Kid-sex survivors fight each other
ALBANY — Even as they share the goal of helping adults who were sexually abused as children gain justice, advocates have split into separate factions.
On one side is a group led by Kathryn Robb, a survivor, and advocate Marci Hamilton, who have been working behind the scenes with the Cuomo administration on ways to move a bill to make it easier for adult survivors of child sex abuse to bring civil and criminal cases against their attackers.
On the other is Gary Greenberg, an upstate investor and abuse survivor who created a political action committee to help fund candidates who support the Child Victims Act. With him is former model Nikki DuBose, a child abuse survivor. Greenberg is a flamethrower who has taken aim at legislators and Gov. Cuomo, whom he accuses of paying lip service to the issue but not doing much to effect change.
And in the middle are groups like Safe Horizon and the Stop Abuse Campaign that have been more openly critical of Cuomo than the Robb faction but more tempered than Greenberg.
Things are so split that a lobbyist for Safe Horizon, Jessica Schafroth, explicitly asked Greenberg not to attend a recent state Capitol press conference on the issue.
For his part, Greenberg said the other advocates’ style of working within the system hasn’t worked.
“I’m going to be in the face of these politicians,” Greenberg said. “I don’t care. Other people want to play the niceynice role. They think that will get them a Child Victims Act. I don’t. Their comments haven’t worked for 11 years.”
For a long time, Greenberg was aligned with the Stop Abuse Campaign, headed by Andrew Willis and Melanie Blow.
But the two sides are now fighting in court. Greenberg sued the nonprofit for $25,000 over a dispute regarding an email list of 6,400 abuse victims. Greenberg wants access to the list while the Stop Abuse Campaign argues the people who signed up didn’t agree to have their names released to others.
“Anything that isn’t directly focused on protecting children, passing this bill that will protect children, is a distraction from what we’re all trying to achieve,” said Willis.