The Unfair Criminalization of Queer Kids
Gay, transgender, and gender nonconforming youth are significantly over-represented in the American juvenile justice system—approximately 300,000 gay and transgender youth are arrested and/or detained each year, of which more than 60 percent are black or Latino. Though gay and transgender youth represent just 5 percent to 7 percent of the nation’s overall youth population, they compose 13 percent to 15 percent of those currently in the juvenile justice system.
These high rates of involvement in the juvenile justice system are a result of gay and transgender youth abandonment by their families and communities, and victimization in their schools—sad realities that place this group of young people at a heightened risk of entering the school-to-prison pipeline.
Despite the disproportionately high rates of gay and transgender youth entering the juvenile justice system, America’s schools, law enforcement officers, district attorneys, judges, and juvenile defenders are not equipped to manage the unique experiences and challenges that these young people face. As a consequence, the system often does more harm by unfairly criminalizing these youth—imposing harsh school sanctions, labelling them as sex offenders, or detaining them for minor offenses—in addition to subjecting them to discriminatory and harmful treatment that deprives them of their basic civil rights.
Read on: Why gay and transgender youth end up in the juvenile justice system
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about 11 months ago
Punishment.- A strange thing, our kind of punishment! It does not cleanse the offender, it is no expiation: on the contrary, it defiles more than the offense itself.
-Nietzsche
about 11 months ago
Great quote Peter! Here’s another of my favorite observations from Nietzsche: “Distrust everyone in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.”
about 11 months ago
On the subject of quotes…there is something I was tought when I was 6 years old: “Treat others how you would like them to treat you.” (Or something like that…) This was the no.1 rule when I was in primary school.
about 11 months ago
One of the good teachings of christianity.
about 11 months ago
It doesn’t take “christianity” to understand and abide by the “golden rule.” It’s just the right thing to do — what’s called natural (i.e., instinctive) “morals.”
I can’t understand why people think they absolutely must have some kind of religious crap in their heads just to be able to do something good for civilization (their fellow man).
about 11 months ago
very much a universal truth
Christianity All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.
Matthew 7:1
Confucianism Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state.
Analects 12:2
Buddhism Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.
Udana-Varga 5,1
Hinduism This is the sum of duty; do naught onto others what you would not have them do unto you.
Mahabharata 5,1517
Islam No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.
Sunnah
Judaism What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.
Talmud, Shabbat 3id
Taoism Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.
Tai Shang Kan Yin P’ien
Zoroastrianism That nature alone is good which refrains from doing another whatsoever is not good for itself.
Dadisten-I-dinik, 94,5
about 11 months ago
Even Satanism has it’s own version: “You should do unto others as you would have them do unto you, but if your courtesy is not returned, they should be treated with the wrath they deserve.”
about 11 months ago
Pity no-one in 1930′s Germany took any notice of this and applied it to the dictator… and ironic that the same Nietzsche was so influential on the Nazis’ creed of Aryan superiority and the Ubermensch.
about 11 months ago
Unfortunately, the quote from our society is: “Do unto others before they do unto you!” Sad, very sad.
about 11 months ago
Not to be insensitive, but I love the picture. Where did it come from?
about 11 months ago
Is it not one of those American warehouse elevators?
Hot Gay Escort Service arriving for a gay Mafia Don — Lol :)
about 11 months ago
“Think of the children” who are being attacked by those that “think of the children”.
The average age of US sex offenders is 14. Your high age of consent doesn’t stop 60 year old rapists, it ruins the lives of willing queer 13, 14 and 15 year olds who aren’t allowed to consent because um, er, ah, we say so.
Ditch statutory rape laws and stop making a mockery of real rape. Teens who make passionate love underage go on the exact same list as middle-aged serial baby rapists, and the register doesn’t even need to list the crime in some places.
about 11 months ago
After 30+ years as a social worker while working with at risk youth in foster care to include both the social service and the criminal justice systems, I’m happy to be retired. My work was actually killing me. The article is alright but several areas were embellished in order to be politically correct. If I were to address those areas of embellishment my comments would certain to be “awaiting moderation” or else I would recieve numerous hateful comments.
