As the Georgia House debated sedation during outpatient surgery, a male lawmaker stood up to inquire about a female rapper’s plastic surgery.
“Is it not true that this bill will provide safety measures to ensure that Cardi B’s backside implants will be safe and ensure a lifetime of effectiveness?” state Rep. Kasey Carpenter, a Dalton Republican, said Monday.
The comment was another example of male lawmakers making inappropriate comments at the expense of women at the Capitol, even after the General Assembly required mandatory sexual harassment training and investigated a former senator.
Women are often exposed to sexist and misogynistic comments in the male-dominated Legislature, said several Democratic House members.
Before Monday’s comment, a senator asked a female peer last month where he should “stick it” when talking about inserting wording into a bill, and debates have included off-color talk about sex in nursing homes and comments about women’s looks.
Carpenter offered an apology in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
“Most of you know I enjoy a good laugh and love to keep things light in such a tense society,” he said. “I can assure you I never wanted to come across that way, and I apologize if my words offended you in any way, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Carpenter said he was inspired to comment on the rapper, who owns a house in metro Atlanta, after she performed at the Grammys on Sunday. Carpenter also said he ran his words by a Black female legislator before saying them on the House floor.
“Clearly, my humor didn’t come across to everybody,” he said. “I’m a grown man, and I can apologize.”
But many women in the Legislature say his comments are just part of a culture of misogynistic “jokes” and comments they have been forced to endure while in office — and they’re tired of it.
“This is the Georgia State Capitol, not a men’s locker room, not a frat house and not a playground,” said state Rep. Jasmine Clark, a Lilburn Democrat. “This inappropriate speech during official House business and the business of this state creates an uncomfortable and even hostile environment.”
Clark and 13 other lawmakers — mostly women and all Democrats — announced Tuesday that they were filing a sexual harassment complaint with the House clerk for review by the House Ethics Committee.
State Sen. Jen Jordan, an Atlanta Democrat, was on the receiving end of “old boys club” comments in mid-February while presenting a bill during a committee hearing.
During the discussion, Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan said he wanted to amend her legislation by changing wording from “may” to “shall.”
“I just don’t know where I would — and I’m careful in how I word this to you — I don’t know where I would stick it,” said Dugan, a Carrollton Republican.
On Tuesday, Dugan said he didn’t mean the comment the way it was received but understood why people were upset with what he said.
“I listened to it after the fact and I was upset with it,” he said, adding that he apologized to Jordan. “The part that bothered me the most on that was that I embarrassed a friend of mine in public. There’s no words that I can say to convey how much that bothered me that I hurt her.”
Jordan said she knew Dugan’s comments weren’t meant to be malicious, but it still was an uncomfortable exchange.
Jordan said she’s faced what she called “soft misogyny” from some of her male colleagues since she first joined the Senate in 2018, citing requests from senators who said she should smile more or bring her children to the floor to make her more relatable.
“It’s not a comfortable place to be a woman,” she said. “But I will say it’s gotten significantly better because we’ve elected more women. The more women you elect, it gets better, because it’s almost like we’re here to call them out and say ‘that’s not appropriate.’ ”
Women currently make up nearly one-third of the General Assembly, with 78 women serving in the 236-member Georgia Legislature. That’s seven more than the 2019-2020 session, when a record for the most number of women serving in the General Assembly was set.
All lawmakers are required to complete sexual harassment training, but female legislators said they don’t think the lessons are sinking in since they’re still hearing inappropriate comments. The General Assembly’s sexual harassment policy prohibits verbal harassment, including “sexually related comments or jokes.”
“How many apologies do we have to accept before we are given a basic level of respect?” asked state Rep. Shelly Hutchinson, D-Snellville. “I never thought after I was elected by my constituents that I would be here asking for safety in the workplace.”
Georgia lawmakers enacted new sexual harassment guidelines two years ago after a lobbyist filed a complaint against then-state Sen. David Shafer, a Republican who at the time was running for lieutenant governor.
The lobbyist said Shafer retaliated against her and harassed her after helping her get a bill passed in 2011, and the case was the talk of the final few days of the 2018 session. Shafer, who is now the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, denied the allegation, which was dismissed by the Senate Ethics Committee.
Under the new guidelines, all Georgia legislators must watch a training video and sign a form acknowledging they’ve completed the training.
