Jezebel
big love
Posts Tagged “
polygamy
”
big love
The reunions have begun between FLDS parents and the children that the state of Texas temporarily detained. Church spokesman Willie Jessop said the church will no longer sanction unions of underage girls and will "counsel members against such unions." The state of Texas did manage to prove that as many as five of the FLDS teenage girls were sexually abused, but there do not seem to be any immediate repercussions to this conclusion. Many of the FLDS parents have moved off the Yearning For Zion ranch and have rented temporary homes in Amarillo and San Antonio, the AP reports. However, the court order does not require parents to renounce polygamy, nor does it place restrictions on the children's fathers. [AP via MSNBC]
A Texas judge has set the minors from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints free, reports CNN. Judge Barbara Walther said that the FLDS parents can start picking up their children immediately, though the Department of Family and Protective Services will be checking in on the polygamist sect, and, according to CNN, "These unannounced visits could entail medical, psychological and psychiatric examinations, and the parents must not intervene." FLDS parents must also complete parenting classes and are not allowed to leave the state of Texas without notifying authorities in advance. [CNN]
big love
Texas Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of FLDS; Children Will Likely Be Returned
The Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints minors who were seized from the cult's Texas compound will be Yearning For Zion no longer — the Texas Supreme court has upheld a lower court's decision, and declared that the removal of children from the FLDS stronghold was unwarranted. Church spokesman Rod Parker says, "at this point there is no legal basis to hold anyone," and he wants the children to be reunited with their parents as soon as possible. What happens next is not entirely clear, according to the Los Angeles Times, because while the removal of the children was ruled unwarranted, the state is still allowed to "take other measures to protect [the children] while [the trial court] deliberated." Those measures, legal experts believe, could include requiring parents to stay in the area and/or move out of the Yearning For Zion ranch in addition to further DNA testing, the L.A. Times reports. More »
big love
Polygamists, State Of Texas At A Stand-Off
FLDS church member Willie Jessop says that the state of Texas doesn't have a single teen girl in custody who cries "please save me". (And the preteen in these pictures with spiritual husband and former FLDS guru Warren Jeffs does look happy, doesn't she???) So it's curious, then, that fellow FLDS member Dan Jessop refused to be filmed by CBS News holding the photos seen at left after they were introduced into evidence by Texas authorities in the state and sect's ongoing custody battle, perhaps because the photos depict his little sister in Jeffs' arms. This is the rub of the Texas trial — everyone is fairly certain that sexual abuse is happening, but the evidence is still circumstantial (a Texas appeals court ruled that the removal of children from the Yearning For Zion Ranch was improper last week). However, Texas officials now fear that FLDS families will flee the state, according to the AP. More »
unholy matrimony
Former FLDS Member Who Took Down Warren Jeffs Appears On Oprah
Elisa Wall's testimony — about how she was forced, at 14 years old, to marry her first cousin, and have nonconsensual sex with him — is what helped send Warren Jeffs, leader of the Mormon fundamentalist polygamist sect, to jail. Today she was on Oprah to talk about her experience. She described her upbringing and the lack of education she received, particularly about her own anatomy. Even though she begged to not marry her cousin at a young age, she was forced to go ahead with it, and was given no information about what would happen on her wedding night, explaining that she had thought beds were only used for sleeping, and that the entire experience of consummating her marriage was incredibly traumatic. Clip above.
