March 21

Events

• Current events

• 1950 - Sexy 18-year-old--but-look-much-younger Asian men finally get "protected" - The "Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others" was passed by the United nations on this date. The convention was designed to be more comprehensive than past agreements and less biased. It replaced several older conventions, such as the 1921 "International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children" and the 1910 "International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic." It seems that the UN decided that men and non-whites should be protected as well. The language of the new document is interestingly quaint. It spoke of punishing "any person who, to gratify the passions of another" exploits prostitutes, even with their consent.

• 1996 - "Have you no decency?" - A landmark case involving free speech on computer networks began on this date in Philadelphia. A coalition (of the willing?) led by the ACLU was challenging the "Communications Decency Act," which was signed into law the previous month. At issue was pornographic content on the Internet, and how or if it should be regulated. The new law forbade the distribution to minors of obscene or indecent material through the Internet or on-line services. Violators could be fined as much as $250,000 or sentenced to two years in prison. The Communications Decency Act was part of a broader telecommunications reform law approved by President Clinton on February 8, 1996. The ACLU filed its lawsuit the same day. A week later, U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter said the U.S. government must define the term "indecent" before it could enforce the law. Opponents said the act was too broad and unenforceable, and violated the First Amendment right of free speech. The court eventually agreed

• 2001 - "Is that motorized or manually operated?" - The Riverdale (Maryland) Park Town Council objected when Deborah Grade, who had run a small home day care for 13 years, decided to expand her business by 10 staff members and increase her wards from a handful to 30 children from social services programs. After purchasing property for a day-care site next to her home, Grade introduced the project to the council for a special exception to a county law that governs zoning and residential property use. the basis for the objection? Councilors learned that a registered pedo was living in the same neighborhood as the day care. One councilor commented that the pedo was "in videotaping distance from the day care." The Mayor worried that the town could be held liable if the pedo molested one of the kids. The monstrous pedo they all so feared was an elderly man in poor health confined to a wheelchair. On this date the council decided in a 4-2 vote to grant Grade's request despite the objections.