The case against George Takei was always weak. Why were we so quick to believe it?

Source: Washington Post

The case against George Takei was always weak. Why were we so quick to believe it?

By Eric Berkowitz May 31
Eric Berkowitz is a San Francisco-based human rights lawyer and writer. His latest book is "The Boundaries of Desire: A Century of Bad Laws, Good Sex, and Changing Identities."

In early November 2017, the weeks-old #MeToo movement was rapidly harvesting alleged sexual predators. Three police departments were investigating Harvey Weinstein; Senate candidate Roy Moore stood accused of preying on girls decades earlier; Kevin Spacey was axed from “House of Cards” after apologizing to one of his male accusers; and comedian Louis C.K. admitted that the accusations of five women against him were true.

In the avalanche of stories, an accusation against actor George Takei, best known as Mr. Sulu in “Star Trek,” by an unknown former model didn’t cause as much of a splash. But that made it no less devastating for the 80-year-old LGBT rights advocate, perennial Howard Stern guest and social media troll of President Trump . The accuser, Scott Brunton, told a reporter that in 1981, Takei took him to his condominium, where the actor drugged him, pulled his pants down and groped his crotch. Takei’s denials didn’t stop the story’s rapid spread or schadenfraude from his opponents, including Donald Trump Jr .

Lists of alleged sexual miscreants now included Takei, and numerous advertisers and publishers cut off paid promotional deals with him as a social media influencer . “Saturday Night Live” used him as a punchline in a skit about sexual harassment. Takei had joined, in the popular estimation, a growing parade of sexual predators, devastating his fans. (Brunton also faced fallout, including a flood of cruel comments on his Facebook page.)

But there was always a lot wrong with the Brunton story. Unlike Weinstein, C.K. or Spacey, Takei had never been known — even in whispers — for sexual misconduct. And Brunton’s tale didn’t quite hang together. He didn’t accuse Takei of drugging him until days after he first contacted the media, and, as detailed in a recent Observer article , he hadn’t even suspected that Takei had spiked his drink until years after the incident, when he read about the accusations against Bill Cosby. According to Shane Snow’s reporting, if Brunton had been given one of the date rape drugs in use back then, he probably would have no memory of what happened. Finally, Brunton told the Observer that he didn’t recall any touching by Takei. What began as an accusation of sexual assault was now, for Brunton, “a great party story” and “just a very odd event.” Takei responded to the Observer article with relief, tweeting, “I wish him peace.”

The remaining question is how this story took off at all. ...

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/the-case-against-george-takei-was-always-weak-why-were-we-so-quick-to-believe-it/2018/05/31/66393b44-6438-11e8-a69c-b944de66d9e7_story.html