From: madhaus@netcom.com (Maddi Hausmann)
Subject: Child Abuse and Molestation
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 01:28:48 GMT
Organization: Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things
Distribution: usa

After reading this group, it occurred to me that there have been a
number of incidents of child abuse or child molestation in the news
lately.  Here is a summary of the major stories.

1991
A woman in Santa Cruz was arrested for severe neglect of three children,
ages 4, 3, and 2.  They were locked in one room, had no clothing, and
could not speak.  Later investigation showed that this woman had been
charged with child abuse years ago (older children who were removed
from her care) yet had not been monitored.  Her boyfriend was also
arrested as a possible accessory to the abuse.

March 1992
An Irish 14-year-old girl made world headlines when an Irish court
ruled that she could not travel to England to have an abortion.
Lost in the abortion debate was her accusation of the father of her
girlfriend of raping her.  The incident surfaced when her parents
called the prosecutor's office, from England, asking if they should
save the aborted fetus for genetic evidence of the rape claim.

When the rape claim was reported, prosecutors declined to file charges.
In light of later genetic testing, the man was charged with rape in
July, 1992.

16/23 April 1992
_The New Yorker_ has 2-part article on an abused child.  This young
Temple City, CA girl was tied to a potty chair 23 hours a day, given
no visual or auditory stimulation, and appeared severely retarded.
When police investigated, after the child's mother issued an abuse
complaint against her husband, and discovered the little girl, the
father (her husband) committed suicide.  No charges were filed against
the wife since she appeared to have been abused as well.  Remainder
of article discusses how people learn language, how these theories
were tested on "Genie" (the little girl) and the political fighting 
over who would have custody of her.

May 1992
A married Los Gatos man was arrested after being charged with impersonating
a state social services doctor.  The "doctor" had visited several
day-care centers and asked to interview children privately.  During
these interviews, several children (both boys and girls) were molested,
according to what they later told their parents.  The man was caught
when an alert center operator refused to allow unsupervised interviews
and later gave his car license number to police.

July 1992
An 8-year-old girl was kidnapped from her home in West Pittsburg, CA
and molested.  She was returned to her home 2 days later.  Her description
of her kidnapper's tattoo led to the arrest of a transient, who is a suspect
in 2 more kidnappings of Contra Costa County girls (which included
molestation and giving the children drugs).  He is being placed in a
police line-up today.

August 1992
A Texas couple were charged with child abuse and child neglect when
they starved their son to death.  The adolescent boy had been kept
chained to a kitchen counter.  The couple insisted that they did no
harm and that they were only punishing the boy because he would not
"mind" them.

20 August 1992
Mia Farrow accuses Woody Allen of abusing her young children, ages
7 and 4.  This is only the latest development in a vicious breakup
that has revealed that Allen has been having an affair with Farrow's
adopted daughter.  Authorities are divided over whether this is incest
since Allen's relationship with Farrow was not a conventional one.
However, the two have adopted two children and have had one together.


These stories have one thing in common: the abuse was dealt by
HETEROSEXUAL people.  Pick up a week's worth of any newspaper and
you are guaranteed to find a story like this in your own community. 

But before I forget, there *have* been some stories involving
homosexuals.  Not many, but I found a few.  But there is just one
problem, though.  Without exception, these stories involve
Catholic priests molesting young boys (in fewer cases, young girls).
And that doesn't fit in with the fine Judeo-Christian ethic that
so abhores the evil homosexual.  Did you know that the U.S. Catholic
Church has a treatment center in the Southwest (AZ or NM) for priests 
who molest children?  The barrage of lawsuits against the Church first
led to their opening the retreat, in the hopes of "curing" the
priests.  The continued lawsuits may force them to close it, given
the depth of the problem (if it weren't widespread, they wouldn't
need a treatment center for just this one problem, would they?)
Source: SJ Mercury News, January 1988, 6-part series.

So, unless Clayton Cramer starts a crusade against the heterosexuals
and Catholics, we know his concern for abused children is a farce.

The real problem is that child abuse continues to occur, and people
like Cramer are so busy frothing at the mouth about gays, no one bothers
to examine who is actually doing the abusing.  End result: gays are
accused of the sins of the supposed community pillars.  Meanwhile,
nothing is done to find out why so many supposedly "normal" people
would do such irreperable harm to innocent children, and nothing is
done to halt the false accusations of Mr. Cramer and his counterparts.
And that is just the way Mr. Cramer wants to keep it.
-- 
Maddi Hausmann                madhaus@netcom.com
Humorist, Satirist, Tech Writer.  Take your pick.

Centigram Communications Corp, San Jose California  408/428-3553