Stephen Elliott lawsuit: writer sues creator of list of men alleged to assault.
New Orleans-based writer Stephen Elliott has filed a federal lawsuit against a woman who created a crowdsourced list of men alleged to have sexually assaulted or harassed women — a list on which Elliott’s name appears, highlighted in red, according to a Thursday (Oct. 11) report by The New York Times.
Elliott is suing New York-based Moira Donegan, who created the “S—– Media Men” list in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein allegations and began circulating the Google document to collect names of men working in various forms of media who have allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct. The document was intended to help women protect each other from abusers, according to an essay Donegan penned for The Cut.
Elliott’s name is highlighted to show that multiple women have accused him of “physical sexual violence,” including rape, The New York Times reported.
In the suit, filed Wednesday in federal court in New York, Elliott denies the accusations and claims that Donegan and others who contributed to the list damaged his reputation, harmed his well-being and cost him professional opportunities.
In an essay posted Sept. 25 by online magazine Quillette, Elliott detailed how the allegations had “derailed” his life.
Elliott is known as the founder of online journal The Rumpus and author of a number of works, including eight books.
According to a November 2017 interview with the Los Angeles Review of Books, Elliott said he was living in Los Angeles but had used his earnings from his work “The Adderall Diaries” to buy a house in New Orleans. Public real-estate records show a Stephen Elliott bought a home at a New Orleans address in early 2015.
Elliott has participated in several literary and art events in New Orleans venues in recent years and a bio of him appears on the Faulkner Society’s website.
