GAYS DEFEND MARRIAGE

From me to Missouri congressional candidate Kevin Craig:

I’m pleased you chose to quote me at your Web site, given that we agree that marriage must remain between a man and a woman. However, another issue I am very concerned about is prison rape, which many conservatives and Christians have seen as a crisis because people who commit a financial crime or make a mistake with drugs when they are young do not deserve to be sodomized against their will, sometimes contracting fatal diseases.

I am quite disturbed that you would joke about the subject:

It’s humorous (in a sad way) to contemplate the law saying “If I catch you engaging in sodomy, I’m going to lock you up in a federal prison where you’ll be sodomized every day for the next 10 years.”

Excuse me, but there is nothing funny about prison rape. And no one should understand that better than conservatives and traditionally religious people like us. For more information on this terrible scandal, visit spr.org.

Please remove the “joke” from your Web site, or if you won’t, then I insist that you remove reference to my ideas about marriage. I do not want to be associated with anyone who finds anything “humorous” about sexual assault behind bars.

From Stop Prisoner Rape to me:

Thank you for your recent email to Stop Prisoner Rape. We certainly agree that prisoner rape, one of the most neglected human rights crises in our nation, is no laughing matter and appreciate your efforts to spread that message. As you are aware, no one, regardless of the nature of their crime, deserves to be sexually assaulted and it is incumbent upon our government institutions to prevent such abuse. Thank you as well for passing along our website as an educational tool.

From me to Stop Prisoner Rape:

It’s interesting. I would resent, but could live with, a politician uninterested in stopping prisoner rape because he thinks criminals deserve harsh punishment. But a politician who makes jokes about it infuriates me. I almost wish he could be convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and have to spend one day behind bars fearing he’d be raped.

If SPR is open, I’d be quite interested in meeting with your group to brainstorm ways to get the LGBT community to get involved in the fight to protect incarcerated gay and bisexual men and transgender women who are victimized. I’m very happy that you guys are doing the important work you are doing, and I’m embarrassed my fellow gays and lesbians have not understood that this issue should be a priority for them.

From Kevin Craig to me:

Thanks for taking time to write me.

I assure you that in no way did I intend to convey the idea that prison rape was “humorous.” I was probably looking for the word “ironic” rather than “humorous,” which is why I added “in a sad way” to emphasize that there is
nothing funny about prison rape.

Your letter jogged my vocabulary and I have replaced “humorous” with “ironic,” and I think this improves the communication of my message.

You mentioned www.spr.org, and I had already linked to this website on my “prison” page: http://kevincraig.us/prison.htm

Again, thanks very much for helping me improve my website. Please don’t hesitate to contact me again with further suggestions.

Is that awesome or what? Not only did he remove the offensive language, but he linked to more information about stopping prison rape! I feel like I made an important difference, and it cost me very little energy and no money. : )