Local activist Jacob Schwartz is arrested for possession of child pornography HOW TO REACT

Over the Memorial day weekend 29-year-old, Jacob Schwartz was arrested for having child pornography on his computer. Schwart is the son of Arthur Schwartz, Democratic District Leader for the West Village. Arthur is a well know progressive and a noted civil rights and union lawyer. I replaced Arthur when he had to withdraw because of health reasons from a  primary race for State Assembly. Jacob is the President of the Young Democrats of Manhattan. A nightmare for any parent. The tabloids went wild over the weekend. The allegations are serious but unproven at this point. Coming on Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, the headlines screamed DEMOCRATIC PARTY ACTIVIST held on possession of child pornography. What could be more taboo than a child pornography charge: Some of the supporters of his father's primary opponent have been having a field day, condemning the father for the alleged crimes of his son.

I am enclosing an open letter I have written to people in my community about how to address this crisis fairly. 

Please give a read and let me know your response

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Dear friends.

I trust that all of you understand the immediate effect of Jacob Schwartz's  arrest besides the public spectacle of attempting to tie his alleged pedophilia immersion in the digital collection of underage girls involved is sexual activity on his computer is the impact on a family well known to us in the political community.  

While a few of you have been quite outspoken in your dislike of the father, District Leader Arthur Schwartz as I understand  because he challenged Deborah Glick in a primary and cited  her actual record in Albany and her leadership role in enforcing the will of now crimally convicted Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver,

Now is not the time to attack Schwartz because of the alleged activities of his son

For those of you who are parents of adult children, I trust you understand a parent is not responsible for the actions of their adult children Some of you who are parents know more than others of us know personally of how heartbreaking indiscretions of adult children can be.

Tony Hoffman, former President of VID is correct; We need to think of how this will affect the lives of Jacob's family who are innocent and did not participate in the alleged actions of Arthur's first born.  My concern has been for Jacob's mother and father and their families right now.  I have made my feelings known to Arthur, who, contrary to some of you, I do not and have not had a close personal relation with other than as progressive political people do in our community, We share ,as I think most of you do, mutual community concerns

As to pedophilia: I must admit that as a gay man I did have a sigh of relief when the gender of the young children was identified as girls, not boys. Despite the fact that 93% percent of all people charged with inappropriate behavior with underage children are herotsexual men, The media has focused on the sexual misconduct with underage children and framed in the eyes of the public gay men as sexual predators.

IIt is my opinion that sexua fetisaion of uder age children is NOT a gay issue , but is a general mental health issue.

At this point, Jacob is charged with possession of images and videos on his computer. He is not charged with actual physical, sexual encounters with any young girl. I hope that remains true.

I believe that pedophilia can not be cured and the best treatment is environmental boundary control.  

Some of you referenced your own interactions with sexual predator's victims as social workers years ago,

I suggested that as horrible as the allegations, if true, are, they need to be put in the context of reality and not simply a subjective moral outrage.

Human trafficking and the exploitation of children to satisfy the arrested sexual development of an adult and the exploitation for profit of deviant desire is the root issue for me of this problem. I do not excuse the actions of any pedophile regardless of what actions they took ..but  I do distinguish between physical contact and viewing illicit images in the privacy of their personal life.

If we do as political people speak out and demand that the individuals who exploit children in a sexual context for profit or pleasure are in fact criminal activities, then we must demand they must be found and prosecuted.

Pedophilia to me as define in these charges the possession of and the viewing of images and videos is different from sexual assault including rape. A distinction must be made leagally between viewing =images and actual physical , sexual abuse, is not the same thing as physical, sexual assault.

I have counseled young who were the victims of members of the NAMBLA. It may surprise you to learn that while the majority of members of NAMBLA were adult gay men, there were also female members who were attracted to underage boys. The boys now men I worked with were severely damaged emotionally and for the most part repress their memories through drugs and alcohol and some even repeated the same seduction of underage boys and girls in the manner they had been subjected to as children and adolescents.

