Is it finally Time’s Up for grifting women’s groups?

A nonprofit faces a reckoning over its involvement in Andrew Cuomo’s wrongdoing

up Dilcia Barrera, Eva Longoria, Angela Robinson and Dr. Stacy Smith (Getty Images)
Dilcia Barrera, Eva Longoria, Angela Robinson and Dr Stacy Smith (Getty)
Share
Text
Text Size
Small
Medium
Large
Line Spacing
Small
Normal
Large

Eva Longoria. Shonda Rhimes. Jurnee Smollett. Ashley Judd.

Those names might sound like the makings of a new Netflix original drama, but they’re actually just a few of the Time’s Up board members who have agreed to resign in the aftermath of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment scandal. Time’s Up, a charity organization founded on the back of the #MeToo movement ostensibly to assist women in fighting sexual harassment in the workplace, wound up in the Cuomo story for all the wrong reasons.

Roberta Kaplan, the organization’s board chair and co-founder of its legal defense fund,…

Eva Longoria. Shonda Rhimes. Jurnee Smollett. Ashley Judd.

Those names might sound like the makings of a new Netflix original drama, but they’re actually just a few of the Time’s Up board members who have agreed to resign in the aftermath of the Gov. Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment scandal. Time’s Up, a charity organization founded on the back of the #MeToo movement ostensibly to assist women in fighting sexual harassment in the workplace, wound up in the Cuomo story for all the wrong reasons.

Roberta Kaplan, the organization’s board chair and co-founder of its legal defense fund, resigned last month after the New York attorney general’s report on Cuomo’s behavior revealed that Kaplan had reviewed a draft op-ed discrediting one of Cuomo’s accusers. CEO Tina Tchen then resigned over claims that she’d provided input on the op-ed and texted colleagues telling them to ‘stand down’ on the Cuomo allegations. Kaplan is currently representing Melissa DeRosa, the Cuomo aide who is accused of playing a major role in the cover-up of alleged harassment in the governor’s office.

Time’s Up will attempt to salvage its reputation, but not because it actually cares about women. The organization has raised tens of millions of dollars in charitable donations, the bulk of which were spent on salaries, swanky conferences, advertising and lobbyists.

Like many political nonprofits, the value in the organization is not in the work that it does but in its money-raising ability and its political connections. Putting celebrities on the board instead of activists who are actually qualified for the role assures donations from their wealthy Hollywood friends. Cultivating relationships with slimy politicians guarantees that leadership receives high-profile jobs in government despite little experience and few accomplishments. The celebrities, meanwhile, use these nonprofit board positions as résumé builders, ways to appear woke without having to do any real work.

Time’s Up isn’t the only left-wing nonprofit being used by grifters for political ends rather than to further the organization’s purported mission. Alphonso David, president of the pro-LGBTQ Human Rights Campaign, was fired after he was found to have been advising Cuomo on how to battle sexual harassment allegations. David previously served as a lawyer in Cuomo’s office.

The hypocrisy demonstrated by the Time’s Up and HRC leadership has been a symptom of the #MeToo movement practically since its inception. Groups like the Women’s March, NARAL, Emily’s List, and the National Organization for Women, which only claim nonpartisanship for the sweet, sweet tax breaks, pushed hard against prominent Republicans accused of sexual misconduct, like President Donald Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. But they had little to say when President Joe Biden, Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, and Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax faced their own accusations.

The recent resignations also expose the problems inherent in identity politics-based activism. HRC’s Alphonso David insisted in a defiant statement about his removal that ‘as a Black, gay man who has spent his whole life fighting for civil and human rights, they cannot shut me up.’ We are told that ‘representation matters’, that having people who look like us in positions of power can only be to our benefit. Of course, it is absurd to think that merely being a member of a certain group automatically qualifies that person to be a good representative for that group’s interests. David’s alliance with Cuomo is proof. Still, the left insists on using aesthetics as proof of ‘progress’. The Biden State Department, for example, recently chided the Taliban more for having ‘no women’ in its provisional government than for putting known terrorists in positions of power.

The sad part is that the Cuomo reckoning will bring little change to these cash cow nonprofits. The beautiful, rich celebrities vacating the Time’s Up board will go on to new pet projects. They will be replaced by equally privileged Hollywood hotshots that we are assured actually have the best interests of women at heart. And everyone involved will continue to be de facto political consultants for Democrats, no matter how horrible.

The real losers, of course, are the those whom these groups purport to help. If you have a legitimate sexual harassment claim, best go elsewhere than to your fake liberal allies.