Maybe Chris Matthews will ask Tony Perkins about this the next time he is on to spew bile about homosexuals:
The former director of women’s and reproductive health at the Family Research Council, a prominent Christian conservative advocacy group, is suing the organization, claiming it retaliated against her and fired her after she filed a sexual harassment complaint against her boss.
According to court documents first obtained and reported by journalist Evan Gahr, former FRC employee Moira Gaul, 42, filed a complaint in 2009 with the District of Columbia Human Rights Commission in which she accused her supervisor of gender discrimination. She claimed that her boss, the director of the Center for Human Life and Bioethics at the time, referred to the use of birth control pills as “whoring around,” addressed emails to her with the words “hi cutie,” pressured her to attend parties, and referred to her as a “young, attractive woman.”
“His attitude toward me and other women was rude, belittling, and at times, angry,” she wrote in the complaint.
Gahr identified Gaul’s former supervisor as prominent anti-abortion lawyer William Saunders, who now works at the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life. Saunders and his attorney, William J. Hickey, did not respond to requests for comment on the case.
I’m more shocked that the Family Research Council has a women’s reproductive health division than I am that these religious nutters are sexist assholes.
Short Bus Bully
Irony meter is pegged and broken on this one.
1) She works for knuckle-dragging social primitives on purpose.
2) Utilizes laws put into place by damn dirty libruls to sue their asses when they act like knuckle-dragging social primatives.
Fucking Cognitive Dissonance, how does it work?
SiubhanDuinne
Yeah, heh, that was the first thing that struck me too.
cathyx
What did she expect when she took the job?
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S.
I guess they need a women’s reproductive health division to keep those ladies pregnant. You need to make sure their bits work right to have them churning out the children. I’m sure they also spend lots of time and money working to “prove” how deadly birth control really is.
cathyx
Did she really think she got the job because she’s qualified?
srv
@Short Bus Bully: Who will explain Irony to the children?
Do we just show them a picture of the Dodo bird and wave our hands? How do we explain concepts that are extinct?
Shakespeare
Unsurprised but not happy about sexist victim-blaming dotting the comments already.
Southern Beale
I am SHOCKED to learn that there was gambling in that establishment!
JGabriel
Well, that adds a new dimension to the concept of Family Research.
.
Calouste
@SiubhanDuinne:
Sounds like William Sounders thought the women’s and reproductive health division was where they parked the office eye candy. How long before we find out that Mr. Sounders was testing out the reproductive health of one of the women under his supervision?
beltane
@Calouste: They had to get their vaginal ultrasound probe idea from somewhere.
Narcissus
Who knew working for the bad guys could be so unpleasant
Scotty
In their minds they aren’t sexist assholes. With traditional family values women have no rights and exist at the mercy of men. So they’re just acting in the way they’re expected to.
arguingwithsignposts
Translated for you.
Villago Delenda Est
@Southern Beale:
I’m shocked, too, SB.
Imagine…an outfit that’s based on patriarchy has managers who act like sexist assholes. Who could have foreseen such a thing.
I guess I’m really naive.
cathyx
@Shakespeare: I agree that she’s a victim like Adam Lanza’s mother is a victim. Did they ask for what they got? Absolutely not. Was it risky to work for an establishment that is known for their sexist stances?
Was it risky to have weapons in the house with an unstable son?
dmsilev
I’m not. Remember, they probably define ‘women’s reproductive health’ as “how can we maximize fertility”.
Whidby
@Short Bus Bully: this a thousand times
SamR
I’m fairly certain they use that term in their position papers.
General Stuck
I believe that’s a fancy name for home ec. Probly a well provisioned kitchen with some ovens for the buns.
Raven
Rachel says the Benghazi report is out and most of the blame on State.
Raven
Washington (CNN) — An independent review of the September 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi criticizes the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security for its work in Libya before the event in which four Americans were killed, two sources who have read the report told CNN Tuesday.
The senior management in charge of diplomatic security “does not come out well at all,” said one of the sources.
Liquid
A “Girl-Down-There-Part Division?” Fascinating.
pseudonymous in nc
@Shakespeare:
If you take a job with Shit Shovellers Of America, Inc., I’m not sure if I have a huge amount of sympathy for you if you sue your employer on account of the smell.
I’d like her to empty out their wingnut welfare bank account, but I’ll spare my finite concern for the women who are treated as chattel in work environments that don’t have “promoting the treatment of women as chattel” in their mission statement.
Litlebritdifrnt
@pseudonymous in nc:
What you just said. It is like someone taking a job at a funeral parlor and then complaining that you have to deal with dead bodies. I mean WTF?
