Welcome back to the show.
Do you know what today is?
No, not just National Yoga Day and the summer
solstice-- oh, I hate when those fall on the same day.
I'm going to have to make my human sacrifice
while doing a downward dog.
Being a feminist is hard.
It's also the last day of the New York Senate session,
and before they head off for a summer they'll never forget,
we were hoping they'd take care of a little piece of business
called the Child Victims Act.
Here's State Senator Brad Hoylman to explain.
The Child Victims Act would lift the statute of limitations
for crimes of child sexual abuse to age 28 in criminal cases,
50 in civil cases, and provide a one-year revival
window for current cases.
In New York, you have to file a claim by age 23 years if you've
been abused as a child.
It's the most restrictive statute
of limitations in the country.
New York-- best place to make it as a dancer,
worst place to get molested.
Now look, I don't want you to think the New
York Senate is anti-child.
This session they passed bills allowing minors
to race snowmobiles, get their own hunting licenses,
and not be employed gathering or picking rags, cigar
stamps, or collecting bones.
Oh, how the Newsies rejoiced.
Cor, blimey, thank you, governor!
Drop it, Brittany, that's against the law now.
So why have they been blocking this bill for 11 years?
Churches, yeshivas, the Boy Scouts of America
are trying to quash the ability for survivors of child
sex abuse to file claims.
REPORTER: The Catholic Conference
headed by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, spent more $2.1 million
from 2007 through the end of 2015
to lobby against the Child Victims Act.
Way to fight the stereotype, guys.
Does your flock know where the bake sale money is going?
You know what?
Every day Catholics want to make things right, not
have their church forever be known as Our Lady
of the Perpetual Bad Touch.
So why?
Churches and youth groups like the Boy Scouts
presumably oppose this legislation because they think
it's going to bankrupt them.
I don't know.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that if you're
an institution that has hurt so many children that paying out
civil settlements would make you go bankrupt, maybe you should.
Anyway--
[CHEERING]
Anyway, it's fine.
It won't.
You're sitting on more treasures than Smaug
the dragon, so pay up.
Now look, you may be thinking voting against child
abuse victims sounds like an unpopular position
to take publicly.
Luckily, the senators don't have to, because Majority Leader
John Flanagan from Long Island never
lets the Child Victims Act come to the floor for a vote.
What gives, John?
Is it blackmail?
Does the church have compromising frescoes of you?
But while most of the bill's opponents
lay low, hoping nobody notices them,
there is one who is out, loud and proud,
head of the Catholic League and first-thing smiler Bill
Donohue.
[LAUGHTER]
He called the Child Victims Act "a vindictive bill
pushed by lawyers and activists out to rape
the Catholic Church".
Wait, does he just think victims are overreacting
because he believes the term "to rape" means "to inconvenience"?
When survivors saw their hopes dashed at last year's
legislative session, this humble servant of God
made an official statement on the Catholic League website,
illustrated with this loser clip art,
echoing the New Testament's taunting
of the victims on the mount.
And Jesus said to them, shit out of luck
are the meek, for they can sit and spin, losers.
Donahue also called the bill's sponsor, Margaret Markey,
the principal enemy of the church.
I guess that means he downgraded the devil to second place.
[LAUGHTER]
Let us read further from the gospel of Donahue,
for it is so special.
Muslim barbarians, what should we do about them?
Shoot them if we have to.
I'm no fan of barbarians.
Your typical Ivy League little brat who thinks it's
OK to dump on Catholics, but you don't like my gook joke.
Now what's wrong with a gook joke?
A lot of pedophilia, most of the victims are post-pubescent.
That's not pedophilia, buddy, that's homosexuality.
How is only one of these two provocateurs
shunned by a polite society?
Seriously, is it the clothes?
Is that better?
Will you please stop inviting Bill on television now?
Will our senators at least stop siding
with him against these people?
It took 45 years for me to be able to confront my abuser.
I didn't know who to trust, who to turn to out of fear.
It's like a nightmare.
[SPEAKING SPANISH]
It is not un secreto any more.
We just put it on TV.
Hi, New York Senate.
We see you!
[APPLAUSE]
Well, what do you say, Leader Flanagan and Governor Cuomo,
you've still got a whole hour.
REPORTER: Republican Senate Leader John
Flanagan says his chamber will not be voting
on the Child Victims Act.
He did not explain why.
Oh yeah?
Well, maybe he'd like to explain why on the phone.
You know, these people have schlepped up to Albany enough.
If they have to go back to the capitol next year,
so help me, New Yorkers can make sure you guys don't.
We'll be right back.
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