When I saw this story, I immediately thought of the discussion about sex offenders from last week, or maybe the week before---I was on vacation, so dates are a little muddled for me still.
This is exactly the sort of fallacy in sex offender legislation that I was referring to in that discussion:
Genarlow Wilson, a 21-year-old African-American, is serving a 10-year prison sentence for having consensual oral sex when he was a teenager. He was 17 years old and the girl was 15 years old when the sexual encounter took place. Wilson was convicted of felony aggravated child molestation. He has already spent more than two years behind bars.
At 17, this young man had a 15 year-old girlfriend, and, they had sex. Gasp! What a tragedy, right? How many 17 year-olds are going to have consensual sex with a 15 year-old at some point today? I'd venture to say more than a few. When you're a freshman in high school, it's fairly common to have crushes on members of the senior class; girls dream about being the star athlete's girlfriend, and it happens.
Should it be a crime when both partners engage in consensual sex? At 15 is a young woman unable to consent to sexual advances, from a male or female? Does she not have agency over her decisions? Are we infantalizing young people with laws such as this?
Those are all rhetorical questions from my perspective. This young man was made a convicted felon because, apparently, the answers to those questions are rhetorical to others but with the opposite conclusion.
Am I living in an alternate universe because I bestow autonomy on people when it comes to their sexual decisions?
5 comments:
The thing I like about this case the most (my boyfriend and I have discussed it for a few months), is that someone had taped the incident.
So here's a taped sexual act between two minors (under 18) and apparently it was perfectly okay for everyone and his dog to get a copy of the tape and watch it. What, that doesn't count as child porn? Apparently not if you're a reporter, or judge, or in a position of law, or curious.
XX
Yes! The tape just takes things to a whole new level.
I haven't done enough research to answer this question, but I'm wondering how the "victim" here felt about that tape being circulated!
Now there is a proper story on cnn.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/26/wilson.freed/index.html
I don't think the girl was given any say in the tape thing. She certainly didn't have enough to hire lawyers to do it for her. It seems more than a little racist to me. I can't imagine the same thing happening with a blonde cheerleader.
But I'm glad the boy is out of the harmful environment of prison and won't be labeled a sex offender.
XX
Finally an online petition I signed yields results! I'm still waiting for that impeach Bush one to pan out.
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