A Concerned Grandfather Takes On Porn

By Kaaren Valenta

Tied on the antenna of Jack Leitner’s car is a white ribbon, a symbol of his quiet but persistent war against pornography.

The Newtown resident, husband, father of four, and grandfather of seven joined Morality in Media, a national organization headquartered in New York City, about a dozen years ago.

“I had been reading about the pornography industry – how big it has become and how it is encouraged by organized crime,” he said. “It had grown out of hand – and that was before the Internet!”

“Morality in Media was founded by Morton Hill, a Jesuit priest who has since died,” Mr Leitner explained. “It has a legal staff that gets involved in legislation and court cases against pornography.”

 Mr Leitner began passing out white ribbons to friends and acquaintances, asking them to join in the fight against pornography. He wrote to Gov John Rowland, asking him to declare a pornography awareness week.

“I brought to his attention that other chief executives had joined in the national effort and asked him to do the same in Connecticut,” Mr Leitner said.

Late last month he received an envelope in the mail from the governor’s office. Inside was an official proclamation, bearing the state seal, of an order to designate October 26 through November 2 as Pornography Awareness Week in Connecticut.

The proclamation cited pornography for promoting sexual violence, exploiting children, and presenting a false and distorted image of human sexuality, “devoid of the love, commitment, and responsibility so needed for success in marriage and families.” It called on Americans to participate in Pornography Awareness Week by displaying white ribbons as symbols of community standards of decency to be upheld by enforcement of obscenity laws.

Mr Leitner also wrote to area supermarkets, including Big Y, requesting that they remove from the checkout stands, or otherwise hide from direct view, magazines that have explicit sexual comments on their covers. Although he did not get a personal response from Big Y, the company two weeks ago became the first supermarket in the region to cover magazines with questionable content that have been displayed at the cash registers within supermarkets.

A Big Y spokesman said the supermarket chain had received numerous calls and letters from customers who were upset because their children were subjected to “inappropriate” photos, language, and topics on certain magazines in racks at the checkouts. Despite objections from magazine publishers, Big Y decided to cover and/or omit these magazines from the checkout areas in their supermarkets.

“Big Y is a family-oriented company,” said Donald D’Amour, Chairman and CEO by Big Y. “We are taking a stand on the issues because we believe that parents should have the right to choose what their children are exposed to.  We are not changing the magazines that we carry – only where and how they are displayed in the store.”

Three magazines, Glamour, Vogue, and Redbook, have been removed from the racks at the checkout lanes in all 45 Big Y Supermarkets. These titles are now located only in the store’s magazine aisle.

Cosmopolitan magazine is still available at register, but now will be in a specialized rack that covers the entire front of the magazine except for the title. This new rack will limit children’s viewing of adult-oriented photos or headlines on the cover of the magazine, Mr D’Amour said.

Mr Leitner, who also belongs to the Knights of Columbus, an organization that also works to oppose pornography, said he has written to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and requested him to pursue the prosecution of pornography organizations. “I haven’t had any response and don’t think he has ever done anything,” Mr Leitner said.

Some communities “make a big deal” out of the WRAP (White Ribbon Against Pornography) program each year but it hasn’t been widely promoted in the Newtown area, Mr Leitner said.

“I give them to anyone who is interested,” he said. “My children are old enough now to handle the pornography that is everywhere, so I am doing this for my grandchildren.”