Other important context in this issue:
In the same bill, HR 1297, Florida removed the requirement that a death sentence be unanimous and instead said only 8 of 12 jurors are needed in order for the death sentence to be issued.
The state of Florida is also seeking to criminalize parents who support their children who identify as trans, and FL will likely add LGB to that, as well. They want to classify this as child abuse.
It is already extremely difficult to prosecute rape and sex trafficking. Most men who rape children are family members or close friends of family. If the possible sentence is death, you're going to see even fewer people report sexual assault of minors. I was the first person in my family to turn in my grandfather for things my entire family knew he was doing for years. He molested my aunt - his own daughter. No one wanted to "hurt the family." He died not long after he was sent to jail in the Philippines, and eventually my aunt, grandmother, mother and others came forward, but if he hadn't been arrested I don't know that they would have.
The death penalty means the reporting family member will know death is a possibility for a loved one they might already be reluctant to turn in.
And the entire preface of this bill - that girls old enough to have a period are somehow less vulnerable, less innocent than those who haven't - speaks toward the GOPs unwillingness to ban child marriage, and continued use of biblical ideals as a justification for pedophilia
A new movie covers the German colonizers who massacred Herero and Nama people in Namibia, using torture tactics later deployed in the Holocaust.
“Measures of Men” stars Herero actor Girley Jazama. She talked with AJ+ about her goal “to give a voice to my ancestors.”
A profound generational divide is Boomers came of age when education and houses were cheap but homegoods were expensive, and they now don't get why their kids aren't grateful for the furniture and tchotchkes they keep trying to pass down, when kids are renting 600ft apartments.*