ROGD paper retracted after activist backlash

The theory of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) may explain the explosion in the numbers, and the changing profiles, of adolescents transitioning over the past decade. But some people don't want you to read about it.

My Research on Gender Dysphoria Was Censored. But I Won’t Be | The Free Press | Michael Bailey:

July 10, 2023 - "I am a professor of psychology at Northwestern University. I have been a professor for 34 years, and a researcher for 40. Over the decades, I have studied controversial topics — from IQ, to sexual orientation, to transsexualism (what we called transgenderism before 2015), to pedophilia. I have published well over 100 academic articles.... My research has been denounced by people of all political stripes because I have never prioritized a favored constituency over the truth. But I have never had an article retracted. Until now.

"On March 29, I published an article in the prestigious academic journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.... The ... article, 'Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria: Parent Reports on 1655 Possible Cases', was coauthored with Suzanna Diaz, who[m] I met in 2018 at a small meeting of scientists, journalists, and parents of children they believed had Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD). 

"ROGD was first described in the literature in 2018 by the physician and researcher Lisa Littman. It is an explanation of the new phenomenon of adolescents, largely girls, with no history of gender dysphoria, suddenly declaring they want to transition to the opposite sex..... Until recently, females treated for gender dysphoria were masculine-presenting girls who had hated being female since early childhood. By contrast, girls with ROGD are often conventionally feminine, but tend to have other social and emotional issues. The theory behind ROGD is that through social contagion from friends, social media, and even school, vulnerable girls are exposed to the idea that their normal adolescent angst is the result of an underlying transgender identity. These girls then suddenly declare that they are transgender.... After the declaration, the girls may desire — and receive — drastic medical interventions including mastectomies and testosterone injections. 

"There is ample evidence that in progressive communities, multiple girls from the same peer group are announcing they are trans almost simultaneously. There has been a sharp increase in this phenomenon across the industrialized West. A recent review from the UK, which keeps better records than America, showed a greater than tenfold increase in referrals of adolescent girls during just the past decade. But there have been virtually no scientific data or studies on the subject. In part that is because researchers who have touched this topic have been punished for their curiosity. Just ask Lisa Littman. Ultimately, her paper on the subject resulted in an unnecessary 'correction' by the journal that published it, and the loss of Littman’s academic affiliation with Brown University.... This explains why my coauthor, 'Suzanna Diaz,' doesn’t go by her real name.... 

"Our article was based on parent reports of 1,655 adolescent and young adult children. Three-fourths of them were female. Emotional problems were common among this group, especially anxiety and depression, which many parents said preceded gender issues by years.... Parents observed that after their children socially transitioned, their mental health deteriorated. A small number—seven percent of those whose parents answered Suzanna’s survey—had received medical transition treatment, including drugs to block puberty, or cross-sex hormones. Disturbingly, those young people with more emotional problems were especially likely to have socially and medically transitioned.... 

"Our article was published to a fair amount of attention.... But from the start, it got negative attention from trans activists and their political allies. Almost immediately these activists began to lobby both the publisher of Archives of Sexual Behavior (Springer Nature Group) and the organization affiliated with the journal (International Academy of Sex Research, or IASR) to retract the article and to punish the editor of Archives, psychologist Kenneth Zucker, because he had published our work. On May 5, a group of 100 academic activists and gender clinicians published an online Open Letter expressing 'ethical' and 'editorial concerns' about the journal and 'serious concerns over research ethics and intellectual integrity' of our article.... 

"On May 23, we received an email from Springer informing us that they were retracting our article. The ostensible reason: 

The Publisher and the Editor-in-Chief have retracted this article due to noncompliance with our editorial policies around consent. The participants of the survey have not provided written informed consent to participate in scholarly research or to have their responses published in a peer reviewed article. Additionally, they have not provided consent to publish to have their data included in this article. Table 1 and the Supplementary material have therefore been removed to protect the participants’ privacy.

"We appealed after consulting a lawyer, but Springer retracted our paper on June 14. Springer’s reasoning was preposterous and simply an excuse to retract an article they wanted to go away in order to stop the controversy.... All parents completing Suzanna’s survey knew they were being asked questions about their children’s ROGD, and they decided to answer. Parents were promised privacy of personal information, and they got it.... We did inform participants that we would publish their data. At the end of the survey participants were told: 'We will publish our data on our website when we have a large enough sample. . .'

"We are outraged and disappointed that our article was retracted. But the ... article’s retraction has inadvertently resulted in a triumph for truth and reason. Start with the support we’ve received from FAIR, Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine, and others. Unless you have ever been cancelled, you have no idea how important this is. The campaign against our article, from the open letter to the final retraction, has generated immense publicity by academic standards, so far largely favorable. Our academic article has been viewed online more than 100,000 times in not quite three months, an astonishing number for an article of this nature. This reflects a thirst for knowledge about this important subject. Speaking for myself, this episode has guaranteed that I will study ROGD until we understand it."

Read more: https://www.thefp.com/p/trans-activists-killed-my-scientific-paper

Read retracted article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-023-02576-9

Activists Tried To Get This Researcher Banned - Michael Bailey | Modern Wisdom 654 | Chris Williamson | July 15, 2023:

Ex-student VP settles defamation suit with McGill

Declan McCool, who had to resign as vice-president of McGill University's Students' Society after being anonymously accused of secual assault and convicted by an internal tribunal, has successfully settled his $1 million defamation suit against McGill and 10 other defendants.

D. Benjamin Miller, Arts Building, McGill University, 2022. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Former McGill student politician satisfied with defamation settlement | Montreal Gazette - Michelle Lalonde:

Apr 0, 2023 - "Declan McCool, the former vice-president of the Students’ Society of McGill University who successfully appealed a sexual assault complaint by a fellow student, has reached an out-of-court settlement in his defamation suit against his accuser and 10 other defendants. In a suit launched in the fall of 2020, McCool claimed $1.5 million — later reduced to $1 million — for lost income, pain, suffering and damage to his reputation due to the actions or inactions of his accuser, McGill University, the Engineering Undergraduate Society of McGill University (EUS), the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), three SSMU executives, the publisher of the McGill Daily newspaper and three of its editors.

