#MeToo remains steadfast in its support for overturning the Weinstein verdict

NEW YORK (AP) – #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has heard it before. Whenever there’s a legal setback, the movement is deemed dead in the water. Legal success and presto, it got here to life again.

And so Burke, who coined the phrase “Me Too” nearly twenty years ago based on her work with survivors of sexual assault, stated again after New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction. : The #MeToo reckoning is greater than another court case. It’s still there and dealing.

The most blatant piece of evidence, Burke said: “Ten years ago, we couldn’t have brought a man like Harvey Weinstein into the courtroom.” In her view, the movement was responsible for this massive cultural shift – no matter the Hollywood mogul’s ultimate legal fate.

Likewise, Anita Hill, who tried to take the long view at her 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, tried to take the long view after a legal setback that baffled many survivors and her supporters and, for greater than 1 / 4, became the face of the fight against sexual harassment. – 100 years before the Weinstein case, which launched the #MeToo movement.

In addition to his academic profession, Hill currently heads the Hollywood Commission, which goals to combat harassment in the entertainment industry. On Thursday, she sought to guarantee survivors that progress is real.

“I want those who are saddened by the New York Court of Appeals decision to know that no single legal ruling can ever compare to the tremendous progress we have made together in the anti-sexual violence movement,” Hill told The Associated in an email Press.

“The movement will continue,” she added, “fueled by the truth of our testimonies. There will be changes in our systems and culture.”

It was, after all, a difficult morning for survivors of sexual assault across the country, as Burke acknowledged at a rapidly arranged news conference in Manhattan after the court’s ruling attended by activists including Ashley Judd, certainly one of Weinstein’s first accusers.

In what Judd called an “act of institutional betrayal,” New York’s highest court ordered a brand new trial by a 4-3 majority, saying the first one prejudiced Weinstein, 72, by issuing inappropriate rulings, including allowing some accusers to testify about the allegations it was not a part of the case. Weinstein, nonetheless, will remain in prison because he was convicted of one other rape in Los Angeles in 2022.

Among those that testified in New York was Dawn Dunning, a supporting witness who told the court how Weinstein put his hand up her skirt and fondled her genitals during a business meeting.

Dunning told the AP through her lawyer, outstanding #MeToo lawyer Debra Katz, that she was “shocked” by Thursday’s ruling and handled a variety of emotions, including asking herself: “Is it all for nothing?”

“It took me two years of my life,” Dunning said. “I needed to live it day by day. I needed to experience the terror of confronting Weinstein. But would I do it again? Yes.”

She said that when confronted by the producer, she faced her worst fear and realized that he had no power over her. And she was proud that her testimony helped other women deserve justice.

Katz said she spoke to Dunning and other accusers – women who felt “gutted” – reminding them of the vital role they played in the broader fight against sexual abuse and violence.

“They witnessed this at great personal cost. (…) It changed their lives,” Katz said. “And feeling like it was all in vain is a very, very bad feeling.”

Still, Katz was confident that Weinstein could be convicted in a brand new trial.

“Their testimony was invalidated by the court today for legal reasons,” Katz said. But “no one doubted the truthfulness of what they testified about or the courage of their testimony. And although it is a failure in this case, I truly believe that their testimony changed the world.”

The testimony fundamentally modified the way people view and reply to problems with sexual violence in the workplace, she said.

“Their courage has grown beyond this case – people continue to come forward, people continue to support other victims who have come forward to report sexual assault and sexual violence, and I truly believe there is no going back from this,” Katz said.

This opinion is shared by Erika Rosenbaum, a Montreal actress who got here forward together with her own accusations against Weinstein in 2017 and has since spoken to numerous groups, especially young people, about sexual harassment and abuse over the years.

“Anyway, I feel like (#MeToo) is a movement that is getting stronger all the time,” Rosenbaum said in an interview. “It’s very much a movement of incremental steps, sharing stories and supporting each other. And that doesn’t change with the court’s decision… Because it’s very much a culture change. There are ups and downs, there are fights. But this is something that will last.”

Like her, many supporters saw the moment, nonetheless depressing, as a chance to call for renewed efforts to spread the #MeToo message.

“Today’s decision does not erase the truth of what happened,” said Fatima Goss Graves, head of the Time’s Up legal defense fund. It’s vital to recollect, she said, “that one well-known case doesn’t define this movement. We are strength.”

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Graves noted that since 2018, the fund has supported roughly 9,000 individuals who have filed sexual harassment complaints and funded 300 lawsuits. The fund is run by the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, D.C.; the broader Hollywood-based group, founded in 2017, transferred all of its assets to the fund in January 2023.

Burke emphasized in the interview that while legal progress is mandatory to realize progress, “the judicial system has never been a friend to survivors. That’s why we need movements, because in the past movements have pushed the legal system to do the right thing.”

Burke said she spent the morning talking to accusers, including actress Annabella Sciorra, who testified during her 2020 trial that Weinstein raped her.

“I understand how devastating and how disgusted and how angry — I just understand the whole range of emotions that so many of them must be feeling,” Burke said. “And I hope they understand for those of us who survived, who will probably never see our day in court, that they are still heroes to us.”

Burke, who spoke about her past as a victim of violence, added that she could never imagine facing her own perpetrator in court.

“So just the fact that they had to do this to hold someone like Harvey Weinstein accountable for his crimes is amazing,” she said.