Too disgusted to come up with some catchy title for this post. Really, really disgusted:
While it’s a common tactic of abusers, it’s something no one expected of Republican Florida state Rep. Kathleen Passidomo.
During debate over a bill that would legislate a dress code for Florida students, Passidomo blamed the alleged gang raping of an 11-year-old in Cleveland, Texas on the way the young girl was dressed.
“There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gangraped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute,” Passidomo declared.
“And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students,” she added.
What kind of sick person blames an 11 year old girl for a gang rape by 18 boys/men in order to justify a dress code? The lack of common decency and basic humanity among this current breed of Republican politicians astonishes me. What next? Salem style witch burnings? These are nasty, ugly, just plain mean people.
But I suppose that’s what we must expect from a group of “holier than thou, better than you” hypocrites. Maybe if that girl had been a puppy Kathleen Passidomo and many of the residents of the town where the gang rape occurred would have shown more compassion for her.
But I doubt it.
Update [2011-3-17 17:33:9 by Steven D]: Kathleen Passidimo is now attempting to walk back her remarks and claim they had nothing to do with blaming the victim. Here’s the link:
Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, said she was “really hurt” this week when she was accused in the blogosphere of blaming the gang rape of an 11-year-old Texas girl not on the 18 alleged attackers, but on the girl.
“The blame is solely on the boys for what occurred,” Passidomo said of the alleged attackers. “Those kids were going to find somebody. They’re predators. They’re going to be dealt with through the judicial system. But the young girl has to deal with this for the rest of her life. My whole comment was, how do we protect these kids from predators?
“One of the ways is to teach them how to dress appropriately.” […]
Passidomo discussed the story during Tuesday’s committee meeting, which The St. Petersburg Times reported about on its Florida politics blog, The Buzz.
“There was an article about an 11-year-old girl who was gang-raped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute,” Passidomo said during the meeting, according to the St. Petersburg Times. “And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students.”
That comment was picked up by blogs around the country, including the Huffington Post, many of which accused Passidomo of blaming the victim.
When asked about the quote, Passidomo said “I don’t think that’s exactly what I said, but I don’t know.”
“The point that is disturbing to me or distressing to me is that anyone would think anyone would blame and 11-year-old for this horrible assault,” Passidomo said.
Passidomo, who has three adult daughters of her own, said she was devastated after reading the New York Times article about the attack. If the girl’s school had a stricter code of dress and student conduct, the girl might have had some extra protection, she said.
I will let you make your own judgment as to whether Ms. Passidomo has responded to criticism of her initial remarks about the rape in an appropriate manner.