"The amount of the settlement and the details of its negotiation remain confidential, but McCool’s lawyer, Christopher Spiteri, said the matter has been settled to the satisfaction of his client.... Lawyers for McCool’s accuser and for the other defendants declined to comment on the settlement when contacted by the Montreal Gazette last week. Some did, however, issue statements to McCool as part of the settlement....

"In February 2020, McCool, then 24, was acclaimed to the position of VP internal with the SSMU. The job would have paid $35,000 for the term and was to start officially in June. But on March 12, 2020, McCool learned a fellow student had filed an anonymous complaint of sexual violence against him under the SSMU’s then-new All-Faculty Involvement Restriction Policy (IRP). The policy enables the SSMU and student associations to restrict the participation in student events of a person who is found, on a balance of probabilities, to have engaged in discrimination, harassment, violence and/or improper conduct. Although both McCool and his accuser were arts students, the complaint was filed with the Engineering Undergraduate Society.... The EUS appointed four engineering students to investigate the complaint against McCool. On April 2, McCool was informed that the committee had concluded there was a greater than 51 per cent chance that the alleged sexual violence had occurred. As a sanction, he was barred from events organized by student associations where alcohol was served.

"Both McCool and his accuser were bound by confidentiality rules outlined in the IRP, but eight hours after McCool was informed of the decision, an article was published in the McGill Daily revealing the decision against him. The article included an anonymous statement from the complainant calling upon McCool to resign as SSMU VP internal-elect, and on the SSMU to 'release a statement that condemns Declan McCool’s actions and acknowledges the continued prevalence of sexual and gendered violence at McGill.' On April 15, the newspaper published another statement by the anonymous complainant, in which she addressed McCool directly, calling him 'a perpetrator of gendered and sexual violence.' Again, she revealed no details of the allegations. McCool maintains the newspaper did not contact him for comment....

"McCool launched an appeal of the EUS committee decision on April 22. While that appeal was underway, the SSMU suspended him from his position without pay and took steps to have him removed from the position. Three SSMU executive members published a joint statement denouncing McCool and made comments on social media 'portraying him as a sexual predator,' according to the defamation claim. McCool had to step down from the McGill men’s rowing crew after the McGill men’s rowing coach advised other crew members to cut ties with him, and he was ousted from his fraternity housing.

"The EUS appointed an independent investigator, lawyer Anaïs Lacroix, to conduct the appeal.... It was during this appeal process, more than three months after the EUS committee had convicted him, that McCool was informed of the details of the allegations against him. According to Lacroix’s report, McCool and his accuser had met for drinks on Feb. 25, just weeks after he was acclaimed VP, at an off-campus bar. They later went to McCool’s fraternity room, where they had sex that night and again on the morning of Feb. 26.... The complainant alleged McCool did not receive continuous consent from her, and that he choked her, pulled her hair and pinned her down. She alleged she was unable to consent to sexual activity because of her level of intoxication. Since the case did not go to court, none of those accusations have been proved or disproved.... 

"But Lacroix’s report references screenshots of troubling text messages that the complainant sent to friends on the night of her encounter with McCool, and in the weeks following. At 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 26, the complainant texted friends to say she was considering having sex with either McCool or another SSMU executive. 'Declan it is,' the complainant texted about an hour later. When her friend asked her whether she had followed through, the complainant responded with a photo of a naked McCool, sleeping in bed beside her, according to evidence submitted in the defamation suit. 

"The text messages also revealed that the complainant may have had a motive to accuse McCool, Lacroix wrote.... 'Witness testimony and evidence suggest that the complainant had expressed a desire to run for SSMU VP internal — the position  that Mr. McCool was elected to'.... Lacroix granted the appeal, concluding that on the balance of probabilities and according to the evidence, McCool did not commit sexual violence against the complainant nor engage in improper conduct, the two were likely equally inebriated and the complainant communicated her consent affirmatively and continuously to McCool.

"McCool was initially given only a two-page summary of Lacroix’s report. He had to go to court to get access to the full report — granted in October 2021 — and again to have it unsealed so that it could be used in his defamation suit. In her Oct. 28, 2022 decision to unseal the report, Superior Court Judge Marie-Christine Hivon wrote: 'The sealing of the entire Lacroix decision constitutes a serious obstacle in (McCool’s) attempt to restore the truth and his reputation, in full view of everyone, and this, considering that Lacroix concludes that the sexual assault charges appear to be unfounded, according to the burden of proof that applies to his case.' 

"The McGill Daily did not report — until Monday in its publisher’s statement — that McCool won his appeal of the EUS sanction back in August 2020, nor did it report relevant evidence revealed in the Lacroix report, which has been public since October 2022."

Read more: https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/former-mcgill-student-politician-satisfied-with-defamation-settlement

Indonesia gov't bans sex outside marriage

The parliament of Indonesia has unanimously passed a revised Criminal Code that makes sex outside marriage punishable by up to a year in prison (and insulting the president punishable by up to three years). 

Indonesia passes new criminal code, outlaws sex outside marriage | Al Jazeera:

Dec 6, 2022 - "Indonesia has passed a controversial new Criminal Code that includes outlawing sex outside marriage and cohabitation, in changes that critics contend could undermine freedoms in the Southeast Asian nation. The new laws apply to Indonesians and foreigners and also restore a ban on insulting the president, state institutions or Indonesia’s national ideology known as Pancasila.

