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{{Short description|American pedophilia advocacy organization}}
The '''North American Man-Boy Love Association''' (NAMBLA) is an organization of ] who claim that sex between grown men and boys should be legal. Many accused or convicted child molestors have been said to have been involved in the organisation, for example Rev. ], a Catholic priest from Boston accused of raping boys.
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = North American Man/Boy Love Association
| logo = NAMBLA logo.svg
| logo_caption = A NAMBLA logo. The capital ''M'' and lowercase ''b'' symbolize a man and a boy.
| type = Unincorporated association
| founded_date = {{start date and age|1978|12|2}}<ref name='Gayhist'/>
| defunct_date = {{start date and age|2006}}
| tax_id =
| registration_id =
| founder = ]
| location = ] and ]
| key_people =
| area_served = ]
| method = ]
| focus = ] and ] activism
| dissolved =
}}


The '''North American Man/Boy Love Association''' ('''NAMBLA''', stylized as '''NAMbLA''') is a ] and ] advocacy organization in the United States. It works to ] criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors<ref name= Holmes>{{Cite book|title=Current perspectives on sex crimes|first=Ronald M. |last=Holmes |author2=Stephen T. Holmes |publisher=SAGE|year=2002|isbn=0-7619-2416-7|page=165}}</ref><ref name=deyoung>{{Cite journal|title=The World According to NAMBLA: Accounting for Deviance |journal=Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare|volume=16|date=March 1989|pages=111–126|author=M DeYoung|doi=10.15453/0191-5096.1885 |s2cid=55149751 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and campaigns for the release of men who have been jailed for sexual contacts with minors that did not involve what it considers coercion.<ref name= Holmes/><ref name=soto/>
The gay movement has been accused of having links to NAMBLA, especially by right-wing Christians, although the majority of gay rights organizations reject all these claims. In the early 1990s, the ] had its UN ECOSOC consultative NGO status withdrawn after it was revealed it had links to NAMBLA. ILGA then expelled NAMBLA from the organization, but still has not been able to get back consultative status. A small minority of the gay movement opposed ILGA's action as a witchhunt.


The group no longer holds regular national meetings, and as of the late 1990s—to avoid local police infiltration—the organization discouraged the formation of local chapters.<ref name=soto/><ref name=boston/> Around 1995, an undercover detective discovered there were 1,100 people on the organization's rolls.<ref name=soto/> NAMBLA was the largest group in ] (IPCE), an international pro-pedophile activist organization.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Whitfield |first1=Charles L. |last2=Silberg |first2=Joyanna L. |last3=Fink |first3=Paul Jay |title=Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors |date=2001 |publisher=Haworth Maltreatment & Trauma Press |isbn=9780789019004 |page=129 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=09ZXAAAAYAAJ |language=en}}</ref> Since then, the organization has dwindled to only a handful of people, with many members joining online pedophile networks, according to Xavier Von Erck, director of operations at the anti-pedophile organization ].<ref name="PearlVice">{{cite news|last1=Pearl|first1=Mike|title=Whatever Happened to NAMBLA, America's Paedophilia Advocates?|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/whatever-happened-to-nambla|access-date=March 30, 2016|work=VICE US|date=March 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329051807/http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/whatever-happened-to-nambla|archive-date=March 29, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> {{As of|2005}}, a newspaper report stated that NAMBLA was based in New York and San Francisco.<ref name=soto>Soto, Onell R. (2005). ' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050325102309/http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050217-2208-manboy-daily.html |date=March 25, 2005 }}', San Diego Union-Tribune, February 18.</ref>
The US Congress threatened to stop UN dues payments if the UN gave consultative status to any groups who defended pedophilia -- this was under the Helms amendment to the 1994-1995 Foreign Relations Authorization Act Fiscal Year 1994/1995 (Public Law 103-236) which stated in section 101(g):
:(g) WITHHOLDING OF FUNDS- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the funds authorized to be appropriated for `Contributions for International Organizations' shall be reduced in the amount of $118,875,000 for each of the fiscal years 1994 and 1995, and for each year thereafter, unless the President certifies to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate that no United States agency or United Nations affiliated agency grants any official status, accreditation, or recognition to any organization which promotes, condones, or seeks the legalization of pedophilia, or which includes as a subsidiary or member any such organization.'


