Law and Order: SVU Reviews J

This is a set of reviews of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I’ll often do no more than make brief notes about an episode, although occasionally I’ll go deeper. Also, often there are dissenting main characters on almost any political issue, but you can usually tell what the general position of the show is. All the rest of the reviews are available by clicking on the l&osvu label at the bottom.

“Making a Rapist” Season 18. Wikipedia summary is: “When a DNA rape kit is tested 16 years later, the man originally convicted of the crime, Sean Roberts (Henry Thomas), is released from prison. He befriends the victim and her daughter (Alexis Collins), being invited to the daughter's wedding. One month after Roberts' release, the daughter is found raped and murdered with evidence pointing to him. Meanwhile, Fin Tutuola is accused of framing Roberts as payback for tarnishing his arrest record, having been the original arresting officer. Vice President Joe Biden makes a cameo appearance in the cold open.”

Biden’s cameo is worth noting. He’s a pretty good Dem, what I would call a moderate liberal (see this for my thoughts on the word “liberal”). I am going to vote for him in the fairly solid Dem state of Colorado. As I wrote in most of a post here, I think he might be guilty of sexually assaulting Tara Reade. I’m going to vote for him anyway because A) CO is not too far from being a swing state (and I would like him to do well in the popular vote), B) he might be innocent, and C) even if he's guilty, he is still better than Trump in every way, including when it comes to sexual assault, (Trump has been accused of assaulting several women and has even bragged about it).

“Broken Rhymes” Season 18. Wikipedia summary is: “After a transgender individual (Sabel Gonzales) is assaulted in a public bathroom, SVU questions the CEO of a record label (Wyclef Jean) who may be linked to the assault. The case is initially believed to be a hate crime, but things take a twist when the prime suspect reveals his connection to the victim and several people are found brutally murdered. With the victim's life on the line, things eventually become very intense for both the detectives and the suspects.”

This is about transphobia. It is almost the first time I have touched on that on this blog and I need to get some things off my chest. Until about 5-10 years ago I frequently laughed at the the relatively harmless but still offensive jokes about transgender people that pepper popular culture in this country. In 2001, while helping to lead a coalition of student groups that were helping faculty and staff at the University of Colorado get domestic partner benefits, I didn’t value the importance of getting CU to offer equality to transgender staff and faculty. That was influenced by the fact that we (the coalition) were not steering events- we were formed the day before the Regents started discussing a measure to add sexual orientation to CU’s non-discrimination policy and were scrambling to organize support for that on the CU-Boulder campus. Some of our partners in the student LGBTQ community attacked me over this but it was partly a misunderstanding and partly, in hind-sight, that I simply didn’t value that issue very much- a third element is that we probably couldn’t have gotten the Regent who sponsored the measure to add the TQ in LGBTQ to his measure and if we had, it probably would have failed. To some extent the broad movement for LGBTQ equality had to decide if the LGB had to wait for equality until the TQ was also going to be included. As embarrassed as I am by my past failure as an ally to reject transphobia, I also don’t think that the LGB should wait. Supporting the measure the Regents were discussing was the right thing to do.

In early 2002 I started to educate myself. I learned that the unemployment rate for transgender people was something like 80%. Sometime around 2010 I learned, from this TV show, more about how much lethal violence there is directed towards transgender people. Around 2010 or 2015 I started to become sensitive to to transphobia in popular culture. In 2003 I included pro-transgender language in a political statement for the group Students for Justice in N. Ireland but I probably did a bad job of it and left out certain words or something. In the last 10 years I have had a few acquaintances who are transgender and once spoke out against a mildly anti-transgender statement.

“Chasing Theo” Season 18. Wikipedia summary is: “A six-year-old boy is abducted from his bedroom after his mother (Rachelle Lefevre) throws a wild party with drugs involved. The case brings forward several suspects and the detectives are led to multiple locations and tip-offs. The case becomes distressing for Rollins and Benson, both mothers. As hours go by, the squad becomes desperate to find the boy, which makes the mother and her ex-girlfriend fret. Meanwhile, Benson breaks up with Tucker after several days of thinking, breaking both her and Tucker's hearts.”

The child’s mother is a woman who is a white lesbian dating an Asian-American woman.

“No Surrender” season 18. Wikipedia summary is: “Fin revisits his military roots when a fellow Army Ranger (Sarah Booth) is the victim of sexual assault and does not handle it well. SVU is soon called in to assist and it is revealed that the woman was sexually assaulted after a party she threw. The case becomes difficult when the victim refuses to cooperate and Olivia and Fin become convinced that the rapist is someone against her being a Ranger, but the rapist turns out to be someone unexpected after a secret is revealed.”

This is partly about women in the military. Although I’m not a fan of the US military (I almost always politically object to the missions they’re given and I think there is a casual attitude about civilian death) I also believe that in at least two cases the US military did a good thing (the Civil War and World War II), and that they’re capable of doing the right thing, and that there are a lot of good people in the US military. With that in mind, I am concerned about equality for women in the military. I think that they should have it and that means integrating them fully into all units of the Army and Marines. I don’t know how many women will meet the physical requirements that the men have to in order to be, for example, in the infantry, but those who do should be made to feel welcome.