It's not about sex - it's about power.

• Author: Gordon, Dianna
• Position: Two types of sexual harassment

Patting, pinching and "poking fun" in these serious times are no longer just juvenile or boorish behavior: They're an issue with workshops and guidelines and policies. And about time, too.

Rumors rustled and rasped along the capital grapevine ... and it was all one great, giggling joke to a freshman Connecticut legislator as she and a group of friends tiptoed under the eaves of the medieval-style Capitol and looked for "The Bed."

The year was 1983, and Naomi Cohen found the infamous bed installed in the attic by a fellow legislator. "The most common rumor was that he was having relationships with interns," she says. "I took people up to see the bed.

"But," Cohen declares, "what was funny then is not funny now."

Cohen spent 10 years in the Connecticut House, serving in 1991 as deputy majority leader. She also wrote the sexual harassment policy adopted by the General Assembly in 1992--the year she declined to seek re-election.

Connecticut's General Assembly mandated training to curtail sexual harassment in 1991 for business owners employing more than 50 people, but the measure did not extend to the legislature.

"I asked why it was good enough for everyone else, but not for us," Cohen continues. As a member of the Legislative Management Committee, she was able to propel adoption of her sexual harassment policy at the staff level, but it wasn't until a year later that the General Assembly adopted the same guidelines for itself. Cohen's crusade gained impetus, she says, when rumors circulated that a male legislator had molested a female staff member.

"The legislature's a funny environment," Cohen points out. "It's not regular hours. There's a lot of sitting-around time, a lot of casual conversation. People spend a lot of time together. There are a lot of powerful people, and a lot of opportunities."

"Sexual harassment is not about sex, it's about power and what's more powerful than a legislature?" says Mary Helen Smith, Florida human relations coordinator. "People just don't feel secure about coming forward with allegations of sexual harassment because they don't have job security."

Cohen says Connecticut's new sexual harassment policy hasn't prevented all incidents. She relates a tale from last December: "The staff made us all a potluck supper, and at the supper, a legislator who had had too much to drink grabbed a young woman.

"I went to her later, talked to her and asked her what she was going to do. She said, |Nothing,' because she was afraid of losing her job," Cohen says.

"It's such an uneven playing field. There's just so much power legislators have over other people," comments Connecticut's new speaker, Tom Ritter.

The Connecticut General Assembly has traveled far from the whisper of footsteps under the eaves. Ritter made attendance at two-hour training sessions on prevention of sexual harassment mandatory for all Democrats this year.

"It was important to me to sensitize people to the whole issue," he explains. "It's important legislators understand that things they do or say that they may feel are not offensive could come across as very offensive to some people.

"Also," he adds, "if there is a formal complaint, people will not be able to use the defense that they didn't know better."

Ritter says the reaction to his mandate was mixed. "With the older men, there were a few jokes. But I told them even jokes were not something to be tolerated. As leaders, they have to hold to the highest level possible."

Nationwide consciousness-raising in the fall of 1991--as viewers sat transfixed by the melodrama and explicit revelations aired on television during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas--was a key factor in bringing the term "sexual harassment" and...