Of all the gay boys I had personally worked with, the story was the same. The boy was abandoned by his highly religious family. 40% of all runaways in the foster youth system are gay boys. Social workers, probation officers, judges, attorneys really do a decent job for the most part. However, group home staff, foster parents, floor counselors in juvenile detention centers are often responsible for much of the actual physical, emotional and sexual abuse (by ignoring sexual assault) of the boys. It seems that a strong religious rational was always driving that abuse.
about 11 months ago
@Darksadow6921,thanks for the info. It’s nice someone here cannot worry about the so-called crap in some peoples heads. @hmmmmmm,I guess your solution is to let these 13 and 14 year olds fuck whom ever they want. I do believe that a kid of this age needs to learn more about life then who he can or cannot screw. It is very easy for some adult pervert to work his will on a young lad. There is a lot that a 13 or 14 year old boy at this age doesn’t know. They must learn first by good family love,and respect,and that I must that this is a two way street. The schools must learn also to teach a child that they need to respect others,and the law. They must learn to help the child grow,no matter if the child is Gay or Straight. At this tender age somethings are not what we may think.
about 11 months ago
Er why not? How is registering a homeless youth or mentally ill child as a sex offender for life going to help them?
Then you go off and write a load of shit about a good school or family that most of these vulnerable youth don’t have. Hurr durr, of course they need a good family and schooling, but punishing a teen for sex they have and utterly destroying any prospect of redemption is not going to help. And you used the magical ~adult pedo~ to justify ruining their lives.
You are what is wrong with the USA, spouting ideological crap that helps no one.
about 11 months ago
I couldn’t agree with you more. The only difference is, you are nicer with “spouting ideological crap” than I can be.
about 11 months ago
I find the picture illustrating this article totally inacceptable and inappropriate. It needlessly adds insult to injury and milkboys should be ashamed.
about 11 months ago
One way to view this photo is through the eyes of a bully/rapist. The good looking kid is simply a piece of meat. The perpatrator is likely to consider himself to be heterosexual and it is OK to punk a sissy. He is likely not to be caught or charged with sexual assault and the incident is likely to be in concert with other like minded boys.
about 11 months ago
Das Problem liegt doch im Elternhaus! Da muss sich was ändern!!!
Wie kann man sein Kind verstoßen, wenn es nicht den Gedanken der
Eltern entspricht???
Mir tun diese Kinder wirklich leid! Sie haben den stärksten Halt (Elternhaus) verloren!
Ich habe keine Kinder, aber wenn,dann stünde ich hinter ihnen!!
about 11 months ago
Michael, why shouldn’t a 13 or 14 year old screw exactly who they want, who are we to tell them otherwise?
We do not own them, yet at the very time their body is screaming out for sexual contact of some sort (with the wholly natural arrival of puberty), we tell them it’s bad/wrong and will defile their innocence. Total and utter rot which has it’s basis in the anti-sex message of christianity which all western societies subscribe to (even if not in an overt way).
The only way to let an adolescent be healthy is to give them all the tools they need for safe sex and to remove any notion of it being shameful, abusive or any other such nonsense.
Personally the way many societies distort ideas about pubescent (yet underage) sex, is far more perverse and abusive to individuals than the act itself and is a measure doled out just because adults have their minds corrupted by social dogma and feel uncomfortable with the idea of “their children” having sex.
about 11 months ago
If only I could have read comments like yours when I was 13 or 14 years old. I very much agree that christianity is an antisex message. All religion is antisex but christianity is the source of so much self hate in america for the mere act of masterbating. When I was 11 years old the memory of my father beating my 13 year old cusin to a bloody pulp and then hosing him down in the back yard on a cold winter night when he was caught masterbating in his room still haunts me to this day.
about 11 months ago
That was very well stated (and true).
———————————-
Michael: “There is a lot that a 13 or 14 year old boy at this age doesn’t know.”
Yes, but guess what? There’s a LOT that many ADULTS either don’t know or choose to IGNORE (with the explicit help of their church/religion) about children/minors and specifically, YOUNG TEENS.
It’s amazing how the religious conveniently “forget” or rather, just plain ignore the biology of their own bodies/lives (the males in particular) after passing the puberty phase and “finding religion” (I’m being liberal, here). Like, for example, erections and eventual ejaculations. They (religious) are so consumed to tell young boys and teens to “not touch or play with themselves” (at the same time playing their own “pocket pool” while admonishing said teen because the very subject is making them excited).
