Journal BarbaraHudson's Journal: Saw this in the firehose 10
Just in case this doesn't make it to the front page, I'm throwing my two cents in here.
Should Twitter Suspend LGBT Engineer Accused Of Raping Her Wife?
Getting rape prosecuted has long provided its own set of deeply frustrating difficulties, from belligerent questioning of accusers to blatant refusal to investigate claims.
It is also not particularly surprisingâ"but still extremely upsettingâ"that the alleged rapist in this case has insinuated the accuser made her claim for monetary gains. Nor is it surprising that the employer of the accused has neither fired the alleged perpetrator nor denounced the trial.
What is surprising is that the alleged rapist is a well-regarded feminist and LGBT advocate, Dana McCallum, a transgender woman who was named by Business Insider as the fifth-most important LGBT person in the tech world. She is a senior engineer for Twitter, which stated "We don't comment on employeesâ(TM) personal mattersâ when McCallum was charged with five felonies earlier this years: three counts of spousal rape, one count of false imprisonment and one count of domestic violence.
McCallum ultimately pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two misdemeanors: one count of domestic violence with corporal injury to the spouse and one count of false imprisonment. The District Attorney's office insisted on a guilty plea when she attempted to enter no contest. From a legal standpoint, the case is resolved, but the aftershocks in the way we think about rape and assault will reverberate for a long time.
Or at least they should. Unfortunately, the relative silence around McCallumâ(TM)s trial, let alone the issue of woman-on-woman rape and sexual assault, is deafening and disturbing.
Dana McCallum, having pled guilty, should be demoted, not just suspended. This is someone who has demonstrated a serious lack of the people skills necessary to be a senior anything - as someone who needs a period of reflection, and then supervision. As Reuters reports, this is a senior engineer who now needs to take a year's worth of domestic violence classes.
Oct 7 (Reuters) - A senior Twitter engineer hailed as one of the most important gay or transgender people in the tech industry was sentenced on Tuesday to three years probation after pleading guilty to false imprisonment and domestic violence charges, San Francisco prosecutors said.
Dana Contreras, known professionally as Dana McCallum, was also ordered to attend 52 weeks of domestic violence classes and stay away from her wife, the victim in the case, as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.
Under that agreement prosecutors agreed to drop more serious rape charges against Contreras, 33, who was arrested in January after the attack, said Max Szabo, a spokesman for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office.
In addition to her job as an engineer for Twitter, Contreras, who is transgendered, has advocated for gay, women's and transgender rights.
In December of 2013, the tech website Business Insider ranked Contreras No. 5 on its list of the 31 most important LGBT people in tech, calling her "one of the geniuses behind Twitter."
[sarcasm] Way to go, genius. [/sarcasm]
The rule is simple - if you're prominent, you will be held to a higher standard, if only because your screw-ups will cause more damage. And that's fair. After all, you're reaping the benefits of prominence, so you should also expect the responsibilities that go with it. We don't see that happen often enough (just look at Toronto mayor Rob Ford), but we're starting to see it in, of all places, the world of sports, where domestic violence (players) and bigotry (owners) have consequences far beyond the courtroom.
Let's not forget... (Score:2)
Getting rape prosecuted has long provided its own set of deeply frustrating difficulties, from belligerent questioning of accusers to blatant refusal to investigate claims.
Let's not forget the not insignificant problem of false claims. Are there as many as the MRA's claim? Doubtful. Are there as few as the feminists claim? Not a chance.
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Are there false claims? Of course. By both sexes. Everyone seems to have an agenda that "justifies" exaggerations and lies that then take on a life of their own. Or they're out for revenge, and literally anything goes.
I have no solution. Maybe the solution is to get people to realize that a bad relationship is just that,
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I wasn't speaking to the specific case because of the guilty plea.
FWIW, I read somewhere (MRA site?) that woman-woman violence is particularly bad and particularly underreported.
And I don't know how to fix things either. You slap the hands of people making false claims, and legitimate victims clam up. You do nothing, and you encourage people like my ex wife.
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Smart woman your ex-wife ditching a miserable loser like you that dragged her down.
Don't be jealous, APK. I'm sure someday you'll find a woman willing to spend a few minutes with you. She may not technically be alive, or human, but she'll be all yours.
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Don't be jealous, APK. I'm sure someday you'll find a woman willing to spend a few minutes with you. She may not technically be alive, or human, but she'll be all yours.
Didn't you read the bulletin? Little boys are always attacking the girls they secretly like. Obviously APK thinks it gives him an aura of boyish charm.
But not to worry - his personality is sufficient to turn off anything with a pulse.
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Don't be jealous, APK. I'm sure someday you'll find a woman willing to spend a few minutes with you. She may not technically be alive, or human, but she'll be all yours.
Didn't you read the bulletin? Little boys are always attacking the girls they secretly like. Obviously APK thinks it gives him an aura of boyish charm.
But not to worry - his personality is sufficient to turn off anything with a pulse.
That would certainly explain some of his fixations.
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