I had been planning to post a bit on the controversy surrounding the appointment of Kevin Jennings as Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education. Jennings is also the founder of GSLEN, a critically important organization in the lives of any number of young gay men and women. Of course, appointing someone who actually understands the issues involved and is sympathetic to the people affected is anathema to the right wing, and in Jennings' case they've seized on a story he's told any number of times. Jim Burroway has what seems to me to the best summation, so I'm not going to crowd the field any further.
For most people, this story, taking place as it did in the late 1980s, would be about how critical it is for LGBT students to have someone they know they can turn to in safety and confidence. It is also a story that illustrates how a young man can be made so desperate coming of age in a culture that condemns everything about him. But for some, this was a story has become about an underage fifteen-year-old student having sex with an adult, and Jennings’ failure to report this “statutory rape” or “molestation” to authorities.
Of course, the fundies only want statutory rape reported when it's two men involved. If one of the participants is an underage woman, and especially if the perpetrator is a preacher, it's OK.
And it turns out that the young man in question was of legal age at the time, which in Massachusetts is (and was) 16. Alvin McEwen posted at Pam's House Blend reporting the evidence and corroborating that particular and vitally important bit of information. However, don't look for any retractions from the right. McEwen passes on Peter LaBarbera's reaction to the news:
You are so pathetic Alvin. Hanging on a technicality. You are as corrupt as the perverted movement you serve. Spare me the preaching.
Those who are slightly less deranged than LaBarbera will probably just slide past it and on to another point of attack, but they'll be thinkig the same thing.
Here's a CNN report that gets it mostly right, although the reporter's comment that new evidence "suggests" that the student was of legal age is wrong. It doesn't "suggest" any such thing -- it states unequivocally that the kid was at the age of consent, and that includes Jennings' book, a statement from his lawyer from 2004, and a statement from the man in question himself.
The most encouraging thing about this report is that the administration may finally be digging in its heels and supporting Jennings against the hate groups. We'll see if their balls have enough juice to stay the course.
Update: That CNN report seems to have vanished from every site that had it posted. If I manage to locate it at CNN in some sort of imbeddable form, I'll stick it in -- or at least see if I can get a link. In lieu of that, here's a follow-up story. (Note that Tony Perkins, one of the more repellent of the reality-challenged liars on the right, is still talking about child molestation, although there was no molestation involved in the incident Jennings related. I guess if you say it often enough, it's true, no matter what the facts are.)
Update II: And now it's back. Glad I decided not to re-edit the entire thing. Enjoy.
Do read Burroway's entire post -- then write to Obama supporting Jennings.
2 comments:
You are correct. In Jennings' case, the accusations have turned out to be bogus. The boy was 16, the age of consent in Massachusetts. As with Mark Foley a couple of years ago, the adult was legally untouchable. It appears he was also unreachable, having been an anonymous one night stand. Jennings was concerned that the boy had not used a condom. The despondent boy told him his life was not worth saving. Jennings objected and they argued. The young fellow left a bit happier.
Conservative Christians, who believe they possess an exemption from the 9th Commandment, have falsely accused Jennings, changing the age from 16 to 15.
Actually, I believe in one version of the story Jennings changed the age himself, as he changed other details, to protect the boy. And the boy (now, of course, an adult) says that they never even had sex. So, as unsure of himself as he was and as bad as he felt about it later, Jennings did good.
The Christianists, of course, are now trying to link Jennings with NAMBLA, but no one is buying that one, except the knuckle-dragging base.
And the most instructive part is that those attacking Jennings over this don't care that he may have saved the boy's life. The lives of gay men are less than nothing to these people. For that they'll burn in their own Hell.
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