TW: sexual abuse
Kim says she experienced sexual abuse at the hands of Scott Stringer, who has claimed the relationship between him & Kim was consensual. I am all too familiar with this thinking. My former boss likely believes our relationship was consensual, too. It was not.1/x

A few years back I worked on a campaign. Spending long hours with people creates an intense but often less formal environment. Your social life largely becomes consumed with the campaign & you spend time getting late meals and drinks with other campaign workers and volunteers.2/x

One one such night I grabbed a late meal and some drinks with my superior on the campaign. We perhaps had too much, and this person invited me to crash on her couch, since I lived a couple of hours away by train. I accepted, but when we got there, she made a pass at me. 3/x

Though I did legitimately like this person, I told her that I didn’t feel comfortable, and she said she understood. We went bac to work the next day and largely pretended nothing happened until later that week when it happened again, and I did not say no 4/x

Soon enough, this became a regular happening. I tried to pull away, but whenever I tried, I was met with both personal verbal abuse, as well as threats to my job. 5/x

From then until I had the strength to walk away, shortly after the campaign ended, we were in a “relationship” where I was no longer allowed to go home to my apartment and forced to do sexual things that I did not want to do 6/x

Any attempt to assert control over my life was met by political & financial threats, much like the ones Jean Kim says she experienced. After making some very awkward jokes about the situation, a good friend took me aside to tell me about how this situation is clearly abusive 7/x

I tried to walk away but it was made clear that I could not simply break up with her while working on the campaign. I suffered another month until the campaign ended, where I packed my clothes, made an excuse that I was going to the laundromat & never returned to her apartment8/x

I know to this day that this person believes our relationship was a consensual one and probably considers me an asshole for literally walking out on her. I believe that she believes this because she did not consider the economic power dynamic that existed between us. 9/x

With Stringer defending his actions (which he does not seem to deny happened) by saying they were “consensual”, it makes it pretty clear that Jean Kim is telling the truth. There was no consensual relationship with this politically powerful man who could do great harm to her10/x

It seems absolutely clear to me that Scott Stringer abused Jean Kim, and he must immediately seek restorative justice. 11/x

I had previously said I would rank Stringer number two on my ballot. I appreciate the work he and his team has done to help support the environmental movement, but we are progressives must also hold our friends to account. 12/x

To not demand accountability from Stringer is to allow a system of power to perpetuate. I will no longer rank Stringer at all until the demands of Jean Kim, and whomever else Stringer has harmed, are met. I urge anybody who has endorsed Stringer to demand the same. 13/13

Sorry for the massive number of spelling and grammar errors.