"The new criminal code, which was approved unanimously by parliament on Tuesday, replaces a framework that had been in use since independence in 1946 and was a mix of Dutch law, customary law known as hukum adat, and modern Indonesian law.... The planned code sparked nationwide student-led protests when a full draft was released in September 2019, amid fears it would curtail personal freedoms. At least 300 people were hurt in the unrest which was also fuelled by concerns that new laws would undermine the fight against corruption. Subsequent revisions have not been released in full.

"The new code must still be signed by the president, according to Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Edward Hiariej. It will also not apply immediately, with the transition from the old code to the new one expected to take a maximum of three years.

"A copy of the new code seen by the Associated Press showed that the charge of insult to a sitting president carries a prison term of as long as three years. Hiariej said the government provided 'the strictest possible explanation that distinguishes between insults and criticism.'

"Sex before marriage was not illegal in Indonesia before the code was passed, although adultery was. Under the new law, parents or children will be able to report unmarried couples to the police if they suspect them of having sex — something that critics have said is a move towards moral policing and could also be used to target members of the LGBTQ community. Both sex before marriage and adultery will be punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine under the code. Cohabitation will be punishable by six months in prison or a fine, although only if reported to the police by parents, children, or a spouse....

"The criminal code can be challenged in the Constitutional Court if it is considered that the correct procedure was not followed before it was passed, including seeking relevant and transparent public participation. Labour unions have used that approach to challenge the Jobs Creation Law, which was passed in October 2020 and deemed 'unconstitutional' a year later. The government has been given two years to fix that legislation or risk it becoming permanently invalid."

Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/6/indonesia-passes-legislation-outlawing-sex-outside-marriage

Biden picks fellow drug warrior as running mate (video)

Kamala Harris Is a Cop Who Wants To Be (Vice) President | Reason - Elizabeth Nolan Brown:

August 11, 2020 - "The Democratic 2020 veepstakes are over, and Sen. Kamala Harris (D–Calif.) is the winner. Joe Biden announced Tuesday afternoon that he had picked Harris to be his running mate as he seeks to become the next president of the United States.

"The good news is that it keeps Harris — who has a long and authoritarian history on criminal justice issues — far from the Department of Justice. There was some speculation that should Biden win, he would name Harris as attorney general. As American's top cop, Harris would have the potential to do much more damage than as vice president. The bad news is that it puts Harris next in line for the presidency should anything happen to Biden and sets her up nicely for a future presidential run.... 

"Harris — who served as a district attorney in San Francisco and attorney general of California before becoming a senator in 2016 — has a troubling history when it comes to law-and-order issues and is despised for it by many young left-of-center voters; she consistently chose to protect law enforcement prerogatives and to stonewall reform in California, beyond the minimum demands of her role as the state's top cop. That's a particular liability as Americans streets are still erupting with protests over police violence and calls for criminal justice reform."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/08/11/kamala-harris-is-a-cop-who-wants-to-be-vice-president/

Russia uses pedophilia charges to silence critics

Russian Libertarian Party Head Is Latest Kremlin Critic To Face Pedophilia Accusations - Robert Coalson, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty:

November 8, 2019 - "Mikhail Svetov, the head of Russia's opposition Libertarian Party, has denied allegations by Moscow prosecutors that he engaged in 'immoral activities' with a minor, after he was questioned by investigators for about 12 hours beginning on November 6.... Svetov has now become one of many people at odds with local or federal authorities in Russia who have found themselves the target of child pornography or pedophilia allegations.

"Historian Yury Dmitriyev, who conducted ground-breaking research into Soviet crimes in the Karelia region under dictator Josef Stalin, was initially charged with taking 'pornographic' photographs of his foster daughter.... After he was acquitted of those charges, authorities soon rearrested him on more severe charges of child sexual assault. That case is still pending.

"In May, another Karelia historian, Sergei Koltyrin, was convicted of having sex with a minor and was sentenced to nine years in prison. Prior to his arrest in October 2018, Koltyrin told several people that he feared repercussions because of his opposition to government-backed efforts to 'prove' that Stalin-era executions in the Karelia region had actually been carried out by Finns....

"In April 2015, Soviet-era dissident Vladimir Bukovsky was charged in England over pornographic images of children found on his computer. He claimed at the time that he was the victim of a revenge plot by the Russian secret services.... The trial was suspended ... and the case was still pending when Bukovsky, who pleaded not guilty, died on October 27.

"In December 2017, French citizen Yoann Barbereau completed a harrowing escape from Russia, fleeing child-pornography and pedophilia charges in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.... He was arrested in February 2015 and spent 16 months under house arrest during his trial. In September 2016 .... he fled to Moscow and made his way to the French Embassy. He spent 14 months hiding in the embassy before setting off on foot to a Baltic country that he declined to name.

"In June 2015, Lithuanian police visited the home of Konstantin Rubakhin, a Russian environmental activist who was seeking political asylum in the country after being harassed and beaten in Russia. Police told him they were investigating allegations of child pornography, allegations that Rubakhin believed were planted by the Russian security services to thwart his asylum application. The authorities in Lithuania quickly dropped the case.

"In 2013, Russian opposition activist and blogger Rustem Adagamov fled Russia amid pedophilia allegations that he denied as 'insane.' The accusations were made by Adagamov's former wife in an interview with Russia's state-controlled RT television network.

"Raising suspicions that someone is a pedophile suits 'the Kremlin's line that human rights activists are all just degenerates,' Vytas Jurkonis, a Lithuanian human rights activist, told The New York Times in December 2016."

Read more: https://www.rferl.org/a/russian-libertarian-latest-kremlin-critic-to-face-pedophilia-accusations/30260347.html
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Cruz, AOC join push for OTC birth control

Ted Cruz floats legislation with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after agreeing on over-the-counter birth control - CNNPolitics:

June 12, 2019 - "Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz asked New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez if she would want to team up to make birth control available over-the-counter.Cruz, one of the Senate's most conservative members, made the suggestion via Twitter Wednesday to Ocasio-Cortez, the freshman congresswoman who has built a reputation as one of the more progressive members of Congress. The exchange comes after the unlikely duo came together on Twitter late last month when the pair agreed that Congress should ban former lawmakers from becoming lobbyists.

