#MeToo is making waves in Harrisburg. Women who work at the state Capitol have told women in positions of political power that sexual harassment and maybe even assault happen there. These revelations come at a time when an alarming number of prominent men in celebrity careers have been exposed by allegations of sexual harassment, abuse and assault in the workplace.

So Monday, many of the women in state legislative leadership announced a series of bills dealing with the issue in myriad ways.

WHTM-27, the city’s ABC-TV affiliate, reports that one bill would expand sexual harassment protections. Another would create a task force for college campuses. A third would ban taxpayer money from being used for settlements and another would name names of accused abusers; there would be no more nondisclosure agreements to keep everything hidden.

“No more secret lists shared among our interns and staffers ... about which legislators to avoid taking the elevator with, no more wink-wink jokes about which officials are the worst serial harassers,” said state Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, D-Delaware. “Daylight is coming for everyone.”

Daylight is welcome. It’s essential in all governing circumstances.

But at the same time, it’s tempting to frame the issue of sexual misconduct as a gender dispute and presume the big question: will leadership in the House and Senate, which is male-dominated, move the bills pushed by the women of the legislature?

It would be unfortunate for several reasons if men or women gave in to the temptation to play a gender card.

At issue are virtues — decency, respect, courtesy, equality and civility among them. We should be electing and governing according to our ideas, principles, visions, scruples, ambitions and restraints, not by our urges, hormones, animal instincts or sexual desires. Who could disagree? And yet, evidence exists that some leaders. male as well as female, have been less than virtuous in their behavior.

If we do not universally embrace a standard — if we do not agree that decency, respect, courtesy, equality and civility are paramount, always have been and always will be paramount — then no addition or revision of laws will change a mind-set that tolerates noncompliance. Laws don’t work when some lawmakers believe they’re exempt.

Do leaders and celebrities need the threat of penalties or punishment to deter them from bad behavior? It’s saddening and frustrating to admit that some of them do — even in Harrisburg.