srparedon – editorials (archive)

April 2004

The current national debate about gay marriage has been clouded by muddled thinking– from all sides. And the key confounding issue is the role of sex in our lives and law.

Those leading the crusade against gay marriage are inspired by the Religious Right; to them, traditional marriage sanctifies otherwise sinful behavior– sex. Same-sex marriage would bless gay sex, a religious anathema to the phobic Right, so gay marriage must be opposed. Thus, we endure the Bush Administration preaching the virtues of secular government to occupied Islamic lands, while simultaneously campaigning to enshrine fundamentalist religious… Continue reading →

March 2004

It is difficult to get people to think rationally about how the law should, and should not, deal with adolescent sexual expression.

In most states, any time a person under a certain age (which varies from 14 to 21) has sex, a crime– by definition– has occurred. Consent is deemed irrelevant; headlines that blare, “Child Rape!” are applied both to cases wherein horrific violence has been suffered and to cases involving only mutually consentual affection. Indeed, we increasingly read of adolescents’ consentual sex with other adolescents being branded “rape” and prosecuted as a heinous crime.… Continue reading →

February 2004

Fear is tyranny’s greatest weapon. Tyrants treat a few especially brutally, counting on fear to keep others docile and compliant, afraid of the fate that would befall them should they challenge those in power.

History is replete with examples of fear used to magnify political power. And one need not be a totalitarian despot such as Hitler or Stalin to utilize fear in this way. Joseph McCarthy, the crusading anti-Communist US Senator, routinely bullied politicians, journalists, and artists by intimating that should anyone cross him, they would end up on his ever-lengthening list of suspects.… Continue reading →

January 2004

One of the central roles of traditional marriage has been to signal that married partners were each other’s sexual property. Indeed, until recently, only marital sex was socially sanctioned and legally permissible. Fornication and adultery laws, along with social stigma (especially for women), underscored that one of the prime benefits of marriage was access to sex.

Such rigid regulation of sexuality made some sense at a time when male/female couples had no effective contraception and most women had little or no financial independence; by offering protection to economically vulnerable women and children, marriage promoted desirable… Continue reading →

December 2003

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s highest profile “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender” advocacy group, recently named Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl Jacques as its new executive director. Given Jacques dreadful record on civil liberties issues and her Anita Bryant-like political exploitation of sexual hysteria, HRC’s selection is horribly inappropriate.

Jacques began her political career as an assistant prosecutor in the Middlesex County (Massachusetts) District Attorney’s office, infamous for its headline-grabbing prosecution of sex cases. Indeed, Jacques rose to prominence for her central role in the prosecution of Ray and Shirley Souza, accused in the… Continue reading →

November 2003

Treatment for HIV infection has advanced dramatically since the 1980s. Back then, contracting HIV meant almost certain death, usually after a series of highly visible, body-ravaging opportunistic infections. Lacking any effective treatments, those with HIV grasped at longshot potential therapies– teas made from fermented fungus, herbs from the pharmacopoeia of traditional Chinese medicine, procedures to return blood back to the body after being removed and heated, white light visualization and other forms of faith healing. None worked. Treatment advances came only after ACT-UP demanded action by the government, researchers, and pharmaceutical companies– all of which had… Continue reading →