美国国会一些女议员星期五告诉美联社说，她们曾经在数年甚至数十年前被男同事性骚扰。但是她们拒绝指认那些对性骚扰事件负责的男性。
众议员琳达·桑切斯对美联社说：“我30岁出头，还是国会一名非常新的成员，有一位资深的已婚议员向我求爱。尽管努力想一笑置之，不予理睬，但是还是再次被调戏。我因此躲着那名议员。”
桑切斯表示，另外一名男同事有一次盯着她，还触碰了她不该触碰的地方，但是却装作是意外。桑切斯拒绝说出这两名男性同事的名字，她说她不认为这样做会有什么好处。
桑切斯众议员说： “问题在于，作为一位议员，没有人力资源部这样的部门可以去投诉，没有人可以去诉说。归根结底，议员是他们的选民雇用的。”
另外一位国会众议员玛丽·波诺对美联社说，一位男同事告诉她，他洗澡的时候会想她。波诺表示，她勇敢面对了这名同事，他之后再也没有挑逗性的言论。
波诺说：“这是一个男性的世界，仍然是一个男性的世界。不要卖弄风骚，不要做一个泼妇。这是我的信条，行为举止一定要谨慎。”
她拒绝说出那名同事的名字，但表示他仍然在国会担任议员。
前美国众议员希尔达·索利斯表示，她受到了美联社报道所称的一名男同事“一再令人厌恶地做出骚扰性质的示意”。她也拒绝说出这名同事的名字或者那些示意的细节。
索利斯说，“那是很丢人的事情。就算他们可能觉得自己那样很好玩。不，那并不好玩，不适当。我是你的同事，但是他却不那样看待我，这就产生了问题。”
A number of female members of Congress told the Associated Press on Friday that they had been sexually harassed by male colleagues in incidents that occurred years or even decades ago. They declined to identify the men responsible.
“When I was a very new member of Congress in my early 30s, there was a more senior member who outright propositioned me, who was married, and despite trying to laugh it off and brush it aside, it would repeat. And I would avoid that member,” Rep. Linda Sanchez told the news organization.
Sanchez said a different male colleague stared at her once and, she said, touched her inappropriately, but tried to make it appear accidental. Sanchez refused to name either man because she said she doesn’t “think it would be helpful.”
“The problem is, as a member there’s no HR (human resources) department you can go to, there’s nobody you can turn to. Ultimately they’re employed by their constituents,” she said.
Another congresswoman, Mary Bono, told the AP a male colleague told her he’d been thinking about her in the shower. Bono said she confronted the colleague and he didn’t make any more suggestive comments.
“It is a man’s world, it’s still a man’s world,” Bono said. “Not being a flirt and not being a bitch. That was my rule, to try to walk that fine line.”
She declined to name the colleague, but said he is still serving in Congress.
Former Rep. Hilda Solis said she received from a male colleague what the AP referred to as “repeated unwanted harassing overtures.” She, too, declined to name the colleague or detail exactly what those overtures included.
“It’s humiliating, even though they may have thought they were being cute. No, it’s not. It’s not appropriate. I’m your colleague, but he doesn’t see me that way, and that’s a problem,” Solis said.