Ignorance

"The United Arab Emirates has been heavily criticized by rights groups, which say it condones sexual violence against women. Human Rights Watch has called its record "shameful," saying it must change the way it handles such cases. In December 2012, a British woman reported being raped by three men in Dubai. She was found guilty of drinking alcohol without a license and fined. In January 2010, a British woman told authorities she was raped by an employee at a Dubai hotel. She was charged with public intoxication and having sex outside of marriage. An Australian woman reported in 2008 that she was drugged and gang-raped. She was convicted of having sex outside marriage and drinking alcohol, and she was sentenced to 11 months in prison."—Nicola Goulding and Phil O'Sullivan, "Norwegian woman: I was raped in Dubai, now I face prison sentence" (link)

"In 1984, when Calvin Burdine was awaiting sentencing for allegedly stabbing his gay lover to death, the prosecuting attorney encouraged the jury in his closing remarks to award Burdine the death penalty, rather than life in prison, on the grounds that sending a gay man to prison was akin to sending a kid to a candy store. After 17 minutes of deliberation, the jury obliged and sentenced Burdine to die. His death sentence was later overturned (mostly because Burdine's public defender had slept through much of his trial), but the homophobic thinking – that prison is some kind of paradise for gay men – lingers on."—Sadhbh Walshe, "The grim truth of being gay in prison" (link)

St. Julien: I know about the Johns Committee, but could you give me an idea of your impressions of it and what you heard about it?
Deer: It put a terrible damper on the University [of South Florida]. I am terribly aware of this. There was a fellow in English, the one that Charlie Johns really descended on, who incidentally is now a very distinguished scholar in the New York State University System. He is the head of one of the New York State University colleges. This is who Charlie Johns descended upon. And of course what made my husband and I both go into a panic was that he got in trouble for teaching an essay that we booked standard and used on the subject of pornography. It was just absolutely standard. It really put a damper on what people felt that they were free to do and say. We lost not only that guy, but we lost an extremely good philosopher at that time.—Harriet Deer (page 30)