Music Industry Sexual Assault Survivors Attend MusiCares Gala – Fakazakamp

As a busy Grammys weekend kicks off with the MusiCares gala, girls who say they’re survivors of sexual abuse within the music world are calling for that trade to alter its tune.

“How a lot does music care?” requested Melissa Schuman, a recording artist and actress who alleged in 2017 that Nick Carter raped her within the early 2000s. Carter has denied the allegation. 

Schuman, a former singer with the lady group Dream, is certainly one of 4 girls and their authorized groups who participated in a press convention in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon earlier than heading to tonight’s MusiCares Individuals of the Yr Gala on the L.A. Conference Heart. 

Lawyer Jeff Anderson, who represents a number of girls with circumstances pending in opposition to music trade defendants, mentioned report labels have participated in “systematic concealment” of abuses. 

New legal guidelines handed in California and New York in 2022 have created a window for grownup survivors of sexual assault to carry civil claims in opposition to their alleged attackers which in any other case would have handed their statutes of limitations, leading to what attorneys say is a heavy inflow of survivors with claims. “The time is now to talk your fact,” Anderson mentioned.

Anderson referred to as on MusiCares to rescind the glory the group conferred upon Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler in 2020, citing a lawsuit alleging Tyler’s sexual assault of a minor within the Seventies.

Anderson additionally referred to as on the trade to cease the apply of requiring non-disclosure agreements in circumstances of sexual assault and harassment. 

Zoey 101 actress Alexa Nikolas, jazz vocalist Sandra Booker and composer Nomi Abadi of the Feminine Composer Security League additionally spoke on the emotional press convention, as did legal professional Karen Barth Menzies.

“It’s time to show down the music and hearken to what numerous survivors of this trade have needed to say,” mentioned Nikolas, founding father of the group Eat Predators, who has alleged sexual abuse by her ex-husband, Michael Milosh of the indie R&B band Rhye. Milosh has denied the claims.

Nikolas added, “The music trade is the Catholic Church on steroids.”