Attention Outgoing US Governors

There are state and territory Governors in the US who are rapidly approaching the end of their terms as Governor and will be leaving that office.

We are respectfully imploring you to use your executive powers to pardon any of your residents convicted of crimes due to having consensual (to be redundant) sex under anti-incest laws, whether they are currently in the justice system or not, even if they have since passed away.

Let's be clear. We're not talking about assault or child molestation. We're talking about sex between consenting adults (or between minors close in age to each other), still criminalized in your states. The laws should be changed, but since they haven't been yet, please have mercy on these people.

This plea is directed at the following Governors:

Steve Bullock - Montana

Chris Sununu - New Hampshire

Gary Herbert - Utah

Lolo Matalasi Moliga - American Samoa

Wanda Vázquez Garced - Puerto Rico

If we've missed an outgoing Governor or incorrectly included a Governor, we apologize.

If you have the power to do so, pardon or at least commute the sentences of those listed as criminals due to consanguineous affections.

If you are the Governor or someone on the Governor's staff, or someone with access to the Governor, please act quickly to get this done. We know time is very limited.

There is no good reason these people should suffer any more for having had a physical relationship.

Let's stop wasting public resources on treating these people like they are a threat to anyone. If they were convicted of additional crimes relating to the investigation, their arrest, prosecution, etc., please consider pardoning them of those, too.

Do the kind, merciful, and just thing as you end your term as Governor. Get on the right side of history!

Please pardon!

Equality Still Being Denied in US

There is a ways to go for full marriage equality in the US. It's going to happen, and we're helping to make it happen sooner rather than later. There is no good reason to deny people their rights. Equality applies to all or it isn't equality.

Kendra Hall/Arizona Sonora News reports an example of a same-gender couple still fighting for their rights.

Alray Nelson and his partner, Brennen Yonnie. Photo by Alray Nelson.

For Navajo tribal members, same-sex marriage is not legal although it is now legal in the United States.

“Once again, we were forgotten on a national level and the fight for marriage equality is not over,” said Alray Nelson, Navajo member and lead organizer for the Coalition for Navajo Equality. “It’s not ended. We’re still here fighting.”

Good for them!

In 2005, the Navajo Nation Council passed a law called the Diné Marriage Act. This law was enacted to specify marriage laws for Navajo members.

In section three, it states, “Marriage between persons of the same sex is void and prohibited.”

Legally a gay, Navajo couple could obtain a marriage license in the state of Arizona, but this couple would not be able to receive Navajo employee benefits, receive home site-leases and according to the Coalition for Navajo Equality a same-sex couple may not be allowed adopt a Native American child.

That's terrible.

The Cherokee tribe also banned same-sex marriage, defining marriage specifically between a man and a woman. According to Nelson, only 12 out of 566 tribes provide protections for same-sex marriage couples.

This needs to change, and it will. It's awful that people who've been subjected to so much bigotry would keep perpetuating bigotry.

Meanwhile, in Montana, a judge apparently didn't get the memo the Supreme Court sent. Here's a report at khq.com about the polygamous freedom to marry still being denied.

A federal magistrate judge has ruled against a polygamous trio in Billings seeking to strike down Montana's bigamy laws.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Carolyn Ostby ruled Monday that Nathan, Victoria and Christine Collier must show that the laws have harmed them, or that they have been threatened with prosecution, before they can file a lawsuit.

Ostby's ruling is not the final say. Her findings and recommendations can be upheld or rejected by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters.

So the door is still open there.

What Do Montana and Zambia Have in Common?

Both places criminally prosecute adults for consensual sex. We told you in this posting how a family was being broken up by the prosecution of siblings who had been living as spouses. Barbara Chanda gives this infuriating update at daily-mail.co.zm...

MINISTER of Community Development, Mother and Child Health Joseph Kasonde says the ministry is assessing the plight of the abandoned children of the incestuous couple of Serenje.

Dr Katema said it was unfortunate that the innocent children have been abandoned by their extended family and the community.

Their parents shouldn't have been taken away from them in the first place!

After Nicholas Mukuwa Bulaya, 38, and Bertha Chipapuka, 35, were arrested and charged for incest, their relatives and community abandoned the five children, who are now reportedly living on their own at their parents’ farm.

This problem is one the authorities have created for themselves, and children are suffering as a result.

And yes, Montana is still going ahead with a prosecution as well, one that we told you about in this posting. Emily Foster reports at abcfoxmontana.com...

A man accused of having consensual sex with his 19-year-old daughter pleads not guilty in Missoula District Court.

Russell Smith, 48, is charged with one felony count of incest.

Court documents show Smith moved from Alaska to Missoula to live with his daughter and her roommate.

The girl's roommate called police when she learned Smith and his daughter were having sex, and were planning to get married.

The roommate is a rat. Prosecuting adults for CONSENSUAL sex is ridiculous. Let them be together, and let them marry.

Two examples of why relationship rights and full marriage equality are needed for ALL adults.

Is Montana Prosecuting Consenting Adults?

Peter Christian reports at newstalkkgvo.com about what appears to be a prosecution of consensual sex by the state of Montana...

