adam wrote:
I don't know what the law says in the US but in my country 16 is the age of consent for either straight or gay sex. The situation with Foley strikes me as a gay witchhunt. Yes I think his behaviour was inappropriate. I wouldn't be happy if a 16 year old son of mine was being pursued by someone twice his age or more but if he choose to flirt or go further with either Mr or Mrs Robinson that would be up to him. I would hope that he would show good judgement and choose a partner much closer to his own age where the power relationship is far more balanced but there comes a time and an age when people must be free to make their own choices.

Yes there is a reek of paedophilia but there is also a reek of homophobia.

US law is state by state, which while on the one hand is good (one of our bizarre and sometimes good things is the local, district, state, federal delineations of responsibility), on the other it is beyond confusing at times. This is one of those times. Each state varies in age of consent. www.ageofconsent.com helps with that, but honestly, if you're going to be making sexual advances to someone, you need to figure out what age it is for your state, and if you're crossing state lines (or via the internet and the person lives in another state), to be safe you need to ensure you're both of the legal age of consent for whichever state has the highest age.

In this case, if they were in DC, where it is 16, then what Foley did is not legally wrong. It is ethically bankrupt, perhaps, because he was in a position of authority over them. This could fall under sexual harrassment possibly.

I agree that people are trying to drum up scares of pedophilia, when in reality, that doesn't appear to be the situation here. Is it homophobia? Quite possibly. It's also just politics. "Oooh, a politician did something bad. Let's hang him out to dry to further our own agendas."

~Heathyr

RE: Lawmaker's Intentions Appear Clear In Exchanges - washingtonpost.com