WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. congresswoman on Friday posted a video online, sharing her personal suffering from sexual harassment in a bid to encourage former and current congressional staffers to do the same.
In the video, House Representative Jackie Speier, a Democrat from California, said when she was in her mid-20s and worked as a staffer on Capitol Hill, a chief of staff forcibly "kissed me and stuck his tongue in my mouth."
"Many of us in Congress know what it's like because Congress has been a breeding ground for a hostile work environment for far too long." she said in the video.
"I know what it's like to keep these things hidden deep down inside," Speier said in the video, "I know what it's like to remember that rush of humiliation and anger."
Speier is pushing a new movement, "#MeTooCongress," by encouraging Congress staffers to speak out their experiences of sexual abuse so as to "throw back the curtain on the repulsive behaviour that until now has thrived in the dark without consequences."
The congresswoman did not name the person behind the alleged abuse but later confirmed that the man was Joe Holsinger, who was around 50 at the time and died in 2004, according to a TheHill news daily report.
Speier pushed an amendment to the House appropriations bill in 2014 to allot 500,000 dollars for sexual harassment training for House members, staffers and officers. That amendment, however, was taken out of the Senate's version of the bill.
Under the U.S. Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, a staffer has 180 days after the alleged incident to file for counselling. After 30 days of counselling, the person can request private mediation with their office to resolve the matter.
If the employee and the office can't reach a resolution, the victim can either file an administrative complaint and have their case heard in a private setting, or file a lawsuit in federal district court.
Of the 49 new requests filed in the fiscal year 2016 for counselling, aside from discipline, sexual harassment was the issue raised most often by victims, according to a 2016 report from the Congressional Office of Compliance, which is in charge of handling sexual harassment claims on Capitol Hill.
A number of U.S. female senators also shared their stories of the sexual harassment on TV outlets recently, but none of them took place inside congressional buildings.
Thousands of American women have shared their stories of alleged sexual harassment using the hashtag #MeToo on social media in the wake of allegations against Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. More than 60 women have come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against the well-known producer, who however has denied all allegations.