==History==
The analogue of NAMBLA in ] is the association ] (for acceptence of ]), which was founded in 1982.
Events such as ]'s 1977 "]" campaign and a police raid of a ]-area newspaper, '']'', for publishing an article by ] sympathetic to "boy-love" set the stage for the founding of NAMBLA.<ref name=boston/>

In December 1977, police raided a house in the Boston suburb ]. Twenty-four men were arrested and indicted on over 100 felony counts of the ] of boys aged eight to fifteen.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Boston/Boise+Affair,+1977-78.+(Essay).-a098247486|title=The Boston/Boise Affair, 1977-78. (Essay). - Free Online Library|website=www.thefreelibrary.com|access-date=June 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427005425/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Boston%2fBoise+Affair%2c+1977-78.+(Essay).-a098247486|archive-date=April 27, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> Suffolk County district attorney ] found the men had used drugs and video games to lure the boys into a house, where they photographed them as they engaged in sexual activity. The men were members of a "sex ring"; Byrne said the arrest was "the tip of the iceberg".<ref>{{cite book|last=Mitzel|first=John|title=The Boston sex scandal|year=1980|publisher=Glad Day Books|isbn=0-915480-15-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Aloisi|first=James|title=The Bonin story : the persecution of a Chief Justice and the lesson for today|url=https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/001-the-bonin-story/|year=2012|access-date=April 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427004529/https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/001-the-bonin-story/|archive-date=April 27, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="boston">{{cite web |url=http://www.bostonmagazine.com/home/articles/boy_crazy/ |title=Boy Crazy |first=Benoit |last=Denizet-Lewis |date=May 2001 |work=] |access-date=October 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120308172841/http://www.bostonmagazine.com/scripts/print/article.php?asset_idx=200857 |archive-date=March 8, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Commenting on this issue, '']'' magazine described NAMBLA as "the most despised group of men in America", which was "founded mostly by eccentric, boy-loving leftists".<ref name="boston" /> The "Boston-Boise Committee", a gay rights organization, was formed in response to these events (which they termed the "Boston witch-hunt"), allegedly in order to promote solidarity amongst gay men, saying in an official leaflet that: "The closet is weak. There is strength in unity and openness."<ref name=Nu /> NAMBLA's founding was inspired by this organization.<ref name=Nu>{{cite web |url=http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/voices/gl_sexual2.htm | title = Gay Community Fights Back (1978) | access-date = August 26, 2010 | work = We Raise Our Voices | publisher = Northeastern University | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207121011/http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/voices/gl_sexual2.htm | archive-date = February 7, 2012 | url-status = dead }}</ref> It was co-founded by gay-rights activist and socialist ].<ref name="books.google.com"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413072025/https://books.google.com/books?id=L9Mj7oHEwVoC&pg=PA628 |date=April 13, 2016 }} By George E. Haggerty p. 628</ref>

In 1982, a NAMBLA member was falsely linked to the disappearance of ]. Although the accusation was groundless, the negative publicity was disastrous to the organization.<ref>{{Cite book| last1 = Jenkins | first1 = Philip | title = Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America | publisher = Yale University Press | year = 2004 | page = 158 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g_wT9QQgu1IC&pg=PA158 | access-date = September 2, 2010 | isbn = 978-0-300-10963-4}}</ref> NAMBLA published a book ''A Witchhunt Foiled: The FBI vs. NAMBLA'', which documented these events.<ref>{{Cite journal| title = A Witch-hunt foiled: The FBI vs. NAMBLA | journal = The Advocate | date = May 13, 1986 | first = Hubert | last = Kennedy | issue = 446 | page = 54| author-link=Hubert Kennedy| quote = book review}}</ref> In testimony before the United States Senate, NAMBLA was exonerated from criminal activities; it said, "It is the pedophile with no organized affiliations who is the real threat to children".<ref> by George E. Haggerty, p. 627</ref>

], the author of '']'', infiltrated NAMBLA and recorded his observations in his book, which was published in 1991. Echols published the names, addresses and telephone numbers of eighty suspected NAMBLA members on his website, which led to death threats being made to people who were not members of the organization.<ref name=boston/>

Onell R. Soto, a '']'' writer, wrote in February 2005, "Law enforcement officials and mental health professionals say that while NAMBLA's membership numbers are small, the group has a dangerous ripple effect through the Internet by sanctioning the behavior of those who would abuse children".<ref name="soto"/>

===ILGA controversy===
{{main|ILGA consultative status controversy}}
In 1993, the ] (ILGA) achieved ] consultative status. NAMBLA's membership in ILGA drew heavy criticism and caused the suspension of ILGA. Many gay organizations called for the ILGA to dissolve ties with NAMBLA. Republican Senator ] proposed a bill to withhold {{USD|119 million}} in UN contributions until U.S. President ] could certify that no UN agency grants any official status to organizations that condoned pedophilia.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Abrams|first1=Jim|title=Senate demands U.N. end ties with NAMBLA|url=http://www.qrd.org/qrd/orgs/NAMBLA/senate.demands.un.oust.nambla|agency=]|access-date=September 19, 2015|date=January 26, 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123014056/http://www.qrd.org/qrd/orgs/NAMBLA/senate.demands.un.oust.nambla|archive-date=November 23, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> The bill was unanimously approved by Congress and signed into law by Clinton in April 1994.<ref name="GibsonAlexander2013"/>

