And this is a clear case in which I would have first-person authority on whether I did anything wrong.
I think this is the main point of disagreement here. Generally when you make sexual or romantic advances on someone and those advances make them uncomfortable, you’re often not aware of the effect that you’re having (and they may not feel safe telling you), so you’re not the authority on whether you did something wrong.
Which is not to say that you’re guilty because they accused you! It’s possible to behave perfectly reasonably and for people around you to get upset, even to blame you for it. In that scenario you would not be guilty of doing anything wrong necessarily. But more often it looks like this:
someone does something inappropriate without realizing it,
impartial observers agree, having heard the facts, that it was inappropriate,
it seems clearly-enough inappropriate that the offender had a moral duty to identify it as such in advance and not do it.
Then they need to apologize and do what’s necessary to prevent it happening again, including withdrawing from the community if necessary.
I agree that the could be the case once in a person’s life for a single mild misdemeanour. But the reference class here is actions sufficient to make numerous individuals complain to the overall organisation leading a movement you are a part of, as well as additional evidence of people complaining to your university about you earlier in your life. I don’t think the vast majority of people would fail to know what they had done wrong in these cases.
I think this is the main point of disagreement here. Generally when you make sexual or romantic advances on someone and those advances make them uncomfortable, you’re often not aware of the effect that you’re having (and they may not feel safe telling you), so you’re not the authority on whether you did something wrong.
Which is not to say that you’re guilty because they accused you! It’s possible to behave perfectly reasonably and for people around you to get upset, even to blame you for it. In that scenario you would not be guilty of doing anything wrong necessarily. But more often it looks like this:
someone does something inappropriate without realizing it,
impartial observers agree, having heard the facts, that it was inappropriate,
it seems clearly-enough inappropriate that the offender had a moral duty to identify it as such in advance and not do it.
Then they need to apologize and do what’s necessary to prevent it happening again, including withdrawing from the community if necessary.
I agree that the could be the case once in a person’s life for a single mild misdemeanour. But the reference class here is actions sufficient to make numerous individuals complain to the overall organisation leading a movement you are a part of, as well as additional evidence of people complaining to your university about you earlier in your life. I don’t think the vast majority of people would fail to know what they had done wrong in these cases.