Photo by Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA2.0
Women's voices were finally heard when they helped pull off an upset Senate victory in Alabama defeating a man accused multiple times of sexual misconduct, Republican Roy Moore, and electing Democrat Doug Jones. Through a deafening bluster of lies and denials emanating from Moore and his chief supporters, Steve Bannon and Donald Trump, one alleged sexual predator was defeated in his attempt to win a seat in the Senate. One more sits in the White House. The state of Alabama has shown Donald Trump an opening to the exit door.
Jones threw our country a life raft at a critical point in time. We have finally begun to ask out loud - how low will we allow ourselves to sink? A known, though I will use the word alleged, child molester was being touted by President Trump and the Republican National Committee as the right man to elect for the Alabama Senate seat.
We owe a brave woman named Leigh Corfman a debt of gratitude. She was the first woman to come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against candidate Roy Moore. Corfman was 14-years-old when she says 32-year-old Moore "seduced her", initiating a sexual encounter. Moore was an assistant district attorney at the time. That's called child molestation, and the term officially became linked in a Senate election.
Moore has refuted the accusations made by Corfman as well as those made by eight other brave women who came out with their own stories of sexual misconduct by Moore. Wendy Miller. Debbie Wesson Gibson. Gloria Thacker. Beverly Young Nelson. Tina Johnson. Gena Richardson. Becky Gray. Together with Leigh Corfman, these women became a plague on Roy Moore's house and another window into the depth of sexual harassment and abuse women have endured.
All of Moore's accusers were called liars. Many people in Alabama didn't believe them. Nor did some people around the country. But a majority of Alabama voters decided they had had enough, and pulled off an extraordinary victory defeating Republican Moore in a solidly red state in the deep south. Donald Trump won Alabama in the 2016 presidential election.
During the campaign, Doug Jones repeatedly referred to the list of Moore's accusers as proof that Moore was unfit for office. Trump and the Republican National Committee didn't see it that way. They chose to ignore women's voices just as they did in the 2016 presidential election. What a difference a year can make.
Trump has his own list of 19 women who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct before he was elected president. He himself spoke of his predatory behavior toward women in the now infamous Access Hollywood tape. The man was unfit for office in 2016. He remains so today. What has changed is the impact of women's voices speaking out against abuse, and being heard.