Anita Faye Hill is an American lawyer and academic. She is a university professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university's Heller School for Social Policy and Management. She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment.
Michael Edward Lowry was an American Democratic politician who served as the 20th governor of the U.S. state of Washington from 1993 to 1997. His political career ended abruptly following a sexual misconduct allegation made against him by his deputy press secretary, Susanne Albright. Lowry served as a United States Representative from Washington's 7th congressional district from 1979 to 1989.
Russell Wendell Simmons is an American entrepreneur, record executive, writer, and film producer. He is chairman and CEO of Rush Communications, co-founded the hip hop music label Def Jam Recordings, and created the clothing fashion lines Phat Farm, Argyleculture, and Tantris. Simmons' net worth was estimated at $340 million in 2011.
William Kennedy Smith is an American physician and a member of the prominent Kennedy family who founded an organization focused on land mines and the rehabilitation of landmine victims. He is known for being charged with rape in a nationally-publicized 1991 trial that ended with his acquittal.
Edward Bernard Patrick Murray is an American politician from the state of Washington who most recently served as the 53rd mayor of Seattle from 2014 to 2017. A Democrat, he was previously a state legislator, first with the Washington State House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007, then the Washington State Senate from 2007 to 2013.
On July 1, 1991, President George H. W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court of the United States to replace Thurgood Marshall, who had announced his retirement. The nomination proceedings were contentious from the start, especially over the issue of abortion, and many women's groups and civil rights groups opposed Thomas on the basis of his conservative political views, as they had also opposed Bush's Supreme Court nominee from the previous year, David Souter.
Rubén Jesús Kihuen Bernal is an American politician and former member of the United States House of Representatives for Nevada's 4th congressional district, serving from 2017 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was a member of the Nevada Senate from 2006 to 2016. He was Nevada's first Latino member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Kihuen described himself as the first "Dreamer" elected to Congress. In December 2017, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on Kihuen to resign in response to sexual misconduct allegations against him by a female campaign staff member, as reported by BuzzFeed. He refused to resign but did not run for reelection in 2018.
The 1992 United States Senate election in Washington was held on November 3, 1992. Incumbent Democratic Senator Brock Adams chose not to run for re-election to a second term after eight women alleged that Adams had committed various acts of sexual misconduct, ranging from sexual harassment to rape. Adams denied the allegations, but his popularity statewide was weakened considerably by the scandal and he chose to retire rather than risk losing the seat for his party.
Campus sexual assault is the sexual assault, including rape, of a student while attending an institution of higher learning, such as a college or university. The victims of such assaults are more likely to be female, but any gender can be victimized. Estimates of sexual assault, which vary based on definitions and methodology, generally find that somewhere between 19 and 27% of college women and 6–8% of college men are sexually assaulted during their time in college.
Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States (1993–2001), has been publicly accused of sexual assault and/or sexual misconduct by four women: Juanita Broaddrick accused Clinton of raping her in 1978; Leslie Millwee accused Clinton of sexually assaulting her in 1980; Paula Jones accused Clinton of exposing himself to her in 1991 as well as sexually harassing her; and Kathleen Willey accused Clinton of groping her without her consent in 1993. The Jones allegations became public in 1994, during Clinton's first term as president, while Willey's and Broaddrick's accusations became public in 1999, toward the end of Clinton's second term. Millwee did not make her accusations until 2016.
American comedian Bill Cosby has been the subject of publicized sexual assault allegations, with the earliest incidents allegedly taking place in the mid-1960s and his conviction for aggravated indecent assault happening in 2018. He has been accused by numerous women of rape, drug-facilitated sexual assault, sexual battery, child sexual abuse, and sexual misconduct. Assault allegations against Cosby became more public after a stand-up routine by comedian Hannibal Buress became popular in October 2014, alluding to Cosby's covert sexual misbehavior; thereafter, many additional claims were made. The dates of the alleged incidents have spanned from 1965 to 2008 in ten U.S. states and in one Canadian province.
People v. Turner, formally The People of the State of California v. Brock Allen Turner (2015), is a criminal case in which Brock Allen Turner was convicted by jury trial of three counts of felony sexual assault. The case was internationally publicized.
During his career as a film producer, Harvey Weinstein, formerly of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company (TWC), exploited his influential position to commit criminal sexual acts including rape.
The Me Toomovement, with variations of related local or international names, is a social movement against sexual abuse and sexual harassment where people publicize allegations of sex crimes committed by powerful and/or prominent men. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in 2006, on Myspace, by sexual harassment survivor and activist Tarana Burke.
A series of allegations concerning the involvement of British politicians in cases of sexual harassment and assault arose in October and November 2017. Allegations were prompted by discussions among junior staff employed in the UK Parliament at Westminster following the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations in Hollywood earlier in October, and the subsequent rise of the #MeToo movement, but spread further to cover all the major political parties, including political figures beyond Westminster.
The 2017–18 United States political sexual scandals include multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment and sexual assault, and subsequent firings and resignations of American politicians in 2017 and 2018. Some of these allegations are linked to the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse allegations starting in October 2017.
Debra S. Katz is an American civil rights and employment lawyer and a founding partner of Katz, Marshall & Banks in Washington, D.C. She is best known for representing alleged victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment, notably Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Vanessa Tyson, Chloe Caras, and accusers of Congressmen Pat Meehan and Eric Massa, and whistleblowers facing retaliation, including most recently Dr. Rick Bright. Katz's primary practice areas at her firm are employment and whistleblower law, where she represents victims of workplace discrimination and retaliation.
On the Record is a 2020 documentary film directed by Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering. It centers allegations of sexual abuse and harassment against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. Executive producer Oprah Winfrey publicly withdrew from the film shortly before it was released, citing "creative differences", severing a production deal with Apple TV+. The film premiered at Sundance on January 25, 2020, and was acquired by HBO Max, who released it digitally on May 27, 2020.
During the 2020 election campaign for President of the United States in March 2020, Tara Reade, a former staffer in Biden's U.S. Senate office, alleged that Joe Biden, the former U.S. vice president and Democratic nominee in the 2020 presidential election sexually assaulted her in 1993 in a Capitol Hill office building when she was a staff assistant in his office. Biden denied Reade's allegations.
