Help An Uppity Woman

You may have heard about Rachel Bevilacqua's custody battle before. If you haven't, then here's the short form for those who are catching up:

Rachel Bevilacqua's custody of her son was revoked after a particularly interesting legal-abuse maneuver. The husband swore out a complaint that she had violated the terms of the custody agreement, specifically that she had moved to another state without notifying the husband, and had been impossible to get in touch with.

She had not moved, and was in fact in regular contact with the ex-husband, and (when she was finally informed) proved this, but that wasn't what got her custody revoked, and an order from the bench for all contact with her son to be severed.

What I suspect in my vile, surly badger heart is that the whole point was to get, before a pre-selected, extremely conservative, Catholic judge, photographs of an event Rachel regularly attended WITHOUT her son - the Church of the SubGenius' X-Day celebration. To those of you not familiar with the "Church," it's social protest, exploration of boundaries, full-contact satire, and an assault on the idea that you can not act against the presence in your mind of other people's sacred cows. It's irreverent, but life is like that.

The Judge's reaction is after the fold.

From the first post on Rachel's blog:

On February 3, 2006, Judge Punch heard testimony in the case. Jeff entered into evidence 16 exhibits taken from the Internet, 12 of which are photographs of the SubGenius event, X-Day. Kohl has never attended X-Day and is not in any of the pictures. Rachel is depicted in many of these photos, often wearing skimpy costumes or completely nude, while participating in X-Day and Detroit Devival events.

The judge, allegedly a very strict Catholic, became outraged at the photos of the X-Day parody of Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ — especially the photo where Jesus [Steve Bevilacqua] is wearing clown makeup and carrying a crucifix with a pool-noodle dollar sign on it while being beaten by a crowd of SubGenii, including a topless woman with a “dildo”.

His Honor also strongly disapproved of the photos of Mary Magdalen [Rachel Bevilacqua] in a bondage dress and papier maché goat’s head. The judge repeatedly asked, “Why a goat? What’s so significant about a goat’s head?” When Rachel replied, “I just thought the word ‘goat’ was funny,” Judge Punch lost his temper completely, and began to shout abuse at Rachel, calling her a “pervert,” “mentally ill,” “lying,” and a participant in “sex orgies.” The judge ordered that Rachel is to have absolutely no contact with her son, not even in writing, because he felt the pictures of X-Day performance art were evidence enough to suspect “severe mental illness”. Rachel has had no contact with Kohl since that day, February 3, 2006.

Her blog, in addition to that entry (please take the time to read it), also has documents connected to the case and a well-written FAQ.

This case is illustrative of the point that the fundamentalist mindset in this country is not just about controlling a woman's body during pregnancy, it's also not about making sure that children are not exposed to “filth,” it is about making sure that those who question, especially women, are not allowed to contaminate the community with strange and dangerous ideas such as free inquiry, questioning the concept of “sacred,” and deconstructing or satirizing Revealed Truths.

Please help her out, and help set legal precedent against this madness.