“If you come after me, I’ll come after you."

This is the threat so many survivors of sex-based harassment face from their abusers: if they report the abuse, they’ll be sued for defamation. Often, even the threat of a defamation lawsuit can stop a survivor from coming forward.

That’s why we and our partners created Survivors Speaking Out: A Toolkit About Defamation Lawsuits and Other Retaliation by and for People Speaking Out About Sex-Based Harassment. If you have faced sex-based harassment at school, work, or anywhere else, and you are thinking about speaking out (or already have spoken out), then this toolkit is for you.

Our toolkit was written by students, survivors, and advocates (including lawyers), many of which spoke out about harassment and then faced a defamation lawsuit or other retaliation. So, we started with the questions many of us had back then, and then answered them with what we know now.

In so many cases, harassers don’t even expect to win their defamation lawsuit. They sue their victims to prevent them from speaking out, to retaliate against them after they have spoken out, or to further harass them in the wake of an ended abusive relationship. But when we understand what our rights, risks, and options are, then we are empowered to decide for ourselves whether to speak out and, if so, how to do it as safely as possible.

So download the Toolkit here, and then be sure to bookmark the page in case you ever need to share it with anyone.

Forever in solidarity with you,

Emma Grasso Levine
Manager, Know Your IX
Advocates for Youth