RSOL: A History

A Brief History of a Young Movement: Sex Offender Law Reform

By the mid 1990s, it was becoming obvious to a small band of civil libertarians, as well as some family members of those affected, that America's justice system had gone haywire in its monitoring, pursuit and punishment of sex offenders, long after sentences had been served.

Within four years (1998-2002) several new web-based groups emerged to support sex offenders and their families, and to work to change what were considered unjust and extreme laws. The predecessor group to RSOL ( reformsexoffenderlaws.org), "Save Our Children and Our Liberties" began in 1998. Other groups followed quickly. Among these were SOHopeful, SOclear, and in England (reacting to a US-generated witch-hunt), Inquisition21. Still other groups with diverse goals and backgrounds were SOSEN, ETAY, B4UAct, CURSOR, CFCAmerica, and Voices of the Gulag. These groups often grew out of and sometimes replaced, earlier efforts. Finally, in June, 2007, just as SOSEN was re-organizing and as SOCLEAR and others were publicizing the dramatic Miami debacle of sex offenders forced to live under the Julia Tuttle Causeway, RSOL itself was begun (June 29, 2007). RSOL focused on repealing life-time civil commitment for sex offenders, and the public registration and shaming of sex offenders, often for life, as well as severe residency, employment, computer use, and other restrictions. RSOL saw its tasks as public education and lobbying at state and federal levels, not as direct social service and support for offenders and their families.

This blossoming of sex offender support and reform groups must be set in the context of twenty years of sex panic in the United States. It was clear to many by the 1980s, especially gay and lesbian leaders, that sexual hysteria, focusing on sex with children was reversing tolerance and sexual freedom in America. This sex panic has been documented by many researchers, including Phillip Jenkins, MORAL PANIC (1998) Camille Paglia, professor at the University of Pennsylvania (SEXUAL PERSONNAE, 1974 & 1991), and gay writers like Pat Califia (1988) and Gayle Rubin. Rubin pointed out then,(1984) "historically we have seen that when moral panics are over, countless individuals and groups have suffered greatly and the original triggering social problems have not been remedied. This could as easily be said of today's sex offender registration craze.

All these writers pointed to the ugly fanaticism and homophobia of the fundamentalist Christian preacher, Anita Bryant, in her barnstorming "Save the Children" campaign of 1977, as the origin of what some saw as a third or fourth sex panic in US history. Earlier panics had focused on venereal disease and prostitution in the 1890s,1920s and late 1930s. In 1997, gay writer Eric Rofes said, at the Lesbian and Gay Task Force meeting in San Francisco, "Waves of terror and scapegoating homosexuals, beginning in New York City, have closed bath-houses and gay clubs, and resulted in a return to pre-Stonewall levels of homophobia and discrimination." Rofes also pointed to new developments in US law that seemed to undermine the U.S. Constitution - among these were sexually violent predator statutes in 16 states (this has now grown to 46 states in 2009), where those deemed dangerous could be confined for life in concentration camp style centers. Rofes, and others after him, pointed out that more than half of those confined were gay men. Rofes believed the US was on the verge of a "Sexual Civil War." All these writers talked of an alarming trend to publicly register sex offenders, many of whom were gay men. They believed that the sex panic of the 1970s to 1990s was the result of the resurgence of a rabid right-wing in the U.S., as well as a growing disparity between poor and rich - all of which led to a sense of stress and despair. This was a perfect environment to foster paranoia and to single out convenient and exaggerated scapegoats - like queers who spread AIDS, or sexual predators who prey on children.

It was amid this growing repression of sexual freedom that the original signatories of RSOL's predecessor, "The Call to Safeguard Our Children and Our Liberties," (The Call) came together in Boston in 1998. Meeting both at the American Friends Service Committee in Cambridge and at Roxbury Community College in Boston, community activists who had worked together in peace and civil rights movements, and most recently in solidarity groups to support democracy in Haiti, began to draft their original statement. Professors Chris Tilly (economics, U. Mass. Lowell) and Marie Kennedy (community planning, U. Mass. Boston) had served as co-chairs of delegations to support the restoration of President Aristide of Haiti. They now agreed to work with Paul Shannon of American Friends Service Committee, who had also been in Haiti with them, to find supporters for the new campaign to stem the tide of sex offender scapegoating. Jamie Suarez-Potts of AFSC and Kazi Toure, a former Black Panther and Roxbury Community College lecturer, took leading roles in persuading other prominent activists to join the effort. They were successful in persuading Dr. Howard Zinn, one of America's most prominent historians (PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES), amd many other progressives to join the Call. Among them were Dr. Ruth Hubbard of Harvard, Jennifer Firestone (of the Firestone Foundation), gay leader Michael Petrelis, and Rachelle Simon, a leader of the incest survivors' network. Dr. Richard Pillard, former President of the American Psychiatric Association, and a Professor of psychiatry at Boston University, headed the list of signatories.

