Some people see justice and the law as scales held by a blind woman...but I tend to see the law and justice as a pendulum.
Since I was in college researching my senior thesis, I became well aware of the effect that law and society have on people. Genders, race, age, religious beliefs...and many different things. In the situation that we deal with...as gay men that are electronically harassed in the Palm Springs area, I've seen the pendulum swing in Laurie's direction for many years.
"How could a poor defenseless woman hurt a gay man (or woman) when she is this small and helpless"...and far too often the men ended up in jail because of the lies that she tells. If a woman harasses a man long enough to evoke a verbal response from him...he's the one that took the blame, but in the case of our oppressor, Laurie, she's actually taken the "poor defenseless woman" thing to a violent level...and we, as men, can't physically fight back.
I've told you many times about Laurie's love of the ambush. Literally she will walk up behind you and hit you, verbally assault you, or attack you in your sleep. As a society we've taught men never to strike a woman. What if that woman is beating you over the head with a Coke bottle then shoving it up your rectum while you are asleep? For nearly thirty years now, someone, a woman, has been infecting men and women that don't know her with HIV, then using electronic monitoring devices to talk to us like we deserved it. Is there anything more cowardly than that? I don't think so. The pendulum has been pulled over to one side for far too long.
The law is a very interesting thing. When one group seeks protection from another, the group receiving that protection has now said that they are "lesser than" the other...in our case...we've been "lesser than" Laurie for nearly thirty years. We have to be careful in asking for protection so that we become equal to her and in no way lesser OR MORE than the person that she's become. Just because we are gay, does not give us the right to more rights than Laurie, we should seek to bring her up to our level of justice where, if proven beyond a reasonable doubt, that she has justice treat her like any other defendant charged with the same or similar crimes. We have to be careful that the pendulum swings our way...just enough to find justice for the crimes that were committed against us. We need to make an example out of whomever was responsible for our damage.
You see the key is to try to stop the pendulum right down at the bottom...so it swings no further for anyone than it does for anyone else. That has been the problem with this entire crime. Let the punishment, fit the crime and no more or less.
