THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OPINION
ask r he ade, rights
do lose percitednt in overrtion
WWW.KANSAN.COM
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2005
Discrimination: Kansas needs some Limon-Aid
PAGE 5A
Here's a surprise for you: The state of Kansas is again in the news for perpetuating the stereotype of the Midwest as discriminatory and intolerant. This is all shocking, I know.
This time, it's because one boy had oral sex with another
Matthew Limon and the other boy lived together in a home for developmentally disabled teens. Limon had just turned 18; the other boy was a month short of 15. It was consensual.
According to Kansas law, having sexual relations with anyone under the age of 16 is illegal.
Kansas law makes a distinction, however, if the offender is younger than 19 and less than 4 years older than the victim.
RYAN MULVENON
opinion@kansan.com
Until a week ago, this only applied if the parties involved were members of the opposite sex. Limon was sentenced to 17 years in jail for a little felatio.
Had the younger child been a girl, Limon's punishment would have been for 15
months or less.
Now, after five years and many appeals, Limon is finally on his way out of jail. The Kansas Supreme Court declared that underage gay sex cannot be punished more harshly than straight sex.
Previously, the state appeals court had rejected the case, with Judge Henry W. Green Jr. justifying his stance by saying it promoted "traditional sexual mores" and "marriage, procreation and parental responsibility." He added that it prevented the spread of disease.
Phill Kline, the state's attorney general, wrote in a brief on the case that a change in
The sexual acts Limon performed don't speak for the entire gay population, just as Lorena Bobitt cutting off her husband's penis doesn't speak for the entire straight population.
the statutory rape laws could lead to "allowing such combinations as three-party marriages, incestuous marriages.
Gay individuals aren't disease-spreaders or harbingers of societal destruction.
The sexual acts Limon performed don't speak for the entire gay population, just as Lorena Bobbitt cutting off her husband's penis doesn't speak for the entire straight population.
Sex between a 14-year-old and an 18-year-old is somewhat inappropriate, but it should also be noted that the boys were in a home for the developmentally disabled.
Limon is mildly retarded, and the boy's condition has never been stated. This could
have greatly impacted their decision to have sex.
This ruling by the state Supreme Court is definitely a step toward more positive change. Gay individuals might even gain the right to marry before we die.
After all, we cannot forget Amendment 14 to the Constitution, which states that "no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."
I can only hope.
- Mulvenon is an Olathe freshman in art history and English.
Free All for
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To facebook.com hook-up or not to facebook.com
hook-up... That is the question.
Tonight's Free for All is brought to you by the North Tempel Liberation Front.
OK, so love is supposed to strike you when you least suspect it. Well, I least suspect it, so uh, how about a little help here
Be a man absent the noble facebook.com less a man? Methinks 'its so.
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little help here.
Hey, Free for All, where were you at the curling club meeting, man? I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news or anything, but Coach told me to tell you that if you don't start coming to the meetings, we're going to have to cut you from the team.
Gosh, what is up with these hills?
KU is a constant blindspot!
This morning I woke up and I realized that I had peed the bed, and my alarm clock went off, but I just hit the snooze button because I didn't care.
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Oh, and I'm not going to change my sheets tonight because I like to sleep in my own urine.
I'm not gay, but if I was, I have to tell you,
I'd be really, really, really hot.
Thank God your mailbox isn't full. I just wanted to say Happy Halloween, and oh yeah, I'm Star Trek.
I told a drunk Mizzou fan that his team sucked today, and he said, "I concur," to which I responded, "At least you admit it."
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I just want to say that I met a guy named August at a party tonight, and if you put this in there, just put, "August, you're really cute, and I'm sorry I didn't hit on you more tonight, because you totally would have been worth it. "That's all. Thanks.
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To all the students who rushed the field after the game:
Thanks for making us look bad.
Free for All, what possesses somebody to fill a pumpkin full of cement and chain it to a bike-rack? I ask you.
Uh, I'm sorry, what was that about the Chiefs being pretty much perfect? What's the score?
Uh... What's the score?
Hey, Free for All, I just wanted to send out an apology to all the folks at Teller's.
I was at the football game on Saturday, and apparently Baby Jay hates black people.
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Guy 1: OK so I just called about Baby Jay hating black people because he was wearing a white sheet.
Guy 2: Just hang up the phone!
Hey, when we beat K-State in basketball this year, are we going to rush the court and cut down the nets? Because we definitely just rushed the field after our third year of beating Missouri. Sweet.
got it rig
Daylight savings time is stupid. At least two states got it right.
