Gray Matters

 I am reprinting this because I am an opponent of the sex registry system and plan to write about it someday!  In the meantime, this woman's story will have to do!  I think we I get to Hilo I will be able to kick this blog into gear...(Or not.) My Son is No Sex Offender But like hundreds of thousands, he is unjustly trapped on the registry. Carol Nesteikis Oct 13 My 33-year-old son, Adam, is a registered sex offender in the state of Illinois. Because of this, our entire family exists in the netherworld of the registry. The federal laws mandating a publicly available sex-offender registry were passed in the mid-1990s with the purpose of notifying communities about “sexually violent predators” living in their neighborhoods. But my son is not violent nor is he a predator. My son was convicted of a single, non-violent misdemeanor. He was never in trouble before, and he’s never been in trouble since. There are around  900,000 people in the U.S. on the registry , and ...

Ed. note:  This was originally published right after Tara Reid's accusation against Biden in my "catch-all" blog.  I thought I should bring it to this more focused blog, as it is on point.  I've been super busy and just have no time to blog. But, I'm gonna! Originally—back in the 70s when I was working in Santa Cruz Women Against Rape—I totally bought into the "believe the women" or "believe the children" mantra as so many women and children were not heard or believed when they reported sexual assault. But, then, I kept reading. And realized that attitude of belief without proof was leading us down a horrible, unjust path for many accused people (generally men, but sometimes women). My conclusion: there has to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt, or we feminists are THE problem. And the longer the time between the event and the accusations, the more we need to be skeptical of the accusation due to the reality of memory (which, according to all m...