Rape survivor Kat Sullivan for more than a year was pursued by New York officials to register as a lobbyist. The investigation is over, but Sullivan's only begining to respond. On Tuesday, she had a musical message for the state commission that regulates lobbying.
"Let it go, no I won't," she sang to the tune of the hit song in "Frozen." "I demand my civil rights."
Kat Sullivan is singing at the JCOPE meeting. The commission investigated her advocacy for the Child Victims Act. pic.twitter.com/xbCqwAjWHD
— Nick Reisman (@NickReisman) December 17, 2019
Sullivan is a rape survivor who was assaulted while a student at Troy's Emma Willard School. She used settlement money to fly a plane and put up billboards in support of the Child Victims Act, a law that makes it easier for childhood sex abuse victims to file lawsuits.
But the Joint Commission on Public Ethics for more than a year investigated Sullivan's efforts and pushed her registered as a lobbyist or face a $25,000 fine.
"I have felt like I can't sleep unless I'm doing everything I can to fight back, because I'll be damned if they say a rape victim didn't fight back hard enough," she said.
The lobbying commission known as JCOPE dropped its investigation earlier this month, but Sullivan is now suing them in court.
"I don't know how long it's going to take JCOPE to apologize, but I guarantee you that they will," she said.
The commission has come under sharp criticism in Albany for pursuing investigations like Sullivan's and ignoring corruption at the highest ranks of state government. Though the commission's investigation is over, it criticized her in a letter for using foul language and warned her not to engage in similar advocacy again.
"The resistance will not be intimidated by them," Sullivan said. "Survivors of sexual violence and harassment will not tolerate the way they spoke with me and treated me and treated other survivors."
A commission spokesman declined to comment.