“If they see the person at the highest level get away with it, and they align themselves with that person, then they’ll get away with it too.”

I’m grateful to serve with @Biaggi4NY and women who are speaking truth to power in a place where misogyny has thrived for too long. https://twitter.com/jdavidgoodman/status/1381748219496042497

“She said that ‘it seemed odd for my male colleague to say that [I ‘look like a Bond girl’].’ The same senator, who is now retired, was also known to turn around in his chair and openly stare at women, she said. (She asked that he not be identified.)” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us/politics/cuomo-sexual-harassment-culture-albany.html

This reporting describes common sexual harassment in Albany. I’d also say that it is about gender-based harassment (these are, of course, related), and I’d classify both of the experiences I shared in the article as the latter rather than the former.

I’d like to share one more:

In January 2019, during my second week serving in the @NYSenate, the Reproductive Health Act (codifying critical reproductive rights + ensuring access to abortion care in NY) finally passed, as did the Comprehensive Contraceptive Care Act, which I was the sponsor of in the Senate

Passing the RHA was historic. Governor Cuomo announced that he would be signing the bill the same day it passed, in a room on the 2nd floor of the Capitol. Legislators were encouraged to arrive early for the bill signing, along with numerous advocates who’d fought to win the RHA.

I arrived shortly before the ceremony was scheduled to begin. Showed my ID and entered the room, which was half-full and quickly filling up. I walked toward the front of the room, surveying the space and looking for a place to sit. Several of my colleagues were already seated.

As I searched for a seat, a tall, bearded man who worked for the Governor’s office chastised me. “Ma’am,” he said. “You need to go to the back.” He didn’t know I was a senator. I was about to identify myself to him, but before I could, he grabbed me by the shoulders. I froze.

My Senate colleagues, who were seated nearby, saw what was happening and intervened. Four of them stood up (I only needed one seat ). One said, “She’s a senator!” Another said, “She belongs here.” She belongs here. The bearded man let me go, but I was, pitifully, already crying

The new Chair of the Women’s Issues Committee was nearly kicked out of a bill signing for...looking too young to be there. Maybe I *was* too young, I thought. Maybe I didn’t belong there. My face was so hot. I was so tired. I silently wept through the signing of the RHA.

There is no doubt in my mind that this man would never have presumptuously put his hands on me if I weren’t a woman who had just celebrated by 28th birthday a few weeks before. That is gender-based discrimination (and frankly, a mild manifestation of it). We need to eradicate it.

I highlight the response of fellow senators who (literally) stood up for me in that moment, for a couple reasons. 1. Reflecting on it, I think part of why I cried was the tenderness I felt at someone defending me like that. And the sad realization that they had to stand up for me

2. Things are changing in Albany because courageous people are standing up and saying NO. No to gender-based harassment. No to sexual harassment. No to powerful men abusing their staff. Thank you to every person who’s stood up. You are helping us defeat these hideous things.