January 15, 2020

3_0

When Allison Donahue of the Michigan Advance tried to ask Sen. Peter Lucido, R-Shelby Township if he was a member of an anti-Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan Governor) Facebook Group that featured numerous sexist and misogynist posts and images, the good Senator responded this way:

Source: Michigan Advance

What was meant to be an opportunity for Lucido to respond to the report turned into him making comments that objectified and humiliated me in front of a group of young boys.

After the Senate session ended and the chamber cleared out, a line of about 30 boys from Lucido’s alma mater, De La Salle Collegiate, an all-boys’ Catholic high school in Warren, stood in front of the Senate doors.

I asked Lucido for a moment to address the issue at hand, and he told me he would catch up with me after he was finished honoring the group of students. ...

"You should hang around! You could have a lot of fun with these boys, or they could have a lot of fun with you," [he told me].

The teenagers burst into an old boys’ network-type of laughter, and I walked away knowing that I had been the punchline of their “locker room” talk.

Except it wasn’t the locker room; it was the Senate chamber. And this isn't high school. It's my career.

I'm 22 years old and one of the youngest current Capitol reporters. The senator's insinuating comments about the "fun" I might have with a group of teenage boys was belittling and it came from a place of power.

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