srparedon – editorials (archive)

June 1998

New York City's 1994 gay pride celebrations marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Amidst the rainbow hoopla, a large contingent of marchers insisted on keeping the focus on sexual freedom. Their banners didn't boast of corporate sponsors nor tout mainstream affiliations. Instead, they demanded liberation from laws and attitudes that seek to punish those whose sexuality offends uptight sensibilities. Prohibitions against pornography, prostitution, so-called "public sex," and age-of-consent laws were among their targets.

This radical contingent urged confrontation instead of conformity, and they upset many other gay parade-goers. One angry, agitated woman shouted, "We may… Continue reading →

May 1998

What is the gay and lesbian political agenda? If you read the mission statements of our national groups, you'll find lots of talk about ending discrimination and of securing equal rights. And if many of our spokespeople are to be believed, equality with straight America is best won by demonstrating that we can be monogamous spouses, tidy neighbors, and loyal soldiers.

After centuries of homophobia, it is seductive to think that social and legal parity with heterosexuals is our goal. And, indeed, ending discrimination and presenting society with new, non-psychopathic images of homosexuality are effective tactics in… Continue reading →

April 1998

Protect the children has been the battle cry for recent enormous expansions of the state's police power. New censorship laws criminalize ownership of images of anyone who looks under 18– even when fully clothed– if the state thinks the owner finds them a turn-on. Sex registries create lifelong Apartheid-like second-class citizenship for those branded sex offenders. And the Supreme Court has okayed lifetime incarceration in sex gulags for those who aren't serving time for any crime committed but who might violate sex laws in the future.

The rhetoric that accompanies these erosions of civil liberties speaks of… Continue reading →

March 1998

Did Monica blow Bill? Does the President enjoy extramarital sex along with golf and Big Macs? That such questions preoccupy our nation's press and provoke constitutional showdowns reveals two important lessons.

First, the erosions of civil liberties in the US are exposed. The nation's most powerful man has been subjected to abuses routinely suffered by ordinary citizens: illegal wiretaps, associates threatened with retribution unless they sing the right song, private conduct leaked to embarrass, sex lives scrutinized by police bent on creating not preventing harm, and prosecutors who target people rather than crime.

Of course, there… Continue reading →

February 1998

Today, even big city mayors are crusading to rid their streets of evidence of sex. People with HIV are told to be celibate or face jail. And some gay people are going along with all sorts of measures to sanitize public space and demonstrate our sexual respectability.

To counter this anti-sex trend, activists gathered in San Diego last November at a conference titled Sex Panic. They focused on how HIV has been exploited by those opposed to sexual liberation and discussed how our culture remains crippled by destructive attitudes and laws born of the fear that sex… Continue reading →

January 1998

On an 80 to 80 tie vote, the Massachusetts House of Representatives this November failed to enact legislation calling for the execution of certain prisoners. On the eve of the death penalty vote, opponents of the measure held a rally on the State House steps in Boston. Among those protesting plans to electrocute or poison prisoners were many gay people and sexual freedom activists. Sexual liberationists were well-represented, in part, because organizers of the rally were themselves sexual outlaws. Even so, one couldn't help being struck by how many of the nuns, priests, union organizers, politicians, journalists, teachers,… Continue reading →