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Garland, clean up your act
I’m sorry to read the family-friendly, party-at-the-matinee Garland Theater jumped into bed with vile Dan Savage by presenting The Hump! Film Festival.
Hasn’t the owner, Katherine Fritchie, heard? Pornography has become a public health crisis. Soft-core and hard-core porn is easily and readily available via streaming, cable, internet and mobile to anyone, regardless of age. Dr. Jill Manning, a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in clinical work and research related to pornography, listed 17 negative trends associated with viewing porn, including marital distress, addiction, and an “increased appetite for more graphic types of pornography and sexual activity associated with abusive, illegal or unsafe practices.”
Trends highlighted at endsexualexploitation.org include sexual violence, decreased brain matter in the areas of motivation and decision-making, impaired impulse control and desensitization to sexual reward and increased risk of sexually transmitted infections.
Porn is used by sex traffickers as a tool of control. Experiences of boys and men, involving sex trafficking, prostitution, child sexual abuse, sexual objectification, and the link to early childhood exposure to pornography, is being explored by therapists. Spokane Police report sex trafficking has become a growing problem in our area.
Garland Theater, for Spokane’s sake, clean up your act!
Penny Lancaster
Spokane