Comments on Outing Jane Adams

Comments on Outing Jane Adams
By Carlos T Mock, MD
February 6, 2007.

Dear Ms. Schoenberg

Thanks for your article on James Adams.

You answered the first question on your premise: Jane Adams was a Lesbian, but you fail miserably on its connotation. Lots of heterosexual marriages have little or no sex, but that does not make them less of a couple.
You are right to point that it should not matter, but the truth is that it does. In today’s world Jane Adam and Mary Rozet Smith would face even more challenges that they did when they lived.

Here are some facts:

- Homosexuals and lesbians are subject to the death penalty in twelve countries in the world

- In about 30 countries or provinces lesbians, gays and bisexuals are subject to a discriminatory age of consent

- In more than 40 states around the world same sex acts are illegal

- In about 15 countries or provinces the free association and free expression of lesbians, gays and bisexuals are denied explicitly through legal provisions

- About 30 countries have some form of protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation
Only 15 states in the United States provide basic human rights (employments, housing and right to assemble) protection. In 35 states of the union you can be fired from your job, denied housing, and thrown out of a restaurant just because you are perceived as being gay or lesbian. Sexual acts have nothing to do with it.

Source: The International Lesbian and Gay Association website (www.ilga.org) (May 2002)



-- Carlos T. Mock, MD
www.pinkagenda.com
Www.carlostmock.com
Www.orgulloenaccion.org
Author: Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey - Floricanto Press 2003. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association Round Table
Author: The Mosaic Virus – Floricanto Press 2007. Nominated for a Stonewall Award by the American Library Association Round Table
Author: Papi Chulo – Coming to a bookstore near you soon