Gov. Andrew Cuomo needs to step aside immediately pending an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace. In doing so, he would simply be taking the same medicine he has prescribed for the Catholic Church.<\/a><\/p>\nIf a priest is accused of sexual misconduct, the Church\u2019s zero tolerance policy insists he must step aside pending an investigation. Initially, this policy was directed at offenses committed against minors. However, in 2017 and 2019, Pope Francis said that zero tolerance must also be applied to sexual offenses committed against \u201cvulnerable adults,\u201d defined, in part, as those in a state that \u201climits their ability\u201d to \u201cwant or otherwise resist the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to allegations made by Lindsey Boylan, she would qualify as a \u201cvulnerable adult.\u201d The former high-ranking official in the Cuomo administration has accused the governor of a series of sexual offenses, ranging from unwanted sexual touching to kissing her against her will. She has also accused him of intimidation, thus underscoring her vulnerability. \u201cHe used intimidation to silence his critics. And if you dared to speak up, you would face consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boylan claims that other women have also been sexually harassed by Cuomo. We know that Karen Hinton, for instance, a former Cuomo aide, has accused him of \u201cpenis politics.\u201d This would seem to bolster Boylan\u2019s point that Cuomo \u201ccreated a culture within his administration where sexual harassment and bullying is so pervasive that it is not only condoned but expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
What makes Boylan\u2019s accusations so rich is that in 2018 Cuomo said, \u201cThere must be zero tolerance for sexual harassment in any workplace, and we can and will end the secrecy and coercive practices that have enabled harassment for far too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2019, he signed legislation to combat this problem. \u201cThere has been an ongoing, persistent culture of sexual harassment, assault and discrimination in the workplace, and now it is time to act.\u201d He even lowered the bar as to what constitutes sexual harassment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy ending the absurd legal standard that sexual harassment in the workplace needs to be \u2018severe or pervasive\u2019 and making it easier for workplace sexual harassment claims to be brought forward,\u201d he said, \u201cwe are sending a strong message that time is up on sexual harassment in the workplace and setting the standard of equality for women.\u201d<\/p>\n
In light of what Boylan said he did to her, her allegations meet this test.<\/p>\n
Cuomo denies the charges and should be treated as an innocent man. It must be said, however, that he has a history of not affording a presumption of innocence to others accused of sexual offenses.<\/p>\n
When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to be a Supreme Court Justice, the judge was accused by Christine Blasey Ford of a sexual offense that he allegedly committed when he was in high school. He denied the charge. But that didn\u2019t stop Cuomo from calling her a \u201csexual survivor,\u201d even though not a single witness came to her defense. \u201cTo Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and all survivors of sexual assault,\u201d Cuomo said, \u201cwe believe you and we will fight for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
We can only imagine how Cuomo would react if I said, \u201cTo Lindsey Boylan and all survivors of sexual assault, we believe you and we will fight for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many years, Cuomo has treated accused priests the same way. When has he ever stood up for their due process rights? Two years ago, after making sweeping accusations against the Catholic Church, he closed his remarks by saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t get a resolution without the truth and there are so many people and so many institutions that just don\u2019t want to hear the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, Gov. Cuomo, it\u2019s time for you to take another dose of your own medicine. The public wants to know the truth about the charges levied against you. You can facilitate this process by taking a leaf out of the Catholic Church\u2019s playbook and step aside pending a probe of your alleged sexual offenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pending an investigation – step aside Gov. Andrew Cuomo needs to step aside immediately pending an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace. In doing so, he would simply be taking the same medicine he has prescribed for the Catholic Church. If a priest is accused of sexual misconduct, the Church\u2019s zero tolerance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6003,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/6003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}