Common Sense

Pedo info

by Mitzel

Why does the discussion of pedophilia occasion such displays of unreason? Reactionary political campaigns are based on anti-pedo prejudice (Robin Lloyd. Anital Green). Barbaric punishments are recommended as fit for pedo convicts: in Maine a bill was introduced this year mandating castration for men convicted of pedophile "sex offences." Dr. John' Money prefers a more medical-enlightened approach. He advocates massive drug therapy and compulsory "counseling" to turn pedos into more normal people. In Revere, Massachusetts, a new city ordinance stipulates that anyone who has been convicted of a sex offense with a minor be discriminated against in city hiring and licensing practices. Self-seekers like Dr. Judianne Densen-Gerber have made careers out of sensationalizing adult-child sexuality and whipping up anti-pedo hatreds. No epithet carries more opprobrium than "child molester." the common label for all pedos in ordinary parlance. We are even told that within male prison populations. pedos have the lowest status.

One does not find pedo-baiting. only among political reactionaries and publicity-seeking careerists. Even so-called socialists reveal the

rather than shamed. censored and banned. Child sex with adults. particularly homosexual. needs encouragement and support.

It seems to me, important that children become sexually active (with peers and adults both) prior to adolescence for two reasons. First. early and uninhibited sex play prepares people to better resist the layers of sex guilt that teachers. parents and priests will try to impose. And secondly, early experience will encourage youth to be better informed as to their sexuality by the time adolescence begins. Something maybe people I know today could have benefitted by.

Pedophiles are organizing. both hetero and homo. The impact of their organizing can be felt with particular intensity in the gay movement. One of the original five demands approved at the Philadel-

of 1977-78 was directed at faggot pedos in particular. Now every state in the U.S. has severe laws forbidding child sex and photogIraphy. In Canada. it was the Body Politic's publication of "Men Loving Boys Loving Men" which provoked provincial police to raid their offices and indict three collective members. In the Netherlands, a new magazine for boy-lovers, Pan. has begun publication in two different editions-a candid European one and a toned-down "safe" one in English to get past U.S. customs.

Though not exclusively gaypedo oriented. two California groups have long been active disseminating information about child-adult sexuality and working towards change in our nation's barbaric anti-sex laws. These are: the Rene Guyon Society. founded in 1964 and named after a French

The experiences of the gay male pedos need currency and a sympathetic hearing within unscientific basis of their personal the gay community. "Kiddie porn" should be more widely available rather than shamed,

politics. The American Socialist Workers Party (Trotskyist) seems to be backing away from gay liberation in general (refusing to endorse or support the national gay march on D.C.) and revealing itself to be in need of much study and discussion on the importance of the issue involving cross-generational sexual relations.

Tensions flared between New York gays and police during the 'Cruising' protests

In My Opinion

'Cruising': boycott planned

by Scott Tucker

The film crew of "Cruising" has left the streets of the West Village in

New York City, and the storm that Some cherished illusions have

surrounded them has now abated.

been shattered, including the illusion that Mayor Edward Koch was a "defender of gay rights."

The last three days of public protest were marked by confrontations at police barricades, by arrests, injuries, and increasing militance. A group of lesbians and gay men had formed and called themselves the Marshals: at one of their

censored and banned. Child meetings, which I attended, this

sex with adults, particularly

group defined itself as a mediating element between the cops and the crowd. The Marshals agreed to use non-violent tactics in organizing

David Thorstad. former presihomosexual, needs encourand leading the protests against

dent of NYC's Gay Activist Alliance, detailed the SWP's hostilities in an article he wrote for Gay Activist. Two SWPers wrote in The Militant (the party paper): "The repeal of age-of-consent-laws is a reac-tionary demand even though its supporters try to pass themselves off as defenders of adolescents against legal victimization." Thorstad was publicly baited by SWP apologists at a gay meeting: "Man/ boy love is not part of the gay rights movement: it's exploitation of children. Sound familiar? Apparently. the clique that runs the national SWP has decided to back out of their support of gay lib: they are using the ill-feelings raised over the pedo issue to cover their retreat.