The 1998 Call began, "We are committed to protect society and its children from the dangers of real sexual violence and abuse. We are also committed to preserve the American system of civil liberty and genuine criminal justice, based on carefully limited laws that target acts not classes of people, and that seek to rehabilitate rather than vindictively punish offenders. We assert that only by supporting liberty and justice can we maintain a safe and secure society. For these reasons, we speak out against the ever mounting hysteria against vaguely defined sexual dangers, which ostracize and scapegoat a wide range of people who have been labeled "sex offenders."

The progressives behind the Call pointed out similar lack of due process and violation of habeas corpus rights with regard to those called "terrorists" but noted that there was at least an outcry from civil libertarians on behalf of such people, as opposed to sex offenders, who seemed to have no-one to defend their rights. Those who signed the Call also insisted that this attack on sex offenders diverted attention from "other prevalent dangers to children" such as "crushing, humiliating poverty and family violence." It also insisted that teenagers were being prosecuted for activity that youth had engaged in "for millennia without stigma." Finally, it noted that adults, especially men, were afraid to be alone with children, or to give children affection, and said, "Children, men and society are the losers." It also insisted that there were many false accusations in such a environment of fear, and that "any accusation of sex with a minor was splashed in the media whether true or not," often leading to vigilante justice and suicides of those accused. This is similar to such cases today - such as that just this month in Toronto when a school teacher, arrested for chatting with minors in an internet chat room, was falsely accused of sexual acts with children by the Toronto STAR, and then killed himself.

The "Call" was a Boston effort, and those involved knew each other and met face to face often, both in this effort, and in their mutual work on behalf of other causes. The "Call" was not an internet campaign, but a community organizing venture by activists well known in neighborhoods and professional associations across the Boston area. "Call" signatories met Massachusetts legislators and gave interviews to Boston news media. Their efforts met with little response in the state which was among the first to take a lead in crafting a public sex offender registry, and which had had life-time civil commitment for some sex offenders at its Bridgewater Institution for decades.

In June of 2007, four individuals, including Paul Shannon, felt it was time to try a similar, but independent approach, on a national scale. This time, the effort was entirely in cyberspace, with the organizers sitting behind computers in cities far from each other. They found the going even rougher than it had been in Boston in 1999. Paul kicked off the effort with an article in CounterPunch.org, the online progressive magazine. "Eight years have passed and the crisis we addressed then has gotten far worse. The demonization of those accused of illegal sexual activity -- both the innocent and the guilty -- and the criminalization or stigmatization of more and more forms of sexual expression has reached new heights. All sense of fairness and due process are often tossed to the winds."

Shannon' s article began, "There is today in our country a growing threat to our legal system, to the rights of all of us, to the quality of life of children, and to common sense. This threat has been fanned by prosecutors, nurtured by the media, and ignored by those who usually speak out against such dangers...

"In its most narrow sense this threat can be defined as the particular approach to sexual deviance embodied in ever-more-draconian laws against all behaviors labeled "sex offenses" -- including those committed by minors -- and in the sex offender registries of every state and the Federal government. In this approach to sex offenses slander, hysteria and demonization often replace reason, solid research and proportionality.

"But more broadly, the danger consists of an all-out assault on fairness, on the reputations of some of our most caring people, on necessary social relationships and on our critical ability to confront the deepening social paranoia of 21st century America."

The result of the CounterPunch article was the launching of the new web-based movement, http://www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org, or RSOL in June, 2007. RSOL included its own Statement, and some thirty of the signatories from the previous group in Boston signed on. The new website also included discussion materials from the National Center on Institutional Alternatives, as well as pages for Tales from the Registry (the stories of offenders forced to be on public registries), Blogs, News Items and major Research articles. In September 2007, RSOL launched a monthly Digest of important articles, announcements and research material. Within three months, about 100 others signatories had joined from all over the U.S. A decision was made that sex offenders themselves would not be signed on as public signatories, but would participate fully as non-public members.

A young college student, Alain Levesque, came onboard and began to organize affiliated state groups. The decision was made that these groups should be autonomous, and that RSOL itself should not incorporate or seek tax exempt status, which might involve intrusive U.S. government involvement, and limit the group from lobbying and public education work. In January of 2008, an Administrative Team began a more formal decision-making process, with telephone conference calls every two to three months. The Team today includes Mary Sue Molnar, leader of the Texas RSOL affiliate (Texas Voices); Laurie Peterson of New Hampshire RSOL and a leader in the fledgling group Cursor; Joel Pentlarge of Massachusetts RSOL; Kelly Piercy of Georgia RSOL; Alain Levesque; and Paul Shannon and Alex Marbury (original organizers of RSOL).