"On Wednesday, Cruz responded to a June 7 tweet from Ocasio-Cortez in which she said 'birth control should be over-the-counter'.

"'I agree. Perhaps, in addition to the legislation we are already working on together to ban Members of Congress from becoming lobbyists, we can team up here as well. A simple, clean bill making birth control available over the counter. Interested?' Cruz tweeted....

"There has been a growing push in the US to make birth control pills available without a prescription, although previous efforts have faced political resistance. Cecile Richards, then the head of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, argued in a 2014 opinion piece that an over-the-counter proposal would make birth control less available, as women would have to pay out-of-pocket for a non-prescription pill, while under the Affordable Care Act, women could obtain birth control without a co-pay. In the same article, however, Richards said she supported 'making it available over the counter, in addition to requiring insurance plans to cover it -- but not instead of requiring no co-pay coverage.'

"Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview last week that her and Cruz's legislative teams were meeting to work on a bill to ban former lawmakers from becoming lobbyists and that she was 'encouraged' thus far. That proposal picked up support from other lawmakers on Twitter."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/12/politics/ted-cruz-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-birth-control-twitter/index.html

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MD teen convicted of child porn for selfie video

A 16-Year-Old Girl Is Facing Child Pornography Charges for Making a Sex Video of Herself – Reason.com - Robby Soave:

May 29, 2019 - "Maryland's highest court will soon decide whether a 16-year-old girl, 'S.K.,' can face child pornography charges for taking a video of herself performing a sex act and sending it to a few of her close friends.

"S.K. shared the video, in which she performs consensual oral sex on an unidentified male, with two close friends and fellow students, who later reported her to the school resource officer. S.K. was the only person charged in connection with the alleged crime.

"The Special Court of Appeals upheld S.K.'s conviction, ruling that the consensual nature of the sex act in question was irrelevant, as was the fact that it was not illegal for S.K. to perform the act. Taking a video of the act and sending it to other people constituted distribution of child pornography, according to the court's decision....

"The Maryland Court of Appeals' ruling is expected later this year. The court, which is Maryland's equivalent of a state supreme court, heard oral arguments in February.... S.K.'s attorney, Public Defender Claudia Cortese, argued that the statute in question was not intended to punish minors for being featured in pornographic materials, but rather, to protect them. Punishing S.K., as the state has attempted to do, is cruel and authoritarian.

"The state, on the other hand, has asserted that S.K. needs guidance, and that probation and a mandatory mental health evaluation were reasonable outcomes.... Because her case on the distribution of child pornography was in juvenile court, the teen never faced a mandatory sentence or the possibility of having to register as a sex offender. She was put on probation and referred for a mental health evaluation.

"That teens shouldn't send sexy videos to each other — because they are bound to get out, cause embarrassment, and raise legal issues — is something S.K.'s parents, teachers, and school administrators could have impressed upon her without the heavy-handed involvement of the police and courts. It is draconian to charge a 16-year-old girl with trafficking in child pornography because she willingly filmed herself performing oral sex. Upholding S.K.'s conviction would set a disturbing precedent."

Read more: https://reason.com/2019/05/29/16-year-old-girl-sex-porn-child-court-case/
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PATRIOT Act warrant misused in FL sex sting

Sneak-and-Peek Warrant for Hidden Cameras at Florida Massage Parlors Faces Scrutiny - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Elizabeth Nolan Brown:

March 4, 2019 - "A central component of the recent investigation into Chinese massage-parlor sex was the secret installation of hidden cameras at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, Florida. Now defense attorneys are challenging the legality of this move. Permission for such surveillance stems from a provision of the PATRIOT Act that was passed with promises only to use the power against possible terrorists....

"In this case, police secretly filmed massage rooms in January 2019.... Caught on camera getting a massage and maybe more were New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and dozens of other men, who now face misdemeanor charges for allegedly soliciting prostitution. Workers and managers at the businesses were also arrested and stand accused of prostitution and racketeering.

"Police were able to secretly install the surveillance cameras thanks to a sneak-and-peek warrant. Such warrants were sold after 9/11 as a way to stop terrorism, but in practice they've mainly been used in investigations of drug crimes.

"Of the more than 11,000 such warrants issued in 2013, for instance, only 50 were related to terrorism; 9,401 were parts of drug investigations. In 2011, 5,093 of 6,775 requests for sneak-and-peek warrants were related to drug cases; just 31 were related to terrorism.....

"Now they're being used to stop prostitution under the guise of busting up international slavery rings.... [J]ust as local cops and federal authorities have used anti-terrorism tools to prosecute potheads, they've been keen on attacking all prostitution (a misdemeanor crime under local laws throughout most of the U.S.) as 'human trafficking,' a federal crime. Police in Palm Beach and Jupiter counties have been trotting out that claim this time too, although no sex trafficking or forced labor charges have been filed.

"As with so much of this case, that claim looks strange in light of the fact that the authorities spent months visiting and watching these businesses but not rescuing the women that they now say they suspect are trafficking victims....

"Several folks quoted by the Sun-Sentinel suggest that this case represents an unprecedented use of sneak-and-peek warrants — but that's not true even within Palm Beach County. As the same paper noted in 2014, Palm Beach authorities ran a similar massage-parlor sting operation back in 2007. They used a sneak-and-peek warrant to install cameras and catch sex acts on video back then, too. In that case, one massage parlor worker was arrested for prostitution and 25 men were arrested for solicitation of prostitution."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2019/03/04/sneak-and-peek-warrant-for-florida-sting
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Did Robert Kraft even commit a crime?