knocked up
'Breaking': Erratic Contraceptive Use Can Lead To Pregnancy
If you're not interested in getting pregnant, this new study might inspire you to be more vigilant with condom use. Nonprofit sexual research organization the Guttmacher Institute claims that half of all pregnancies are unplanned and one in four American women will get preggers because of inconsistent contraceptive use. There are several reasons for erratic contraceptive use, reports Guttmacher, including lack of access to health care, being unable to afford birth control pills, and major life changes like the end of a relationship, a move, job change or personal crisis. Often when women are lax about birth control, researchers reason, they are ambivalent about preventing pregnancy. Many women surveyed "confessed that they would be very pleased if they found out they were pregnant," Reuters notes. Speaking of women who are pleased to be pregnant, yesterday, a second baby was born among the young women plucked from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Texas. More »
babies having babies
Over Half Of Female FLDS Teens In Texas Custody Have Been Pregnant
Here we are, worried about the sexualization of 15-year-old Miley Cyrus, when 31 out of 53 girls from the ages of 14-17 from the Yearning For Zion ranch are pregnant or already have children. Although the polygamist Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints have been claiming that they do not marry off 13 and 14 year old girls to older men, the number of very young yet pregnant girls seems to refute these claims. What's more, there are 53 girls ages 14-17 who were taken from the ranch, while only 17 boys in that age group were living with the sect. (The gender divisions in children under 14 were about 50/50.) This gives credence to the tales of "lost boys" of the FDLS: adolescent males who were exiled from the sect to keep the gender imbalance favorable for polygamous unions. More »
leftovers
Scandinavians Split On Sexist Ads • Beaver Goes On Russian Booze Rampage
Scandinavian countries spar over, defend sexist advertising and free speech laws. • Pregnant Indian women more likely to have morning sickness than Norwegians. • My Little Pony celebrates 25th birthday with tea and Elizabeth Hasselbeck. • Smart girls supposedly have a harder time getting off because, um, they think about stuff? • A 15-year-old Canadian boy steals bikinis, wears them. • Alarmed Russian beaver breaks into food store, smashes vodka bottles following forest fire. • Minorities and men are less likely to get help quitting smoking. • A Moroccan woman kills her husband after he takes a second wife. • Women who have C-sections are more likely to suffer a stroke the following year.
Loose Lips
Leighton Meester says she wants her character, Blair, to stay single on Gossip Girl. "I don't want her to get with anybody right now," Meester tells Us. She adds: "I want the bitch [in Blair] to come back right now. I think she has to claw her way back up to the top." • Madonna thinks people shouldn't judge Tom Cruise just because he's a Scientologist. The Kabbalah enthusiast reportedly said, "I don't care if people worship turtles or frogs - if they're good people, that's all I care about, and he (Cruise) is a good person. I think he gets a raw deal, just as I think the orphans in Malawi get a raw deal; just as I think a lot of marginalized people get a raw deal." • Big Love star Ginnifer Goodwin on the series' portrayal of polygamy: "We're acutely aware of what goes on in real life. Ours is a sugar-coated version. But we feel we are educating. We find the human story very compelling." [Us, Dlisted, People]
clips
Polygamists Avoid Giving Answers On Today
A group of representatives from the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints went on Today this morning to answer some of Meredith Vieira's questions about polygamy, child abuse, and poofy hairstyles, except they didn't actually give many answers, evading Vieira's queries with skill of a veteran politician. When asked if they think having sex with a 13-year-old girl is child abuse, one of the men answered, "I would never do such a thing," effectively skirting the question. (FDLS leader, Warren Jeffs, was jailed for coercing a 14-year-old to marry her 19-year-old cousin.) The saddest part, though, was the total lack of affect in the womens' faces when they talked about their children being taken away. "We know they are in desperate need of their mothers. Right now," one of the wives said, her face utterly void of emotion. Clip above.
