept my rejection after I told him not to come over to the professor's home where I was staying at the time. I didn't want him to make a scene, damage the home, or even have to call the police for fear of losing my job. So, I let him in and regret that his predatory hands ever touched my body. Years later, when I was working at a popular tourist spot in Times Square, he had the audacity to stalk me there with his young children and mother-in-law. I was scared and disgusted at the same time. The point in this incident is that as a poor part-time student and full-time staff member, I prioritized keeping my job over my safety and piece of mind. I recall that I must've looked extremely uncomfortable as I boarded the bus with the older grad student, because there was an audible gasp from the other riders who saw me.

In NYC, as a client in an overnight homeless shelter in Murray Hill, a man that who was sitting next to me flashed himself during movie night. After I reported the incident, I didn't understand why he wasn't banned from the facility. The answer the male staff provided was that the accused exhibitionist denied the offense. Also, I was stalked by two men while homeless. The homeless man was at the overnight shelter. The other man had somehow followed me to my place of worship and targeted me there.

Given the extremely limited resources the police have to track homeless men who stalk vulnerable homeless women, I dealt with that situation the best way I knew how, but the man eventually violated my body, and after spending a year in jail, he stalked me again in violation of the Order of Protection and sucker-punched me at the entrance of a drug store in Harlem. After struggling to pull my body into the store, I managed to get help. The store manager, who appeared to be an African immigrant, cried after I told him what happened and he played back the security video footage. To this day I fear randomly running into this man as it is clear that he is mentally unstable and has a history of domestic violence on his criminal record. An NYPD police officer described him as a "petty criminal." The homeless shelters have ambiguous policies about protecting clients from sexual harassment and there is no support to protect people from predators and stalkers once the client leaves the facility.

The other man who stalked me at my place of worship, I later realized, was also a predator. I didn't think of this because I met him at my place of worship. So, when he offered a ticket to the Presidential Inauguration of the first African American president, I jumped at the opportunity to my deepest regret. Unfortunately, I would not be able to quietly get rid of him until a month or so later, but by then he had already violated my trust with manipulation and intimidation. To this day, I wish that I had watched the inauguration on TV at the homeless shelter in the Bronx.

Sincerely,

Carrie Smith 646.494.5921

Greetings, My name is Deidre Olivera. I was one of the first woman in heavy duty concrete building, to sue both the contractor and the union for sexual harassment on behalf of women in construction trades. When I first came into the business, As the only woman in cement and concrete (local ..) , I was punched in the face, sexually assaulted, exposed to public humiliation and vulgarity og a variety of sorts ranging from having "d*cks pulled out in my face, while they stripped naked in the shante to being called a "n*gger, b*itch, c&nt etc." The list went on and on. Holes drilled in The bathroom. Writings all over the job site with my name on it requesting to use my pu&&y as a replacement jello Aaand The only response to my complaints were "you don't like it, then quit."

Thinking about the women coming after me and the fact that I didn't get into the trades to be bullied out by a bunch of racist, sexist, testosterone filled idiots. I fought back. Hard. I ended up leaving that job, and they ended up learning women were here to stay.

I'd love to say that was the only time, but that would be a lie. I mean, construction isn't for the faint of heart and some jobs are runaway train wrecks.

However, situations have improved over the years. Almost 18 years later I'm still in the union and I LOVE tradeswork.

