Three years, no accountability.

We’re done waiting.

Across the country, around the world, and in virtually every industry and community imaginable, our society is becoming increasingly aware of the abusive power of gendered violence and discrimination. The metoo. Movement, a powerful force of magnitude that is so often misunderstood and mischaracterized, centers on the revolutionary act of telling one’s story as part of a global community, courageously defying all of the systemic features that have silenced survivors for millennia.

The true need for this accountability is exemplified by the way it was accidentally made viral in 2017, the decades of strategy and struggle of a Black woman movement leader, picked up by one of the most privileged industries we can think of: Hollywood celebrity. We are in the midst of a malignant accountability crisis, one that has traumatized generations of people, ended careers before they even started, and empowered the very worst behaviors among us.

The New Day Collaborative is a movement of survivors and allies, catalyzing their collective strength to end the abusive power imbalance that prevents us all from living lives filled with joy and careers filled with community. We’re starting at the central focal point of power, our government, where politicians, appointees, and their enablers uphold a system of white supremacy and gendered violence to their own benefit.

So what’s the first step?

We must pass the legislation that was introduced three years ago, ignored for two entire legislative sessions, that is the beginning of accountability for politicians who choose to abuse their power. The #MeToo for the General Assembly Act, first introduced by Representative Leanne Krueger in December 2017, now championed in both the Pennsylvania House and Pennsylvania Senate, would:

• Ban the use of non-disclosure agreements which mask the names of Members of the General Assembly who are accused of harassment if the complaint is credible;
• Require that credibly accused members of the Legislature be held accountable to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania and require that they repay any settlements that were paid with taxpayer dollars;
• Require that paid administrative leave, remote work assignments, and reimbursement for licensed professional counseling be offered to employees during the entire adjudication of the proceedings.
• would establish procedures for keeping the investigatory, prosecutorial, and adjudicatory functions separate as required under Pennsylvania law

In other words, this legislative package would end the two-party skeleton’s closet and the faux investigations with a mandate to cover up abuse, it would work to support and believe those who come forward with abuse allegations while upholding due process, and it would end the slush fund of taxpayer money that was used to force survivors into silence, while leaving perpetrators in office.

There’s more to do than that, though.

We need to reform our legal system too. As this article outlines, the rich, powerful, white, and famous often utilize our courts to punish those who speak out about their abuse. Without these legal reforms, the system remains basically the same, one where survivors must risk the trajectory of their entire lives just to do the right thing or try to prevent the abuse of others. That system is completely unsustainable.

We need to continue to recruit and train organizers and prospective candidates for public office, and we need to raise the funds and prepare the mobilization to replace any abuser who tries to dictate the terms of their own accountability.

Finally, we need to remember where the heart of this movement lies, for which our purpose to continue this work originates. We’re starting where the most power lies as a strategy, but for the purpose of ending these abuses everywhere, we are in partnership with any person or organization with our aligned values. When a governor or president can openly sexually harass or abuse, the manager, the coach, the doctor, the uncle, and the partner find inspiration to continue their ways. We’ll be pursuing opportunities (including during the virtual necessities of this global pandemic) to amplify those voices, teach our community, and empower positive changes.

Click here to sign on to our Gender Justice Platform. We’ll be mobilizing Pennsylvanians in the coming weeks and months to ensure the passage of these critical reforms.