400 teenaged boys evicted from Utah/Arizona polygamist sect

[Bluebear]

Some say they were sometimes given as little as two hours' notice before being driven to St. George or nearby Hurricane, Utah, and left like unwanted pets along the road.

ST. GEORGE, Utah — Abandoned by his family, faith and community, Gideon Barlow arrived here an orphan from another world. At first, he played the tough guy, aloof and hard. But when no one was watching, he would cry. The freckle-faced 17-year-old said he was left to fend for himself last year after being forced out of Colorado City, Ariz., a town about 40 miles east of here, just over the state line.

"I couldn't see how my mom would let them do what they did to me," he said. When he tried to visit her on Mother's Day, he said, she told him to stay away. When he begged to give her a present, she said she wanted nothing. "I am dead to her now," he said.

Gideon is one of the "Lost Boys," a group of more than 400 teenagers — some as young as 13 — who authorities in Utah and Arizona say have fled or been driven out of the polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City over the last four years.

His stated offenses: wearing short-sleeved shirts, listening to CDs and having a girlfriend. Other boys say they were booted out for going to movies, watching television and staying out past curfew.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20050613/ts_latimes/losttotheonlylifetheyknew

edit to add Arizona

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Gotta love those religious fundies!

[Maddy McCall]

2. These are the numbskulls who are building the fortress in Texas.

El Dorado Texas, to be precise.

If I were in West Texas right now, I'd be trembling.

[Stephanie]

3. God, they're like a herd of animals

Driving the young bucks out so they can own all the women.

[Maddy McCall]

5. AND they drive men out who don't want their daughters sleeping...

with the chief prophet.

[demigoddess]

18. exactly what I was thinking

the old guys cannot take the competition.

[seabeyond]

21. i was going to post the same

eeewwww. and more

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Like young lions being kicked out of the pride to cut down on the

competition. It's sick. All those old geezers hoarding the young girls and kicking out their sons. How do they get away with this?

[JohnyCanuck]

7. That was my first thought as well. n/t

[zann725]

20. I wonder how many of these young abandoned boys turn to male prostitution

to survive? This is awful.

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. I think it might have been implied in the article.

It said they end up in one of two cities. Wasn't one of them Vegas? Maybe I'm reading too much into it.

If there is a connection, this would make a great plot for a movie. I see a family value's conservative right-wing politician making a stop at one of these enclaves to harvest donations and all 70 votes from one man's family. Then, after the politician leaves, the family kicks the sons out because they don't have the money to support them. They find their way to Vegas where it's Midnight Cowboy all over again.

[sam sarrha]

6. the problem with Polygamy is what to do with all the competition...

...it would be funny if it weren't so tragic...

but, ...hey, god takes care of his own.. they can always join gods army.. and kill for Christ and Dubya..

[sam sarrha]

10. actually Polagamy is child rape, many brides are related and about 13

[MrSlayer]

8. That's fucking horrible.

Only the very worst things can happen to children left to fend for themselves. And we're out of the mainstream.

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. Poor kids :^(

[Warpy]

11. The last thing those old patriarchs want

is young competition. They'll get into hot water, but only for not waiting until the boys were old enough to join the military. You can bet the rent on this.

That's the problem with a polygamous system. Either the monastery or the army has to deal with all the surplus males.

[DURHAM D]

12. Thank you for posting - we always hear a lot about the girls

being kept in virtual slavery but nothing about the boys. How sad for the boys and how sad for this country that polygamist sects continue to be ignored and allowed to openly break the law.

Wouldn't you think Senator Hatch would bring this to everyone's attention and try to put a stop to it ?

[lostnfound]

13. This is so sad, and amazing to read.

What kind of mother..!?!?#?#@!!!
I guess a mother who is brainwashed.
Very, very sad. What evil exists..this guy Jeffs should be on trial.

[mcscajun]

14. Damn. Even before I read the article, the numbers told me the story.

Remove the competition, plain and simple.

Bastards.

[Cleita]

15. Heartbreaking.

But it's good that people are helping these kids instead of letting them become homeless. DH and I have driven through those places. I remember the Vermillion Cliffs. They were very isolated and seemingly uninhabited. I had no idea that people lived there as I saw no towns when we drove by headed to St. George.

[mitchum]

16. family values

[KittyWampus]

17. Maybe Junior'll Send In The Feds The Way His Old Man Did In Waco

[losdiablosgato]

25. Bill Clinton was prez during Waco.

[comsymp]

27. That's right

The Ruby Ridge massacre occurred on Poppy's watch... and, of course, he later kneecapped Clinton with Somalia.

ALTHOOOUGH... the Feds hit Waco on 2/28/03, 40 days after Clinton's Inauguration. If Clinton was responsible for 9/11, as GeeWeeBee only had 8 months to get his shit together, then isn't Poppy still responsible for Waco?

[BlueStateGirl]

19. Gotta love the American Taliban. I thought polygamy was illegal,

even in Utah.

If they are kicking out boys as young as 13, isn't that neglect? Shouldn't they be charged?

[ohio_liberal]

22. Isn't it illegal

to abandon a minor child?

On edit:

And why do prosecutors need the ok of a minor child to prosecute the parents?

[Tsiyu]

24. I wish I could take them all in

But when no one was watching, he would cry.

[Bluebear]

29. Heartbreaking. nt

[Skidmore]

26. The alpha males purge the herd.

Cults.

Some one should ask Hatch about the practice--that fine upstanding example of moral rectitude. Baah!

[blindpig]

28. the common thread

As has been commented numerous times this is simplified animal behavior. This tendency underlies much of the conservative agenda. The whole patriarchy thing is more of the same. Our hierarchal social organization too. The bottom line is that conservatives truly are conservative, in the sense that they prefer to retain primitive behavior traits, both because it is to their immediate advantage and because it "feels right" to them.

It is the progressives who are advancing the evolution of human behavior. It is we who are advancing the human condition with our emphasis on cooperation over competition, egalitarianism over hierarchy.

Small wonder that they hate evolution.