Gail’s Gateway Change for Registrants & Families ELIMINATING DISPARAGING LABELS Disparage (dih-spar-ij) Verb (used with object), dis-par-aged, dis-par-ag-ing To speak of or treat slightingly; depreciate; belittle; To bring reproach or discredit upon; lower the estimation of; For many years,…
Category: registry
The Shaming of America
Public stocks, public dunkings. These were the fates of those shamefully accused of witchcraft in the 1600’s. Scarlet Letter A’s for adulterers in the 17th century. A way of publicly humiliating and shaming those who went outside of their church…
TN Sex Offense Could Get Judicial Diversion
September 5, 2018, a Knox County Court has given a former youth minister who pled guilty to soliciting an underage girl for sex, the chance for judicial diversion. Jaon Evan Kennedy, a 48 year old father of three was caught…
Doctor Who Raped Sedated Patient Receives No Prison Time
Several news articles this week have reported on Dr. Shafeeq Sheikh, a former Houston doctor who surprisingly received no prison time after sexually assaulting a hospitalized patient. Instead, the former doc had his medical license and a $10,000 fine suspended.…
Failure Is Not An Option
What if you knew that no matter what you did, you couldn’t fail? What if “failure” just wasn’t an option? Would you live your life differently? Registrants are bound by many restrictions, jobs, housing even leisure activities are viewed under…
Sex Offenders Take Over Island of Oahu !
Now that I’ve got your attention- The current population of Hawaii’s 3rd largest island, Oahu, is approximately 992,605 as of a 2016 census. The population of registered sex offenders in the United States (and I use the term “United” loosely)…
HUD Bans Housing for Lifetime Registrants
In June 2001 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, now headed up by Secretary Ben Carson, banned lifetime registered sex offenders from subsidized public housing. (Only those tenants who were in subsidized housing before the law went into…
A History of Suffering and Misunderstanding
The first reference to the disease was in 1550 B.C., by 4000 B.C. many were infected. Those afflicted were made to wear clothing that identified them- Some were made to wear bells so as to announce their presence- Historically, Biblical…
Child or Adult, Age Just Doesn’t Matter On The Registry
Recently I read a study from Johns Hopkins/Bloomberg School of Public Health/Dec.6, 2017 titled “Children on Sex Offender Registries at Greater Risk for Suicide Attempts, Study Suggests.” The article discussed how children who are legally required to register as sex…
Scammers Targeting Registrants
Scammers- They come in all shapes and sizes and use any means possible first to scare and intimidate you and then to separate you from your hard earned money. There are email scams that inform you that you’ve won big…
Sex Offender, Registrant or Registered Citizen: Does Society Care About The Label?
First I struggled with the label “sex offender”. The words sit in the mouth like a heavy after-taste. Then “registrant” became the catch-all phrase. It sounded less ominous, not quite as frightening but few outside our circle even knew what…
Witch Hunt Mentality Equals A Win For Registrants
Because of a hysteria driven, over-zealous mother, the New York State Senate recently passed legislation that prohibits placing school bus stops in front of the homes of registrants. Some may call it a “win” for this witch-hunting mother and others…
Summertime and the Livin’ Ain’t Easy!
Knoxville, Tennessee. The South. Home of plantation porches and sweet tea. Land of greenways, rivers, lakes, mountains, parks and bike trails. Summertime and there’s plenty of outdoor activities, fishing, hiking, biking, kayaking and swimming to name a few. Your city…
The Dating Debacle for Registrants
Who do you tell, what do you say and when do you say it? That’s just one of the many dilemmas facing single registrants trying to reintegrate back into the dating world. Getting out there an socializing is risky business…
West Virginia’s Fake News Regarding Sex Offenders
I thought it started out as a good news article from The Exponent Telegram in West Virginia. A judge was reading sex offender rules to a defendant at a sentencing hearing. The author of the article correctly noted that defendants…
Check Your State’s Sex Offender Treatment Board For Conflicts of Interest
A few weeks ago I wrote about registrants being used as what amounts to “uncompensated lab rats” for VASI/Visual Assessment of Sexual Interest screening in Tennessee. My concern was not only that registrants are being forced to take visual assessment…
Taxpayer’s Money Wasted on Duplicate Registry Compliance Checks
For those registrants that are out on parole, home visits by a parole officer come with the territory. Let’s just say there are good P.O.’s and bad P.O.’s. Some arrive on your doorstep inconspicuously, badges slightly hidden so as not…
Registry Restrictions VS Parental Rights
Recently I wrote a piece on Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin’s denying and then limiting a father who also happens to be a registrant, access to visit his ill child in the hospital. A father who was doing right by his…
How To Eat An Elephant
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. That’s how solving an enormous problem has often been described. You just keep at it, taking one small bite at a time until the entire problem is devoured. That’s…
Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin RX Is “Cruel & Unusual Punishment”
Having a seriously ill child is heartbreak enough, but a father prevented from visiting his sick child makes this story even more tragic and it should never have happened in the first place. This is “bad medicine” at it’s worst! Stuart…