The Washington Blade’s Steve Koval notes that several news media outlets have been squeamish about discussing the nature of the child porn that was discovered in the possession of former Boy Scouts national program director Douglas S. Smith Jr., who was found to be in possession of child porn.
The latest word: Smith is a married, antigay, heterosexual man <u>with children</u>, who was found to possess sexually explicit depictions of pre-pubescent boys.
Smith has pleaded guilty.
Addendum:
Au Waipang of Singapore analyzes the association (actually, the absence of one) between homosexuality and pedophilia.
A note to XGW commenters: Links to other analyses of the topic would be most welcome.
I’m not sure that it would be productive for the media to “discuss() the nature of the child porn that was discovered in the possession of former Boy Scouts national program director Douglas S. Smith Jr.” Who cares what the nature of the child porn is?
What would be productive is for the media to broadcast–and I mean broadcast, loud and clear–the fact that this fellow was married, and, to all indications, straight. And, if he had children, to mention that, too.
Well, the Traditional Values Coalition, one of the most extreme anti-gay rights organizations out there, is already implying this guy is gay because the pictures were of boys. No mention of the wife, of course, in their “report,” but claims that their “data” on how gays are allegedly more likely to molest kids continues to justify the Scouts gay ban.
So, since this guy is married, we should ban straight men from Scout leadership as well, right? (okay, so it will leave the scouts without leadership, but we have to protect the children!).
The guy is not only married, but he also has children.
I suppose that only women should be boy scout leaders. But what about the women like Mary Kaye Latourno?
I have to agree with raj, I don’t know what purpose is served by reporting if the child porn involved was same-sex or opposite-sex. In fact, if the media did go out of its way to report that it was same-sex child porn, then they might be criticized for making “gay” child porn seem worse than “straight” child porn. An adult preying on children has nothing to do with being “gay” or “straight”, but is about violence against the vulnerable.
This is why I’m troubled when gay media like 365gay.com or Advocate.com include same-sex pedophiles stories as if these people should be included as members of the gay community.
Oh, and, by the way, I was a boy scout in the early 1960s. In Cincinnati, Ohio, not exactly a liberal area. The second best camping trip we ever went on was in the spring of 1963m when the UnivCincinnati Bearcats basketball team was going for a 3d straight (no pun intended) NCAA title. The adult leaders (who included an older teenage guy–he was a nice guy, but we couldn’t figure out why he wanted to deal with us younger kids) had a battery-powered TV set so that they could watch the game. They left us alone, and we boys had a wonderful time.
I refer to that as the second best camping trip because the first best camping trip was rather amazing. We boy scouts were canoeing on the Whitewater Canal in Indiana, also in the early 1960s. We overnighted in Metamora, Indiana, where the Whitewater crossed another canal. After dark, a number of us went up to the crossing point. We were dumbstruck–we were literally dumbstruck–looking up at the stars. It was amazing. Nobody said a word. Nobody. It was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. We could see the constellations. We could make out the Milky Way. We could see so much.
It was almost as if I was seeing the mind of God. It really was.
And it’s rather unfortunate that the right-wingers have tried to hijack the “mind of God” to suit their anti-gay agenda. And, I subsequently concluded that what I was seeing had nothing to do with “God”–certainly not their “god”.
But, I still have the memories from Metamora, Indiana, circa 1962.
Well, the Traditional Values Coalition, one of the most extreme anti-gay rights organizations out there, is already implying this guy is gay because the pictures were of boys.
Well, of course. You have to understand that LouSheldon, Inc., a/k/a Traditional Values coalition (a family owned and run enterprise, and I’m not kidding) has appointed itself the out-front fag-bashing portion of the religious right.
They make their money off of fag-bashing.
Let’s get something straight. There apparently is a lot of money in fag-bashing. And for people like Sheldon, Dobson, and the others, it’s all about money. Until the fags understand that, they’ll never figure out what’s going on. I hate to put it to you like that, but that’s the fact.
Buy Euros before Bush bankrupts you. And learn a foreign language. I did both. (My partner was already fluent in German, so he didn’t have to learn a foreign language)
Norm | April 1, 2005 11:15 AM
>This is why I’m troubled when gay media like 365gay.com or Advocate.com include same-sex pedophiles stories as if these people should be included as members of the gay community.
Take your issue up with them. Given the fact that you haven’t posted any links to particular articles, why should anyone here believe your assertion that 365gay.com or Advocate.com has posted articles along the theme that you have asserted?
The TVC’s reporting of the boy scout leader showcases how they define “gay”. Crazy Lou’s definition goes something like this:
No one is REALLY gay. Those happy same-sex couples you see that have been together for decades are really just miserable straight people deluding themselves. But, praise God, they can change with the help of Jesus and very expensive therapy.
EXCEPT for some guy who’s married, has four mistresses, has never touched another adult guy, and who has molested 18 little girls and one boy. Aha! He molested a boy. That makes him a “homosexual predator”, you see.
How to change the attitudes of heterosexuals?… I disagree with what is happening. No doubt Michael Jackson would make one of the best Scoutmasters because of the care and love he has for boys. Pedophilia is just another common-occuring sexual preference that is also being discriminated against no differently than gays. My parents are older than most when starting a family. I was a change-of-life baby and my big brother is 8 years older than I am. We share the same bedroom at my parent’s small house, and performs oral sex on me almost every night, and I am neither gay or a pedophile. Can someone tell me what the Michael Jackson case is all about as to why they think he did something wrong? Being the receiver of gay sex does not make you gay, so what do the courts and the Boy Scouts have to worry if a man has a sexual preference for boys if he does not hurt them?
and you’re pretending to be how old, douglas?