srparedon – editorials (archive)

June 2005

The mayor of Spokane, Washington, Jim West has not been a champion of gay civil rights. He has opposed extending anti-discrimination protection to gay people, threatened to veto domestic-partners benefits for gay households, and sponsored legislation to ban gay people from working in schools and daycare centers.

Thus, some may be tempted to take pleasure in the trouble Mayor West now finds himself.

A local Washington paper has created a political firestorm with its series of reports detailing Mayor West’s alleged pursuit of teenage male paramours. Lurid headlines paint West as a child rapist… Continue reading →

May 2005

Last February, former Roman Catholic priest Paul Shanley was convicted of child rape, one of the latest casualties in the still-simmering clergy abuse scandal. The techniques employed in his prosecution and conviction should appall all those committed to due process and civil liberties. And the barely concealed anti-gay malevolence that motivated press and prosecutors throughout Shanley’s ordeal should especially terrify gay people and other sexual minorities.

If anyone could ever be said to have been convicted in the press, not in court, it is Paul Shanley. For months before Shanley’s arrest in 2002, the Boston… Continue reading →

April 2005

Recent reports from New York City suggest that one man there has died of a drug-resistant and potentially new and more virulent strain of HIV. While some debate the scientific validity of extrapolating too much from a single case (did the man have a genetic predisposition making him more vulnerable? did his drug habits contribute to his rapid demise?), others have used the avalanche of publicity to agitate for more coercive measures to stop HIV transmission. Some have called for breaching doctor/patient confidentiality in order to identify “those spreading disease,” for turning health care providers into… Continue reading →

March 2005

To judge by newspaper and television reports, sexual molestation of our youth is one of our culture’s most pressing concerns. Everywhere you look, you find stories about allegedly overly-amorous priests, coaches, and pop-culture icons. Newspapers devote entire sections to where clerical hands may have wandered decades ago, and the current Michael Jackson case will generate yet more fodder for society’s seemingly insatiable appetite for “news” about the corruption of our youth.

Why this consuming fascination?

Of course, the “protection of children”– from sex or drugs or godless communism– has always been a potent political… Continue reading →

February 2005

President Bush’s first attorney general, John Ashcroft, was infamous for his contempt of the Bill of Rights. Ashcroft used the phony wars on drugs, pornography, and terrorism to instill fear and disinformation so as to expand governmental power. Due process was a dodge for drug dealers. Freedom of the press gave the green light to pornographers. And any and all civil liberties could be dangerously exploited by terrorists. Under Ashcroft’s twisted logic, decent Americans would never need protection from the government, and anyone asserting such protections was, obviously, up to no good.

Given his deplorable… Continue reading →

January 2005

Last month, ABC’s news magazine show “20/20” aired a story about the Matthew Shepard murder. Before the hour-long special was broadcast, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) issued media advisories blasting the show’s promotion as “sensationalistic” and warning of “red flags” in the show’s presumptive content. After the show aired, GLAAD urged gay people to “take action” against ABC, claiming that the network was “advancing an agenda of public ignorance” and engaging in “misguided historical revisionism.” And GLAAD continues to dedicate much of their homepage to ways viewers can “share our outrage” about the… Continue reading →