In 1994, ILGA expelled NAMBLA— the first U.S.-based organization to be a member<ref name="books.google.com"/>—as well as ] and Project Truth,<ref name="GibsonAlexander2013">{{cite book|author1=Michelle A. Gibson|author2=Jonathan Alexander|author3=Deborah T. Meem|title=Finding Out: An Introduction to LGBT Studies: An Introduction to LGBT Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AawgAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA141|date=February 14, 2013|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4833-1572-0|page=141|access-date=September 11, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160503141922/https://books.google.com/books?id=AawgAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA141|archive-date=May 3, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> because they were judged to be "organizations with a predominant aim of supporting or promoting pedophilia".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Campbell |first=Kristina |date=July 1, 1994 |title=Pedophile groups expelled from ILGA |pages=1, 12 |work=] |url=https://digdc.dclibrary.org/islandora/object/dcplislandora%3A165214#page/1/mode/1up |access-date=December 5, 2023}}</ref> Although ILGA removed NAMBLA, the UN reversed its decision to grant ILGA special consultative status. Repeated attempts by ILGA to regain special status with the UN succeeded in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/ecosoc6242.doc.htm |title=''Economic and Social Council Approves Consultative Status for Three Non-Governmental Organizations Focusing on Gay, Lesbian Rights'', Economic and Social Council ECOSOC/6242, December 11, 2006 |publisher=Un.org |access-date=October 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090705213937/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/ecosoc6242.doc.htm |archive-date=July 5, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Partially in response to the NAMBLA situation,<ref name="GibsonAlexander2013" /> Gregory King of the ] later said, "NAMBLA is not a gay organization&nbsp;...&nbsp;they are not part of our community and we thoroughly reject their efforts to insinuate that pedophilia is an issue related to gay and lesbian civil rights".<ref name="Gamson 178–199">{{cite journal|jstor=190542|title=Messages of Exclusion: Gender, Movements, and Symbolic Boundaries|first=Joshua|last=Gamson|date=January 1, 1997|journal=Gender and Society|volume=11|issue=2|pages=178–199|doi=10.1177/089124397011002003|s2cid=144695531}}</ref> NAMBLA said, "man/boy love is by definition homosexual", that "the Western homosexual tradition from Socrates to Wilde to Gide&nbsp;...&nbsp; many non Western homo sexualities from New Guinea and Persia to the Zulu and the Japanese" were formed by pederasty, that "man/boy lovers are part of the gay movement and central to gay history and culture", and that "homosexuals denying that it is 'not gay' to be attracted to adolescent boys are just as ludicrous as heterosexuals saying it's 'not heterosexual' to be attracted to adolescent girls".<ref name="Gamson 178–199" />

===''Curley v. NAMBLA''===
{{Main|Curley v. NAMBLA}}
In 2000, a Boston couple, Robert and Barbara Curley, sued NAMBLA for the wrongful death of their son. According to the suit, defendants Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari, who were convicted of murdering the Curleys' son Jeffrey, "stalked&nbsp;... tortured, murdered and mutilated body on or about October 1, 1997. Upon information and belief immediately prior to said acts, Charles Jaynes accessed NAMBLA's website at the Boston Public Library."<ref name="thecpac"/> The lawsuit said, "NAMBLA serves as a conduit for an underground network of pedophiles in the United States who use their NAMBLA association and contacts therein and the Internet to obtain and promote pedophile activity".<ref name="thecpac">{{cite web|url=http://www.thecpac.com/Curleys-v-NAMBLA.html |title=Curley v. NAMBLA |publisher=Thecpac.com |access-date=September 19, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020606132158/http://www.thecpac.com/Curleys-v-NAMBLA.html |archive-date = June 6, 2002 | url-status=dead}}</ref> Jaynes wrote in his diary, "This was a turning point in discovery of myself&nbsp;... NAMBLA's ''Bulletin'' helped me to become aware of my own sexuality and acceptance of it&nbsp;...&nbsp;".<ref>{{Cite news |author=Slobogin |first=Kathy |date=January 5, 2001 |title=Parents of murdered child sue child-sex advocates - January 8, 2001 |publisher=Edition.cnn.com |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2001/LAW/01/08/nambla.suit.crim/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090812105425/http://edition.cnn.com/2001/LAW/01/08/nambla.suit.crim/ |archive-date=August 12, 2009}}</ref>

