one of these things is not like the other

I went to a training on Measure 11 today at my internship which really got me going and I am absolutely furious.  Not only am I furious with the law but I'm furious with society, with the presenters and with myself for not speaking up during the presentation.

I'm not 100% clear on what Measure 11 encompasses but here's what I got from the training.  In 1994 or 1995, Measure 11 was passed in Oregon in order to scare people away from committing crime.  14 or 16 crimes were originally identified and labeled with stiff mandatory minimum sentences that the judges couldn't alter if a person is found guilty of them.  Other crimes were added a few years later but the original crimes consisted of things like Manslaughter, robbery, assault, rape and sodomy.  Now, I know that sodomy laws were overturned nationally by Lawrence vs Texas so I asked, "Have any of these crimes been taken off of the list since 1995?" and the answer was no.  Confused, I did a quick google search on my Droid and discovered that, yes, sodomy is illegal in Oregon according to Measure 11.

While I was doing this search and throughout the training, we discussed the differences between robbery and theft and even went so far as to demonstrate how theft becomes robbery and were told how to avoid the robbery charge.  The attendees consisted of a lot of staff from my internship but also a good handful of youth who had heard of Measure 11 but were surprised by the explained differences of robbery, assault, burglary, theft, etc.  Meanwhile, sodomy remained on this list in front of everyone along with this insidious crimes.

Walking back from the training with Dave, I expressed my confusion over the legalities of sodomy.  He stated that he remembered another staff member being confused about that and looking it up.  He said that staff member identified the key word in the billing was "non-consensual."  Um, yeah, otherwise it's rape.  Sure enough, when we got back to my internship site, I looked up Measure 11 and did more extensive digging.  All of my basic searches confirmed that sodomy was illegal.  It wasn't until I pulled up the bill and read their definitions of sodomy that I learned the truth.  Sodomy as defined by Measure 11 have three different degrees.  Sodomy in the 1st degree is sodomy with a minor under the age of 16.  Sodomy in the 2nd degree is sodomy with a minor under the age of 12.  Sodomy in the 3rd degree is non-consensual sodomy or sodomy with someone who is considered to be mentally unfit to give their consent.  So basically, they mean statutory rape or just flat-out rape.

I have a couple thoughts on their choice of wording.  First, it's homophobic.  Sodomy may have been illegal when the bill was introduced but the wording wasn't changed when it was declared legal.  I perceive this as a scare tactic by the heterosexist powers that be to 'warn' youth or the uninformed and still closeted about the horrors of the homosexual lifestyle.  Not only is it evil in the eyes of the church but also by the letter of the law.  Fuck them and fuck that.  This is why kids questioning their sexuality kill themselves.  I am so enraged all again just writing this.  Second, rape can't be applied to men.  This is our sexist society comes into play.  Rape is something that happens only to women because of the stigma attached to it, identifying women as being the ones who get victimized.  Hell, I'm surprised they don't just refer to sodomy as assault but that wouldn't carry that homophobic warning.

Anyway, I think I'm going to do something about this.  When I have time, I will make this my campaign.  Sigh, I love getting worked up about stuff like this and challenging the powers that be but, damn, I don't have the time right now!