In A Truly Libertarian World, Robert Kraft Buying Sex Wouldn't Be A Crime - Jocelyn Glabach, Federalist Society:

February 25, 2019 - "Friday morning, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft found himself caught up in a prostitution sting spearheaded by Florida’s Jupiter Police Department.

"The details are still unfolding as to whether this was a consensual arrangement between two adults, or something more insidious involving sex trafficking. If it was the latter, one must wonder whether Kraft knew what he was getting into. But if this was run-of-the-mill prostitution, and he wanted to enter into relations with another consenting adult, and she with him, that should be none of our business.

"One of the pillars of libertarianism is self-ownership –– the idea that we have full autonomy over what we do with our bodies. Some gray area exists that divides the ideology on abortion, but sex is pretty standard: we are free to have sex with who we want, provided they are consenting and of reasonable age, and it should be none of the government’s business. So why would sex become the government’s business when money becomes a factor?

"One argument is that prostitution exploits women and elevates sex traffickers, so we ban it to [prevent] prostitution ... authorities ban X [and] supply goes down..... But what is the natural response?... X increases in value, a black market forms, cartels rise to power, organized crime grows, and the frequency of crime increases.... Prostitution, like marijuana, is not absolved from the laws of the market because of its implied immorality.

"[T]he solutions touted by the state of Florida ... won’t change demand in the slightest.... Just because the state wants people to behave in a certain way doesn’t mean they will. Wouldn’t it make more sense to attempt to get this industry out of the dark?

"All of this said, is sex trafficking the same as prostitution? Absolutely not. Sex trafficking deprives a victim of her autonomy and makes her a slave to her keeper. It is the antithesis of a voluntary contract, and sex traffickers should feel the full extent of the law over forcing their victims into compromising situations....

"Whether or not Kraft was a willing participant in voluntary prostitution or a knowing party in a sex trafficking ring is still unclear, but what is clear is that what consenting adults do with their bodies should not only be none of our business, and stand apart from the cancerous organized crime that is sex trafficking."

Read more: https://thefederalist.com/2019/02/25/in-a-truly-libertarian-world-robert-kraft-buying-sex-wouldnt-be-a-crime/
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Hollywood hypocrisy shown by The Favourite

Somebody’s Favorite | Liberty Unbound - Jo Anne Skousen:

February 10, 2019 - "In the wake of last year’s militant #MeToo movement, when actresses haughtily proclaimed, 'We will no longer be pressured into trading sex for jobs' (and bullied other actresses into wearing black at the event to show their solidarity), the Academy this year has bizarrely honored The Favourite with ten Oscar nominations, ... confirming once and for all (as if there were any doubt) that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has zero credibility and doesn’t know what the hell it is doing.

"Loosely based on the reign of Queen Anne and her relationships with Sarah Churchill,Duchess of Marlborough, and a servant named Abigail (eventually Lady Masham), the film suggests that the silly and childlike Anne made all of her decisions based on which woman’s tongue pleased her best — and I don’t mean by talking. The film fairly drips with transactional sex....

"Rachel Weisz, who plays Sarah Marlborough, called the film 'a funnier, sex-driven All About Eve.' In that film, an established star (Margo Channing) befriends an aspiring actress (Eve Harrington), only to see her try to usurp her position in the theater. Similarly, in The Favourite, a young social climber, Abigail (Emma Stone), .... worms her way cunningly — or in this case, cunnilingually — into the favor of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) by befriending and then pushing aside the queen’s long-standing confidante and advisor, Lady Churchill (Weisz), simultaneously finagling a financially and socially beneficial marriage to regain her aristocratic status.

"Don’t misunderstand my objection — I enjoy a good bedroom farce, with doors slamming, lovers hiding, comic timing, and double entendres galore. But this is different. The Favourite doesn’t just joke about sex; it celebrates the use of sex to gain political power, and hypocritically undermines everything these same preening, moralizing Hollywood hotshots stood up for just last year.

"It also seems to justify rape, as long as it’s funny.... When Lord Masham enters Abigail’s servant quarters without being invited, she asks him, 'Are you here to seduce me or to rape me?” He responds, “I’m a gentleman.' 'To rape me, then,' she deadpans, and the audience chuckles....

"All I’m asking is that the Academy pick a side and stick with it. Or admit that it really has no backbone or underlying moral principles whatsoever, and quit pretending to have the upper hand on social morality....

"Liberty readers might well enjoy The Favourite.... It’s bizarre in many ways, but it’s also witty, opulent, and well-acted. It presents three powerful women controlling the throne and politics of England in their own womanly way.... All three women use their sex for trade, but they do it willingly and deliberately, from a position of power rather than victimhood. Is it possible — even probable — that women in Hollywood have been doing the same thing for over a century, and only cried 'outrage!' (and somehow managed to blame Republicans) after they were caught?"

Read more: http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/1953

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HR 6729 expands Patriot Act surveillance powers

House to Vote on 'Human Trafficking' Bill That Strengthens PATRIOT Act Spying - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Elizabeth Nolan Brown:

September 24, 2018 - "A new bill that borrows language from the PATRIOT Act promises to nab human traffickers using the same surveillance techniques that law introduced to catch terrorists and their associates. We all know how that went... Now, legislators like Rep. Ann Wagner (R–Mo.) hope we won't notice if they feed us the same liberty-poisoning bologna with a new excuse.

"It's 'a disguised effort to expand the #PatriotAct,' tweeted Rep. Justin Amash (R–Mich.) on Saturday. 'GOP leaders put "Fight Human Trafficking" in the title to conceal the bill's true purpose: to give the government more power to unconstitutionally spy on law-abiding Americans without a warrant.'

"Wagner's bill (H.R. 6729) — the deceptively named "Empowering Financial Institutions to Fight Human Trafficking Act" of 2018 — is the latest in a long line of assaults on civil liberties disguised as attacks on the biggest crime panic of the decade, sex trafficking. Wagner [also] brought us the SAVE Act in 2015 and FOSTA in 2018, both of which take aim at online anonymity, web publishing, social media, sex workers, and free speech under the guise of saving children....