An Alaska man, Russell Whitfield Smith, 48, was charged in Missoula Justice Court on Wednesday, December 11, with committing incest with his adult daughter, 19, in her Missoula home.

According to court documents, law enforcement received a call from Child Protective Services on December 10  that a father was having consensual sex with his biological daughter.

Consensual sex. If it is consensual, with a 19-year-old, it shouldn't be a crime.

Russell W. Smith had moved to Missoula from Alaska and was living with his daughter and they were having sex.

This makes me wonder if this is a case of Genetic Sexual Attraction. If she had not previously been living with him, it could very well be.

The victim’s roommate reported the incidents to authorities, confirming that they were having sex and planned to marry.

So again, this sounds like a consensual relationship and the roommate, possibly jealous or just bigoted, ratted them out. This is why I say consanguineous lovers should protect themselves.

Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Clark said that the victim was mentally disabled, and that her father was taking advantage of her.

So is Clark alleging that the 19-year-old is unable to consent to sex with anyone? If she is legally able to consent to group sex with 5 cage fighters she just met, why not Smith?

Incest is a felony, punishable by from two to four years or more than 100 years or life in the Montana State Prison, and a $50,000 fine.

It is ridiculous that anyone would be criminally prosecuted for consensual sex, let alone be sent to prison for 100 years! Criminal prosecution should be reserved for assault/rape, where I can definitely understand a 100-year prison sentence.

Unjustly Convicted or Getting What He Deserves?

From Montana comes this report, “Jury convicts Helena man on incest charge,” which is scant with relevant details. The Independent Record has a few skips in it. (You young’uns might not get that reference.)

A Helena man was convicted late Thursday in District Court of incest Thursday evening.

Once again, we must note that “incest” can mean rape, including rape of a minor, or consensual sex with an adult. Those are two very different things. Which was it? We aren’t told. Since he wasn’t convicted of sexual assault, isn’t that an indication that this was consensual?

Randy Bill Ring, 57, is already serving a two-year federal prison sentence for possessing 11 guns after being prohibited to do so following a forgery conviction in Powell County in 2008.

The man is no stranger to the law. Still, unjust laws are unjust regardless to whom they are applied.

In the incest case, prosecutors said Ring gave alcohol to a family member in February 2010 and had intercourse with her.

“Had intercourse with” doesn’t sound like assault. “Gave alcohol” is also vague. If she didn’t know she was drinking alcohol, or was under the age of 21 (or 18… I’m not going to bother to look up the drinking laws in Montana,) wouldn’t he have been charged with those crimes? And how much alcohol did she actually consume? I know some are of the belief that any amount of alcohol consumption on the part of a woman means that any male who subsequently has sex with her is guilty of assault, but I don’t buy that. (Perhaps if you do, we should close down all bars.) The article doesn’t say she was inebriated.

He could face 100 years in prison for the crime.

District Judge James Reynolds set a sentencing hearing for April 5.

I sure hope this isn’t another case of someone being prosecuted and convicted for consensual sex. It is outrageous that someone could be sentenced to 100 years in prison for that. An adult should be free to share love, sex, residence, and marriage with any consenting adults without prosecution. If this was a matter of a sexual assault, the language of the article and the charges should have reflected that.

It is too bad we don’t have more information.

You do know that if you serve on a jury and you do not think the laws applied are just, you have the ability to acquit the defendant, right?

Man Charged With Incest Apparently Kills Self

A Michael Kimball, someone I wrote about in this earlier posting, apparently killed himself in his jail cell.

According to a press release from Commander Dan O'Fallon, Kimball had contact with Detention staff about 15 minutes before he was found hanging in his cell.

Kimball was transported to Emergency Room and was pronounced dead around 1 am on Thursday.

O'Fallon says Kimball was moved into the private cell two hours prior to the incident and was checked on six times during that period.

As a reminder…

Kimball was charged in March with two counts of incest for allegedly having sex with one of his children several times from 2007 to 2010.

Atrociously, there is still no indication in this report as to whether this was consensual sex with adult offspring, or whether this was child/statutory rape. If it was the latter, then I’d say good riddance. If it was the former, then this is a serious miscarriage of justice.

Child Abuser or Merely a Cheater? Or Innocent?

This news report is woefully lacking in information. Please see what I’ve written about reports like this. Michael Kimball of Great Falls, Montana is charged with two counts of incest.

Court documents state that Kimball committed various sexual acts with one of his children over a period of six years.

The article never gives the age of his child. Someone’s child can be an adult.

The victim told police the first incident occurred in late summer 2005, and that sexual intercourse occurred two to three times per week from February 2007 to July 2010.

Kimball also requested the victim send him nude photos and explicit videos.

This indicates to me that he wasn’t living with his child.

According to the affidavit, Kimball admitted having sex with the victim when confronted by his wife.

So is his wife the mother of his child? Did she turn him in? Was she protecting her minor child, or confronting her husband about his cheating (with an adult relative?) The former should mean a severe prison sentence. The latter, while not something I support because of the cheating, should not be a crime.

UPDATE: The suspect killed himself.