James Townsend,
I met the girl I am in trouble for thru a social media site but it was not Facebook (in fact, FB wasn’t even thought of yet). So to refute and invalidate your claim of the internet social media being a bad place for us to continue going, I personally, would have hooked up with this same young female had I seen her walking down the street or in a retail store. She probably made MANY heads turn.
And that’s not “victim blaming”, that’s realistic fact, But people don’t take well to reality. If it had happened that way, should I then never walk to the corner store for groceries ever again?

Being that she had only a few months to go til her legal birthday, she sure would have looked the very same as she did when I met her only she would no longer be a “victim” and my head still would have turned.
This was 11 years ago. So even I was 11 years younger and also didn’t appear my age. To this day I get compliments about my physical appearance for my age as we all know age and appearance don’t always match the INDIVIDUAL.

I enjoy visiting this site and reading the articles and comments sections. But I am starting to see a trend in us as RSO’s complaining about how the world outside is treating us but yet we’re kinda doing the very same things to ourselves. I see a lot of self condemnation in these comments and it angers me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/04/25/law-forbids-you-from-using-facebook-but-hey-you-can-use-the-paula-deen-network-instead/

He really takes the NC Supremes to task for their “analysis” of the law:
“The people restricted by the law can’t read or post to Facebook, Twitter and so on. But no problem — the sex offender still has ample alternative channels, such as the Paula Deen Network, WRAL.com, Glassdoor.com and Shutterfly.”

James,

The problem is that doing it in person is uncomfortable for a lot of people due to lack of anonymity. I wish that weren’t the case. Frankly it is this deep seated shame which many of us have that is such a problem for us when it comes to mobilizing the base. But in person meetings are difficult to organize at a grassroots level because a number of us are on probation and it would be a violation of one of the conditions to associate with other (felons) outside of a “therapeutic” setting.

Our voices are certainly stifled…and for good reason. Once truthful facts start surfacing on the internet and RSO’s, and their loved ones, start to come together to support one each other, there may be a chance for change. Unfortunately I am beginning to see more and more people who have been supporters of HB2 using false facts about RSO’s and how we are the true reason that HB2 was passed (or at least RSO’s are the menaces in the restroom). I think it would help if we could get some writers to draft up some op-ed’s with truthful facts about RSO’s and bring some light to the situation.

Frustration certainly abounds, Fred. One of the features we are hoping to include in a revision of the website would allow commenters to edit their submissions for a period of time prior to submission. Here’s hoping, anyway.

The language of the N.C. statute under review prohibits “access”. In fact, that’s the reason for the petition for Writ. NC’s Supreme Court hung its proverbial hat on the use of that word. I would not encourage ANY North Carolinian registrant to look at anyone’s page on Facebook, not even RSOL’s. That would be “accessing” the site. That is illegal. And that is why the law is being challenged.

I should also make it clear that when i said “waste of resources” I was not referring to RSOL nor did I have the impression that RSOL was involved with this.

It would be great if the Supreme Court rules in our favor, but if they don’t things are gong to get a lot worse.

I do see your point on facebook coming under scrutiny if they continue to discriminate against RSOs after the Supreme Court rules in our favor. However they will likely stick with their policies as they believe they are representing the majority with that position. You are correct that anybody can view a Facebook business page without creating an account. Even now we can do that. There is nothing that restricts that. A Facebook business page is the same as a website. So again no difference is made. If people did not know that please visit RSOLs Facebook page with out an FB account right now. You will see that you can.

You can not view personal Facebook pages at all unless you have an account which will will hamper our abilities to connect and communicate with like minded people. For me that is where the problem lies and I do not see how that will change even if the ruling goes in our favor.

Now I spoke a little harshly in the first comment and I apologize. I wish there was an edit button. I am just frustrated with everything, but don’t get me wrong. i do appreciate any efforts put forward to combat any areas of this law.

Yes I did make that point and thank you for remembering. We are being stifled from speaking out online and organizing. Facebook groups actually get very large and you can reach 1000s of people through them who believe in what you are saying. However, even if states do not out right deny us the right to use facebook, facebook will ban us as soon as they find out we are RSOs. We are not able to just create fact user names like most people do every day, because we have to register our user names and facebook will learn of them. So what we need to accomplish here in order to use facebook as a means of organizing is either every state has to stop requiring us to register online identifiers, which will allow us to legal create fake names or some how get facebook to stop discriminating against us. Personally I think the first option is the one worth pursuing. However I fail to see how this case is going to make a difference. All this case is going to do is say that RSOs is this state can use Facebook if they want to, but it is not going to stop Facebook from kicking them off and it is not going to give them a means to using fake names. So RSOs in this state will still not be able to use Facebook.