Advocates say #MeToo won't be derailed despite court reversal
>> #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has heard it before. Every time there's a legal setback, the movement is declared dead in the water. A legal success, and presto, it's alive again.
So Burke, who nearly two decades ago coined the phrase “Me too” from her work with sexual assault survivors, found herself again declaring after New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction: The #MeToo reckoning is greater than any court case. It's still there, and it's working.
The most obvious proof, Burke said: “Ten years ago we could not get a man like Harvey Weinstein into the courtroom.”
The movement, she said, was responsible for that huge cultural shift — regardless of the Hollywood mogul's ultimate legal fate.
Also seeking to take the long view, following a legal setback that stunned many survivors and advocates, was Anita Hill. She testified against Clarence Thomas during his 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, becoming the face of the fight against sexual harassment more than a quarter-century before the Weinstein revelations launched the #MeToo movement.
Alongside her academic career, Hill now heads the Hollywood Commission, which seeks to fight harassment in the entertainment industry. She sought Thursday to reassure survivors that progress is real.
“I want those who are saddened by the New York Court of Appeal's decision to know that no single legal ruling can ever match the tremendous progress we have made together in the movement against sexual violence,” Hill told The Associated Press in an email.
“The movement will persist,” she added, “driven by the truth of our testimonies. And changes to our systems and culture will follow.”
It was, of course, a rough morning for sexual assault survivors across the country, as Burke acknowledged at a hastily arranged Manhattan news conference following the court ruling with activists including Ashley Judd, one of the earliest Weinstein accusers.
In what Judd called “an act of institutional betrayal,” New York's highest court, in a 4-3 decision, ordered a new trial, saying the first one had prejudiced Weinstein, 72, with improper rulings, including letting some accusers testify about allegations that weren't part of the case. Weinstein will remain in prison, however, because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape.
Among those who testified in New York was Dawn Dunning, a supporting witness, who told the court how during a business meeting Weinstein slid his hand up under her skirt and fondled her genitals.
Dunning told the AP through her attorney, prominent #MeToo lawyer Debra Katz, that she was “shocked” by Thursday's ruling and dealing with a range of emotions.