My name is Claudia López Lomelí, I live in New York since 2013 and one of the reasons I stay here was that I really thought here I will find justice or a way to be understood and believed of what happened to me in 2002 In México while I was working at the Instituto de Investigaciones Juridicas de la UNAM. Unfortunately, that wasn´t the case, at least in the Academie ambiance where I suffered sexual harassment since I was a student of Ph.D. in Law in Spain and in México too. I thought here will e different but I think is not. These are the facts: I started working or at least I thought that because they gave me an office first and after six months a researcher prived office, on October 2nd, 2011 at the IIJ, UNAM, México. I remember the first day another doctoral student telling me I was the new Concha´s girl, but I didn´t get it at that time. In 2002, after months of working without pay for the IIJ UNAM, I went to talk to the Academical Secretary Hugo Alejandro Concha Cantú, to tell him that I needed the job. He asked me if I wanted to work there? I answer, yes and he told me that if that was the case, he had an indecent proposal to make to me, literally. I thought it was a yoke at the same time I was watching his face and realizing it wasn´t. He was smiling and I was shock trying to find an answer for that indecent answer, so I just thought in the movie and I told him that I agreed if it was for a million dollars. I was waiting for him to change his mind or something because our families know each other and I just couldn´t believe it, but he told me it was ok and that he will pick me up at night. All the afternoon I was asking other women who work there what to do but definitely, they didn´t give me the right thing to do, they told me I had to go with him and control the situation because I was a woman and that was a normal thing. I remember this woman, Gabriela Ríos Granados, also a researcher in that institution, telling me to dress like I was going to have dinner with my parents so I did thinking that was a common situation and I would handle it. So I went with him, I was terribly nervous trying hearing all his plans with me after what I definitely didn´t control at all. He told me that from now on we would have to pretend with the families. We went to the hotel and I felt raped, he was very aggressive sexually. Next day he began calling me a thousand times to my office and when I finally answered, he told me he was waiting for me at his office. So I went to the office and in the way there I found his personal secretary (by the way, he used to have like five or six young students working with him all the time) with a very bad face totally with and sick, I asked her what happened and she told me she just went out to have lunch with Hugo and she vomited. I thought he raped her, but I do not know, she never told me anything against him. In his office, I told him he was disgusting, that I felt raped and that I did not like he looking for me all the time and calling me all the time to my house and in the office since very early in the morning. After that he began a campaign to conquer me sending me presents all the time, offering me all kind of good research jobs and money that I never saw or did. After a month of me denying me to go out with him or talk to him, his wife, Roxana Saiz Fernandez (a powerful woman) came to see me and told me he was in love with me. Next day she called me and told me to meet her in a restaurant where she confessed he was in love whit me and he came and said the same, I just told them that was not my business and that they need to fix their problems and I left. A month later, they both call me to his office and there they insulted me and they blamed me for everything. I didn´t answer and left, but I came back and told them I was going to denounce them with Diego Valadez. I return in the afternoon with my father and denounce what happened, Dr. Diego Valadez told me do not worried that IIJ was a space of liberty and I thank him and left. After a month I receive a letter from Hugo Alejandro Concha Cantú in my office, telling me I was fired. After that all doors to find a job where closed to me, his wife family began to bully me and my daughters everywhere I went, they just defame me. First I fight, find a job outside the city and left having to leave my baby with family. After a while I got sick, impossible to describe the damage they caused to me and my daughters, we just get into the poverty circle after that, no justice. After years trying to forget and overcome all the difficulties that situation caused to me, I came here, thanks to a friend that introduced me to some CUNY people, they invited me to give a conference, what really motivated me and gave me hope. I prepared the conference after the symposium ends, I and a friend from that symposium went to have some drinks with some of the people and the organizer. We talk openly, we had a nice time. My friend and I left and the organizer came with us so we do not leave alone at night. First, we take our friend to her hotel near the bar, then he walked with me to the Subway where he told me literally, he wanted me to have anal sex, I just said not at all, not anal or any kind and I just left. He was in his right but I didn´t liked, maybe I am traumatized, but I have a totally different idea of the way you talk to people, more if you liked them. I knew in that moment I will never have an academical job again, not here, not in México, not in Spain. I went back to México very depress and totally disappointed of "Academics".

Planned Parenthood of New York City Testimony on Sexual Harassment in the Workplace before the NYC Commission of Human Rights December 6, 2017

Good afternoon. I am Elizabeth Adams, Director of Government Relations at Planned Parenthood of New York City (PPNYC). I am pleased to submit testimony for today’s public hearing on sexual harassment in the workplace. Thank you to the New York City Commission of Civil Rights for convening today’s hearing and bringing to light this important issue.

Planned Parenthood of New York City has been a leading provider of reproductive and sexual health services in New York City for over 100 years, reaching over 85,000 New Yorkers annually through our clinical and education programs. PPNYC provides health services including birth control; emergency contraception; gynecological care (including cervical and breast cancer screenings); colposcopy; male reproductive health exams; testing, counseling, and treatment for sexually transmitted infections; the HPV vaccine; HIV testing and counseling; pregnancy testing, options counseling and abortion. PPNYC also has a robust education department, providing both youth and adult education programs to more than 25,000 young people, adults and professionals across New York City annually. Our programs aim to provide tools to help our participants lead sexually healthy, safe and responsible lives. All of our health curricula include a healthy relationship and consent component and seeks to create an affirming space for all members of our community to thrive.

PPNYC strongly supports measures to combat sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. Sexual assault is a matter of public health and safety. Survivors of assault frequently face physical and or mental trauma and suffer high rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, and drug or alcohol abuse.1 The repercussions are often grave and long lasting. PPNYC works to meet the needs of survivors in our clinical services as well as our education and advocacy work. Our medical history forms include nonjudgmental screening questions for intimate partner violence and sexual and reproductive wellbeing, and we provide onsite social workers, as well as, referrals to nearby family justice centers or additional services as needed. Our staff assesses for level of danger and immediacy of support needed and offers care accordingly.

