Follow-up To Florida Rep. Mark Foley Scandal
It’s a very sad day for Florida Rep. Mark Foley. Yesterday, when I wrote of this, I had wondered afterwards if I were being fair to him. I have to resist the urge like a lot of other people to condemn someone simply because I don’t like their politics. In after thought, I felt that maybe I had been unfair to the Representative from Florida. Now, I was right about the whole thing. I feel bad for his family, and for the boy involved.
I also understand that this has absolutely nothing to do with the gender of his victim, who happens to be male. I say this because there are people out there who will immediately assume that Rep. Foley is a homosexual, which he apparently is because he approached a teenager who happened to be male. Those same people will make the huge jump in judgment that it is just further ammunition to label homosexuals as pedophiles, despite the fact that child molestation is carried out mostly by heterosexuals.
But I don’t even want to lower myself to that argument. The real truth is, child molestation has nothing what so ever to do with the sexual orientation of those involved. I know the people who dislike gays don’t want to admit that, but the facts and research will support what I am saying. What Rep. Foley did, he did out of power. He had power over the boy because of his position; as an adult and as a member of Congress. No doubt had the boy played along with this, he would have been offered something in Washington as a “reward” if you will, for helping the Representative out.
The thing that I find really distasteful in all of this the hypocrisy of this Representative. ABC News summed it up pretty well.
Florida Rep. Mark Foley’s resignation came just hours after ABC News questioned the congressman about a series of sexually explicit instant messages involving congressional pages, high school students who are under 18 years of age.
In Congress, Rep. Foley (R-FL) was part of the Republican leadership and the chairman of the House caucus on missing and exploited children.
He crusaded for tough laws against those who used the Internet for sexual exploitation of children.
“They’re sick people; they need mental health counseling,” Foley said.
But, according to several former congressional pages, the congressman used the Internet to engage in sexually explicit exchanges. [...]
Federal authorities say such messages could result in Foley’s prosecution, under some of the same laws he helped to enact.
“Adds up to soliciting underage children for sex,” said Brad Garrett, a former FBI agent and now an ABC News consultant. “And what it amounts to is serious both state and federal violations that could potentially get you a number of years.” (source) - Highlighting my own.
“They’re sick people; they need mental health counseling.” - Rep. Mark Foley
Well Mr. Foley, I guess you were talking about yourself.
If you would like to read the private exchange that he had between the teenager involved, and himself, click on the link below. Be warned, the contents are sexually explicit.
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First of all Bill you are totaly right when you say that child abuse has nothing to do with sexuality and also when you say that sexual abuse is mainly carried out by hetrosexuals.As A psychologist in the area of child protection I am very up on research and research suggests time and time again that children are almost always abused by a hetrosexual male known to them amd the family. Gay men are statistically the lowest group likely likely to offend which is why i am constantly argueing this point when trying to raise the number of agy adoptive and foster parents. Its all too easy for the anti gay lot in society to scream that two gay male parernts are likely to abuse a male child placed with them. RUBBISH. Rape, child abuse is about power. many offenders that I have worked with over the years say that they are attracted to children whatever sex as they see them as pure untouched etc. Not a very nice subject I know.Secondly he may use the excuses that he is an alcoholic and he may very well be one, but alcohol abuse does not make a person abuse children. I hope he gets the treatment he needs whilst being kept out of the way of children for the next how ever long. We can not allow people like this to walk around freely.
This morning I read that congressman Foley check himself into a rehab center because he claims to be alcoholic. The story emphasized that Foley was "taking responsibility for his actions".
I think it's pretty obvious that the rehab center angle will end up being his way of avoiding taking responsibility for his actions. After all, he's a troubled man, and dealing with his alcoholism on his own muddled his thinking, and caused him to act so uncharacteristically.