‘Known abuser’ Kavanaugh cannot be confirmed, #MeToo supporters say at California Capitol

As the U.S. Senate debates how to proceed with the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanuagh, about 80 women — and a handful of men — from California’s Capitol community gathered Monday to support two women who have publicly accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct.

“This is not someone we can allow to be elevated to the highest court in the land, who is a known abuser,” said lobbyist Samantha Corbin, who organized the photo. She is one of the founders of We Said Enough, the campaign against sexual harassment and abuse in California politics that launched last fall amid the broader #MeToo movement.

A week ago, Christine Blasey Ford, a university professor in Palo Alto, put her name to a previously anonymous complaint that Kavanaugh had held her down on a bed, attempted to remove her clothes and covered her mouth as she tried to scream during a house party when they were both in high school. She has been in contentious negotiations over when and under what conditions she might testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has yet to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination.

Then Sunday night, The New Yorker published allegations from a second woman, Deborah Ramirez, who attended Yale with Kavanaugh, that he exposed himself and thrust his penis in her face at a dorm party during their freshman year.

Kavanaugh has denied that both incidents ever occurred and called Ramirez’s accusation “a smear, plain and simple.” His supporters have also cast doubt on Ford and Ramirez’s stories by pointing to a lack of corroborating witnesses from the parties.

Their treatment has been one of the most disturbing developments for Lisa Kaplan, an attorney and Natomas school board member who participated in the Capitol photo on Monday. Nearly a year after allegations of sexual assault against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein ignited a national discussion on workplace harassment, she said, women are still being dismissed and silenced.

It’s already difficult enough to come forward with complaints of sexual harassment and assault, Kaplan said, because it forces victims to relive their trauma. Kaplan publicly shared last fall her own experience of retaliation after reporting harassment and inappropriate advances while working at the Capitol. She said she couldn’t sleep for three or four months after, and it was difficult for her entire family.

“We’ve got to change how we believe and treat victims,” she said.

This story was originally published September 24, 2018 at 2:08 PM.