It’s enough that you just have to ask [them], so, how/why is it that boys get erections so often and starting so young? If they’re never supposed to experience any sex [with whichever partner] during the ages of puberty, why is it so biologically necessary for all these erection “dry runs and rehearsals?” Why is it so biologically instinctive for boys to touch and play with their penis and if not actually [verbally] told, they quickly figure out the desire and need for some type of masturbation? And, lastly, how/why is it that all humans have evolved with arms long enough to at least reach their genitals (as well as anus)?
Interesting that the fundamentalists are quick to use the bible (which really doesn’t say anything [specifically] about it, but is in fact, is quite vague) to condemn all forms of masturbation (spilling a man’s seed) because they can’t [won't] actually tell facts and truth about this pure biological function. According to them, nearly every boy on this planet between the ages of 11 and 18 are “infidels” [or worse] for “spilling their seed” either by conscience or not (wet dreams). Yet, they again, conveniently, ignore the fact that millions of men who perform intercourse with their wives but don’t produce a pregnancy.
Yeah, there’s a LOT that the religious idiots don’t know.
about 11 months ago
Whilst I alluded to christianity, and they certainly have an interest regarding the anti-sex angle, there is another religion that we all subscribe to and are influenced by, the social norms of our locale and time.
We are in a time of increasing scaremongering and conservatism, whether by christians, feminists, “concerned mothers” or any other deniers of reality, where the child (which in their terms is anyone under the age of consent, be it 16 or 18) is some kind of pure as the driven snow, innocent, angelic, unknowing, sexless creature. Sexual activity conducted by anyone under the age of consent must of been under threat of violence or the result of some kind of abuse (even self-abuse).
The difficulty here is those of us “non-believers” can always poo-poo religion, but who can dismiss the social idea of the “innocent child” and stand up for the right for adolescents to self-determine without being branded a pedophile or some other kind of deviant.
I fear for youngsters in this brave new bi-polar world of childhood and adulthood. Based on a day either side of a birthday, you are either incapable of making decisions and understanding their implications or completely and fully responsible for them.
about 11 months ago
@ who ever has not the guts to put their handle in. You are right,we don’t own them as you would own a house,car,etc.,but we do bring then into this world and they should have some kind of suitable guidance. A female wolf and her mate well guide their cubs until they are able to go on their own. Are we no better then the animal who raises their cubs,or do we just let nature take it’s course. I well say that some parents go over the limit in understanding the natural growth of their child,my mother was one of these parents,but their has to be some kind of guidance in the growth of children. If there was none there would be complete chaos. Parents most take responsibility for the children that they bring into this world. As for Penboy,I would have thought that your brain would have come up with a better line then arms long enough to reach their genitals and their anus,although I once know a lad who had no arms,and what he could do with his feet was just out of this world. We have eyes to see with,but some are blind. We have ears to hear with,but some are deaf. We have arms and hands to use,but many times we use them incorrectly.
about 11 months ago
“As for Penboy,I would have thought that your brain would have come up with a better line then arms long enough to reach their genitals and their anus,although …”
It’s statements like this that continually prove what I say about the religious to be correct. Only the brainwashed religious would try to “disprove” evolution with ignorant statements like that and still not get it right.
But Michael, just to show you I have a warm ♥ , I dedicate this to you:
” All typing errors are my own work and subject to patents pending. Except errors by the spell checkers — they have their own patents. ”
But, Michael (and Horselips), both of you need to learn to concern yourself with things more important than the “X” and “2″ in my name.
about 11 months ago
Penboy,you made a comment on [the arms long enough] bit coming from a Religious brainwashed person. I have never tried to disprove evolution,but just the opposite. Even when I was in Catholic elementary school I never went with that Adam and Eve story. When I got to Highschool the priest said that this was a story for the people of those times. You must remember that these where people that thought the earth was flat,but times they are a changing. There are drawings in caves,that are much before any Bible was written,of man walking on all fours. I have no argument with evoltion. I do believe in God,but that doesn’t make me an evil person or an idiot. If you can tell me how this earth and all of it’s life came to be,I well lesson and ponder your thoughts.
about 11 months ago
“I have never tried to disprove evolution,but just the opposite. Even when I was in Catholic elementary school I never went with that Adam and Eve story.”
