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An American Homosexual defends Pedophiles
The following article appeared in the B.A.R. (Bay Area Reporter) by Steve Hanson

Shame on us if our lesbian/gay voices remain silent while our NAMBLA brothers are persecuted once again, and shame on those lesbians and gay men who will raise their voices to condemn NAMBLA insisting that boy lovers (and presumably the boys they love and who love them) are not part of this thing called the lesbian/gay community. Shame on GLAAD especially for selling NAMBLA down the river. For GLAAD to say that the persecution of NAMBLA is not a gay issue is an act of cowardice that at the very least denies the existence of gays under the legal age of 18.

NAMBLA deserves the support of at least those San Francisco queers who call themselves radicals or progressives, for the people in NAMBLA represent perhaps the most radical among us. A boy lover who acts upon his desires lives with the day-to-day threat of very real persecution by the state (and the media): surveillance, arrest, imprisonment. Boys in relationships with men risk losing their freedom as well, being dragged through an ugly legal process that supposedly exists to protect them. The rest of us it seems have forgotten, or never known, what it means for our sex to be illegal, but it was and, of course, in many places still is.

I wouldn't expect any mainstream assimilationist gay voices to be heard in defense of NAMBLA - too much respectability at stake - and I don't expect the gay press to come out swinging for NAMBLA either. After all, the group held its national conference here in November and precious little mention of it appeared in the gay press. The B.A.R. ran a paragraph about the Women's Building statement that they regretted having leased space to NAMBLA. No dialogue appeared in the B.A.R. about the issues around man-boy love; no insights into what NAMBLA's purpose and goals might be. The Sentinel ran nothing at all (big surprise).

I attended that conference as a field research project for a City College Gay Studies course in anthropology. What I found there surprised me. The group has perhaps the most comprehensive and well-developed philosophical and political stands, outlined within their constitution, of any lesbian/gay group I've seen. My preconceptions about NAMBLA representing the predatory desires of older men at the expense of young people were proved unfounded. The discussions I heard at the conference centered around the empowerment of youth, not exploitation. Unlike what KRON's Pete Wilson (homophobe of the century) would have us believe, NAMBLA is not a support group for molesters. The people of NAMBLA that I met are more concerned with the intellectual and emotional health and freedom of children than any heterosexual parents I've ever known. What NAMBLA does do is pursue a political end to age of consent laws, and a moral ideal that elevates children and youth beyond the status of property.

Discussions about the real issue, consent - including whether it is even possible between an adult and a child - are discussions I have heard only within NAMBLA. Discussions about the liberation of youth from an oppressive society and oppressive families are discussions I have heard only within NAMBLA. A sad byproduct of the assimilationist fear of being labeled "child molesters" is that the lesbian/gay community has largely turned its back on lesbian and gay youth.

We are so quick to buy into the morality of the straight world when it comes to children, yet no one who considers himself or herself a progressive or radical should accept *any* mainstream position on *anything* without challenging it. The most I can hope for is that you will find out for yourselves who NAMBLA is and what they stand for. The lesbian/gay community should know better than to buy the garbage the straight media feeds us - especially about ourselves.

My dear Lord! Now these people are some sick puppies. There have always been a few perverts in trenchcoats who molested young boys in dark alleys, but these crazies are out in the open about what they are all about. "North American Man Boy Love Association" the name truly says it all. Steve Hanson