Eighteen members of Time’s Up Healthcare left the organization last week over handling allegations that co-founder and board member Esther Choo could not report sexual harassment complaints.
A mutiny among members of Time’s’ health care arm is shifting the public image of the influential gender rights organization, just as it is taking a broader role in the Hollywood position and pushing for change in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association .
Eighteen members of Time’s Up Healthcare resigned last week over the organization’s handling allegations that co-founder and board member Esther Choo failed to file complaints of sexual harassment by an Oregon Health and Science University staffer. The members believe that the advocacy group protected Choo beyond the support of the anonymous plaintiff in the case.
The massive exodus represents more than a third of the branch, which came into being to address issues of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in health care within the larger Time’s Now Now organization. The controversy shines a light on persistent concern that Time’s Up is not fulfilling its goal of sexual assault and harassment when the goal conflicts with the interests of powerful members or funders.
“I believed in Time’s Up Healthcare’s mission, which I thought was to center survivors,” said Monica McLemore, co-founder of Time’s Up Healthcare and associate professor at UCSF’s family health care nursing division, who left the organization last week. resigned. ‘I’m angry because we missed a perfect opportunity to model the behaviors we want to see from businesses and workplaces. I no longer need evidence to show me that some people are not serious about what they say. ”
Time’s’ President and CEO Tina Tchen responded to the controversy in a lengthy statement on March 10 The Hollywood Reporter, which would then go to Time’s leaders and supporters on March 11. “Dr. “Choo acted in a way that she said supports the survivor, including the issue of the abuse, and in line with the values she has shown as one of the people who founded TIME’S UP Healthcare,” the statement read. partial. ‘It can be difficult to provide support and advice to those who have experienced the trauma of sexual harassment and abuse, especially in the workplace. There is not always a clear path for advice and counsel, especially if you focus on the survivor’s wishes and the ability to make decisions for yourself at that moment … I do not agree that we should work with the survivor support and her pursuit of justice does not support away from Dr. Choo and her leadership. ”
Days after the outgoing members of the Time’s Health group issued staggering public statements about the organization on Twitter, members of an entertainment committee at Time’s Up were sent an agreement containing a confidentiality clause to announce before their next meeting on March 17 a raise eyebrows for an organization established in defiance of the non-disclosure agreements traditionally used in settlements for sexual harassment and assault. A source from Time’s Up says the purpose of the agreement is to protect the privacy of members who share stories of abuse or harassment, and not to protect the organization.
Some advocates and survivors of sexual assault in Hollywood have followed Time’s Up’s handling of the OHSU case with concern, including Rose McGowan, Weinstein’s accused, who calls the role of the organization here ‘disgusting and horrific’. “I’ve been trying to sound the alarm at Time’s for a long time,” McGowan said. THR. ‘It’s women at Time’s Up who help bad people. These are perpetrators who are now in their own right. There are many ways to engage in sexual [misconduct]. There is the deed and there is the aftermath. They look at gas and have always been a scam. ‘
While created as a gender rights group, Time’s Up has expanded its scope and recently played a key role in criticizing the HFPA over the race’s composition and ethics. On March 9, Time’s Up demanded that all members of the HFPA resign immediately, among others.
The resignations of Time’s Up Healthcare, which begins March 4 and runs through March 9, follow the filing of a February 26 sexual harassment lawsuit against former Oregon Health and Science University doctor Jason Campbell, known as the ” TikTok Doctor “for videos of how he dances. in his hospital that was widely shared on TikTok during the pandemic. In the complaint, it is alleged that Campbell sent suggestive messages and photos to the plaintiff, and came up behind her and pressed his erection into her. Neither Campbell nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff told Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at the OHSU where she works with Campbell, about the harassment on March 31, 2020, and Choo, as required under Title IX, could not tell Laura Stadum, OHSU , do not report. Title IX Coordinator and Co-Founder of Time’s Up Healthcare. (Choo, which also runs Equity Quotient, a for-profit consulting firm on gender and race issues in medicine, has hired Stadum to join Time’s Up). When the plaintiff provided details and screenshots, the complaint says, Choo responded with the text: “Ugh, I’m giving him feedback.” In April, the plaintiff says she told Choo that Campbell also sexually harassed and sexually assaulted an OHSU employee, but that the victim was afraid to report it. Choo’s response to the plaintiff regarding the reporting of sexual harassment was: ‘It is never worth it. Never, ”reads the complaint.
After media reports about the case began circulating during the weekend of February 27 and 28, several Time’s Up members heard from colleagues in the health industry when the group responded, and several members pressed the leadership of Time’s Up to do so. so fast. At the time, Time’s Up was focused on its sensational HFPA efforts around the February 28 Golden Globes ceremony.
Time’s Up consists of several arms, including the Legal Defense Fund, which is housed by the National Women’s Law Center, which supports more than 200 lawsuits, the Time’s Up Foundation, which is the principal 501 (c) (3) public charity, and Time’s Up Now, a 501 (c) (4) social welfare organization that oversees Time’s Up Healthcare.
When the OHSU case was made public and the discussion in the medical community began to provoke, McLemore sent an email to Tchen and chief operating officer Monifa Bandele suggesting that the organization file a statement of support for the plaintiff in the OHSU. issue issue and publicly say that Choo and Stadum refrain from participating in any activities related to Time’s Up until the dispute is resolved. During a Zoom call on March 2 with several co-founders of Time’s Up Healthcare, leaders of Time’s Up Now said it would be an admission of guilt from Choo and that it would attract more attention, according to several sources who call. In a March 3 call with more than 20 members of Time’s Up Healthcare but without Time’s Up Now leadership, a majority of members said they supported Choo to retire temporarily. “Nobody hates Esther,” said a March 3 member. “But they think she’s human, and people make mistakes, and if they make mistakes, they have to admit it and be held accountable.”
On March 4, Time’s Up issued a statement saying it was “in solidarity with the survivor in her decision to share her story”, but defended Choo. ‘While dr. “Esther Choo is mentioned in the complaint, it is important to explain that she is not a defendant or a party in the case,” the statement read. ‘The two accused are dr. Jason Campbell, who allegedly committed the sexual harassment and assault in question, and Oregon Health and Science University, then his employer. Because Dr. Choo is at most a witness to these events and may have to testify about them, it is not appropriate that Dr. Choo or TIME’S UP did not comment further on matters in the lawsuit. ”
This statement unleashed the wave of resignations. “There were split loyalties,” said Pringl Miller, a surgeon and co-founder of Time’s Up Healthcare, who is also president and founder of the law firm Physician Just Equity. ‘Instead of focusing only on the survivors, [the statement] was also about assuring support for Dr. Choo. ”
The concerns raised by resigning Time’s Up Healthcare group members reflect the survivors who raised sexual assault last year around Time’s’ role behind the scenes in the HBO Max documentary On the Record. Oprah Winfrey, one of the founding contributors to Time’s Up, initially backed the project at Apple + before abandoning it, telling The New York Times and CBS this morning that there were ‘inconsistencies’ in the accounts of defendants. When Time’s Up did not want to add its name to a list of organizations that issued a statement supporting the women featured in the film, many gender equality activists felt that the organization chose the interests of a powerful donor over those of the sexual assault they created. to serve.
Tatiana Siegel contributed to this report.