The particulars in discussing boy-love are vast. Boys and adolescents. Quick sex and long relations. The sexual behavior of male homo-pedos (at least those rudimentally studied by Gebhard et.al.) needs further exploration and public awareness. The experiences of the gay male pedos need currency and a sympathetic hearing within the gay community. "Kiddie porn should be more widely available

8

agement and support.

phia confab for the March on Washington was the abolition of all age of consent laws. This was a radical demand given the American context (though not so far out in other societies). Oddly, this one demand was later scuttled. reworded and focused to reflect the needs and aspirations of gay youth. Two historically important meetings of homosexual boy-lovers took place in the past year (in Boston in December, and in New York in March) and a new group emerged. The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).

But, of course. with political development comes reaction. The Paedophile Information Exchange in London attempted to sponsor a pedo conference in the UK. It was forbidden by the police. PIE's magazine. Magpie. is periodically seized by British authorities in the US.. the anti-kiddie-porno panic

colonial jurist in Siam who wrote 10 volumes on sexuality (only two have been translated into English) and the Childhood Sensuality Circle, founded in 1971. I have provided below addresses for these organizations. All are pathbreaking groups. All labor to dispell the ignorance. emotion and superstition clouding pedophilia. With the attack against pedos (especially gay male) escalating. there is much work to be done.

NAMBLA. c/o GAA. Box 2 Village Station. NYC. NY 10014

PAN. PO Box 3496. 1001 AG Amsterdam. The Netherlands.. Rene Guyon Society. Beverly Hills, CA.

Paedophile Information Exchange. PIE. PO Box 318. London. SE3 8QD. United Kingdom

CS.C. PO Box 5164 San Diego. CA 92105

the film.

On Monday, August 20, a rally was called in Sheridan Square. Ever since the protests against the film began, many blatant homophobes and befuddled liberals had harped on the First Amendment right to free speech: William Friedkin, the director of "Cruising," could thus be seen as a victim of crowd censorship.

But gay people insisted that the money. power and prejudice behind a film like "Cruising" were as much the issue as Free Speech. On August 20 one man carried a sign. which expressed our refusal to accept the myth that everyone in America has an equal right to free speech. It said: "The First Amendment: SOLD to the Highest Bidder."

As various speakers addressed the gathering crowd. the Marshals passed out slips of paper advising folks what to do in case of arrest. A woman from Youth Against War & Fascism spoke. asking. "Where is Mayor Koch's devotion to the Constitution when the rights of lesbians and gay men are involved? Koch says Friedkin has the right to take over the streets we live in, but

we're telling Friedkin and his crew to get out of our community!" Village Voice columnist Arthur Bell announced that Friedkin's crew had cancelled plans to film on Christopher Street that night, and was setting up cameras on West Street instead. (Bars at both locations covered their signs and windows with foil and placed signs on doors saying "STOP the movie Cruising." Other signs said. "This is not a movie set." This effectively restricted the scope of scenes Friedkin. could shoot.)

West Street is a wide waterfront warethoroughfare lined with

houses, piers and leather bars. When the crowd reached the police. barricades, the number of protesters had swelled from roughly 200 to nearly 800. At one point the crowd was surrounded on three sides by a double row of cops. some wearing hard helmets, all holding clubs. (The egg I'd been handed posed a political problem for me. Eggs can't beat clubs. If you are serious about fighting cops. you'd better throw bricks. I decided to save my egg for Friedkin, but a cop saw it in my handed and demanded it. "But it's for my breakfast." I said. "Give it to me." het insisted, not amused. I gave it to him and said. "Sit on it.")

One demonstrator was shoved to the ground by cops when he tried to cut the cable of a floodlight. Another demonstrator tried burning the cable; still others grabbed the cable and began a tug of war. (The floodlight was finally disconnected.) William Gronewald, an activist on the Board of Directors of New York's Gay Switchboard, was clubbed in the head shortly after the first incident. The militance of the crowd was clearly going beyond the "lead" of the Marshals: the Marshals came more and more to take the militant lead of the crowd.

One tactic of the Marshals had (Continued on page 19) GAY NEWS-Sept. 21, 1979