big love
Despite Doubters, Texas Will Keep Polygamist Children In State Custody
Texas judge Barbara Walther ruled on Friday that the 416 children who were taken from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints' polygamist enclave, the Yearning For Zion Ranch, be kept in state custody. This legal decision has not been made without opposition, not just from the FLDS brass, but also from the ACLU and conservative journalists, who believe the state of Texas invaded the YFZ ranch on a false tip. In a written statement, ACLU Texas executive director Terri Burke said, "As this situation continues to unfold, we are concerned that the constitutional rights that all Americans rely upon and cherish — that we are secure in our homes, that we may worship as we please and hold our places of worship sacred, and that we may be with our children absent evidence of imminent danger — have been threatened." More »
big love
Child Abuse Hearings On Texas Polygamist Sect Start Today
Child custody hearings begin today in Texas for the 416 minors who were taken from the polygamist sect Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints' compound near Eldorado. According to CNN, logistics will be decided upon today, like which cases take precedence, while the actual fates of the children will be determined on Thursday. As previously reported, over 100 mothers accompanied the children from the compound, also known as the Yearning For Zion Ranch, when they were taken by police over a week ago. Texas authorities were responding to a call from a 16-year-old who blew the whistle on YFZ child abuse, though that teen has yet to be located. The mothers and children have been living in a temporary shelter in San Angelo, Texas, and the FLDS moms are none too pleased at the treatment they've been receiving. More »
the week that was
This Week We Hung Out With A Lot Of Child Molesters
- We were so into the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints and their Yearning For Zion Ranch, where girls in their early teens get married off to gross molesty old men with multiple other wives, none of whom are allowed to wear red because that's Jesus' color.
- Are those teens better, or worse off than the brave 8-year-old Yemeni girl name Nojoud Muhammed Nasser who was married off by her crazy homeless father, but has now successfully filed for divorce.
- A study in contrasts: the marriage of Nojoud Muhammed Nasser versus the insane Southern belles of MTV's True Life who call themselves "old maids" at age 24.
crappy hour
Your Nagging Ancient Mormon Underage Sex Cult Questions, Answered At Last!
So these polygamists: how did they pull it off? How did Warren Jeffs find time time to impregnate 70 women and run from the law? When your spiritual leader is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List and you've been chased out of two states and your creepy molestation cult is the subject of a Jon Krakauer book, just how do you go about finding the proper plot in West Texas on which to build your theme park-sized compound and commence bilking the government? Don't these people have a problem with birth defects? What of all the excess dudes? 100 years we've been putting up with this? What, is there some formidable pro-polygamy lobby keeping authorities from charging all these creepy old men marrying 13-year-olds because it will "break up families? (A: yes!) Didn't homeowners in El Dorado fear the whole "Waco" stigma? (Also yes!) Why was a sixteen-year-old who didn't even know how to spell her name the proverbial smoking gun here? And what's with the macro diet? Does it make up for all the inbreeding? Glamocracy's Megan Carpentier and I yearn to know more about Yearning For Zion, and we do all the morbid internet research so you don't have to, after the jump. More »
big love
Authorities Take 400 More Kids From Polygamist Sect In Texas
As of this morning, Texan authorities have taken custody of 401 children from the polygamist sect The Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). As previously reported, Texas child protective services was acting on a tip from a 16-year-old girl inside the compound who said that she was forced to marry 50-year-old convicted sex offender Dale Barlow at the age of 15 and bear his child. Among the 401 children and 133 women who have been taken from the 1,900 acre FLDS compound outside Eldorado, Texas, police have still been unable to find the teen informant, as many of the women and children share the same last names or have multiple given names. Court proceedings to determine whether to remove the children permanently began yesterday, and officials are trying to determine whether to send every child from the compound into a foster home. More »
big love
Polygamist Sect Raided On Charges Of Abuse Of Girls
Acting on a tip from a 16-year-old church member, Texas Child Protective Services arranged a raid on Friday at the compound of the polygamist sect The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 200 miles outside San Antonio. According to the AP, the teen caller said she was married and had a baby at age 15 with registered sex offender Dale Barlow, 50 — a clear violation of Texas law, as girls under 16 are not allowed to be wed, even with parental approval. The most recent reports state that Texas State troopers removed 219 people out of the compound —a former exotic game ranch, now called Yearning For Zion (YFZ) by the controversial church — but they've been as yet unable to locate the caller who notified child protective services in the first place. More »
Elissa Wall, the star witness in the trial against former polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, is writing a memoir, to be titled, Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Triumphing over Warren Jeffs. Walls was married at the age of 14 to her 19-year old cousin. Think she'll reference V.C Andrews? [Deseret Morning News]
