Randall Menges has had to live as a registered sex offender for more than 20 years. The status has cost him jobs and friendships. He's even considered suicide. You're probably tempted to assume Menges deserves his fate. After all, sex offenders are terrible people who exploit minors and sometimes willingly associate with Matt Gaetz. However, Menges's situation is more complicated.

In 1993, when he was 18, Menges had consensual sex with two other teenage boys at a camp in Idaho. It was like that one time at band camp, and the gayness was apparently the only “crime."

From the New York Times:

In 1993, Mr. Menges was living in a foster program at a ranch in Gem County and stayed on as an employee when he turned 18. Two months later, the police learned that he had had sex with two other teenagers, both 16, at the ranch. The age of consent in the state was 16.

State prosecutors charged Menges with "crimes against nature," an over-the-top term for engaging in sodomy and oral sex. The Supreme Court ruled sodomy laws unconstitutional in 2003, but Menges was sentenced to seven years in prison. Once he was released, he was placed on the sex offender registry in Idaho and Montana, where he eventually moved.