But wasn’t the age of consent in GA 14 until 1995? And isn’t it currently 16? So I guess the question is “what is an underage child?” The date the state says is the age of consent or the Age 18? And if the age of consent was 14 in 1995 and an adult engaged in sexual activities with a child of consenting age, does that make it right? Can SS go after an adult who had sex with a consenting 14 YO back in 1994? Also, isn’t the SS legal age 18? How can SS have a different age of consent than a state? Does that violate state’s rights or does a federally mandated law overrule state’s rights? Is this in federal jurisdiction to mandate an age of consent or is that the right of the state? The ages of consent are in conflict it seems
2 Likes
That’s all well and good but you are missing the piece of positional authority. So if it was a random person of the legal age at the time, yeah side eye. But students? Working students? That’s what gets conveniently left out of these statements.
20 Likes
[h=1]Credit to Dictionary.com for the definition below
accept: verb (used with object)[/h] [LIST=1]
What also makes definitions #6 and #8 more likely to be true? The absence of objection/correction.
For example: Potty training a puppy. (Because we’re all animal lovers here and I think this scenario will be relatable to most of us)
New puppy pees on area rug. I absolutely do not want this behavior, I don’t like this behavior, I’m not cool with it. It’s gross and I don’t want to live with it. I definitely feel a certain way about it. As far as my action? I take the area rug out of the house and replace it.
Puppy pees on new area rug. I continue to have those strong feelings that I don’t like it, I’m not cool with it, it’s gross and I don’t want to live with it. Toss the new area rug in the trash.
Puppy pees on the third rug and the fourth. I continue to be grossed out and unhappy. Never take any action other than throwing away area rugs.
What’s going to be the result? We all know - the puppy is going to continue to pee on the fresh new area rugs I provide to it.
There was no discernible objection from me. There was no correction. By failing to turn my feelings into corrective action, I have accommodated the undesirable behavior and allowed it to become the norm.
19 Likes
And what also gets left out of these statements is that the victim DID NOT OR WAS UNABLE to consent, hence the report to SafeSport. People in consensual relationships who don’t feel they were abused tend not to report their former partners as abusers. And in the very (very) rare case of false allegations to SS, an investigation would not turn up sufficient evidence and the claim would be closed. The age of consent is irrelevant if one of the parties DID NOT CONSENT.
18 Likes
It’s amazingly admirable that you’d admit that here, I’ll count that in the win column for my perception of humanity 
28 Likes
I think those influential voices would help with the general public, but I don’t discount ANY voice. Every single person that has posted here saying that this is not ok, that it doesn’t matter if it was 50 years ago, that predators don’t just have some isolated incident and then stop counts.
I’m not friends on fb or elsewhere with any BNTs, but if I were, and I saw some “ISWG” statement on their wall, I would promptly let them know how I feel about someone I used to admire sweeping the pain GM has caused under the rug because he’s some name in the sport. I admire everyone here who has whittled their friend list accordingly.
Excellent example! People sweeping this under the rug, or in your example just replacing the rug, even if they are disgusted on the inside, doesn’t send any message to the person pissing on our sport. I won’t even get into the ones who are publicly standing with George. I wish someone would publish and maintain a list so that those that are disgusted by it can choose not to support them.
8 Likes
You get five days to say you want to appeal. You don’t have to present your entire case within 5 days.
12 Likes
THIS…never acceptable but now we have better ways to deal with it.
3 Likes
This is a good read for anyone interested in the legal aspects. It’s about the procedures Harvard adopted to adjudicate sexual harassment/sexual assault claims-- and the ensuing protest by the law school faculty. Some of the points raised by the Harvard law professors may sound quite familiar.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/…qbM/story.html
From the article:
As teachers responsible for educating our students about due process of law, the substantive law governing discrimination and violence, appropriate administrative decision-making, and the rule of law generally, we find the new sexual harassment policy inconsistent with many of the most basic principles we teach. We also find the process by which this policy was decided and imposed on all parts of the university inconsistent with the finest traditions of Harvard University, of faculty governance, and of academic freedom.
Among our many concerns are the following:
–The absence of any adequate opportunity to discover the facts charged and to confront witnesses and present a defense at an adversary hearing.
– The lodging of the functions of investigation, prosecution, fact-finding, and appellate review in one office, and the fact that that office is itself a Title IX compliance office rather than an entity that could be considered structurally impartial.
–The failure to ensure adequate representation for the accused, particularly for students unable to afford representation.
The university’s sexual harassment policy departs dramatically from these legal principles, jettisoning balance and fairness in the rush to appease certain federal administrative officials.
1 Like
Science already knows why… if he’s actually been exposed and isn’t infected with HIV, then he’s an HIV elite controller. Meaning he can suppress HIV viral loads without antiretroviral therapies.
And yes, science is already harvesting antibodies from elite controllers to work on vaccines for other HIV patients. There’s like a 0.3% chance of being an elite controller or 1 in 300, it’s not too special…
8 Likes
Bingo.