In order for employees to be able to their job effectively, they need to feel safe to do so. And they need to feel their employer stands with them and values their wellbeing. PPNYC provides staff with routine training on sexual harassment in the workplace, in addition to regular patient privacy and safety protocol trainings, and supports greater resources dedicated to bystander intervention, consent and offender

1 The Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study: Christopher P. Krebs, Ph.D. ; Christine H. Lindquist, Ph.D.; Tara D. Warner, M.A. ; Bonnie S. Fisher, Ph.D. ; Sandra L. Martin, Ph.D. Retrieved at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/221153.pdf

education, and disclosure training in the workplace. However, these resources should not just be limited to places of employment.

New Yorkers, particularly women and transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) individuals, experience sexual harassment long before they enter the workforce. It is incumbent on us as a city to address the extent of sexual harassment that occurs in our daily lives and take steps to create environments to help prevent sexual harassment from occurring in the first place. A core component of combatting and preventing harassment requires an increased commitment to comprehensive sexuality education. PPNYC firmly believes that conversations around harassment, consent, and what a healthy relationship looks like cannot start early enough, and that New York City must do more to provide sexual health education in all schools and all grades.

Comprehensive sexual health education is a critical tool in helping young people to identify sexual harassment and assault and influence how they see themselves and their sexuality in positive ways. Comprehensive sex education encompasses lessons and skills development around bodily autonomy, respect, elements of healthy relationships, anti-bullying measures and bystander intervention, consent, and safe sexual practices. Starting these lessons in elementary grades is an important part of health education that can help to prevent harassment and intolerance throughout one’s school experience and later in life.

Research has consistently shown that comprehensive sexual health education works. Positive youth development education, that focuses on the physical, mental, emotional, and social dimensions of sexuality is crucial in helping young people to make health-promoting decisions2 and can help shift broader cultural ideas about gender, power, and sexuality. And it requires that we go beyond just teaching the definition of consent to be impactful. A recent college survey found that when repeatedly exposed to sexual double standard messages from family and peers, female students were less likely to be comfortable with sexual communication than their peers, male students had higher rates of perpetuating sexual coercion, and both male and female students had higher rates of endorsing rape “myths.”3 Truly comprehensive education requires that we unpack gender and power dynamics in relationships and foster critical thinking about gender norms and stereotypes in our everyday lives and what it means to value oneself and recognize one’s own power. Curriculum that centers gender and power in sexuality education would go a long way to challenging the deeply embedded culture of sexual harassment unearthed by the #MeToo movement.

2 “Enhancing the Emotional and Social Skills of the Youth to Promote their Wellbeing and Positive Development: A Systematic Review of Universal School-based Randomized Controlled Trials.” Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health. 2015; 11(Suppl 1 M2): 21– 40. Published online 2015 Feb 26. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378066/ 3 “Building a Foundation for Sexual Health Is a K–12 Endeavor: Evidence Underpinning the National Sexuality Education Standards.” Future of Sex Education. 2016. Retrieved from http://futureofsexed.org/documents/Building-a-foundation-for- Sexual-Health.pdf

Efforts to combat sexual harassment and assault in the workplace are needed more than ever. We know that reports of harassment and assault are not new, and with this renewed awareness and call for action, we have an unprecedented opportunity to move forward bold large-scale changes. These efforts must include education and support resources starting well before individuals enter the workplace. Comprehensive, inclusive sexual health education from kindergarten to 12th grade enables schools to build a foundation for much-needed learning around sexual harassment and assault in age-appropriate ways, and supports young people to build caring communities that respect the identities of all. We applaud the administration’s commitment to address current rates of sexual harassment in the workplace and urge the city to advance comprehensive sexual health education citywide.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this important issue.

My concern as an educator is the lack of social boundaries between teachers and students.

Students asking to share social media with teachers which aren't relevant to the curriculum, asking about their personal relationships, doesn't give kids a strong boundary between teacher and student.

I personally think also teachers that do want to add students to their social media its never a good idea! I worked at a school in Honduras where the teacher thought that was appropriate, which it isn't! And if a teacher chooses to do so, I think they should be advised to keep it curriculum relevant and as professional as possible. Personal photos of friends/family members/social outings that aren't educational should be limited/kept away from students.

I prefer not to work with junior high school students because of this. Basic things I feel are not being taught in schools-teaching teenagers about safe sex, teen pregnancy, and AIDS/HIV/STD prevention. I also feel that recycling and taking care of the planet/community is completely disregarded and not implemented or enforced in the Bronx, and that is at all grade levels. It starts when they are young.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the meeting, but these are things teachers should address and teenagers should know and respect the boundaries with their administrators and authority figures.

Thank you

Emily Kibble