Lang Sias was complicit with the Tailhook coverup

Twentyfive years before the #MeToo movement, the United States military had its own watershed moment to reckon with sexual assault and the debasing of women.

It was called Tailhook, and it turns out the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, Lang Sias, was present for it.

Tailhook was an annual naval convention in Las Vegas, where more than 80 women alleged they were assaulted or harassed by officers in 1991.

The behavior that took place there included, yes, acts of sexual violence much like those of Harvey Weinstein and other men whose careers were ended by the #MeToo movement.

But nearly as significant — both in Tailhook and in the horrific stories that have come to light over the last year — is the culture, the group of enablers who know about the abuse but do nothing.

At the time of Tailhook, I was serving on the House Committee on Armed Services and our efforts to investigate the matter were continually hampered by the refusal of naval aviators to testify against their fellow officers.

Somehow, out of hundreds of officers who were present while women were forcefully groped on the way to their hotel rooms and while strippers were pressured into sex with party attendees, few could remember witnessing anything at all inappropriate.

We called it the “Stone Wall of Silence.”

We now know that Sias attended Tailhook in 1991 when he was a lieutenant in the Navy.

Even before the 1991 event became a national scandal, many naval officers were already avoiding Tailhook, because they knew the convention to be a grotesque cesspool whose central appeal was the opportunity to spend a weekend drunkenly pursuing women.

Coloradans will have to ask themselves if they share the values of a man who used taxpayer dollars to attend a drunken melee that was historically marred by repeated acts of sexual violence.

We also know Sias has been quoted saying, “While at Tailhook, I engaged in no improper or illegal activity whatsoever, nor did I witness any such activity by my fellow naval aviators.”

That’s the “Stone Wall of Silence” in action. Given the number of women who were assaulted and the scope of the damage to the hotel (which the taxpayers paid to repair), it is almost impossible anyone who was present could have missed what was happening.

It was particularly difficult for us to gather cooperative testimony about the actions of highlevel officers, who Pentagon inspectors investigated for implicitly condoning the misconduct by failing to intervene when they had the chance.

Despite these obstacles to justice, Tailhook helped usher in some badly needed cultural and policy changes at the Department of Defense.

It was a central reason why the push to allow women to serve in combat roles succeeded, and it was an impetus for reforms to the way sexual assault cases are handled in the mili tary, though the process remains far from perfect.

Over the last year, the #MeToo movement has forced us to reexamine not only those who commit acts of sexual assault and harassment, but also those who stand idly by and allow these acts to occur.

In four previous campaigns for office, Sias has never explained either his presence at Tailhook or his role in stonewalling the investigation into the events that took place there.

But we live in a different America today, one where women and men are demanding elected leaders who will take a strong stand against sexual assault and harassment.

In that spirit, it’s certainly worth asking Lang Sias why he did not take a stand when he was given the opportunity.