That’s very interesting and yet confusing at the same time. So, if you don’t believe that “god created everything,” then it stands to reason that he’s a LIAR (since all of you believe that the bible is “the very word of god,” right?). So, now if you recognize “him” to be a LIAR about “creating everything,” HOW and WHY, EXACTLY, do you believe in this “god” in the first place? Because he promises “everlasting life?” That’s a LIE — and you just essentially proved that to yourself by your own quote above. After all, if “he” LIED about “creating everything” (which he didn’t and couldn’t and now can’t because of your acknowledgement of evolution) then, again, it stands to reason that all this “everlasting life” crap is just that, a LIE. After all, if he didn’t create everything, then he certainly can’t “offer everlasting life.” So, let’s face it, “he” is just a FRAUD perpetrated upon the masses by control freaks. In other words, your “god” is nothing more than a DUD.
So, how and why is it you even believe in any part of this bullshit if you don’t believe in the “very purpose” of a “god” — that he’s a “create-all” and “know-all” but didn’t create anything and the only thing “he knows” is how to lie to all of you.
Genesis 1,1: “1 In the beginning god created the heavens and the earth.” Sorry, if this DUD couldn’t have “create Adam & Eve” (and any serious observation at any primate pretty much proves that) then he couldn’t have created jack shit. And, really, if he didn’t have the power to do that, then how can he have any “power to grant everlasting life?” So really, the dude’s a DUD.
And if you’re going to “come back” to me and just try to tell me that only some things in the bible are “correct and true, but others aren’t” then again, you’re just proving me and all other Atheists correct.
And, btw, the comment about the length of human arms (though totally correct) was meant as context in reference to humans evolving with sexual desires — and you (anyone, really [that has arms]) should have figured that out.
about 11 months ago
You are just a dirty mouth Atheist,Penboy. I never said that I didn’t believe that God created this universe,because I do. I don’t see what is confusing about my comment. I just don’t believe that it was a Adam and Eve story. First of all incest is not the most health way to produce a family,let a lone a race. You have yet to tell me how you believe this world came to be. My comment did ask for your thoughts on this,but as always you have to rant and rave and say nothing. I did know about your sexual desires bull,of which I think you need some action in that line. It’s is very clear to me that with all the running off at the mouth,you have not worked the other part of your lovely body. I’am glad all Atheists are not like you. I have to say thou that the Atheist movement has done it’s fair share of screwing this country up. You guys just demand and demand and you give nothing in return. So if you can get past you name calling,and give me you thoughts on how we got here I’ll be glad to read them. Youn seem too think that I have proven you and you Atheist brothers and sisters correct. I don’t see how. I told you how I felt,and this is what I believe in. It’s called having Faith. So tell me what you have,with out the bullshit remarks,and like I said I look it over. I hope your able too do this. Thanks anyway.
about 11 months ago
“You are just a dirty mouth Atheist,Penboy. … My comment did ask for your thoughts on this,but as always you have to rant and rave and say nothing.”
King James Version: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
(with a ‘prologue’: And god spake all these words, saying, I am the lord thy god, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage …”)
New Living Version: Do not worship any other gods besides me.
(with a ‘prologue’: Then god instructed the people as follows: ‘I am the lord your god, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt …”)
Yet, Most brainwashed religious will ignore the moral problems of slavery with translations using the words, “servant”, “bondservant”, or “manservant” instead of “slave” to make the Bible less immoral than it really is. While many slaves may have worked as household servants, that doesn’t mean that they were not slaves who were bought, sold, and treated worse than livestock.
However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way. (Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT)
That is but ONE scripture of that asinine bible that not only allows slavery, but very literally promotes it.
Now, I ask you: Just who is this ‘god’ that states in his very first commandment that he is “saving you [anyone] from ‘bondage/slavery’ but in several passages later, actually promotes slavery?
Hey, don’t even try to “blame me [Atheists]” for any “dirty mouth” as you called it — this brainwashing BULLSHIT is in your fucked up bible. Read it for yourself. Oops ….. I don’t believe you have actually read the bible — you know, with real comprehension.