So please,  look at the big picture here.  On a daily basis millions of men and some women consume pornography on the internet. Some of that pornography involves children. It has become a major addiction in our contemporary society and is rarely spoken about in public or the media.

So we get these lurid headlines like we saw over the weekend in the NY Post and the Daily News ..We see it politicized in their comments pages. I hope VID and all progressive people will begin not a witch hunt but an education on how the sex industry exploits children for profit.

Jacob, if the allegations are proven true, does not need prison where his life will be at high risk for his murder, he needs long-term mental health treatment. I say this about him and any other sexual predator of underage children.

As someone who has been raped four times. I know the journey back from those assaults and while I have never felt sympathy for my perpetrators I have given much thought about how to prevent other people from suffering the same actions  The first time I was raped I was 15 years old in a men's locker room. It is one of the reasons I have raised serious concerns about biological girls who identify as transgender demanding equal access to boys and men's locker rooms.

I also think we should use correct language. When we talk of the exploitation of children and adolescents under the legal age of consent (age of consent is a topic also worth serious discussion), we need to use the proper words because in this case words actually matter.

Hebephilia is the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in pubescent (early adolescent) children (especially those showing Tanner stages 2-3 of development), typically ages 11–14. Hebephilia differs from Pedophilia,[ which is the strong, persistent sexual interest in prepubescent children.[ It also differs from ephebophilia, the strong, persistent sexual interest in later adolescents, typically ages 15–19.

Human trafficking is a worldwide problem.

Much food for thought

Jim fouratt

Jim Fouratt's : EVICTION UPDATE: After an emotionally draining full day in the hallways of Housing Court, I decided on the recommendation of my very smart and compassionate lawyer and my feisty and experienced tenant advocate to agree to the settlement terms the lawyers had drawn up to be able to keep my six-floor walkup. Provided that I respect the 9-month probation that is a part of the solution,

My activist part of me did not want to settle. I wanted to go to trial. My lawyer left the choice up to me. I asked for his and Roberta (my tenant advocate) advice. Among the things, they shared with me is that the Housing Court Judges are 70% pro-landlord (thanks to former Republican Governor Pataki who appointed them) and 30% appear to be more sympathetic to tenants. We did not know who we would get. It is common practice for the Judge to add a probationary period even when rejecting the landlord's case, The typical probation period is 2 years.

I did not want any probation given I have been under this threat of eviction and facing homelessness for the last 18 months I listened carefully to their pro and cons.

My lawyer Daniel spent a lot of time reworking the terms of the probation.

I took the settlement offer.

Paid the back rent, shook hands, thanked everybody and went home and walked Mr. M.C. Butter aka Butterboy

Thank you, all of you, for your support and goodwill. Special thanks to those of you who answered my call to come to the Court to lend your support. I can't tell you how much your presence was welcomed and appreciated.

If all goes well, it will finally be over on March 15, 2018

FYI: Most of the rent-regulated tenants in the City are seniors ...and in my neighborhood Greenwich Village the kind of cultural workers that made the Village, the Village. After the first lawyer walked away the day before my Court date saying "they are throwing the book at you. I can not do this pro-bono." I was fortunate to find both my advocate and my terrific lawyer. (the non-profit Legal Services where one of the Judges sent me). I still think it is elder abuse. What many of these landlords do to people intentionally. Note: My landlord was not as abusive as many others are. But the stress level affected every aspect of my life It is how capitalism work.

I had no idea how stressful this ordeal could be

Again thank you all for your support

jim 

Legend is alive and well : Jackie Shane - Any Other Way 1963.wmv

this legend has been found and is alive at 77 still living v life to v own beat All hail QUEEN Jackie Shane

Still No Arrest In Killing Of Kenneth Bostick, Transgender Man Widely Misgendered In Initial Reports | Village Voice

ESSENTIAL: I went to the memorial service on the street yesterday where Kenneth Bostick was the victim of a fatal brutal assault in public view in front of a Burger shop between 28th and 29th on 7th Avenue in Manhattan. ( I will post my video of the action soon). Kenneth was consistently misgendered by trans activist speakers and self-serving politicians (talk is cheap, action is what matters) and well paid, white male heads of LGBT non-profits. I am not talking about Charles King of Housing Works. 