I had braces freshman year, and now I have straight teeth.
Is anyone else really excited that we're getting a Quiktrip?
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Bill to cut unnecessary spending
come students.
This statement is a fallacy. Tuition would be easier to pay and much more affordable because of the reduction of money taken from these middle and lower-in-
This letter concerns the article about the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR). In the Oct. 25 edition of The University Daily Kansan, an article entitled "Legislation would limit University funds," states, "TABOR would price middle- and lower-income students out of tuition."
TABOR's purpose is to cause a reduction of the out-of-control spending in Kansas. TABOR sets a limit on how much of your money the government of Kansas may spend per year.
This reduction in money stolen from them by the government would allow them to have a higher income and more money to spend on tuition.
may spend per person The Taxpayer Bill of Rights allows only politicians to increase
spending by the rate of inflation plus population growth. TABOR will not hurt the University, it will only limit increases in its funding.
If the University currently has the money to waste on an $88,900 logo, does it really need to rob more taxpayers of their hard-earned money?
- Tennyson Cambern Marietta, GA sophomore KU Libertarians
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
In his Oct. 12 letter "Military is diverse enough," Karl Rubis implies that the "don't ask, don't tell" policies of the Clinton administration suffices as proper integration for LGBT people in the military.
With this policy, Rubis claims that the military "consistently leads most other professions in the country in its non-discrimination."
In 2000, a survey by the Defense Department inspector general showed that 80 percent of service members had heard offensive speech, derogatory names, jokes or remarks about gays in the previous year, and that 85 percent thought such comments were tolerated. Furthermore, since the implementation of "don't ask, don't tell," dishonorable discharges based on violation of the policy had doubled from 617 in 1994 to
What Rubi neglected to mention were some of the realities of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Since its inception in 1993, many civil rights groups and LGBT rights
"Don't ask, don't tell" is, at its best, a P.R. tool used to trick people who think the military is diverse and fully integrated. Rather than actually accommodating LGBT people in the military, it simply asks them to keep quiet about their sexual orientation. This is not integration, and it is certainly still discrimination.
1,273 in 2001. The policy seems to be ousting more LGBT soldiers than it is including them.
organizations have condemned "don't ask, don't tell" for its ineffectiveness as a compromise.
Patrick Tyrrell Lawrence sophomore
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Former drug users often have special insight, experiences
Despite its title's vulgar and despicable abuse of alliteration, I found Betsy McLeod's Oct. 25 column, "Persistant pill-popping popularizing," about prescription drug abuse well. I was happy to see it.
...well, I was happy to see it.
I think a lot people are on drugs. Regardless of whether this is a world/society-ending phenomenon or something now inherent in the American youth experience that we will simply have to deal with, there doesn't seem to be much intelligent discussion about it.
If there is discussion, it seems to be polarized and, as polarized discussions commonly are, decidedly unproductive.
active.
Ms. McLeod's use of a first-person context immediately qualifies her as an expert on the topic or at least much more of an expert than any one of those treacherous "old people" who demonize substance abuse while shaking from caffeine overload all day and falling asleep only after their nightly highballs.
Her insider perspective gives clout to her analyses of the roots and practices of prescription abuse, which seem spot-on to someone
ONLINE
Regardless of whether (drug use) is a world/society ending phenomenon or something now inherent in the American youth experience that we will simply have to deal with, there doesn't seem to be much intelligent discussion about it.
- Beisy McLeod's article can be found on our Web site at http://www.kansan.com/stories/2005/07/25/mclood/
who spent a large part of his undergraduate years messing with things he probably shouldn't have.
As drug abuse's effects on individuals vary, its effects on
society are unclear, but are probably more harmful than benign.
The large quantity of people who do drugs suggests that drug abuse is a formative element that deserves much more intelligent public discussion than it is allotted.
Those people who do, deal have done or have dealt drugs can offer some of the most important insight.
Once one passes a certain threshold into drug culture, the hype and myths disappear, leaving only experience and observation.
The way in which stigmas surrounding drugs can strip users of credibility concerning just about anything seems contradictory to the notion that the most accurate knowledge is obtained through experience.
You can't talk about drug abuse intelligently unless you've abused drugs, or have been surrounded by those who do.
Drug users can be experts on drugs and should be respected as such.
- Nate Martin is a Rock Springs, Wyo., graduate student in journalism