This week, many of us have seen articles, tweets, Facebook posts and much more about Kesha’s court case, but we may not have seen the true facts. Kesha has taken Sony to court to cancel her contract with the company. She is locked into a six-album contract to produce music with the man who we now find out has abused her.

To clarify, Kesha is not taking this man, Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, to court for emotional and sexual abuse. She is asking to be released from her contract with Gottwald so that she no longer has to work with him, a request that is extremely reasonable for the pain he has caused Kesha.

In 2013, Kesha was admitted to a rehab center to be treated for an eating disorder that was caused by Gottwald’s comments to Kesha about her weight. This is when the “Free Kesha” campaign began. Her fans worked diligently to get the news out about what had happened to Kesha and to get her out of her Sony contract two years ago.

A year passed before Kesha decided to file a lawsuit against her producer. The case was a breach of Kesha’s contract with her label and was given to Los Angeles Superior Court judge Barbara Scheper, who had passed the case to the New York Supreme Court, on account of what was stated in the contract.

Kesha went to court on February 19th to hear the final ruling on her case. Kesha did not have evidence to go against Gottwald, but insists that she cannot work with him anymore. The ruling was out of Kesha’s favor and she sobbed in the back of the courtroom. Gottwald won because of the lack of evidence and Sony’s offer to let Kesha work with a different producer. Kesha refuses to work with another producer, on account of the fact her music will not be publicized as well if she is not working with their best producer.

Sony also claims that the “Free Kesha” movement is invalid because she can make any music at any time. Kesha deserved the right to tell her story, yet was not given the opportunity to change her future. Obviously the woman is traumatized by working with Gottwald. Many victims do not speak about their abuse until years after it has happened, so why are we treating Kesha any differently? It may seem as though she has the power to speak publicly about what has happened without backlash from her abuser, but Gottwald has more control over her than we know and can shake her accusations off, as he did in the Manhattan courtroom on Friday.

Kesha has received support from several other powerful women in the music industry such as Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Kelly Clarkson. Swift donated $250,000 dollars to help Kesha in her time of need, an extremely generous offer and fans have started a Go Fund Me account to raise funds to help her get out of her contract. Ten years has been long enough, let us Free Kesha.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and are not representative of The Slate or its staff as a whole.

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