srparedon – editorials (archive)

October 2005

This issue, our main story examines the execution in Iran of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, killed by Iranian courts for alleged sex crimes with– or perhaps against– another teen boy.

There has been much sloganeering and muddle-headed thinking about the Iranian executions. Many critics cite the case as exemplary of “Islamo-fascism.” Others decry the killing of teenagers, with the implication that the execution of adults is morally acceptable. Some suggest that if the charges of “raping” other teen boys were true, then the death sentence is understandable. And many GLBT groups have rallied against… Continue reading →

September 2005

Subway commuters in metropolitan Boston have recently been bombarded with “security” announcements. Three different recorded warnings (urging riders to report strange packages, to call police about suspicious people, to remain ever-vigilant and ever-worried) are blared over loudspeakers in a continuous loop with only a brief reprieve of silence before the next cycle. Thus, commuters can easily hear dozens of high-decibel danger alerts in a single trip. Regular subway riders will hear such “be afraid” warnings hundreds of times a week and many tens of thousands of times throughout the year.

Given that subway riders are… Continue reading →

August 2005

Earlier this year, the Boston media went berserk reporting on a case involving a 15-year-old female student giving blowjobs to five members of her high school’s hockey team (ages 15 to 18) in the boy’s locker room on multiple occasions. No force or coercion was ever alleged, no one involved ever complained, yet all the boys were charged with child rape. They faced lifetime registration as sexually dangerous persons meaning each would have to notify all future employers and neighbors that he was a convicted child rapist. Under laws now being drafted by Massachusetts (and likely… Continue reading →

July 2005

The Religious Right is overtly crusading to transform the United States into what they would call a “Christian” nation. Politically active fundamentalists contend that school curriculums, environmental priorities, foreign policy, and all other matters of state can best be solved by relying on their interpretation of their version of scripture.

Almost all of these religious zealots contend that they are not extremists, that they are merely restoring America to the divinely inspired path laid out by the Founding Fathers. Indeed, their websites, broadcasts, and mailings are full of appeals to “return America” to the faith… Continue reading →

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 →