re: article on Secret Gospel Church


Something in your article scared me, I actually lost sleep over
it. 

In the context of the article, the writer asked the police, ``was
anyone charged with unsafe sex?'' Of course the officer said no
-- UNSAFE SEX IS NOT A CRIME!! The unspoken logic behind the
question is very, very dangerous to our civil liberties, and will
be a precedent for losing even more.

The point is this: I and literally everyone I know agrees that
``unsafe sex'' is bad, dangerous, etc. But regardless, it is
absolutely a personal decision. It can be nothing more nor less. 

An anonymous sex-club operator was quoted as saying something to
the effect of, when we have people in our clubs, we have an
obligation to keep them safe from fire, etc, and also unsafe sex.

Does this guy work for the police?! Fire and related issues are
{\it environmental} -- they are part of the structure. Safe sex
is between the participants. The only way to ``ensure safe sex''
is -- how? Monitors in the rooms? Video surveillance? Sure, the
monitors will be ``people from our community'' not the police --
but besides not being able to tell the difference, it sets the
precedence of stating {\it you cannot be trusted, you must be
monitored.}

Taking this a little, but not very much, further, if unsafe sex
is so dangerous, it must be stopped everywhere. In Georgia, the
police can arrest you for homo-sex, period -- why not make it a
felony to have unsafe sex?

My feeling is that the people who want to shut down sex clubs,
even or maybe especially the gay ones, simply haven't gotten it
through their heads what {\it tolerance} means, nor the ideas
behind the Bill of Rights -- you simply can't {\it control} what
people do, even if you think it is evil, simply because you feel
strongly against it. Helms can run for senator if he wants to. TV
christians can say you're going to hell and take fools money. It
is their right to do so. Their right stops variously when they
attempt to control others behavior, no matter how well meaning.
Or not.

\bye
