Bob Barr

When Oral Sex Gets 'em More than
15 Minutes of Fame—not Shame
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
July 4, 2007

Andy Warhol claimed in 1968 that in the modern age, everybody will achieve fame for 15 minutes. He was wrong. Fame is decidedly uneven. Many who truly deserve acclaim receive it, if at all, posthumously. Many others, unfortunately, hold onto it for much longer than the quarter-hour Warhol allotted.

Thus it is with two who currently receive far more attention than their actions warrant—21-year-old convicted child molester Genarlow Wilson and 26-year-old heiress Paris Hilton.

Despite efforts to elevate both Hilton and Wilson to hero status, neither deserves such a post. Both of these celebrities owe their current media stock, at least in part, to the same act—oral sex.

In the case of Hilton, the recent media focus—of her driving escapades and resulting short stint in the Los Angeles County lock-up—have obscured the fact that just a couple of years ago this blonde recipient of a portion of the Hilton Hotels fortune was largely unknown. However, a home video of the heiress performing oral sex on a then-boyfriend catapulted her to super celebrity status. Continued and well-orchestrated acts of mischief have maintained her celebrity status and media presence. Not a single positive act has been credited to Hilton that would justify her status as a regular on the evening news.

Four years ago, Wilson, then a 17-year-old Georgia high school student, labored in obscurity until a New Year's Eve party involving marijuana and alcohol degenerated into hedonistic sex acts, including oral sex performed on Wilson by a 15-year-old girl.

Like Hilton, Wilson's foray into oral sex was videotaped. However, while Hilton's video landed her in Hollywood, the videotape of Wilson landed him in jail. At the time of his conviction, the act for which Wilson was convicted—aggravated child molestation—was a felony under Georgia law, carrying a 10-year mandatory prison sentence.

Following his conviction, the Georgia Legislature had a change of heart and reduced the severity of the offense for which he was convicted to a misdemeanor. Even though the Legislature expressly did not make the change in the law retroactive, many observers and lawyers are upset it did not do so. The whipping boy for the "free Genarlow Wilson" movement is Georgia's Attorney General Thurbert Baker, who has insisted that proper respect for the rule of law and legal procedure take precedence over sympathy for a not-terribly sympathetic figure. Wilson committed acts that the people of Georgia had determined through their lawful, elected representatives across the state—Republican and Democrat, black and white, rural and urban—should be punished. Whether one agrees or not with that decision or with the subsequent one not to soften the law retroactively, both decisions were arrived at lawfully and properly. Despite the fact that a judge other than the one who sentenced Wilson subsequently decided the sentence was too harsh, Baker and another judge concluded Wilson should not be automatically released.

Baker has appealed the interim ruling, as is his prerogative if not his obligation. The attorney general has indicated that while the Georgia Supreme Court may or may not eventually agree that Wilson deserves to be released, there is a proper and lawful process to be followed in the meantime, respect for which benefits us all in the long term.

There is nothing heroic in Wilson's actions that landed him in his current predicament. He remains not a paradigm of how young people ought to behave, but of how they should not comport themselves. In this, he shares much in common with the slightly older but equally decadent Paris Hilton.

Bob Barr occupies the 21st Century Liberties Chair for Freedom and Privacy at the American Conservative Union Foundation.