NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has heard it before. Every time there is a legal setback, the movement is declared dead. A legal success and, that’s it, he’s alive again.
So Burke, who nearly two decades ago coined the phrase “Me Too” in her work with survivors of sexual violence, found herself speaking out again after New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction in 2020: The #MeToo reckoning is bigger than any court case. It’s still there and it’s working.
The most obvious piece of evidence, Burke said: “Ten years ago we couldn’t bring a man like Harvey Weinstein to court.”
The movement, she said, was responsible for this enormous cultural shift — regardless of the Hollywood mogul’s ultimate legal fate.
Also looking to take the long view, after a legal setback that surprised many survivors and advocates, was Anita Hill. She testified against Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing in 1991, becoming the face of the fight against sexual harassment more than a quarter century before the Weinstein revelations launched the #MeToo movement.
Alongside his academic career, Hill now heads the Hollywood Commission, which seeks to combat harassment in the entertainment industry. She sought Thursday to reassure survivors that progress is real.
“I want those who are saddened by the New York Court of Appeals decision to know that no legal decision can equal the tremendous progress we have made together in the movement against sexual violence,” Hill told The Associated Press in an email.
“The movement will persist,” she added, “driven by the truth of our testimonies. And changes to our systems and culture will follow.”
It was, of course, a difficult morning for survivors of sexual violence across the country, as Burke acknowledged at a hastily organized press conference in Manhattan following the court ruling with activists including Ashley Judd, one of Weinstein’s first accusers.
In what Judd called “an act of institutional betrayal,” New York’s highest court, in a 4-3 decision, ordered a new trial, saying the first had harmed Weinstein, 72, with improper rulings, including allow some accusers to testify about the accusations. that was not part of the case. Weinstein will remain in prison, however, because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape.
Among those testifying in New York was Dawn Dunning, a supporting witness, who told the court how, during a business meeting, Weinstein slipped his hand under her skirt and fondled her genitals.
Dunning told the AP through her lawyer, prominent #MeToo lawyer Debra Katz, that she was “shocked” by Thursday’s ruling and dealing with a range of emotions, including wondering: “Was it all for nothing?”
“It was two years of my life,” Dunning said. “I had to live it every day. I had to survive the terror of confronting Weinstein. But would I do it again? Yes.”
She said that when she confronted the producer, she faced her worst fear and realized he had no power over her. And she was proud that her testimony helped other women get justice.
Katz said she spoke with Dunning and other accusers — women who felt “destroyed” — reminding them of the important role they played in the broader reckoning against sexual abuse and violence.
“They testified at great personal cost. … It was life-changing for them,” Katz said. “And to feel like maybe all of this was in vain is a really, really bad feeling.”
Even so, Katz was certain that Weinstein would be convicted in a new trial.
“Their testimony was invalidated by the court today due to legal technicalities,” Katz said. But “no one doubted the truth of what they testified, or the courage of their testimony. And although this is a setback in this case, I believe their testimony changed the world.”
The testimony fundamentally altered how people view and react to issues of sexual assault in the workplace, she said.
“And their courage has grown beyond this case — people continue to speak out, people continue to support other victims who have reported sexual assault and violence, and I truly believe there is no going back,” Katz said.
Many advocates saw the moment, disheartening as it was, as an opportunity to call for renewed efforts to advance the #MeToo message.
“Today’s ruling does not erase the truth about what happened,” said Fatima Goss Graves, head of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. It’s important to remember, she said, “that one well-known case does not define this movement. We are a force.”
Graves noted that the fund has provided support to about 9,000 people with sexual harassment complaints since 2018 and funded 300 lawsuits. The fund is administered by the National Women’s Law Center in Washington; The broader Hollywood-based group, launched in 2017, transferred all of its assets to the fund in January 2023.
Burke stressed in an interview that while legal advances are necessary for progress, “the justice system has never been a friend to survivors. And that’s why we need movements, because historically it’s been movements that have led the legal system to do the right thing.”
Burke said she spent the morning talking to accusers, including actress Annabella Sciorra, who testified at the 2020 trial that Weinstein raped her.
“I can understand how devastating and disgusting and angry the range of emotions is that so many of them must feel,” Burke said. “And I hope they understand for us survivors, who we will probably never see a day in court, that they are still heroes to us.”
Burke, who spoke about her past as an abuse survivor, added that she could never imagine facing her own perpetrator in court.
“So the simple fact that they did this, to hold a person, a man like Harvey Weinstein, accountable for his crimes, is incredible,” she said.
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AP Writer Alexandra Olson contributed to this report.
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