Army and Air Force Exchange Service is defending its policy to sell
sexually explicit magazines like Playboy, Penthouse, Nude Playmates, and a
host of others, despite the federal Military Honor and Decency Act, (10 U.S.C.
§ 2489) which prohibits the sale of sexually explicit publications in
military exchanges. They seem more concerned with the number of complaints
received rather than the law. Military families are encouraged to file complaints.
Here
is a link: http://odin.aafes.com/feedback/default.asp
Pat Trueman
Personal note:
I received this concerning article yesterday. Please express your concern
at:
http://odin.aafes.com/feedback/default.asp
Pornography on American military bases. We seek God's blessing upon our fighting
men yet we allow material that debases His children at our military training
centers. Pray that military people receiving this email particularly will
let their voices be heard.
Bill Johnson
====================
Anti-porn groups decry exchange sale policy
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer http://www.navytimes.com/benefits/stores/military_magazines_070911w/
Upset that the Pentagon allows military exchanges to sell adult magazines
such as Penthouse, Celebrity Skin, Playboy’s Vixens and others, more
than 40 anti-pornography groups plan to appeal to the Pentagon inspector general.
“The question of selling pornography in military exchanges has been
decided by Congress, and the Department of Defense cannot change the law,”
said Patrick Trueman, special counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian
public interest law firm that is one of the signatories to a May 4 letter
to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Army and Air Force Exchange Service officials said concerns about “adult
sophisticate” materials represent a small portion of complaints to AAFES.
Last year, 27 comments — less than 0.2 percent of the 16,344 comments
AAFES received — expressed dissatisfaction with the adult sophisticate
assortment, spokesman Judd Anstey said. One customer asked for an expanded
assortment.
Penthouse returned to military exchanges this summer 10 years after a Pentagon
review board banned it as sexually explicit. But the anti-porn groups weren’t
spurred by Penthouse alone; other magazines, such as Playboy, were not banned
but are still on the groups’ list of targets.
Following a Pentagon rule in late 2006 that allows banned material to be
reviewed every five years, Penthouse was reviewed this spring and was reinstated,
along with Playgirl and Ultra for Men. Hustler was reviewed again, along with
14 other publications that were deemed to still be sexually explicit and will
remain banned from exchanges.
But there has been no change in the law or the Pentagon board’s definitions
of “sexually explicit.”
Rather, the change was in the magazine, Penthouse publisher Diane Silberstein
said. New owners who took over in 2004 have worked to recreate Penthouse based
on the magazine’s “original DNA” when it was launched in
1969, she said.
They hired two research firms, which collected data showing that while men
do want to see young women in their entirety, they want more glamour shots,
Penthouse representatives said.
“Men are attracted to the magazine by beautiful women ... and stay
because they want to read the articles,” she said. They didn’t
revamp the magazine in an effort specifically to get it back into military
exchanges, she said, but simply “created the best magazine for the marketplace.”
However, she noted, Penthouse “has had a long relationship with the
military.” The magazine wrote about issues confronting veterans after
the Vietnam War, such as Agent Orange exposure.
“We’re also doing a number of articles to support returning vets”
of the current wars, she said, to include an in-depth article on debt in the
military.
"Penthouse is thrilled to be back on military bases,” she said.
By July, it was back in more than 500 exchange outlets worldwide, including
in the Iraq and Afghanistan combat zones. Sales figures are not available
yet.
Penthouse was one of more than 200 publications banned in the late 1990s
by the Resale Activities Board of Review as a result of the 1996 Military
Honor and Decency Act, which prohibits the sale of “sexually explicit
material,” to include audio recordings, films, videos or periodicals,
in military resale outlets.
Sexually explicit material is defined as having “as a dominant theme
the depiction or description of nudity, including sexual or excretory activities
or organs, in a lascivious way.”
The law does not affect troops’ ability to buy adult material in stores
outside installations or to purchase subscriptions.
In response to the groups’ complaints, Leslye Arsht, deputy undersecretary
of defense for military community and family policy, wrote that the board
reviewed Celebrity Skin, Penthouse, Perfect 10, Playboy, Playboy’s College
Girls, Playboy’s Lingerie, Nude, Nude Playmates and Playmates in Bed
— “and determined that, based solely on the totality of each magazine’s
content, they were not sexually explicit.”
As such, their sale in exchanges “is permissible,” Arsht wrote
in a letter to the groups last month.
At press time, defense officials had no comment on how many magazines and
other materials have been reviewed since defense officials decided late last
year that publishers could request a new review once they had been banned
for five years.
The board’s interpretation makes “no sense,” Trueman said.
The Alliance Defense Fund and the other groups contend that Playboy, Penthouse,
Perfect 10 and a host of other publications and videos sold in the exchanges
are prohibited by the law.
“Who reviews the review board? I wonder if there are any military wives
on this review board,” he said. “You hear people say, ‘I
only buy it for the articles,’ but who believes that?
“How could a person with any ... common sense say these are not sexually
explicit? The Department of Defense feels awkward about taking porn away from
service members.”
He cited incidents of sexual harassment in the military and other problems
that he contends are exacerbated by pornography.
“I know from my 20 years as a prosecutor and as an activist that men
involved in porn look at women in a different way,” he said. “At
the military academies, they’re selling the same magazines. Don’t
women deserve to be safe in that environment?”
While Trueman was serving as chief of the child exploitation and obscenity
section in the criminal division of the Justice Department, he said, he tried
unsuccessfully to get Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush to issue executive
orders banning porn in military exchanges. He later supported the 1996 law.
The groups were prompted to complain to Gates, Trueman said, after concerns
were raised this spring by some troops and their families that porn was still
sold in exchanges.
Army wife MaryAnn Gramig, who lives at Fort Knox, Ky., and is the research
and policy director for the nonprofit organization Rock: Building Stronger
Communities and Families, said she surveyed a number of exchanges by phone,
including those at the academies, after some complaints were raised.
“I happened to be a military spouse working for a pro-family group,”
she said.
But she’s long been aware of adult materials sold in the exchange at
her own base, she said.
“I have three children, and we shop at the exchange. I don’t
let them go to the periodical section without me,” she said. “There’s
enough stress on the military and families. This doesn’t help.”
================================
Another reminder about the free books on the pursuit of holiness. With new
Sunday School seasons beginning, this book is a vital study for those desiring
to hear His Word and obey it.
Here's what one person recently wrote:
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Here are the details once again:
Looking for a good book to use for a Bible study?
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This book is a tremendous study. The chapters are concise and meaty but readable.
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A tremendous way to study over a period of time God's great plan for our
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kimberly@americandecency.org
If you would like multiple copies, we are making them available for
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=========
American Decency Association
Bill Johnson, President
P.O. Box 202
Fremont, MI 49412
ph: 231-924-4050
www.americandecency.org