"H.R. 6729 would allow financial institutions, federal regulatory bodies, nonprofit organizations, and law enforcement to share customer bank records between them without running afoul of rules regarding consumer privacy and without opening themselves up to lawsuits.... But these entities need not demonstrate that the 'sharing was made on a good faith basis,' according to the current text of the bill....

"Cops working specific cases or pursing specific suspects can already obtain their financial records by going through court channels and using the subpoena process. What they want here is access to wide swaths of (subsequently shareable) financial data on customers accused of no crimes and facing no charges. And they want this data to be served up proactively by bank staffers ... and by nonprofits, who would be empowered to share information gleaned through the provision of social services.

"The language echoes Section 314 of the PATRIOT Act [which] was used by authorities to demand all sorts of information from banks. It also led banks to start dropping people with Middle Eastern surnames.... Jeff A. Taylor wrote here at Reason in 2004 [that] Section 314 turned out to be a 'ticking time-bomb for anyone a buttoned-down banker might consider suspicious'.... It would go on to be used ... as an all-purpose way for the feds to [monitor] random consumer financial transactions. A 2016 bill to directly expand Section 314 of the Patriot Act was narrowly defeated in the U.S. House of Representatives.....

"Introduced on September 6, Wagner's new bill has already received a first vote by the House Committee on Financial Services (44 for, five against) and five co-sponsors.... A full House vote is scheduled for Wednesday."

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/09/24/house-to-vote-on-human-trafficking-bill
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Stripper/activist Daniels arrested in police sting

Stormy Daniels Was Arrested Because of a Terrible Law That Threatens Free Expression - Reason.com - Marc Randazza:

July 13, 2018 - "Earlier this week, Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who says she took hush money to stay quiet about an alleged 2006 affair with Donald Trump, was arrested for violating an Ohio statute that prohibits a stripper from allowing patrons to touch her if she is nude or semi-nude. The statute used against her is an example of how free expression can fall victim to zealous moralizers — and how almost any law aimed at free expression can be used to punish a political opponent....

"There's no escaping the conclusion that erotic dancing is a form of expression protected by the Bill of Rights....  [However, in]  Renton v. Playtime Theatres (1986) ... the Supreme Court said that the government can't restrict adult businesses because the government doesn't like the expression therein — but it can restrict them, using zoning regulations, because of harmful effects the businesses may cause....

"By the early 2000's, adult entertainment businesses that survived the zoning wars got hit with the 'proximity' rules. The expressed reason for these regulations was to discourage prostitution. However, anyone who has spent time in a strip club knows that you must get somewhat close to the dancer in order to tip them. Try putting a dollar in a g-string without some incidental contact. Further, some regulations went so far as to prohibit patrons from even getting near a stripper....

"Daniels was arrested under one of these laws after an extensive sting operation. Why did the State of Ohio devote a team of police officers and hours of taxpayer-funded overtime to an investigation, raid, and arrest of a woman for the grave crime of touching another person while semi-nude?

"Daniels ... is an outspoken political activist. And, it seems that she was targeted, in particular, due to her political activism. Otherwise, why was there a massive sting operation involving multiple vice detectives on that particular night, a tour Daniels had advertised well in advance? It sure wasn't because the City of Columbus was under siege by a rash of touchy strippers.

"And therein lies the deeper evil in any and all laws aimed at free expression. When you give law enforcement a tool that can be used to target someone who has unpopular views, they will use it....

"The case against Stormy was immediately dropped ... because the statute has a strange quirk wherein it does not apply to performers who do not 'regularly appear' at the particular strip club. Nevertheless, the damage is done. The law on the books restricts free expression — and now that there has been a high profile arrest, the chilling effect will be palpable."

Read more: https://reason.com/archives/2018/07/13/stormy-daniels-was-arrested-because-of-a
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US Libertarians call for decriminalizing prostitution

Libertarian Party Adopts New Sex Work Plank, Becomes Only Notable U.S. Party to Endorse Prostitution Decriminalization - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Elizabeth Nolan Brown:

July 2, 2018 - "The Libertarian Party officially 'supports the decriminalization of prostitution,' according to a new plank in the party's political platform. This makes the L.P. the only notable U.S. political party to stand unequivocally for sex-worker rights and in opposition to cops caging people for consensual sex.

"'We assert the right of consenting adults to provide sexual services to clients for compensation, and the right of clients to purchase sexual services from consenting sex workers,' reads the new language, adopted ... at the Libertarian National Convention in New Orleans.... After some debate Monday morning, delegates adopted the decriminalization amendment as Plank 2.8 of the party's platform. The previous platform made no mention of sex work or prostitution. The language of the new amendment was drafted by sex workers, and L.P. delegates rejected a similar amendment in order to approve the sex-worker-penned version.

"The L.P.'s move comes the same week America's other most popular third party, the Greens, explicitly rejected a platform that protects sex worker rights.... In voting that ended July 1, Green Party delegates rejected a proposed platform amendment that would add the decriminalization to the party's official platform.....

"The Democratic platform makes no mention of prostitution or sex work, though it does contain at least a dozen references to sexual orientation. The Republican platform also avoids commentary on prostitution, though it does claim that 'Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the lives of millions.'"

Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/02/libertarians-call-for-sex-work-decrim
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Canada to repeal discriminatory anal sex ban

Canada to repeal discriminatory anal sex ban | The Independent - Charlotte England:

November 16, 2016 - "Anal sex is to be decriminalised in Canada.

"The country's centre-left Liberal government has said it intends to repeal Section 159 of the criminal code, which states that every person who engages in an act of anal intercourse is guilty of an 'indictable offence' and 'liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years'.

