Re: Waiting for the predictable backlash

Matt, Thanks for highlighting the ill-conceived prison-themed board game for us. Timothy Kincaid over at Box Turtle Bulletin has already scolded LA Time’s write Tom O’Neil for calling it “gay themed” and to let the Times know that such a correlation is “offensive and stupid” — I think we’d do well to join him in that endeavor.

I also saw this story covered by The Point and while I appreciate the need to distinguish between gay relationships and rape (as if that needs clarifying), Allen Thornburgh raises other important concerns (emphasis added):

Should we similarly tolerate games about date rape? And if we see a game about prison rape as different than one about date rape, what does that say about how we view prisoners? To borrow a bit, are prisoners not men and brothers?

Any attempts to paint this game as “gay themed” are gravely missing the point. The adage to judge a person not by how she treats her friends, but rather by how she treats her enemies applies here to: what type of society do we want to be?