Mark S.
I’m not. I’m sure they produce lots of “research” about the Pill causes cancer and there is never a medical reason to have an abortion.
Del
@Shakespeare: I have as much sympathy for Ms. Gaul as I do for Michael Steele. When you work for an organization who, as part of their central identity, shits on your demographic you don’t we don’t have to act shocked when they treat you badly.
Does any of this mean that William Saunders isn’t a misogynistic asswipe? Not in the least, but it does mean his behavior was half expected. I mean, really, are you surprised every time you hear of a GOP operative disenfranchising voters or slagging on minorities, or when another “priest X buggered children” new story pops up? Outrage is all well and good, but you could have seen this one coming from a mile away.
? Martin
@Mark S.: They are responsible for documenting when and how Jesus decides to tell the body to shut that whole thing down during a rape, and when he gives you a gift instead.
? Martin
Great. Now I’m getting nothing but Amazon ads for the Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer on every site I visit…
Gin & Tonic
@? Martin: People need something other than a knife to slice a banana?
mainmati
I’m guessing that “women’s reproductive health division” doesn’t mean what you think when it comes to the Family Research Council.
Punchy
In his defense, she does have ample front junk and a killer caboose….
Shakespeare
People are more than usually desperate for jobs in this economy. If I had to go to work at Catholic Charities (I’m a homo), I would. It doesn’t mean Catholic Charities doesn’t have to abide by labor laws, and it doesn’t mean it’s my fault if they violate those laws.
This should be obvious. Again, unsurprised, but definitely displeased at the victim-blaming misogyny.
RedKitten
She has every right to sue and to not accept that sort of treatment, absolutely. But it’s sad to see that she must have had on some fairly impressive blinders if she was flat-out surprised that a patriarchal organization that fights against women’s rights just happens to employ sexist douchebags.
Ash Can
@Punchy: Comedy can be dangerous. I suggest you leave it to the professionals and not try it at home.
RedKitten
@Shakespeare: I don’t see it as victim-blaming misogyny. If you had to go work at Catholic Charities, and they treated you like shit and violated labour laws, people could fully support your right to sue and the validity of your case, all while saying that they’re really not all that surprised that Catholic Charities would treat a gay guy like crap.
Gian
next up exotic topless dancer sues over too much staring and lewd comments?
from the same FRC guys? she finally lost it with the gropings?
Bobby Thomson
@Shakespeare: She shouldn’t have been dressed like that amirite?
Ash Can
@Shakespeare: What she did by accepting a job there was to assume an outsized risk. She most likely didn’t realize it at the time, and those who committed the crime are the guilty ones, not her. But we onlookers feel the same as if she had tried to fly across the Atlantic Ocean on a hang glider. It’s sad that she didn’t understand the reality going into the situation.
gwangung
Meh,
I’m not judging her. If there are circumstances that necessitated this job, II wouldn’t be surprised.
I AM judging Saunders. Contemptible twit. And HIS bosses, who didn’t clamp down on this…unChristian….behavior.
geg6
@RedKitten:
Eggsactly. Jeebus, what happened to her is wrong in every way but that doesn’t mean we can’t point out that the chances of something like this happening with this particular employer were something like 100%. There is nothing about the work or words of the FRC that evidence anything like respect for women as autonomous creatures, so you can’t really be surprised when their actions prove it.
Del
@Shakespeare: Even after having multiple people explain it you still can’t wrap your head around the idea that nobody here’s “victim blaming”… k.
If I were desperate for a job and hers was the only one I could get you bet your ass I’d take it, but I sure wouldn’t be surprised if they treated my female, gay-married ass like crap on multiple fronts. The fact that she went through what she did clearly points to Saunders as the guilty party. Pointing out that we’re not surprised doesn’t make us misogynistic, it means we’ve seen this story before and already knew the outcome.
Bill Murray
@Ash Can: or as if she had walked down a dark alley without an exit plan and/or accompaniment. Oh wait, it’s victim blaming to do that.
Tonybrown74
@Shakespeare:
Not exactly.
It would be as if you (or I) as a homo working for the Catholic Church, or better yet, NARTH, and then suing them for discrimination based on sexual orientation, particularly since those organizations actively fight against the same laws that I am now accuse said organizations of violating.
Is it right that you (or I) are discriminated against? No.
But fuck me if irony ain’t back-handing you (or me) upside the head right now …
eric
@Del: i dont quite agree….i dont think that you take a job the sole purpose of which is to subjugate you by the very nature of your being. I may be wrong. She is not the janitor; she is someone doing policy. She pimped out misogyinist messages to the masses. fuck her
Mnemosyne
@Bill Murray:
It’s only victim blaming to do that if you say that the guy who attacked her shouldn’t be prosecuted or should be given a lighter sentence because she should have known better.