"Exceptions are made in the law for heterosexual married couples and for any two people over the age of 18 who both consent to the act. However anal sex is illegal for 16 and 17 year olds, in public places, and if more than two people 'take part or are present'.

"LGBT rights activists say the law is discriminatory because the legal age of consent for anal sex differs from the age of consent for almost all other forms of sex.

"People in Canada can legally have vaginal and oral sex when they are 16, as long as this does not involve prostitution or pornography, and the sex act does not occur 'in a relationship of authority, trust or dependency,' such as with a teacher or coach.

"Section 159 has been ruled unconstitutional by several different courts in cases spanning three decades. In the 1990s, Ontario’s Court of Appeal said the law violated Section 15 of the Canadian Charter by discriminating on the basis of age. Appellate courts in Quebec, Alberta, B.C. and Nova Scotia, and at the federal level, followed suit.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-anal-sex-ban-repeal-discriminatory-section-159-liberals-a7418191.html
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CA governor vetoes campus sexcrimes bill

Jerry Brown Vetoes Campus Sexual Assault Bill Because It Threatens Due Process - Hit & Run : Reason.com - Robby Soave:

October 16, 2017 - "Today California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Senate Bill 169, which would have codified the Obama-era Education Department's guidance for how college campuses should deal with sexual misconduct.

"What's more, he vetoed the bill on explicit due-process grounds. Accused students, guilty or not, 'must be treated fairly and with the presumption of innocence until the facts speak otherwise,' he wrote in a statement.

"Brown's veto comes at a time when the new Education Department, led by Betsy DeVos, is revising the guidance.... The California legislature tried to ensure that schools keep doing things the old way. But as Brown noted:

Thoughtful legal minds have increasingly questioned whether federal and state actions to prevent and redress sexual harassment and assault — well-intentioned as they are — have also unintentionally resulted in some colleges' failure to uphold due process for accused students. Depriving any student of higher education opportunities should not be done lightly, or out of fear of losing state or federal funding.

Given the strong state of our laws already, I am not prepared to codify additional requirements in reaction to a shifting federal landscape, when we haven't yet ascertained the full impact of what we recently enacted. We have no insight into how many formal investigations result in expulsion, what circumstances lead to expulsion, or whether there is disproportionate impact on race or ethnicity.

"Brown isn't wrong to suggest that the softening of due process protections for accused students might have disproportionately affected students of color. As Emily Yoffe discussed in a thoroughly reported series for The Atlantic, there are good reasons to think minority students are much more likely to run afoul of the campus anti-rape bureaucracy.

"I'm pleasantly surprised that Brown vetoed this bill and released such a strong statement reaffirming the importance of due process ... a brave stance that makes him an outlier within the Democratic Party, whose leaders have been far more likely to condemn DeVos for trying to tamper with the system."

Read more: http://reason.com/blog/2017/10/16/gov-jerry-brown-vetoes-campus-sexual-ass
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DDoS attack crashes libertarian site after gender differences article posted

Site Suffers DDoS Attack After Supporting James Damore - Toni Airaksinen, PJ Media:

August 9, 2017 - "Quillette Magazine, a small but respected libertarian publication based in Australia, suffered a DDoS attack Tuesday after publishing an article supportive of James Damore, the fired Google memo writer.

"The attack, which crashed the site for a day, came after Quillette published the opinion of four scientists on the Google memo. The scientists found that the conservative Google employee’s views on gender differences were supported by substantial scientific evidence.

"The Google memo’s 'key claims about sex differences are especially well-supported by large volumes of research across species, culture,' wrote Geoffrey Miller, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of New Mexico, explaining that the memo 'is consistent with the scientific state of the art on sex differences'....

"Deborah Soh, who has a PhD in sexual neuroscience and works as a Toronto-based science writer, concurred with Miller. 'Sex differences between women and men — when it comes to brain structure and function and associated differences in personality and occupational preferences — are understood to be true, because the evidence for them (thousands of studies) is strong.'

"'This is not information that’s considered controversial or up for debate; if you tried to argue otherwise, or for purely social influences, you’d be laughed at,' Soh said....

"Claire Lehmann, the founder of Quillette, told PJ Media that her website was especially susceptible to attack. While there are many programs that can be used to protect against DDoS attacks (which are when hackers flood websites with traffic to crash it), Claire said she didn’t have any....

"Her site, which has received endorsements from well-known figures such as Charles Murray and Richard Dawkins, ... has been dedicated to supporting alternative viewpoints since it launched in 2016.... [She] said her work is crucial to helping people see the truth behind things. 'It’s important to hear alternative viewpoints so that we can work out what is the truth, and not merely consensus,' Lehmann said."

Read more: https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/08/09/libertarian-site-suffers-ddos-attack-after-supporting-google-worker/
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Amnesty International: decriminalize sex trade

Amnesty approves policy to decriminalise sex trade | World news | The Guardian - Jessica Elgot:

August 11, 2015 - "Amnesty International has approved a policy to endorse the decriminalisation of the sex trade.

"At its decision-making forum in Dublin, the human rights group approved the resolution to recommend 'full decriminalisation of all aspects of consensual sex work'.

"It argued that its research suggested decriminalisation was the best way to defend the rights of sex workers, rejecting complaints by women’s groups who said it was tantamount to advocating the legalisation of pimping and brothel-owning.

"'We recognise that this critical human rights issue is hugely complex and that is why we have addressed this issue from the perspective of international human rights standards,' said Salil Shetty, the secretary general of Amnesty International. 'We also consulted with our global movement to take on board different views from around the world.'

"Amnesty’s decision is important because the organisation will use its weight to lobby governments to accept its point of view.

"Many former sex workers have criticised the decision.... However Amnesty’s decision has also been welcomed by some sex industry figures. 'I am thrilled,' said Laura Lee, an Irish sex worker and activist. 'It is the best way forward to take sex work out of the Dark Ages and give us the rights and protection we deserve.'

