A message from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force regarding Prop 2257

The Department of Justice is proposing regulations to implement a
federal law designed to combat child pornography, known as Section
2257. The law was first enacted in 1998 and was amended in 2006 and
significantly expanded to include regulation of the Internet.

While many of the regulations pertain to companies that produce adult
entertainment magazines and videos (and are extremely burdensome), they
would also affect anyone who uses an adult social-networking site.

Here's how:

• The regulations would require the people running a site to get and
maintain personal information from every user (that means you) who
posts a "sexually explicit" photo, including your photo ID (driver's
license, passport, or military ID).

• The regulations would allow the Attorney General to conduct warrantless searches at will on the sites' records, including your
personal information.

• There are few safeguards over what the FBI can do with the
information it obtains.

• If a site operator fails to comply with the regulations, he or she
would face a prison sentence of up to 5 years.

• For more detailed information on Sec. 2257 [and instructions on what you can do], go here.


Why We're Involved

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Inc. is involved in this fight
because we believe sexual freedom is a fundamental human right and we
don't think the government has any place in relations between
consenting adults. These regulations are part of our government's
hypocritical and punitive views about sex, sexuality, and reproductive
rights. All of this – from abstinence-only sex education programs to
the elimination of funding for accurate and explicit HIV prevention
programs – fall hardest on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
people.

For more information about the organizing, advocacy, and public
education work of the Task Force, visit The Task Force.

...

Anyone concerned to about governmental attempts at internet censorship through 2257 and other measures should really log onto the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom's website and if possible contribute time or funds. The NCSF has really been perhaps the main organization leading the fight against this horrific measure (2257)-the Task Force just took on this issues (which is great), but the NCSF has been out there on a limb on this issue for a long long time. You can find the NCSF here.

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This is the money quote as far as I'm concerned:

These regulations are part of our government's
hypocritical and punitive views about sex, sexuality, and reproductive
rights. All of this – from abstinence-only sex education programs to
the elimination of funding for accurate and explicit HIV prevention
programs – fall hardest on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender
people.

You know why? Because, although the last U.S. anti-sodomy laws were struck down a whole four years ago,
oddly enough, the impulse toward State regulation of queer or "perverted" (consensual) sex hasn't melted away along with it. This would be what's known as, well? An attempt at backdoor regulation. (Sorry). There's a lot of that about. Glee over the Larry Craig business aside, consider: when's the last time you remember a scandal about someone being caught in (unpaid for) heterosexual public sex? Hint: It's not because it never happens.


In other news from the Task Force's website, work on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act continues. Here is an interesting and handy timeline of its history.

Also, apparently James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries died.

Though not as well known to the broader public as the late Rev. Jerry Falwell or the Rev. Pat Robertson, Mr. Kennedy provided much of the theology that attracted millions of Christians into the camp of the religious right, said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“He was absolutely relentless in his criticism of everything on the left,” Mr. Lynn said. “He was a formidable creator of an opposition to what people like I believe.”

Mr. Kennedy stayed largely in the background as men like Mr. Falwell, Mr. Robertson and James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family spoke to Americans about the need to curtail abortion rights, gay rights and the teaching of evolution. But over the last decade, he, too, grew more openly active, creating the Center for Reclaiming America for Christ, which held conferences that taught people to how to get involved in the political process. The center closed in April [BUT...].

("People like I?...")

(embedded hyperlinks in NYT excerpt my addition)