Citing cases in which NAMBLA members were convicted of sexual offenses against children, Larry Frisoli, the attorney representing the Curleys, said the organization is a "training ground" for adults who wish to seduce children, in which men exchange strategies to find and groom child sex partners. Frisoli also said NAMBLA has sold on its website "The Rape and Escape Manual", which gave details about the avoidance of capture and prosecution.<ref>{{cite news|author1=Murdock, Deroy|title=No Boy Scouts: The ACLU defends NAMBLA|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200402270920.asp|access-date=August 5, 2015|work=National Review Online|date=February 27, 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040229030409/http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200402270920.asp|archive-date=February 29, 2004|url-status=dead}}</ref> The ] (ACLU) stepped in to defend NAMBLA as a free speech matter;<ref>{{cite web|title=ACLU Statement on Defending the Free Speech of Unpopular Organizations|url=https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-statement-defending-free-speech-unpopular-organizations|work=]|access-date=August 5, 2015|date=August 31, 2000|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150726080311/https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-statement-defending-free-speech-unpopular-organizations|archive-date=July 26, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> it won a dismissal because NAMBLA is organized as an unincorporated association rather than a corporation. John Reinstein, director of the ACLU Massachusetts, said although NAMBLA "may extol conduct which is currently illegal", there was nothing on its website that "advocated or incited the commission of any illegal acts, including murder or rape".<ref>Reinstein, John. "ACLU Agrees to Represent NAMBLA in Freedom of Speech Case." ACLU of Massachusetts Press Release, June 9, 2003.</ref>

A NAMBLA founder said the case would "break our backs, even if we win, which we will".<ref name="boston"/> Media reports from 2006 said that for practical purposes the group no longer exists and that it consists only of a website maintained by a few enthusiasts.<ref name="boston" /> The Curleys continued the suit as a wrongful death action against individual NAMBLA members, some of whom were active in the group's leadership. Targets of the wrongful death suits included NAMBLA co-founder David Thorstad. The lawsuit was dropped in April 2008 after a judge ruled that a key witness was not competent to testify.<ref>Saltzman, Jonathan. '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081118225715/http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/04/curley_family_d.html |date=November 18, 2008 }}'', The Boston Globe, April 23, 2008</ref>

== Support ==
], poet and father of the ], was an affiliated member of NAMBLA. Claiming to have joined the organization "in defense of free speech",<ref name="donnell-milner">{{cite book |last1=O'Donnell |first1=Ian |last2=Milner |first2=Claire |title=Child Pornography: Crime, Computers and Society |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135846350 |pages=12–13 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tv6Qgl021wkC |language=en |access-date=November 29, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513090118/https://books.google.com/books?id=tv6Qgl021wkC |archive-date=May 13, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> Ginsberg said: "Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics, witchhunting for profit, humorlessness, vanity, anger and ignorance&nbsp;...&nbsp;I'm a member of NAMBLA because I love boys too—everybody does, who has a little humanity".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Thrift |first1=Matt |title=Pedophiles on display |url=http://mytjnow.com/2020/01/22/pedophiles-on-display/ |website=My TJ Now |date=January 22, 2020}}</ref> He appeared in '']'', produced and directed by Adi Sideman, a documentary in which members of NAMBLA gave interviews and presented defenses of the organization.<ref>{{Cite news | first = Stephen | last = Holden | title = FILM REVIEW; Men Who Love Boys Explain Themselves | date = July 8, 1994 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/08/movies/film-review-men-who-love-boys-explain-themselves.html | work = ] | access-date = September 1, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100626093631/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/07/08/movies/film-review-men-who-love-boys-explain-themselves.html | archive-date = June 26, 2010 | url-status = live }}</ref>

] argued that politics played an important role in the gay community's rejection of NAMBLA.<ref>Califa, Pat (1994). "The Aftermath of the Great Kiddy-Porn Panic of '77," '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002120220/http://www.worldcat.org/title/public-sex-the-culture-of-radical-sex/oclc/30664975 |date=October 2, 2015 }}.'' Pittsburgh, Pa.: Cleis Press.</ref> Califia has since withdrawn much of his earlier support for the association while still maintaining that discussing an issue does not constitute criminal activity.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2000/10/27/WB78665.DTL&type=printable |title=''Radical Transformation'', Writer Patrick Califia-Rice has long explored the fringes. Now the former lesbian S/M activist is exploring life as a man, San Francisco Chronicle, Rona Marech, October 27, 2000 |publisher=Sfgate.com |date=October 27, 2000 |access-date=October 7, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704204742/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2000%2F10%2F27%2FWB78665.DTL&type=printable |archive-date=July 4, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>

