Member Submission: Activists Unite!

One of the most discouraging aspects of the fight against registries is the lack of allies. Civil rights movements do not succeed without the broad support of citizens and organizations. Few injustices have been made right through the sole efforts of victims.

The need to recruit powerful and committed allies against registries is a matter of urgency.

Nobody needs to be reminded of how difficult that is. It shouldn’t be. No group of Americans today suffers more legal discrimination, hardship, stigma, and marginalization than registrants. But who stands up regularly for convicted sex offenders? With the exception of a few federal defenders and other lawyers, and the small handful of groups like FAC, there is nobody.

No major civil or human rights organization has taken a firm stand against sex offender registries, residency restrictions, civil commitment, and the other injustices inflicted on registrants. No major faith-based organization; no society of scholars or jurists. No prominent group that condemns injustice on a daily basis has spoken up for the one million of their fellow citizens whose names, addresses, and photographs proliferate on electronic stockades across the internet; whose drivers licenses and passports are branded with scarlet letters; who are banned from neighborhoods, schools, businesses, churches, military bases, parks, beaches, social media, cruise ships, and airplanes. All of that and more, in many cases, for life.

Nobody has spoken up loudly against what has been called no crueler tyranny because nobody wants to be associated with the last great pariah class in America. That is obvious. What is not obvious is why the silent majority of decent, fair, and honest Americans don’t see what is staring them straight in the face. It is this: The longer you stay silent, the more likely it is that you too will be the victim of injustice.

Injustice grows like a cancer in society. Therefore registrants must do all they can to persuade civil rights activists that it is in their interest to stop this cancer from spreading.

If you think that is unrealistic, have a look at the amicus briefs in the major legal cases brought by registrants (for example, Gundy, Packingham, etc.). Look at the number of people who signed FAC’s petition to the UN. You’ll find people and organizations that took a stand on behalf of a principle even if they don’t directly speak up for registrants as human beings. It doesn’t appear that their reputations or donor bases have suffered much as a result. These rare relationships must grow.

Think about it. Are you sick and tired of hearing, “if it saves one child”? Then say instead, if I change one mind, the effort is worth it.

Are you also afraid of hearing, “how dare you compare my favorite oppressed minority with rapists and pedophiles! Those people are being punished for what they did, not for who they are”?

Then say: No. There is a criminal justice system for punishing people for what they did. Registrants are retroactively punished by a “civil” regulation for who they are. And with the same false rationale that minorities have been persecuted throughout history: to protect the vulnerable public against a mythical threat often with sexual overtones. African-Americans were lynched because they were said to “threaten the virtue” of white women. Jews were made to suffer pogroms, and were forced to live in ghettos and wear yellow stars because of the blood libel. LGBTQ people were fired from jobs because they were said to “corrupt the youth.” The list goes on. None of these historic examples are fundamentally different from what registrants experience today. It’s called collective punishment and it is as old as humanity.

Some potential allies will say, “we would like to help but if we did our organization would lose too many donors.” Tell them: “You will lose donors if you do not help because otherwise they will think you are hypocrites.”

Recruiting allies doesn’t mean asking people to go soft on crime or to condone illicit sex. That’s absurd. It’s not absurd to say this: “You may hate us and our crimes, but our cause is still your cause. Because our cause is justice and the Constitution. It’s as simple as that.”

So, please, registrants: Keep writing to members of Congress and to your state legislators. Keep writing to the media. But please also take the time to call and write to the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, American Bar Association, Amnesty International, NAACP, National Organization for Women, Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, Council on Criminal Justice, Equal Justice Initiative, Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League, Urban League, LAMBDA Legal, Children’s Defense Fund, Human Rights First, Southern Baptist Convention, or to the organization of your choice. Go to their websites and write to their staff and board members. Ask them this one question:

How can you stand by when one million Americans are being subjected to the same types of discrimination and mistreatment that you stand against, and that your own members and constituents once experienced?

They may ignore you. Or they may give you a discouraging reply to the effect that they have “limited bandwith” or a “full plate.” But keep writing and keep asking. Because someday, somebody powerful will take a stand, and the dam of silence will burst.