It’s Election Day as I’m writing this and it’ll likely be at least days after the 2014 midterm elections that you’re reading this. Carl DeMaio has had a number of claims made against him by staffers that he engaged in sexual harassment during the run-up for the vote on the 52nd Congressional District with the latest claim being made by 25-year old Navy veteran Justin Harper, a regional political director for DeMaio’s campaign.
Sexual harassment is personal to me. My Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell story is one of being sexually harassed in 2000 by a subordinate and my executive officer who worked in concert, and then having the US Navy investigation sustain my allegation. I know what it feels like to work in a hostile work environment.
“I was at the urinal, and (DeMaio) came from the stall that was closest to the urinal and was kind of just standing there hovering,” Harper told San Diego’s KPBS. “I turned around and realized that it was Carl. He had his pants up, but his fly was undone, and he had his hand over, not over, grasping his genitals.”
DeMaio’s campaign spokesman Dave McCulloch responded with a statement to KPBS where he stated “Reporters with journalistic integrity have dismissed these false smears because they’ve been peddled by the same people fired from the campaign months ago – and the District Attorney dismissed these false allegations weeks ago. KPBS is reckless in reporting this outrageous lie because our office has not even had a urinal to use – a fact confirmed to KPBS by our landlord.”
Harper stated that it wasn’t broken at the time of the alleged incident.
Notice how this sounds a little he said – he said? Only two people were in the room at the time of the incident involving Harper and DeMaio – assuming the incident actually occurred in the first place.
I can tell you why this incident sounds like it happened to me, though, and it has to do with military rules on sexual harassment and military culture.
There was a three prong test for determining whether behavior was sexual harassment:
1. Did the behavior involve sex?
2. Did the behavior involve the workplace?
3. Was the behavior unwanted behavior?
If a person who felt harassed made a claim, and by the reasonable person standard could reasonably say yes to all three prongs, the behavior met the standard for sexual harassment.
If this described situation involving DeMaio and Harper occurred, then by the three prong test I’m familiar with (that I believe the military services still use as their standard) then I get why a staffer who is a military vet would consider DeMaio’s alleged behavior to be sexual harassment. He may believe that the single instance in question created a hostile work environment. As Harper moved to Ohio after the alleged incident, a move to get far away from his former workplace seems to me to indicate Harper, by the standards he’d be familiar with as a military veteran, thought of his workplace at the DeMaio campaign to be a hostile environment.
The timing for reporting the alleged incident by DeMaio doesn’t bother me as much as it might others – male-on-male sexual harassment claims in the military are generally not thought of as being as serious as male-on-female sexual harassment. And too, military men who file such claims aren’t considered as tough as their peers – and the appearance of toughness matters in military culture. From my experience of sexual harassment in the military, I would say that claiming male-on-male sexual harassment would be considered less manly than asking for assistance for PTSD.
In my case in 2000, about eight months prior to being sexually harassed myself in the Navy I reported the sexual harassment of my female division officer (she was being peeped at by four different junior sailors while she showered). I consulted with a female chief petty officer prior to reporting it to my command because I wasn’t sure if the best thing to do was to report it to the command or try and deal with the situation at my level. She told me “report it.” She asked me how I’d feel if it were my mother or a sister who were on the receiving end of peeping while they showered; she told me as well that reporting the incident was the surest way to stop the behavior, so I did report it.
Harper claimed to KPBS that he consulted with someone before deciding to publicly make his claim against DeMaio. Consulting with someone who isn’t an attorney and is someone the claimant respects before publicly making a sexual harassment claim rings true to me.
And let’s not forget we live in the city where former Congressman and Mayor Bob Filner resigned over claims of sexual harassment. Would Republicans who might consult with Harper want to have a Republican situation with one of their San Diego congressmen that mirrored the Filner situation? I wouldn’t think so.
And, this is the third staffer who’s made a sexual harassment claim against DeMaio. Three incidents, and this claim by Harper being the second claim this election cycle, says to me that even if there wasn’t an issue here there’s the appearance of an issue here.
My opinion on all of this, after the election, won’t change the election results. But sexual harassment – that matters to me. I believe Harper’s statement that something sexually harassing happened; I don’t believe DeMaio and his campaign spokesman that nothing happened. I hope when you read this that DeMaio isn’t the new congressional representative for the 52nd District.
