In 2020, the online news organization The Intercept revealed that HRW’s then-Executive Director, Ken Roth, accepted a $470,000 donation from a Saudi billionaire based on the condition that HRW would not use the money to protect the rights of the persecuted LGBTQ-plus community in the Middle East.
Roth was compelled to return the donation after The Intercept report.
I’m less worried for her, especially now that she’s out of that school and doing online school, than I am for her friend. I don’t know him well at all, he’s only been over at the house once and I was busy at the time and she ran into him by chance at a renaissance festival we went to and I let them go off and look around together, so I can’t really say for sure how he’s doing, but based on what my daughter says, he’s pretty messed up. He’s also smoking weed at 13. I admit, I smoked weed when I was 16 or 17, but I was in high school. This boy is in the seventh grade. If I didn’t think my daughter wasn’t totally disinterested in weed and vaping, I’d consider him a bad influence, but I’m glad she is disinterested because he needs friends.
My worry for my daughter is more long-term. She’s mostly safe as a child, for now anyway, but not her friend. His safety is a far bigger concern at his age.