WITH GREAT POWER

ONE OF THE CASES THAT THE TIME’S UP LEGAL DEFENSE FUND PURSUED this year concerns a transgender plaintiff known as “Carl.” According to Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund 2018 Annual Report, he worked as a cashier at a marijuana emporium in Washington, making minimum wage. The start of his employment was positive, and he was assigned extra work by his female manager. But after Carl came out to her, her behavior reportedly shifted: She allegedly became hypercritical of his work in front of customers and other employees. He says she began spying on him using the in-store video system. She also allegedly outed him to customers and colleagues, using terms like “he-she.” Carl reported this abuse to more than one manager, but the behavior continued, so he quit. This is just one of many cases where Time’s Up got involved.

“Clearly the issue of sexual harassment is about the power dynamic between people,” says Lisa Borders, the organization’s first-ever CEO and president. She consciously uses the term “people” when describing victims of sexual harassment and assault, invoking specific genders where the statistics on gender-based violence reveal them to be true: “One person has taken advantage of another person. Often that is a male taking advantage of a female, and often times the male is more