Protesters angry over sex abuse denial in the Catholic Church.

This story is both disturbing and disappointing – to say the least – but unfortunately not at all surprising.  On Monday, the Catholic League (which has the nerve to end their organization’s name with the descriptor “for Religious and Civil Rights”) ran a full page ad in The New York Times blaming sexual abuse in the Church on “homosexuality, not pedophilia.”

And, as The Raw Story points out, “it also claimed that some children were active participants in the abuse.”

If Bette Midler is correct and God is watching us, I hope He’s throwing up right now. Continue reading »

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Dr. Michael Clare

A Bronx pastor, 38-year-old Dr. Michael Clare, has been charged with raping a 12-year-old girl and – as the Daily News reported today – has “turned down a ‘sweetheart’ plea deal that came with three years in prison.” Clare refused the plea deal because he’s declaring innocence, but Bronx Supreme Court Justice Megan Tallmer says there’s “almost irrefutable proof” that he’s guilty.

The proof? An aborted fetus with DNA matching his. Continue reading »

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The story of the 11-year-old sexually assaulted in tiny Cleveland, TX continues to unfold.

The horrific story of the 11-year-old girl in Cleveland, TX who was gang raped in November continues to unfold.  Though a gag order was recently approved in the case, preventing the accused, the victim and both the prosecution and defense from speaking to the media, shocking new details are still being gathered from court documents.  According to News Talk 670 KBOI, the victim may have been sexually assaulted more than once by some of the suspects over a period of four months.

Court documents obtained by the Cleveland Advocate suggest that “four of the defendants have been charged with a more serious felony of continuous sexual abuse of a child because they are accused of assaulting the girl on two or more dates.”  The alleged assaults occurred between Sept. 15 and Dec. 1.  Only four of the 18 defendants remain in jail; 17 pleaded not guilty to the crime.  One of the defendants who is not currently in jail has another sexual assault case pending.

This unbelievable turn of events has stirred racial tensions in Cleveland and the resulting news coverage has been widely criticized.  The New York Times apologized for its initial coverage of the story, saying it “lacked balance” and didn’t give proper attention to the concerns of the victim.  This week, Florida Republican Kathleen Passidomo co-opted the victim’s tragedy to push for the passage of the so-called “sagging pants bill” that would require a dress code in Florida schools.  While discussing the bill’s merits, Passidomo said:

There was an article about an 11-year-old girl who was gang raped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute.  And her parents let her attend school like that.  And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students. Continue reading »

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Never anonymous.

After a three year investigation, an International police force headquartered in the UK have shut down the largest Internet pedophile ring ever found. Police say at one point the ring included 70,000 members spanning 30 countries. 670 suspects have been identified, 184 people have been arrested and at least 230 children have been abused. 121 of the arrests took place in the UK, where 60 children are now in protective custody, according to the BBC.  33 people have been convicted so far.  Of the 240 suspects in the UK, only one is a woman.

Rob Wainwright, director of the European police agency Europol, told reporters, “The members of the network went into a private channel, boylover.net, and then used its secret systems to share films and images of abused children.” Naturally, I can’t help but shudder when I hear the phrase “boylover,” which reminds me of Phillip Greaves, the author of “The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure,” which he self-published via Amazon in late 2010. After protests from parents, the retail giant removed all copies of the book, as well as another pedophilic title by Greaves along with the 2002 paperback, “Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers.”  At the time, some parents argued that removing these titles was censorship, that words and ideas are not action.  But in light of this massive bust, it’s hard to see how Amazon might have been wrong. Continue reading »

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April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and also Sexual Assault Awareness Month. As a survivor myself, this topic is pretty close to my heart. Last month, the mothers of Momversation had a chat about it. This week, Catherine Connors from Her Bad Mother talks about her own experiences, and her decision to speak out about abuse.

As many as one in five children are sexually abused. But we’re not doing any better than our parents did at teaching our kids how to understand, avoid and report abuse when it occurs. Continue reading »

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Lauri Price, a 42 year old Houston mom remains in custody on Wednesday, accused of flying to Canada to have a sexual encounter with a 16 year old boy with whom she had an online relationship for about a year.

Continue reading »

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A friend recently related a story she found shocking: another mom had brought her three-year-old daughter into the bank, and the girl was naked from the waist down. “Where all those men could see her,” the woman told me.

The concern over the nakedness of a three-year-old aside, the idea that a man seeing a naked child was that much worse than a woman seemed particularly absurd. Continue reading »

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