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News > Culture

Actresses and Activists React to Harvey Weinstein's Verdict

  • Weinstein arrives at the New York Criminal Court during his ongoing sexual assault trial in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., February 24, 2020.

    Weinstein arrives at the New York Criminal Court during his ongoing sexual assault trial in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., February 24, 2020. | Photo: Reuters

Published 24 February 2020
Opinion

Below are some of the reactions to the verdict.

Actresses, women's rights groups and activists welcomed the guilty verdict against Harvey Weinstein, the producer who had reigned as one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood.

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Accusations against Weinstein helped fuel the #MeToo movement of women speaking out about mistreatment. Hollywood celebrities also founded Times Up, an organization dedicated to fighting sexual harassment and abuse across all industries.

“We will change the laws in the future so that rape victims are heard and not discredited and so that it’s easier for people to report their rapes,” actress Rosanna Arquette, who has said she resisted unwanted sexual advances by Weinstein, wrote on Twitter.

Ashley Judd, who testified against Weinstein accusing him of sexual harrassment, celebrated the courage of the women who pushed for the New York trial.

“While it is disappointing that today’s outcome does not deliver the true, full justice that so many women deserve, Harvey Weinstein will now forever be known as a convicted serial predator,” the Silence Breakers, a group of Weinstein accusers, said in a statement.

“This has been a flawed process from the beginning but has further exposed the difficulties women face in coming forward to tell the truth about powerful abusers,” the statement added.

“This trial - and the jury’s decision today - marks a new era of justice, not just for the Silence Breakers, who spoke out at great personal risk, but for all survivors of harassment, abuse, and assault at work,” Time’s Up president and CEO Tina Tchen said in a statement.

“The jury’s verdict sends a powerful message to the world of just how much progress has been made since the Weinstein Silence Breakers ignited an unstoppable movement,” Tchen added.

“While we celebrate this historic moment, our fight to fix the broken system that has allowed serial abusers like Harvey Weinstein to abuse women in the first place continues. Abusers everywhere and the powerful forces that protect them should be on notice: There’s no going back,” she said.

New Yorker journalist Ronan Farrow, who broke stories about allegations against Weinstein, reminded the role of witnesses and prosecutors in the jury's decision on Twitter.

“Harvey Weinstein operated with impunity and without remorse for decades in Hollywood. Yet, it still took years, and millions of voices raised, for one man to be held accountable by the justice system,” the Me Too organization said in a statement.

“This case reminds us that sexual violence thrives on unchecked power and privilege. The implications reverberate far beyond Hollywood and into the daily lives of all of us in the rest of the world,” the statement added.

“Though today a man has been found guilty, we have to wonder whether anyone will care about the rest of us tomorrow. This is why we say MeToo,” the group said.

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