Read about whoKennethh Bostick actually

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/still-no-arrest-in-killing-of-kenneth-bostick-transgender-man-widely-misgendered-in-initial-reports-9981139

I suspect that most of the angry and outspoken black trans women did not know that in fact, BOSTICK was a transman living in a men's shelter on 25th street. Lesson to be learned is to be respectful of how people THEMSELVES identify. I trust that if the small crowd, who were militantly outspoken on the conditions that trans people of color face each day including homelessness and unemployment just surviving, would have rallied for Kenneth even if v did not identify as v birth sex but as a TRANSMAN. Some of the speakers did speak of the need to be rid of labels. But Kenneth was closeted by the speakers if they knew v was born Brenda. Kudos to the VOICE for doing the journalistic research to find the actual identity of Kenneth and shame on local media for either ignoring the brutal murder right on 7th Ave with people walking by and ignoring a body on the ground or being lazy in their fact checking.

That said it was, in fact, an adamant and loud memorial for Kenneth and a call for the protection of all marginalized people living on the street. Yes, there was some race baiting and the use of the word "cis" in a hateful, negative way. But what was interesting to me is the dialectic between angry trans people who are committed to making life safer for trans-people and working with non-trans identified individuals. As a gay white senior, I just brushed off the insults lumping all white gay men into one nasty sinkhole called CIS. I realized that for someone like myself it is to communicate through action and not academic theory based language debate. We need to support each person who is poor and seen as different for equal opportunity to live and work and be accepted in this country.

My personal political mantra in these dark days of TRUMP AGENDA is

THE RGHT TO BE DIFFERENT AND EQUAL IS A FUNDAMENTAL AMERICAN PRINCIPAL! FRON THE ARRIVAL OF PEOPLE FLEEING DISCRIMATION IN BRITAN TO THE ALL THE PEOPLE WHO LOOK AND ACT DIFFERENT FROM IMPOSED NORM TODAY.


Here are some excerpts from the Trans Justice memorial rally.

diane torr and jim fouratt in conversation july 12, 2014 East Village NYC

diane torr and jim fouratt in conversation july 12, 2014 East Village NYC

FLASHBACK LESSON Jim Fouratt Talks w/ Barney Frank "where Now”? May 4th 2013 equality forum

I think this short interview I did with Barney Frank after he retired from the US Congress is relevant to where we are today. It took place in Philadelphia during a Conference sponsored by EQUALITY, a Lesbian and Gay group long identified with the conservative, assimilationist, single-issue politics of the post-Harry Hay Mattachine Society. I attended because Martin Duberman was speaking and because Mariela Castro had been granted a visa to speak and I wanted to talk with her.  Castro had recently founded with government support in Havana Cuba the Institute of National Center for Sex Education 

Frank was in attendance, and I caught up with him, and we talked briefly. 

It is interesting to note that Philadelphia has a rich history in the homosexual movement. Mattachine/ Daughters of Bilitis activists Barbara Gittings and her lover, the photographer, Kay Tobin (aka Kay Tobin Lahusen), lived in Philledelhia.  I believe Kay is still alive living in assisted living ...at least she was at the time of the Equality conference in 2013.  Gittings and Tobin had the enormous political influence on the EQUALITY group.  David Carter, the author of the much-disputed history of the Stonewall Rebellion, titled inappropriately STONEWALL RIOTS  sat on their knees. Gittings politics were informed by her and Mattachine's single issue politics to the point that she rejected for most of her life feminism and called herself a "gay: woman, not a lesbian.  Of course, this must be put in the context of the '40's and '50 political environment of political homophobia.