In mid 2008, Dr. Marshall Burns, a California researcher, initiated SOL Research http://www.solresearch.org with RSOL funding. Burns has provided substantive research to back up RSOL positions on the registry, on juvenile offenders, on false accusations, residency restrictions and many other topics. Lynn, an RSOL Georgia participant, organized the Prison Project in mid 2008 to send by U.S. post copies of the Statement and the monthly RSOL digests. In an effort to respond to hundreds of emails from people in severe crisis, RSOL helped spin off and fund an independent support hotline, which continues to give daily help to many people: 1 800 773 4319. Also in 2008, a Correspondence Committee, to respond to articles in the media, was set up at http://www.rsolcc.org. In early 2009, this also became the RSOL e-Magazine, edited by Kelly Piercy, which publishes the monthly Digest and other materials.

By October 2009, RSOL had grown to include almost 900 public signatories, and more than 2000 non-public participants in the national and state groups. It has more than 30 active affiliated state RSOL organizations. A national conference was held simultaneously in Boston, Massachusetts and Austin Texas, linked by video, in July 2009, with about 100 participants (videos of the conference are available at the RSOL e-Magazine. Three RSOL affiliated state groups have made major gains lobbying their state legislatures, and a fourth is participating in a Federal Court lawsuit. Three state groups have over 100 active members each.

Just as RSOL was launched, other sex offender groups were also busy. Sohopeful International, formed in 1999, had been the largest such group, though its actual membership has never been verified. SOHopeful ceased operations in early 2008. SOSEN (Sex offender Support and Education Network) began as a Sohopeful interest group in 2002 with 50 members and now has approximately 200 members.

Also the same week as RSOL's founding, the group Soclear Media, led by sex offender and writer Tom Madison of Oregon, burst onto the scene with a dramatic series of videos, including one at the homeless camp for sex offenders under the bridge in Miami, Florida. Working with Madison was a sex offender from Kansas, Terry Brown, who also had a website, hope4tomorrow. Brown traveled to Florida to join the Miami offenders under the bridge, gaining national media attention.

A public rally by sex offenders was organized in March 2008 by Voices of the Gulag ( http://www.sexgulag.org) to draw attention to non-violent sex offenders committed to the California state civil commitment center at Coalinga, and to a whole series of rights violations against detainees. It was cosponsored by the Friends & Families of Coalinga Detainees and RSOL. Among the speakers was Paul Shannon of RSOL, by phone, and Tom Madison in person. Madison was later interviewed on a national TV show, Mike & Juliet, in which he was drawn into a shouting at the moderators when the other guests began asserting the typical myths about sex offenders as fact. Madison withdrew entirely from public activity, and took down his website. At the time, RSOL supported Madison, while some others criticized his TV appearance. The Coalinga group and Sex Gulag still exist, though they seem much less active.

Inquisition 21st Century, in England, is, like many sex offender groups, the product of one person's work on the internet. Nevertheless, Brian Rothery of Inquisition21 has managed a consistent presence on the net, and in a major class action suit in England, against victims of an FBI-inspired British internet sting operation, called Project ORE in 1999, in which 7,250 suspects were named and 4,283 homes were searched. Of the 3,344 arrested, only 1,451 have been convicted in eight years.

Other groups still exist. B4Uact, a Maryland group whose purpose is to keep pedophiles from acting on their desires, and to help get public support for this hated and scapegoated group. B4Uact's position is that pedophilia is, like homosexuality, an orientation not chosen by individuals, but genetics. They believe there must be understanding and compassion, not hate and persecution. ETAY, Ethical Treatment for All Youth, is a group that supports the rights of juvenile sex offenders. CFC America, is a general sex offender reform and support group, which is the work of one person, and which severed its link to RSOL because of RSOL's support for homosexual sex offenders.

Altogether, RSOL, and the other groups may include 5,000 or so active supporters. Of that number over 3,000 are members of RSOL - a tiny drop in a huge flood. When RSOL started, it was estimated that there were 500,000 registered sex offenders. There are now 675,000. Additionally, there are perhaps 200,000 released sex offenders being sought by authorities for failure to register. Finally there are another 150,000 offenders still serving sentences. Between 2 and 3,000,000 people are close family members of all these offenders.

New signatories are added to the RSOL statement every week, and the site now gets about 60,000 hits per month. It is clear that RSOL's best and strongest work is in a few of its affiliated state groups, such as Texas, Virginia, Illinois, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Oregon, with perhaps ten other groups building support rapidly.

The RSOL Administrative Team is working towards the next National Conference in the late Spring to Early Summer of 2010. As RSOL's strength grows, vicious attacks, without exception based in untruth, misrepresentation, and a general fear and hatred, become more frequent. This clear indication of the impact RSOL is having only strengthens the resolve of the RSOL Administrative Team and the hard working RSOL members.

As Mary Sue Molnar has so often said, "We'll keep raising hell in Texas."

Truth and reason can never be silenced. Through the efforts of RSOL and the other groups opposing the registry we will prevail because at least RSOL will never quit until we do and RSOL will never let the attacks on its character distract it from its goal.