We also say things like “he accepted his medicine”. Did it mean he liked it? No. Did it mean it was good? Not from his perspective. What it meant was that he felt there was no other option. He accepted it. Turned a blind eye. “Took it”
We say it of horses too - some horses are trained to accept pain, to exhibit a learned helplessness when things happen. Does it mean that they condone it? No, but they’ve stopped fighting, if ever they fought.
Regarding the poster who said the Nassar parents didn’t know, I beg to differ. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbc…amp/ncna841091
5 Likes
OneGrayPony, there’s nothing in there that contradicts what I said. Your implication is that parents plural knew and didn’t care. The only parent set that I’m aware of who failed to contact law enforcement did contact a therapist, a mandated reporter, and he advised that there was nothing to report. They also weren’t gymnastics parents - ie they weren’t after athletic glory. It was the more classic example - they’d been family friends forever, the story was confusing, they reacted badly, the family was in the middle of a health crisis, the daughter shut down. They failed their daughter. But I don’t think they knew. And that’s just one set of parents out of hundreds.
2 Likes
10 Likes
Age of consent – if someone is of the age of consent it does not mean that any and all sexual contact with them is legit. It means they have the legal capacity to consent. If the consent is missing, is coerced, is given under duress, if the person is incapacitated and cannot consent-- then the sexual contact is done without consent-- i.e. assault, rape, and so forth.
Somehow this seems to go missing in the discussions of the age of consent, and it really disturbs me.
26 Likes
I agree with Palm Beach that a 5 day window is too short. Not everyone is connected 24/7/365. I regularly go on trips that last longer than 5 days where I have little or no contact with the outside world. And there’s always the possibility of the person being ill and in a hospital. A 30 day window to file an intent to appeal would seem more reasonable.
1 Like
I share your cynicism, but I will also note that an astonishing number of people have never had any actual personal experience with the legal system (either civil or criminal). Their knowledge of how the legal system works is seemingly drawn from Perry Mason reruns. So some of them may honestly (but mistakenly) believe that a criminal investigation would be less damaging than a SafeSport investigation carried out away from the public gaze. (As someone who has been named in a civil lawsuit, I think otherwise, but than that experience has left me biased.)
5 Likes
It didn’t do much for me - and, spoiler alert, it’s a blog.
4 Likes
Good post. Also missing is the fact that one party has authority over the other, which in many cases can result in the fear of retaliation if the authoritative party is rejected. The younger party, or the party in the subordinate position may be afraid that rejection will result in a loss of opportunities, maybe even eviction. Young adults, even not-so-young adults, struggle with this, which is why many companies have nonfraternization (is that a word) rules.
12 Likes
Sex with young children was never accepted. but there’s a thought process called ‘othering’ which is the idea that those who commit such acts are not ‘us’ - they are ‘others’. Choose whatever scapegoat you like - different races, guys in white vans with bags of candy, skeevy dudes who pull kids into alleys, but not our brothers, neighbors, or trainers whom we ‘know’ would never do anything like that. So it’s easy to think that it’s ‘them’ committing such acts and not ‘us’, which is one reason why rape and sexual assault was shoved under the rug for so long and why it’s so hard for people to believe that a ‘nice guy’ they know well could do such a thing. Again - “i was alone with him, and he never did a thing” (so he would never…) is a common theme.
Going right along with that is the idea that anyone who got molested, especially a woman, was ‘asking for it’ - wearing short skirts, taking off their panty hose (remember the William Kennedy Smith case?). Even very young girls could ‘act slutty’, wear - gasp - makeup or ‘do anything for a ribbon’. Boys who got molested? well, maybe there was something, y’know - off - about them that made those Catholic priests - those choir boys! - or their trainers finally snap. Besides, they too, could ‘do anything for a ribbon’.
The sexualization of younger and younger children plays right into that idea. Think about poor Jon-Benet Ramsay. There was a time when children were considered to be non-sexual beings, which is why Lewis Carroll was able to take pictures of naked girls and it was OK (check those pictures he took of the real Alice in Wonderland). Look at pictures from the '40’s and '50’s of little girls in those short dresses that showed their panties. That would be unacceptable today, but it was OK then, because they simply weren’t considered to be sexual - or so the idea ran.
Central to all those thought processes is the idea that men simply cannot be expected to control their sexual urges. Actually we’ve kinda heard that arguement here with the whole ‘blue balls’ discussion. If they are offered something - or even think its been offered - of course, they can’t resist. If they did they might not even be considered ‘real men’. It’s ingrained in our culture, unfortunately. “The woman tempted me and I did eat” is still a viable defense in the minds of many people. Most famously ‘she was drunk, so what did she expect’?
And the truth is sometimes kids do offer. They have crushes on their trainers, they idolize them. They compete to be picked out for favours and ride the best horses. With young kids, it’s probably not sexual, no matter how it’s perceived, but maybe with older teens, it is, maybe even on an overt level. But it’s WRONG. And here’s the thing - they can’t consent. They’re too young and ‘real men’ know that. Someone here is supposed to be a grownup. It’s not their payoff. Trainers are getting paid - in money, prestige, pride in a job well done. But please - not in sexual exploitation of children. That’s not part of the job description and anyone who thinks so should be in a different profession.
42 Likes
Can these elite controllers transmit the virus to others?
1 Like
