Reform of Child Sex Bill Fails; Victims Respond

SNAP
April 8, 2016

http://www.snapnetwork.org/md_reform_of_child_sex_bill_fails_victims_respond

It’s heartbreaking that a Maryland legislator has been betrayed three times, first by a pedophile, then by a predator-friendly justice system and now by his timid colleagues.

We commend Maryland Delegate C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) for his courage and compassion. We are very sad that his hard, brave work to help protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded has ended in vain, at least for now.

We’re even more sad because more Maryland children will be hurt in the months and years ahead because lawmakers won’t stand up to the self-serving lobbying efforts of corrupt Catholic officials and enable more child sex abuse victims to expose child molesters in court.

We urge Mr. Wilson to continue his battle. We are confident that he will succeed, hopefully sooner than later.

No matter what lawmakers or church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic churches or institutions in Maryland to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling journalists, get justice by calling attorneys, and get comfort by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. SNAP was founded in 1988 and has more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, davidgclohessy@gmail.com), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org), Barbara Blaine (312-399-4747,bblaine@snapnetwork.org)

A Maryland lawmaker raped as a child can’t get his bill for sex assault survivors passed

By Petula Dvorak Columnist April 7 at 2:55 PM

For the second year in a row, he put it all out there: the shame, the fear, the self-loathing, the pain, the dark details of his horrific, repeated rape.

An Army veteran and attorney, Maryland Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles) stood before his colleagues in Annapolis, confessed that he “really, really” didn’t want to be there and told them why he doesn’t sleep much at night. Why he hoped his children would never be boys. Why he knows he is “a monster on the inside.”

And for the second year in a row, lawmakers in the state legislature put all that in a drawer. And closed it.

“It’s usually the case when we tell our stories,” Wilson said. “Nobody wants to hear this. And we want to be heard.”

Wilson wants his fellow delegates to . . .