FAC Weekly Update 2025-06-18-Fathers Day Reflection
Dear Members and Advocates,
This past weekend families across the country celebrated Father’s Day. Happy Father’s day to the fathers of registrants who have provided unconditional support to your child. Happy Father’s day to the dads on the registry who were fortunate enough to celebrate with your children. And Happy Father’s day to those of us who are alienated from our children. For you, this day is bittersweet and we pray that things will be better one day soon. However we spent this past Sunday, it was a good day to reflect on and remember the role so many of our members hold in their own families, that of a father.
Being a dad means protecting, guiding, and supporting your children. It means showing up to their games, their school events, their graduations, and being present in the everyday moments that shape who their children become. But for many of us on the registry, this critical role is challenged in painful and unnecessary ways. Not because we don’t want to be there, but because the laws that govern our lives don’t allow it.
We understand the importance of keeping children safe and protected. As parents ourselves, we are just as invested in that goal as any lawmaker or community member. But we also know, from firsthand experience, that the current sex offense registry laws are not effective at keeping children safe. In fact, in many cases, they cause more harm than good.
Children of registrants carry a huge invisible burden. They are shamed by association, ostracized by their peers, and denied the full experience of having a parent who can participate in their lives. A father on the registry may be banned from attending a school play, a Little League game, or even walking their child to the bus stop. These are not just inconveniences, they are deeply damaging to children who deserve the love and involvement of their parents just as much as any other kid.
Public safety and compassion for the families of registrants are not mutually exclusive. We need to strike a better balance. Protecting children should mean protecting ALL children including those with a parent on the registry. It means protecting all children from physical harm, sexual harm and emotional harm. Children, including children of registrants, should not be collateral damage in a system that favors fear over facts.
This Father’s Day, we honor the dads in our community who continue to show up however they can, cheering for their children from the invisible fences they aren’t allowed to cross. We also honor the children of registrants who are continuously and perpetually punished for nothing they did. And we honor the registered families, whose love and support for each other keep them intact despite unfathomable and unfair adversity.
Father’s Day is a great day for all of us to recommit ourselves to fighting for a future where children and fathers don’t have to suffer forever because of outdated, punitive policies that don’t serve anyone. We are not just fighting for reform. We are fighting for families!
Sincerely,
The Florida Action Committee
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What happen with offenders who don’t see their sons and grandsons.
A
Can you please elaborate?