Truth and L.I.E.
October 2001
Why is Michael Cuesta’s film L.I.E. rated NC-17 (“X” in the old system)? It has no frontal nudity, little explicit sexuality, and less violence than is routinely seen on daytime television. So why the adults-only rating?
L.I.E. (an acronym for the Long Island Expressway, where the movie is set) was slapped with an NC-17 rating because of its political content. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the industry’s censorship board, decided that the ideas contained in L.I.E. were sufficiently offensive that even kids accompanied by their parents would not be allowed to see the… Continue reading
Obscene Laws
September 2001
Should police have the right to ransack your house, seize your privately-kept diaries, and send you to jail if they deem what you’ve written to be sufficiently offensive?
Of course not, any sensible person would answer. A cornerstone of civilized jurisprudence is that lawmakers may concern themselves with action, but cannot police thought. Freedom of conscience and expression is enshrined in the Bill of Rights. Only in a totalitarian state would the contents of your diary subject you to incarceration.
But Brian Dalton is in prison now because police went through his Columbus, Ohio,… Continue reading
Free Al Baker
August 2001
In the last 20 years Stalinistic legislation has tremendously eroded Americans’ civil liberties. “Child pornography” is now so broadly defined that no children (nor even any nudity) need be involved. Possessing images that state experts think evoke a sexual response by the owner is a crime. And thousands are now incarcerated in “treatment” gulags, not serving time for anything they did, but rather jailed for crimes bureaucrats imagine they might commit.
Anyone who thinks that such violations of civil rights are visited only on the monstrous should consider the case of Al Baker. Baker is… Continue reading
Honeymoon Hypocrisy
July 2001
Vermont made history last year by enacting legislation allowing for civil unions between homosexual couples. All the rights the Green Mountain state made available to heterosexuals through marriage were to become accessible to homosexuals entering a state-sanctioned civil union.
Last month, Vermont legislators revisited the civil unions issue, and gay marriage activists warned of “an anti-gay initiative designed to demean gay and lesbian relationships.” Gay people across the country were urged to contact Vermont officials to demand defeat of this “anti-gay” legislation. Indeed, state legislators noted how opposition from “gay families” was “profound.”
Just… Continue reading
Gay Pride, Gay Courage
June 2001
June is traditionally a time to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall uprising where in drag queens, bar patrons, and street riff raff stood up to anti-gay police harassment. And for over three decades the rallying cry of June’s marches and events has been “gay pride.”
The emphasis on pride has been understandable. Generations had been raised to believe gay sex acts unmentionably shameful. Pride was a useful antidote to such crippling shame, and June’s events have helped many step out of self-imposed, suffocating closets.
But as we watch so many gay institutions stray from their… Continue reading
The Real Indecency
May 2001
The state of Utah now has a “Porn Czar” whose job it is to make sure that state’s citizens are not exposed to “obscene” materials. A 41-year-old reputed virgin has been selected to scrutinize, judge, and censor books, magazines, videos, movies, art, and Internet content. Materials that violate “community standards” regarding sexual attitudes and behavior (as well as how other bodily functions are portrayed) are to be banned. Of course, in Utah any “community standard” is a Mormon standard. Thus, the new porn czar’s job is to enforce Mormon orthodoxy on all the state’s citizens.