Ripped from the Headlines

Last night, I was doing a lot of writing. Sucks to stay in on a Saturday, but I'm finally beating back this cold. And the new play was in a hot place.

During a break in the action -- you have to stop and eat at some point -- I put on the telly. There was an episode of Law & Order: SVU that I knew I'd seen, but couldn't for the life of me remember how it went. It starts with a 14-year-old girl who tries to throw herself in front of a subway train. She's rescued, only it turns out she has been raped and has semen from two different men in her.

I tuned out about halfway through, at the point where the detectives learned the girl's father had been pimping out her mother to strangers, because "he likes to watch." God, straight people are so tedious!

Three hours later, another writing break, I put the tube back on. Same channel, and same episode, nearly in the same spot where I turned it off. Creepy how that happens. So I figured, what the heck, I'll see where this is going. (Suspecting lots of creepy and loaded dialogue about "multiple donors.")

Well, lo and behold, this episode (titled "Resilience," I checked on IMDB) is truly ripped from the headlines. I know cos it's based on a story that actually happened in my hometown in Ohio.

Here is the link of the latest news update -- the father's second appeal to the state supreme court was rejected last month. So he is serving the full 20.

I was in grad school in another state when this story broke. My mom and grandmother told me about it on the phone (separately) and I thought they were making it up. They had to send me news clippings to prove it.

The real case is in a lot of ways worse than the show (obviously, cos it's real). No one was pimped out to strangers in Stow, Ohio. However, the man who was convicted did inject his stepdaughter with his own sperm, and she did get pregnant and carry the baby to term. I believe she gave it up for adoption.

As I recall, there was some controversy (from his attorneys) over the charges, since he didn't put his penis in her, only a syringe, yet he was charged with rape. In Ohio, foreign objects count. So bear that in mind.

And, apparently, he did have to try more than once for it to take. But it works. So you can impregnate someone by injecting her with previously collected sperm. It's not just something out of lesbian legend.

As they say, it doesn't get more ripped.