Letters to the Editor

Letters:

Dear Editor;

Subject: MILK AND RSOL

Letter to Editor: I found Alex's writing interesting (From the Top). But, I would disagree with his line "Immediately slandered by reactionary fanatics and some misguided feminists, RSOL nevertheless survived and grew". I'm not sure who the "misguided feminists" were but the Women's Movement is another group who faced great adversity, just like gays and lesbians did, just like people of color did. When feminists are coupled with "reactionary fanatics" I have no doubt there are some in our readership who may agree and enjoy this, just as there would be some who would like to see a line like this referencing gays and lesbians. But, even if "some" feminists (and I'd really like to know who the people are who directly attacked RSOL) may not support changing the sex offender laws, I believe that most would, especially if they understood the unfairness of the laws. The women's movement evolved from the civil rights movement and though not every feminist, just as not every gay person or every person of color, may understand and support every just cause, I don't think it is ever a good idea to alienate an entire movement because of a few "misguided" people identified with the cause. Doing this might also arouse suspicion about why someone would do such a thing. We need every single civil rights group we can get to identify with this important cause. It's important not to let our personal prejudices affect our judgement. I think that some women might want to use the "masculinist" groups this way; many believe that there's more than few misguided people in that group. United we stand, divided we fall.

P

[The author responds]<

To the Editors:

I am correctly criticized for my unthinking coupling of fanatics and "misguided feminists" in my article relating the experience of Harvey Milk to that of RSOL.

The writer, P, is absolutely correct. We should never attack our potential allies, and although there are indeed always some "misguided" people among even the most 'progressive' groups, including especially some who just don't understand our cause to reform sex offender laws, it does not help to pillory a whole movement. Groups supporting women's rights and the rights of people of color and gay and lesbian rights have all been important in putting together movements for social change, which are the forerunners of the RSOL struggle today.

There are, unfortunately, some who call themselves feminists, who can only think of "saving the children" when they think of passing more and more Draconian sex offender laws. Quite a number of recent negative comments in response to this week's Economist article on America's sex laws seem to come from politically progressive women, who unfortunately only react in terms of helping 'victims.' Of course, we must help children avoid abuse, and of course we must support victims of genuine sexual abuse, but the never-ending barrage of media and political hype about sex offenders has made it very difficult for many people to "get" the problems that plague many current sex offender laws.

There are also many in the gay and lesbian world who are extremely defensive on this topic, and won't touch our cause. I won't identify specific individuals, because that would just compound my error. P's comment that 'masculinist' groups might have a few misguided men is an understatement! I'm not sure if she's coined this term, but it's a good one! I will try never again to repeat this kind of mistake. I am grateful to P for pointing out this flaw in my rhetoric, and I'm pleased that she found other parts of the article of interest.

Within RSOL there are quite a few with strong homophobic sentiments; I get emails from these people almost weekly. My purpose in writing the MILK article was to try to get some of these people to reconsider deeply held prejudice. I'm glad to say that several people did write in to say that the article helped shift them on the issue of the rights of homosexual sex offenders. I agree with P, we need to be united - gays, middle americans, feminists, communists, atheists, evangelicals - all people who understand the basic injustice of some of the sex offender laws must stand together, since there are so many on the other side, whose sentiments have been whipped up by the sex panic of these past two decades.

Alex Marbury