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Comment by GiraffeNecktie | Hacker News Reader

It can be. "Sexual harassment" is kind of a broad term that could include just about anything.

no it doesn't. eating a sandwich is not sexual harassment under any law. sexual harassment is is a defined law.

this is a dismissing tactic to imply that sexual harassment is some sort of pseudo law that isn't fair, with often the implication that it's a giant conspiracy to allow women and evil feminists to screw over men.

sexual harassment is a crime. it's a real crime. tech has a sexism problem.

except since this case since it involves two men, I don't exactly know what sexism has anything to do with anything

As sexual harassment cases have typically been matters between men and women, sexism can easily color perceptions of the problem.

mmmm, that is a good point, but it seemed like OP was trying to make this another "women in tech" thing, which in this case it was not.

While in this case there's not really enough information to make any kind of judgement, I feel it is important to point out that sexism can occur between people of the same gender and sexism is not strictly relegated the realm of how one gender is treated by another.

Yes it does. In California, sexual harassment includes assault and that, most certainly, is a crime. So you could face both a civil complaint and a criminal charge (for the assault part of the harassment)

http://www.equalrights.org/publications/kyr/shwork.asp

Note this quote: "The conduct of the harasser must either be severe or it must be pervasive to be sexual harassment. A single incident is probably not sexual harassment unless it is severe. For example, a single incident of rape or attempted rape would probably be sexual harassment (it would also violate criminal laws)."

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