Sex in America

Yeah, sex sells, so lets have more of it. But what I want to talk about now, is not something to make fun of.

We in Europe always like to make fun of the Americans, but we have also a similar case in Turkey which I will talk more about in the near future.

Genarlow Wilson is imprisoned. He is black, which is no help in the US judicial system. But he had no contact with the police till his arrest.

His internet site describes him as „good son, good athlete and a high school student“. His life changed for the worse, when in the morning of New Year 2004 Michelle woke up with a hangover, wearing nothing but socks in a hotel room. Surrounding her were used condoms and empty Cognac-bottles.

She called her mom and told her that she had been raped.

The police interrogated 14 black teens aging from 15 to 17 years and found a videotape documenting the orgy with marihuana and alcohol. Michelle is being seen to have sex with several boys and Tracy, being only 15, gives blow jobs to some other boys. Not under threats or because being violated, but consensual.

That the sex was consensual was not denied by those two involved girls nor by a third girl who was also present during the party. The last one even transcripted, that the first two girls thrust themselves upon the boys.

Because Tracy was only 15 years old, the police concentrated on her case. Five teens, all 17 years old, were arrested on charges of aggravated child molestation (because Tracy was two years younger than they were).

They did this, because under Georgia law, the penalty for engaging in oral sex with a minor is more severe than raping a person of the same age.

Almost two years before this case, a 18-year-old black man was accused of raping a white classmate who was fifteen, but only three months from her sixteenth birthday. Even the author of the statute argued, that the aim of the law was to protect children from grownups, not to meddle in teenage sex.

Some of the teens accepted pleas to lesser charges in exchange for lighter terms. They would not have to serve the 10 year prison term but they would stay registered sex offenders forever. And would you give a job to a sexual offender? Didn’t think so.

Genarlow, the one kid without no prior problems with the law and a second guy decided to go to court instead of a bargain. They hoped, the jurors would understand their position and even though they knew, that what they had done, was not good, at least would not have been put to jail for at least ten years. They were teenager, and as teenager trying to find their way into adulthood with no ill will, no malice and no intent to commit a crime.

As the trial begun, the second guy caved in and made a bargain. The judge and the jurors did not seem to understand the situation nor did they understand what the law intended for and sentenced Genarlow guilty of rape and aggravated child molestation and sent him to jail for 10 years.

McDade, the district attorney says that the law did not allow him to plea for any other conviction and throws the ball back to the legislator. Which is also the excuse Eichmann had in WWII. “We don’t believe that a 10-year sentence is an appropriate punishment [in this case], but he made that decision to put himself in that predicament,” explains McDade, of Genarlow’s refusal to cop a plea.

And he also says, that race was no topic. Hear, hear. “Calling me a racist denigrates the people who are victims in this case.”

But there are also other cases of white adults prosecuted by same Judges for sex crimes involving minors and received far lighter sentences than any of the teens in this case.

You can find more here.

The DA involved was also accused by two female employees of sexual harrassment some years ago and even though those charges were dismissed, where there is smoke, there might be fire.

The Campaign for Juvenile Justice say that African-American and Latino are far more likely to be trialled as adults even if they were juveniles at the time of the crime and that less of their cases were transferred back to juvenile court comparing to White teens.

But for me, the question of race is not that important. I rather fear the conservative backlash on sexual liberation. A lot of people, even those calling them Liberals or thinking of themselves as progressive have a very hostile view of sexuality and even though I believe in honouring women and even though I would not have sex with a drunk woman, I do not believe it is right, to send a young man to jail for ten years, just because he got a blowjob from a girl two years younger than himself.