Alabama •

It’s frightening to see that people are opposing Hurst’s initiative not thinking about the children.

(Mirror Daily, United States) – We’ve all seen the touching Oscars performance that Lady Gaga gave. Sexual abuse survivors of all ages appeared on the scene next to her while trying to choke back tears. “Until it happens to you” reverberated around the still, touched audience. It’s obvious that the victims are left scarred for life. But what happens to the offenders? An Alabama legislator proposed chemical castration as punishment for child rapists.

Steve Hurst is proposing that sexual offenders that target children under the age of twelve be castrated (surgically or chemically). And the world is turning against him.

According to the bill that Hurst is trying to push, sexual molesters would have to be 21-year-old or more, they would have to finish their sentence and, the rapists must also pay for the procedure themselves.

It sounds like a harsh sentence, but as the Alabama legislator puts it, “the punishment must fit the crime”. He defends his bill against the people attacking his lack of humanity saying that he is not a monster for proposing such drastic measures.

The real monsters are those people who take advantage of an innocent, defenseless child. For a couple of minutes of pleasure, they scar the infant for life. Why should they serve some years in prison and then go back to minding their own business, free, on the streets while their victims go through hours of therapy, some ending up committing suicide?

And Hurst is not proposing something that out of the ordinary. States like Florida, California, Louisiana, Georgia, Oregon, Montana, Wisconsin and Texas already allow surgical or chemical castration for those found guilty of repeated sexual offenses.

This is not the first time when the Republican state representative tried to introduce the new legislation.

The Civil Liberties American Union and other groups that focus on defending fundamental human rights are opposing the bill qualifying it as being unusual and cruel.

In response, Hurst asked them who is more inhumane, the individual trying to impose a severe punishment that will make molesters think twice before robbing children of their innocence, or the monster that looks at a minor and gets aroused? A person who pushes a young child into having suicidal thoughts triggered by a sexual assault is not a human being and should be treated in accordance.

An Alabama legislator proposed chemical castration as punishment for child rapists, and the world seems more focused on defending the offenders rather than the victims.

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Alabama has commenced issuing marriage licenses to same couples from Monday. This follows a Supreme Court ruling which refused to extend a stay on a federal judge’s earlier ruling.

Alabama became the 37^th state were same sex can legally wed when Judge Alan King of Jefferson County Probate Court in Birmingham issued the first license to two women. Judge King went on to issue several more licenses.

Dee Bush, who has been with her partner Laura Bush for seven years, became a couple legally. They have five children between them and after receiving the license walked outside to a cheering crowd where a minister was conducting the wedding ceremonies.

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore had asked the state’s probate judges Sunday not to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. In a candid six page letter the social conservative Chief Justice opined that the federal judge’s ruling striking down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage was not obligatory on the state courts. Moreover it has caused confusion in the states.

The latest action by Chief Justice Moore is sure to lead to acrimony between the state’s chief justice and the federal courts, Justice Moore’s actions have also been condemned by the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender rights groups.

Legal Director Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign called Moore’s letter “a pathetic last-ditch attempt at judicial fiat. Absent further action by the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal ruling striking down Alabama’s marriage ban ought to be fully enforced, and couples that have been waiting decades to access equal marriage under the law should not have to wait a single day longer.”

Moore’s letter was released just hours before same sex marriage became legal in Alabama. The letter read

“No probate judge shall issue or recognize a marriage license that is inconsistent with Article 1, Section 36.03, of the Alabama Constitution or § 30-1-19, Ala. Code 1975.”

The section which Justice Moore is referring to is the state’s 2006 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, and the 1998 law doing so.

Both the state’s law and the constitutional amendment was struck down by U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade in two decisions Jan. 23 and Jan. 26, saying that it violated same-sex couples’ equal protection and due process rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Alabama Legislator Proposed Chemical Castration as Punishment for Child Rapists

Alabama becomes the 37th state were same sex marriage is legal

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