May 13, 2008.
There is something that the Americans should think about when hearing about the events in Texas, where a polygamist church group has had their children taken away and they have all been accused of being child molesters.
We are told that the government raided the homes because of a phone call from some 16-year-old girl, still not found, claiming that she and others were being abused.
In the news this month is the report of the death of Mrs. Loving, a black woman who, with her white husband, was arrested and forced to leave the state (Virginia, the state for lovers I think they say) because that state, like many, had a law against interracial marriage — a law supported by probably 80% of Americans at the time.
They were arrested in their bedroom because some unknown person had called the police reporting them living together. It should be a cautionary tale to Americans, especially bigots, that the result of this arrest was not the end of interracial marriage but the end of the laws against such marriages. And public opinion followed the law change, and today the majority of Americans don’t believe in the government telling people whom they can marry.
Then there is another legal case that started with an anonymous phone call reporting two men having sex together in the privacy of their home, and they were arrested under the sodomy laws, laws that existed in all states in the mid 20th century. And again, the bigots should take care as the result of the arrest was not the end of sodomy law violations but the end of all sodomy laws.
Now we don’t know how the arrests of the polygamists will turnout. But it is possible they (and we) should think of the above two cases and not only ask where that anonymous 16-year-old girl is but how all polygamists could be accused of being child molesters. And all could have their children taken from them and spread, deliberately, all over Texas, making it impossible for parents to be with all of their children.
One other interesting part of this news media event is that when the public started losing interest in news coverage and started questioning the actions of law enforcement agents; suddenly we are told the one thing guaranteed to get support and attention — and that is that “perhaps” the boys were being molested.
Now, the question is: Do religious people who are being accused of being child molesters, and having their children taken away from them, see any reason to think that perhaps having their civil rights being violated might be like the civil rights of others being violated — including homosexuals?
