Consider yourself spared from one of my long rants on the fear-mongering that has helped our society decide that permanently branding sex offenders and banishing them to remote rural areas is a good idea. When I was most of the way through it, I accidentally closed the tab. Anyhow, the Atlanta Magazine online has a post, “Why Is Genarlow Wilson in Prison?” that is horrifying, recommended reading. A teenager in Georgia had consensual oral sex with a 15 year old (he was 17 at the time) and as a result is in prison for 10 years and will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. The jurors convicted him of “aggravated child molestation” since that’s technically what happened, although they had no idea about the repercussions of it, including a mandatory 10 year sentence. The kid who was convicted did well in school, was voted homecoming king and had no criminal record. The girl he had oral sex did not want to press any charges (it was consensual). His life is now drastically altered, and no matter what he does he is publicly branded and a social pariah forever. The laws need to change, there is no justice here.