I don’t think anyone here is saying she shouldn’t be allowed to sue because she took a job with a misogynist organization. It’s more a lack of surprise that A led to B.
eric
@Tonybrown74: no, it is worse. It would like a gay man promoting policies of gay therapy and perpetuating hatred getting it thrown back at him. If she were a admin assistant or a book keeper, then she gets my sympathy. she dont
eric
@Mnemosyne: she should be allowed to sue, but i dont have to root for her either.
Tonybrown74
@eric:
You’re right. I thought about that a few minutes after I wrote my comment and you completed my thought.
Thank you.
Del
@eric: I’d be lying if I didn’t say that seeing the “Director of women’s and reproductive health” be treated like shit at the FRC didn’t make me laugh, but once Saunders crossed the line to sexual harassment that’s where I side with Gaul. Nobody deserves that.
Does that mean I wouldn’t curse her out if we ever met? Nope, I’d like to think I’d do the sailors in my family proud f she and I ever got into the same elevator. Her organization, and her position in it, means she’s directly to blame for a lot of bad shit. That she was joisted by her own petard? That’s just karma. Bad karma to be sure, but still not surprising.
Angelo
She’s probably a lesbian /tonyperkinsinnerthoughts>
eric
@Tonybrown74: you were right as well. this really gets me going, lets ask the pregnant women in the states with no clinics what they think of her pleas for help because she is being treated as if her rights matter less. i know two wrongs dont make a right, but when you preach a gospel of submission and inferiority then this is what you get.
eric
@Del: I would not say deserve but she helps perpetuate a culture of boys will be boys where women should be submissive to their husbands. Let’s see her fight for the rights of a woman not herslef and i will cut her some slack.
Forum Transmitted Disease
Color me uncaring. She works for the very worst of this nation’s depraved assholes, helping to further their woman-hating agenda, as far as I’m concerned she deserved every last bit of the conduct that she’s complaining about (and I assume she’s suing because it was explained to her that suing was more lucrative than working).
I hope the FRC wins and bankrupts her.
Ash Can
@Forum Transmitted Disease: Wrong. Regardless of what dId or dId not go on In her head beforehand, she’s still not the perpetrator. It’s the FRC that deserves the bankrupting.
BArry
“I’m more shocked that the Family Research Council has a women’s reproductive health division than I am that these religious nutters are sexist assholes.”
(I’m a bad boy today :)
Didn’t the Nazis have like a Commissioner for Jewish Affairs?
Tonybrown74
@eric:
Indeed. She quite literally runs the, “Get Your Ass Back In The Kitchen,” Department, and is now suing her boss for telling her to get her ass back in the kitchen.
Just Some Fuckhead
Who did you think did all the heavy research in blessed Christian rape?
Darkrose
Yeah, my feelings are about the same as they are for Michael Steele: No question that the RNC is racist, but I’m not going to waste my tears on you if you chose to be Uncle Ruckus.
Another Halocene Human
@Del: Steele’s demographic is “rich guys [born into it]”.
Another Halocene Human
@Darkrose: No fair. Herman Cain is Uncle Ruckus. Michael Steele doesn’t shuck’n’jive (in fact, he’s been critical of Republicans lately, perhaps very indirectly jabbing at his utterly incompetent successor, RNC PR BS). I’m not sure he actually knows how.
Another Halocene Human
@geg6: I kinda disagree. This is one shade off of “asking for it”.
I’m more with @Short Bus Bully the first comment. These dead-enders are trying to literally take our civilization apart piece by piece, a bunch of ignorant apes with no notion of what they are doing. Of course, when they’re in trouble, they want laws and regulation and the rule of law and justice to protect them.
WATBs. Ignorant WATBs.
Gian
I’d give her the benefit that she truly believed they were nice people, and had her dreams shatterred.
I mean look at freeperland
how many are paid shills and how many are true believers.
she may have been a true believer.
If she’s learned otherwise than that’s OK by me, I’ll take converts.
Of course you realize that for the wingers, she was a plant, none of this could ever be true.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Gian: This. My guess is that it probably was a complete surprise to her that the folks at FRC would behave this way. She thought that they were nice people who really meant the image that they project. We all can think that that was remarkably naive, but naivete really shouldn’t be a quality that wipes out sympathy.
