Dateline: Syracuse
On today's front page of the Syracuse Post-Standard, local "family values" advocate Rick Guy has been named in a child neglect petition by the County.
Guy is a prominent Republican who has served as city councilor and was Mayor Roy Bernardi's choice for city counsel. Guy resigned when Bernardi took a job in the Bush Administration.
Guy is also a prominent anti-gay marriage activist in Syracuse.
The allegations that have been levelled against him read like a horror story.
Update [2004-12-10 14:40:22 by slidge]: I am adding a link to the Syracuse Post-Standard story.
According to the Post-Standard:
The county charges that Guy has used excessive corporal punishment with his teenage daughter and disrupted his children's education by moving them from program to program. The county also charged that Guy filed Persons in Need of Supervision (PINS) cases against two of his children as part of his demand that they "must unconditionally obey him because he is the 'God's replacement on Earth' and 'the manifestation of God on earth.'"
In the non-online version of the paper, they outline the various charges against Guy.
Guy repeatedly struck his daughter over the course of 10-15 minutes with a belt on her buttocks, leaving large red, blue and purple bruises.
Guy slapped his daughter across the face, dragged her upstairs and yanked her by the feet into her bedroom.
On at least three other occasions, Guy slapped his daughter across the face.
On at least one occasion, Guy belittled his daughter, "telling her she looked like a slut and acted like a whore and was digusting".
For the past three years, Guy has called his 17-year-old son "a bum, a pot head and a druggie" and failed to get appropriate help for his eating disorder.
On one occasion, Guy repeatedly punched his son in the chest and arms for several minutes because he was reading a book on sailing while watching his younger brother.
Guy often disciplines his six-year-old daughter by slapping her.
Guy has punished his 15-year-old daughter by refusing to allow her to take communion at church services and dictating what she must confess to the priest during confession.
Why do I feel that this is newsworthy? Because Rick Guy is a prominent "family values" activist.
Last Halloween, the Post-Standard reported about an event promoting a same-sex marriage ban in Syracuse.
Mr. Guy is quoted prominently:
"We are involved in a culture war. It's time to get out and do something."
Likewise, he also says:
"Homosexuality, the behavior, violates God's law. God doesn't lose battles. We're on the side of right. . . . We must defend traditional marriage."
Guy also was the leader of the campaign to prevent the flying of a rainbow-colored flag over City Hall on Flag Day, consistently voting against it on the grounds of "morality".
I have been working recently on a large Diary entry about the rise of "American Victorianism", about the facade of "morality" that covers the perversions of those who insist on forcing others to live their moralistic worldview while they themselves refuse to honor that worldview.
I am posting this diary to let every one know that this is widespread in America, even in a Blue State enclave like Syracuse, New York (an island of Blue in a sea of Red).