States act as #MeToo sexual misconduct claims mount

WASHINGTON－As the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct began snaring politicians, state legislatures across the United States vowed to re-examine their policies to prevent harassment and beef up investigations into complaints of sexual wrongdoing.

About half of all state legislative chambers have followed through with at least some sort of change to their sexual harassment policies, most often by boosting their own training, according to a 50-state analysis. But the others have done nothing this year, even as sexual misconduct allegations against lawmakers have been mounting.

The mixed response highlights both the political pressure to act and the institutional resistance to do so that exists in many state legislatures, where women now serve in record numbers yet remain outnumbered 3-to-1 by men.

"In the wake of Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement that swept across different industries, we had to act," said Democratic Assemblywoman Nily Rozic of New York, which mandated more robust sexual harassment policies for government agencies and private employers.

But "I think we have a long way to go in addressing sexual harassment in legislatures across the country," she said.

Since the start of 2017, at least 30 state lawmakers have resigned or been kicked out of office following allegations of misconduct, according to an AP tally. The most recent was Representative Dillon Bates, a Democrat who quit last week while denying claims of inappropriate relationships with students.

An additional 26 lawmakers have faced repercussions such as the loss of party or committee leadership positions since last year.

Most of those cases have come to light since October, when media reports about sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein, the Hollywood mogul now facing sexual assault charges in New York, led to a national movement of people going public with claims that they also had been sexually harassed or abused.

Rhode Island Representative Teresa Tanzi was among the first to come forward, asserting that a high-ranking legislator whom she did not identify had told her that sexual favors would help her bills go further. The disclosure prompted the House to offer sexual harassment training and to place Tanzi, a Democrat, in charge of a task force to recommend changes to state law.

But the experience ultimately left Tanzi frustrated. With this year's session nearing its end, the panel's work was put into a package of bills that would have barred confidentiality agreements in civil rights violations, extended employee protections to interns and volunteers, and required employers to conduct sexual harassment training. None of the bills passed.

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon called the bills that did pass the year's "biggest accomplishment", but acknowledged "there has been a pall over the Capitol".

"It's one thing to change policies and procedures. That's good and that's a start," he said. "But ultimately nothing changes until the culture changes. That cultural change takes a while."

ASSOCIATED PRESS