So put me with Shakespeare. There’s a bunch of disappointing behavior on this thread. Let’s put it this way: I’m the guy with Aspeger’s and I’m appalled at the lack of empathy the rest of you are showing.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Let me put it this way. Does anyone want to make the claim that, since we all know that high school football players are a bunch of assholes, that this girl shouldn’t have been surprised that getting drunk around a bunch of them led to her being raped?
TG Chicago
@SamR: Yeah, my thought exactly. I don’t mean to disrespect the victim here, but who did she think she was working for?
(again, of course this is no excuse for the sexist behavior — just trying to figure out what makes her tick. Maybe she just needed to see the face of misogyny directly in front of her before she realized the problem.)
sheithappens
I wonder how long before man crush on Christie/Manchini Cole starts saying he thinks Hannity/Limbaugh have are making sense to him on something or other?
Just like Alcoholism, Cole is living proof that you are ALWAYS a Republican even if you drink the koolaid anymore.
Bago
Two things.
First, a woman joining the FRC and then going to the HRC to file a lawsuit about sexism is Borat level trolling. The sheer amount of WTF makes it seem like a stunt by the Yes Men.
Secondly, I don’t get the animus towards Michael Steele. Dude looks like a fun guy to work for, is honest about what he thinks, and he was good at his job. He won 2010. He makes Reince, Rove, and Romney look like chumps, patting each other on the back while they burn through campaign money.
Steele still has a job at a cable news network. Rove does not. He made the white old money guys look like fools. Credit where credit is due.
danah gaz
FRC having a woman’s reproductive health division is like Golden Dawn having a multicultural outreach program.
sparrow
@Shakespeare: Agree. Let’s assume this woman is a conservative. Maybe she was only vaguely aware of the FRC and what it did when she applied for the job. I’m sure they don’t tell you in the interview “by the way we hate women and want to make their lives miserable”… I’m sure it’s some pablum about keeping conservative values alive, blah blah. I’d actually like to hear her story, maybe she was a liberal all along and needed to support a family. Even if she goes in knowing what they are about, she apparently came out on the side of women NOT being harassed at work, so why not sympathize? I do.
sparrow
@sheithappens: Yes just think of all those people who voted for Obama and then went for Romney… oh wait. No, you’re full of shit.
celticdragonchick
@Del:
Fuck that. Every employee has a right to a safe and harassment workplace no matter how much you disagree with their political agenda. I don’t agree with anything at all that they have to say, personally.
The woman is almost certainly a devoted conservative Christian and would have expected the sort of respect she would normally see in her church. That is would she should have received.
celticdragonchick
I meant to say harassment free. Typing fail.
Marc
Republican obstructionism, a lagging economy, and Democrats who were too pure and/or lazy to vote in a midterm won 2010. Steele just went along for the ride.
He plays the part of a moderate and he plays it well, but there are moments when he’s genuinely honest about what he thinks. When he was running for Senate here in 2006, he compared embryonic stem cell research to slavery and the Holocaust. His campaign pulled out all the usual dirty tricks, including busing in homeless guys from Philadelphia to distribute misleading voter guides. Oh, and he misspent his campaign funds.
In other words, he’s no more competent, honest, or moderate than any other Republican.
xian
remember when JC Watts complained about casual racism in GOP inner circles?
The Other Chuck
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I think the more apt analogy would be if she was the one buying Jagermeister and roofies for the team.
seeker6079
It’s a false dichotomy. The following two thoughts can co-exist:
1. “Every employee has a right to a safe and harassment workplace no matter how much you disagree with their political agenda.”
2. Lady, you lie down with dogs you’re gonna get fleas. Frankly, you were stupid to think otherwise. And you seemed fine when the bile was aimed outwards from you, not at you.
seeker6079
@celticdragonchick: “The woman is almost certainly a devoted conservative Christian and would have expected the sort of respect she would normally see in her church. That is would she should have received.”
Given so much conduct within churches (like this, for example, hello “polished shaft”) it is arguable that that is exactly what she received.
les
Huh. I wouldn’t have thought an outfit like FRC would be hiring clueless naifs as directors of significant portions of their organization. No one deserves or has to tolerate that kind of behavior, at work or elsewhere; but if she didn’t know what she was getting into, it sets new standards for cognitive dissonance.
Tonybrown74
@celticdragonchick:
Except no one (that I can see) is saying that she DESERVED to be treated that way.
However, saying that she was naive about the organization that she worked for does not quite do the situation justice. In fact, she was not just some mere staffer, janitor, or secretary working for an organization that actively promotes relegating her to secondary class citizenship based on her gender. She was the DIRECTOR of the division that sold that idea to the general populace (and women specifically).
It’s just really bizarre seeing her now sue said company for such treatment. The surreal-ness of the situation is throwing some of us for a loop.