Morgane Merteuil, a former sex worker and general secretary of the French sex workers’ trade union Strass, told Newsweek: 'We support this because from experience we know that criminalisation harms sex workers, their human rights and their capacity to self-organise and fight against abusers.

"'The crimes committed against sex workers are already crimes. But the law against pimping also criminalises individuals who come into contact with prostitutes. It makes it harder for sex workers to build relationships, it means they can’t tell people what they do, they can’t share their money and they can’t get access to healthcare.'"

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/11/amnesty-approves-policy-to-decriminalise-sex-trade
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Top South Korean court strikes down adultery law

Cheaters Rejoice? Adultery Is No Longer A Crime In South Korea : LIFE : Tech Times - Rhodi Lee:

February 27, 2015 - "For more than 60 years, South Korea has criminalized extra-marital sex, punishing violators with jail time of up to two years. Now, the country's Constitutional Court has struck down this controversial adultery law on Thursday, Feb. 26.

"The nine-member bench ruled by a 7-2 decision that Article 241 of the criminal code was unconstitutional. The objective of the 1953 statute was to protect traditional family values, but Thursday's decision reflects a rising importance of personal choice over marital order in the country.

"'The article violates individuals' freedom to choose their sexual partners and their right to privacy,' five of the justices opined. 'Not only is the anti-adultery law gradually losing its place in the world, it no longer reflects our people's way of thinking.' The court likewise said that maintaining marriage and family should be based on a person's free will and love. It also pointed out that the law has frequently been misused for blackmail and divorce suits.

"Two of the justices said that family issues should not be criminalized or at least the severity of the penalty would depend on the intricacy of the matter. The two opposing justices on the other hand said that the law is needed to protect the institution of marriage and sexual ethics.

"Since 1953, about 100,000 South Koreans have been convicted of adultery but the number of convictions has dwindled over the years. Over the past five years, 5,466 individuals have been charged for engaging in adulterous relationships. With the abolition of the law, charges on these individuals have been annulled; those convicted are eligible to apply for retrials. Adulterers who were jailed can ask for compensation from the state."

Read more: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/35714/20150227/cheaters-rejoice-adultery-is-no-longer-a-crime-in-south-korea.htm
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From porn star to student libertarian organizer

Belle Knox Is Remaking Herself As A Libertarian - Business Insider - Hunter Walker:

January 28 2015 - "College sophomore Miriam Weeks found herself at the center of an international controversy last year when she became infamous as the 'Duke porn star'.

"Now, Weeks wants to make waves in the political world.

"She's working with a libertarian group on her campus and has a burgeoning public speaking career....

"'I think that my work and being in the porn industry definitely hits on so many libertarian themes like free speech, and censorship, and, you know, choice and autonomy over our bodies,' Weeks explained. 'So I think that I've really become passionate about libertarian issues because of the intersection.'

"Her public life began after a fellow student at Duke University revealed to their classmates that Weeks was performing in adult films using the alter ego 'Belle Knox.' Weeks took control of the situation and gave a series of interviews where she said she entered the porn industry to help pay for college and discussed the social stigma against sex workers. She also identified herself as a libertarian.... 'very socially liberal, but ... very economically conservative.'

"According to Weeks, a friend who saw these early interviews referred her to Students For Liberty, an organization that bills itself as 'the largest libertarian student organization in the world.' She joined the group last summer, in between her freshman and sophomore year, and participated in its training programs online and in Washington, D.C.

"Now, Weeks is the campus coordinator for Students for Liberty at Duke. In this capacity, Weeks said she brings speakers to campus, attends conferences and seminars, posts flyers, and maintains a presence for the group at school events. On the Students for Liberty website, Weeks identifies her 'favorite figures in liberty' as Ayn Rand, economist Milton Friedman, and two other activists whose careers have included both sex and politics: porn star Nina Hartley and former call girl Maggie McNeill."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/belle-knox-is-remaking-herself-as-a-libertarian-2015-1
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Rapes, STDs drop when prostitution legal in RI

When Rhode Island accidentally legalized prostitution, rape decreased sharply - Max Ehrenfreud, Wonkblog, Washington Post:

July 17, 2014 - "For decades, few people noticed that legislators in Providence had deleted crucial language from Rhode Island state law in 1980. It wasn't until a 2003 court case that police, to their chagrin, discovered they couldn't prevent prostitutes and their customers from engaging in commercial exchange.

"For the next six years until legislators corrected their error, the oldest profession was not a crime in Rhode Island – and public health and public safety substantially improved as a result, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The statewide incidence of gonorrhea among women declined by 39 percent, and the number of rapes reported to police in the state declined by 31 percent, according to the paper.

"The study by Baylor University's Scott Cunningham and Manisha Shah of the University of California, Los Angeles ... appears to be the first quantitative evidence that removing criminal penalties for prostitutes can reduce violence against women and curtail sexually transmitted infections in society generally – and dramatically so....

"Shah and Cunningham ... found that more women entered prostitution, particularly white and Asian women, and that the price of their services fell. In addition to the lower rate of gonorrhea infections among women, Shah and Cunningham estimated that decriminalizing prostitution prevented 824 rapes that would have been otherwise reported to police – and presumably many more that otherwise would not have been reported in any case.

"The decline in the number of rapes was so large that Cunningham and Shah felt obliged to examine their data with three separate statistical methods, but the effect persisted. The authors were eventually persuaded that their result was not a fluke, and that imposing criminal sanctions on prostitutes and their clients might cause violence against women. 'The human costs are so big, if this is in fact a very real causal effect,' Cunningham said. 'I think we have convinced ourselves that we have done everything we can do rule out alternative explanations.'"

Read more:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/17/when-rhode-island-accidentally-legalized-prostitution-rape-and-stis-decreased-sharply/