Country singer Katie Armiger opens up about harassment

(8 Mar 2018) Country singer Katie Armiger advocates for anti-harassment bill in Tennessee A country music singer is speaking out in support of a proposed bill in Tennessee that would provide better workplace protections against sexual harassment specifically for those working in the music industry. Singer and songwriter Katie Armiger spoke Monday alongside state Sen. Jeff Yarbro and state Rep. Brenda Gilmore about her own experiences of harassment after coming to Nashville to start her career. Yarbro said thousands of people come to Nashville to make it in the music industry, but they sometimes work under legal loopholes that "are devoid of the protections that most of us expect and take for granted in a workplace. And that's what we're trying to fix today." Armiger is in an ongoing lawsuit with her former label Cold River Records, alleging sexual harassment by unnamed radio personnel. Cold River Records has denied any knowledge of the harassment. "By the time I was 18, I had been exposed to behaviors and expectations that made me uncomfortable," Armiger said. "It ranged from innuendos and crude comments to outright unwanted touching. Not only was it confusing, but it was humiliating. This was happening at the hands of powerful and influential professionals that I was supposed to impress with my music. Like many, I was told it was just being a part of the business." The bill would allow a person under contract to bring a sexual harassment action the same way an employee can. "I was a teenager dealing with radio programmers touching me under tables at industry events and making inappropriate sexual remarks," Armiger said. "I was instructed not only to tolerate it, but to encourage it." Armiger was visibly upset during the press conference in Nashville that she had to take a minute to sit down and regain her composure. But she later said that although it's not widely spoken about in country music, more people are talking privately about sexual harassment in the music industry. "When I started out in country music over 10 years ago, it was something that was not talked about in any capacity," Armiger said. "It was a definite no. I have definitely seen a change especially in the last year or so with women actually talking about it. It might not be in a public setting like others would wish for it to be. But it is something that is being talked about and it is something that everybody is acknowledging needs to be changed. And I think that the more that happens, the more likely that real change is possible." Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d4325d614de4b54b05975af4b852b1bf