A state legislator in Pennsylvania aims to close the legal loophole that permitted a convicted sex offender to become the “father” of an infant.
Responding to a viral video that showed the man and his “husband” repeatedly kissing the poor boy, GOP State Representative Aaron Bernstine has introduced a bill to block sex fiends such as Brandon Keith Mitchell — from using surrogate mothers to become “fathers.”
And online, a petition at Change.org asks far-left Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro to investigate the matter, remove the child, and help enact legislation to, again, close the loophole.
Background
Trouble began for Mitchell — who uses the middle name Riley, after his “husband,” Logan Riley — when a “right-wing influencer,” as The Philadelphia Inquirer called him, posted the video, which features the “same-sex York County couple smiling and playing with their infant.”
In fact, the repulsive video showed the two men repeatedly kissing the infant.
The newspaper correctly reported what the “influencer” wrote — “unless a miracle happens, this child has almost no chance at a normal life” — and observed that the “post garnered nearly 40,000 likes, generating a flurry of anti-LGBTQ responses.”
The newspaper then noted Mitchell’s sex crime. As The New American reported when the video went viral, citing Reduxx:
Mitchell is a Tier 1 sex offender … and was arrested in 2016 after attempting to solicit a 16-year-old boy for sexual abuse. The victim in the case was a student at Downingtown West High School, where Mitchell had worked as a chemistry teacher. He was 30 years old at the time.
As well, “Mitchell solicited the boy to send him nude photographs. He also told the victim he wanted to watch him masturbate and sent the victim approximately 20 nude photographs of himself,” Reduxx noted:
Police executed a search warrant of the teacher’s electronic devices and phone records, which revealed that he exchanged over 12,000 text messages with the victim. These conversations lasted from May 2013 until December 2014. Mitchell had instructed the victim to delete their conversations.
Police also recovered hundreds of other sexually explicit videos of the child on Mitchell’s laptop computer.
The Times of Chester County reported that Mitchell asked the victim to perform oral sex on him after high-school graduation. Mitchell stored “a sexually explicit video of the victim” on his laptop, the newspaper reported.
Despite that, Pennsylvania’s surrogacy law permitted Mitchell to take custody of an infant boy.
The Inquirer noted:
Parents who choose to conceive through surrogacy typically apply for a pre-birth order, making them, rather than the surrogate mother, the child’s legal guardians from the moment of birth.
Otherwise, prospective parents would technically need to adopt the baby and become subject to background checks. It is unclear whether Riley-Mitchell and his partner obtained a pre-birth order.
New Bill, Petition
Thus comes Bernstine with a bill to stop sex criminals from taking custody of children conceived by surrogacy. As the law stands now, he told the newspaper, surrogacy “bypasses the background checks, home studies, and judicial oversight that would otherwise be required in an adoption or foster care placement.”
His bill “would prohibit registered sex offenders from gaining parental rights through surrogacy agreements,” his website says. Also, it would mandate “background checks and child abuse clearances for all intended parents before a pre-birth parentage order is issued.”
“This is about protecting kids — period,” Bernstine said. “The safeguards in place for adopting children should also protect those children born through surrogacy.”
As well, said Pennsylvania’s 8th District lawmaker:
This isn’t about politics. It’s about basic human decency and common sense. No known predator should ever be given the legal right to raise a child in Pennsylvania.
Speaking of the infant, the petition says:
This child is now living in the custody of a man convicted of sexually abusing a child. The public is outraged, and we are demanding immediate action.
That “action” includes the following:
- Launching “an immediate investigation into the current custody arrangement”;
- Enacting “emergency protections to ensure this child is removed from danger”; and,
- Closing “any legal gaps that allow sex offenders access to adoption, surrogacy, or custody.”
At this writing, the petition is closing in on 14,000 signatures.
“Child safety must come before adult privilege,” the petition avers:
If Pennsylvania does not act now, more predators will exploit this system. We will not remain silent while children are handed over to known abusers.
What Shapiro will do is unclear. “I have a zero tolerance policy for the sexual abuse of children and my office will prosecute any offender to the fullest extent of the law,” he said when he was attorney general. Presumably, “zero tolerance” would include forbidding convicted sex offenders from using surrogates to get control of infants.
Homosexual Horror Story
Signatories of the petition are rightly worried about two homosexuals as “fathers,” particularly given that one is a sex offender.
In December, a judge sentenced Zachary and William Zulock, another “married” couple, to 100 years without parole for molesting their two adopted “sons.” The perverts not only sodomized the boys, but also videotaped their crimes and uploaded material to the internet for other perverts to enjoy.
