The Cautionary Tale of Andrew M. Cuomo

Just three years ago, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo made history among victims of sexual abuse at the hands of powerful organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America. Cuomo was a leader in the “lookback window” movement, which provided a fixed amount of time in which survivors of past sexual crimes could bring suit against their abuser and their employing organization. The sense of justice it has brought to survivors, along with similar statutes in New Jersey and around the nation, is something most, including me, thought we would never see. Cuomo’s zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment and sexual abuse by powerful figures in clerical garb made him persona non grata and an enemy of the institutional Church — he, the patriarchal Governor of New York with perhaps more power than any Governor in history other than Franklin Roosevelt, was on the outside looking in; he was one of us, those cast out from institutions for speaking the truth, for telling our truth.

We know now that like so many of the men his lookback window brought to justice, the Governor who had the back of every survivor of clerical sexual abuse was, ultimately, no different than the men who had committed acts of atrocity against children in the Church. Yes, it is true that Cuomo is not faced with allegations that he abused a minor; however, the power imbalance between young men abused by powerful Bishops and young staffers in the Governor’s Office facing sexual harassment and molestation by the Governor is of almost no difference. He had the ability to destroy reputations and lives, just like Francis Spellman and Roy Cohn nearly six decades ago.

We live in an era that has reached a tipping point in so many ways: the me too movement, intolerance for racism, intolerance for racial inequality, intolerance for intolerance itself; it is right and just that Cuomo leave the Executive Chamber. In his last act, he can set an example for all of the powerful religious men in mitres who, too disgraced to continue on in their jobs but too arrogant to know that or admit to it, should follow him out the door.

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