Personally, I think Frank would have been a Democratic Party VP nominee if he had not been outed in a DC scandal

I STAND WITH STEPHEN COLBERT ..This Monologue Goes Out To You, Mr. President

I stand with Stephen Colbert I was a guest on his Comedy Channel show, we talked about Stonewall, lesbians and gay men, He was funny, and he listened to me unlike Charlie Rose when I was on his show. I grew up on Lenny Bruce and Carol Burnett... both quite differently made fun of people in power, So now Fox News is calling Colbert "homophobic " ... uh ... almost to the degree of homosexual panic ....I wonder do they gave any idea what that could mean? Butt is FOX news is quiet like Trump on Chechnya and it's torture and killing of men they identify as "gay" and after arrest make these men take female names ... Get real people .. and thank you Stephen.. I thought the monolog was bold and dangerous ...not homophobic

Leonard Cohen's Elegy For Janis Joplin - Chelsea Hotel #1

Ah ..Leonard!  ..... Janice !...... we did have a time didn't we....

MY FIRST TIME : here ia a band that I heard at Jeff Weiss celebration for Richard Martinez at La MaMA ..here is a video Anna/Kate "NOLA (Has My Heart)" - NPR Tiny Desk Contest

Last night was the first time I heard these two voices melt together. It was at Jeff Weiss's celebration for his partner of 57 years. as he complete's his Bardo journey  La MaMA's Nicky Paraiso asked three younger artists to perform to show Jeff and all of us elders what we had seeded and how Dan Fishback has been maturing the new crop. I had neve heard Anna/Kate before although they have traveled the world .. was sooooo grateful to have heard them in this La MaAMA Jeff Weiss gathering. I don't know about you, but I never forget my first time with anyone who gifts me pleasure ... thank you, Anna/Kate .. I look forward to seeing them with their full band







and here is a recent video of the whole band used to raise funds fo their first album

Anna/Kate "NOLA (Has My Heart)" - NPR Tiny Desk Contest

Last night was the first time I heard these two voices melt together. It was at Jeff Weiss's celebration for his partner of 57 years.  La MaMA's Nicky Paraiso asked three younger artists to perform to show Jeff and all of us elders what we had seeded and how Dan Fishback has been maturing the new crop. I had neve heard Anna/Kate before although they have traveled the world .. was sooooo grateful to have heard them in this La MaAMA Jeff Weiss gathering. I don't know about you, but I never forget my first time with anyone who gifts me pleasure ... thank you, Anna/Kate .. I look forward to seeing them with their full band

Is this the best Jazz singer you never heard?????Patty Waters - Plays (Full Unreleased Album, 1970)

Years ago when I lived with Richard Dworkin on the corner of Masonic and the Panhandle in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury.  There was a woman living in a garage near us. Richard became friends with her ... turns out her name was Patti Waters ..the legendary singer who was on ESP records and had recorded the definitive version of "Black was the color of my true loves Hair." and then disappeared ... we did not know then. but learned later that none of the amazing artists on ESPever got paid .... anyway she was a troubled but gifted woman who we became friends ... and look what I found on youtube. AN UNRELEASED PATTI WATERS album...oh my ..e prepared to be surprised!

Alert: Laugh Back : Hasan Minhaj's HILARIOUS 2017 White House Correspondents' Dinner Roast (...

JUST in case, you had to be in Reading Pa....

The "Stunning Fragility"

Where fo you stand on Freedom of Speech? The "Stunning Fragility" & Vindictive Political Correctness of Todays .

Where fo you stand on Freedom of Speech? The "Stunning Fragility" & Vindictive Political Correctness of Todays .The "Stunning Fragility" & Vindictive Political Correctness of Today's ...

Where fo you stand on Freedom of Speech? The "Stunning Fragility" & Vindictive Political Correctness of Todays ...

ALERT Political Correctness on Campus  Personally: I have never picketed a show or event or book etc that I have not seen or read first. I believe in the right to protest, but I draw the line and stopping a person from speaking,  As someone who has personally been removed from speaking because a small group protested despite never engaging me personally nor confirming the facts they read on the internet or the gossip spread person to person. I know very well how this feels and strongly object to it.  Here two smart people discuss the rise on college campuses of politically correct speech and the shutting down of the so-called marketplace of ideas.   This conversation is a good jumping off place to talk about this subject. Please watch and share