[TRIGGER WARNING: This story discusses sexual assault and rape culture.] The police department, county prosecutor’s office and university in my hometown of Missoula, Montana, are under investigation by the U.S. […]
Tag: Justice System
Who’s Watching the Detectives?
Since President Obama took office, the Department of Justice has emerged as a formidable force in holding police accountable. The Department of Justice has initiated 18 investigations into police activities […]
17-Year-Old Imprisoned for Failing To Testify Against Her Alleged Rapist
Update 4/17/12: After more than three weeks in juvenile detention, the victim has been released with a GPS ankle bracelet. She is scheduled to appear in court on April 23. […]
5 Questions To Ask Defenders of DOMA
Opponents of marriage equality have grown so accustomed to parroting the same arguments over and over again that they don’t seem to notice the ground shifting under their feet. Such […]
Am I Troy Davis? A Slut?
1. On September 21, 2011, I joined hundreds of my friends and millions of people around the world to watch, through tears and in abject horror, as Troy Anthony Davis was executed […]
Troy Davis Is Gone, But the Struggle Goes On
Like many, I was glued to Democracy Now’s live broadcast on the night of Wednesday, Sept. 21, from 6 p.m. until shortly after 11:08 p.m., the time that Troy Davis […]
42 Years After Stonewall, A Look at Policing of Queer and Trans People
Forty-two years ago, the Stonewall riot was sparked by a police round-up of trans women and drag queens. Now, a new anthology from AK Press, Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and […]
Anti-Trafficking Enforcement in U.S. is an Abysmal Failure
It’s been over a decade since the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) was passed into law, and a new report from the Bureau of Justice […]
Obama Administration Says Marriage is Between a Woman and a Woman
Karen Golinski has a wife. She and Amy Cunninghis have been legally married in the state of California since August of 2008. And now, even the Obama Administration’s Department of […]
A Cheerleader’s Rape in a Small Texas Town
Maybe it’s the cheer that makes this one rape among hundreds of thousands that occur in the U.S. each year so resonant. As Rakheem Bolton came to the free throw line during a February 2009 basketball game, the Silsbee High cheerleading squad had a rhyme at the ready: two, four, six, eight, ten, come on Rakheem, put it in. Four months earlier, cheerleader Hillaire S. had alleged that Bolton had raped her at a house party. And now she was being asked to gleefully urge him to “put it in.”