Elsie Dominguez, a civilian engineer working aboard the U.S. Navy ship Carson City, alleged that she was raped by the ship’s captain, Sanchez Padilla, while unconscious in her stateroom in December 2021. She sued the U.S. government, arguing that institutional failures, which included inadequate protections and responses to her report, contributed to the assault and […]
Key Sandusky Accuser Recants
Ever since the publication of science writer Mark Pendergrast’s 2017 book The Most Hated Man in America, there have been serious doubts about the validity of the methods used to convict the Penn State football coach of molesting boys who participated in his Second Mile Program. The charges against Jerry Sandusky were largely set into […]
Drag Show Ban Overturned, Again
The judicial system has reaffirmed to Texas that its Senate Bill 12 (SB 12) – which would restrict some public drag shows if enforced – is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge David Hittner initially struck down the law in 2023, but the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later revived it and sent the case back […]
Holy Hypocrites and Baptists
Just within the last month, yet more stories have emerged about church personnel exploiting children for sexual purposes. The onetime media director for a California mega-church was caught with a trove of child pornography, including videos of girls in his church to whom he gave computers on which he had installed spyware; the church hired […]
Republican Lawmaker’s Son Arrested for Filming Sex with Girlfriend
Rep. Lauren Boebert’s son Tyler was arrested for “child sexual exploitation” after he filmed sex with his girlfriend, who at the time was two weeks shy of her 18th birthday; Tyler was already 18 at the time. He was not accused of distributing the video, but the girlfriend herself did share it with some of […]
Possession of AI-Generated Child Porn is Constitutionally Protected, For Now
A three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that the government cannot ban mere possession of AI-generated child pornography in which no actual children were involved, and thus a Wisconsin man who had hundreds of AI-generated images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has had the dismissal of his possession charge […]
Are Australia’s Rape Reforms Sending Innocent Men to Jail?
Australian sex therapist and men’s rights advocate Bettina Arndt criticizes recent changes in Australia’s enforcement of rape laws prompted by a report of the Australian Law Reform Commission that found the system was failing to hold “those who use sexual violence to account.” She points out that this intensified push to prosecute has resulted in […]
The Confessional Remains Secret, Even in Cases of Child Abuse
The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that any requirement for churches to report confessions of child sexual abuse made to clergy is unconstitutional under the religious freedom protections of the First Amendment. The case in question concerns a lawsuit against the Mormon (LDS) Church by children of a deceased Border Patrol agent who abused them […]
School Board Sued for Blocking Gay-Straight Alliance
After the King George County School Board repeatedly changed rules to block a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club from forming at the King George Middle School in Virginia, the ACLU has filed a federal lawsuit against the School Board and the principal of the middle school. The suit alleges that officials changed the rules to stop […]
Same-Sex Marriage Remains at the Center of Global Queer Politics
While it’s true that not all queer populations value the right to marriage equally, it continues to be a sociopolitical scene from which LGBTQ+ freedoms are promoted around the world. Countries constantly shift their stance on the issue, some protecting or pursuing its legalization, others doing everything in their power to make it go away. […]