And, [secondly,] just how arrogant is this lying bastard, anyway? He demands that you not “worship” anyone else, but attempts to pass himself (or his bastard “son”) as “humble” by being born among the animals in a dumpy barn? Humble? I think not.
So, Michael, before you do your stupid religious rambling on and on (and saying nothing), READ that fucking, lying bible you own and actually comprehend what has actually been written [translated] — and then compare that crap with what your priest/pastor/preacher ‘demands of you’ from that asinine pulpit.
There, I just responded to just one of your ignorant claims. I won’t waste my time with “any others” that you rambled about. Sorry, but when it comes to religion, you’re just too fucking stupid to even understand.
about 11 months ago
“I just don’t believe that it was [a] Adam and Eve story.”
By that statement alone, you just proved yourself to be a liar. “You believe” that ‘god’ made the universe and everything in it but don’t believe he “created” Adam & Eve? Logically, that is just fucking stupid and actually real proof (to yourself, at the very least) that deep inside that pocket in your head, [I believe] you don’t really believe in this garbage. It’s so easy to “conform to the masses” (and it is indeed, the majority “who believe” this crap) and just “go with the flow” simply because you don’t have the “ammo” to go against them and because you may be ostracized by your family and whatever “friends” you have at your church (Btw, that’s the exact same parallel gays have with straights — it’s no wonder that anything homosexual relates to some idiot religion).
“First of all incest is not the most [health] way to produce a family,let [a lone] a race.
Your idiocy can be so fucking laughable. Do you seriously think that the Cro-magnom or Neanderthal man or any before, or in-between actually considered that and gave a rat’s ass about it? Let’s see, “cave-man” can’t even speak (other than grunts and screams) and he gets his numerous erections and he comes up to a female of the same species, she notices his erection and proceeds to submit to this male — and [s]he’s really concerned about “whose family” she/he is in? You dumb ass — no one really knows what was going on then — certainly no fucking “god” or any stupid pastor [which didn't exist]. GET. FUCKING. REAL.
You have yet to tell me how you believe this world came to be.
I’m not and have never passed myself off as any scientist who “knows all” about science, geology, anthropology, or anything else that has to do with the existence of this planet and all its inhabitants. But, I do listen to men who are much smarter than I am regarding these things, and I paid attention in Science classes in school (it was always interesting to me). And when they (and this is in a very religious private boys school in Texas) explained EVOLUTION to me and the rest of the students and showed us the most obvious (and for me, absolute) proof of this with images of the many Primates and I’ve been to a few zoos to actually see some of these animals. It didn’t take me very long (considering) to put 2 + 2 together about homo erectus and other early humans. And with that idea, it’s only logical (to me and most other reasonably intelligent beings) that this planet also EVOLVED similar to “how” humans did. And then it became obvious to me (by age 13, give or take) that no fucking ‘god’ did anything or said anything or, quite frankly, knows anything. Again, PURE LOGIC.
about 11 months ago
We Penboy: Your mouth is at it again and I can see that your have a vast reading material in your library. First I don’t have a Bible. When I went to school they did not push us to read the Bible because we have a habit of reading the Bible wrong or how we wish it to be. I believe that there where more then two Cave people. Yes,there most likely was incest in that time,but on a much weaker line then if from Adam and Eve. I agree that this planet did Evolve,but what did it Evolve from and what started this evolving. How did the universe get it’s start. Was it a big Bang. If so what caused the big Bang. I have to believe that we came about by more then an accident,even in your case. I too went to the zoo,but not to put 2 + 2 together,but to enjoy the miracle of life. This is an event that cannot be explained by known laws of nature. You have listen to persons of science and this is all you can come up with. Your pure logic is most likely pure laziness. It is much easier to put God on the back burner,and do nothing,then it is to have Faith in a Supreme Deity,as I do. It seems that with your common language,you have not learn so much from your scientist friends. I thought that someone,like yourself,could address his point of view in a more adult manner. I do believe that the God I believe in would never talk like you,for you seem to fine great solace in trying to hurt ones beliefs. I have no purpose in trying to convert your line of thought,in fact if you wish to be an Atheist,be my guest,it’s no skin off my neck. If your trying to show that I’am wrong,you’ll not be doing it by trying to belittling the God I believe in or myself. You don’t win people over that way,and that’s PURE LOGIC.