], feminist academic and social critic, signed a manifesto supporting the group in 1993.<ref>{{cite news|last=Paglia|first=Camille|date=March 1, 2014|title=The Drinking Age Is Past Its Prime|work=]|url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100261734/allen-ginsberg-camille-paglia-and-the-literary-champions-of-paedophilia/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306014809/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100261734/allen-ginsberg-camille-paglia-and-the-literary-champions-of-paedophilia/|archive-date=March 6, 2014}}</ref><ref name="salonissue">{{cite magazine|date=April 15, 1997|title=Camille Paglia's online advice for the culturally disgruntled|url=http://www.salon.com/april97/columnists/paglia970415.html|magazine=]|location=San Francisco|publisher=]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000510042252/http://www.salon.com/april97/columnists/paglia970415.html|archive-date=May 10, 2000|access-date=September 7, 2019|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1994, Paglia supported lowering the ] to fourteen. She noted in a 1995 interview with pro-pedophile activist ] "I fail to see what is wrong with erotic fondling with any age."{{sfn|Paglia|1994|pages = -91}}<ref>{{cite web|first=Camille|last=Paglia|url=http://archive.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=E6B2CF78-031D-11D4-AD990050DA7E046B|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711133353/http://archive.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=E6B2CF78-031D-11D4-AD990050DA7E046B|title=Has the gay movement turned down the wrong path?|website=The Guide|publisher=Bill Andriette|location=Montreal, Canada|date=August 1995|access-date=September 7, 2019 | url-status = dead| archive-date=July 11, 2011}}</ref> In a 1997 '']'' column, Paglia expressed the view that male pedophilia correlates with the heights of a civilization, stating "I have repeatedly protested the lynch-mob hysteria that dogs the issue of man-boy love. In '']'', I argued that male pedophilia is intricately intertwined with the cardinal moments of Western civilization."<ref name="salonissue"/> Paglia noted in several interviews, as well as ''Sexual Personae'', that she supports the legalization of certain forms of ].<ref name="timeinterview">{{cite magazine | title = The Bete Noire of Feminism: CAMILLE PAGLIA | magazine = ] | location = New York City | date = January 13, 1992 | url = http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,974660,00.html | access-date = September 7, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Camille|last=Paglia|url=http://gos.sbc.edu/p/paglia.html|title=Crisis In The American Universities|website=]|publisher=]|location=Sweet Briar, Virginia|date=September 19, 1991|access-date=September 7, 2019|archive-date=August 31, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831053013/http://gos.sbc.edu/p/paglia.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Paglia|1994|pages = -91}} She later had a change of heart on the matter. In an interview for Radio New Zealand's ''Saturday Morning'' show, conducted on April 28, 2018, by ], Paglia was asked, "Are you a libertarian on the issue of pedophilia?", to which she replied, <blockquote>"In terms of the present day, I think it's absolutely impossible to think we could reproduce the Athenian code of pedophilia, of boy-love, that was central to culture at that time. ... We must protect children, and I feel that very very strongly. The age of consent for sexual interactions between a boy and an older man is obviously disputed, at what point that should be. I used to think that fourteen (the way it is in some places in the world) was adequate. I no longer think that. I think young people need greater protection than that. ... This is one of those areas that we must confine to the realm of imagination and the history of the arts."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Paglia |first1=Camille |title=Camille Paglia — Free Women, Free Men |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018642586/camille-paglia-free-women-free-men |website=RNZ (Radio New Zealand) |access-date=August 22, 2020 |location=Wellington (NZ) |pages=44:29 (starting time of quoted passage) |date=April 22, 2018}}</ref></blockquote>

=== Feigned support ===
{{See also|Anti-LGBT rhetoric#Conflation with child abuse|Societal attitudes toward homosexuality#Association with child abuse and pedophilia}}
In a 2017 protest at Columbia University against ], an unidentified individual raised a pro-pedophilia banner showing logos from NAMBLA and some leftist organizations (all denying knowledge of any such cooperation). Fact-checking organizations consider this a ] as ] personalities were quick to repost the photo without caveat and because NAMBLA had largely ceased operation by 2016.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Weill |first1=Kelly |title=Far-Right Trolls Are Falsely Saying LGBT Activists Want Pedophilia Accepted |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/far-right-trolls-lgbt-pedophilia-hoax |work=BuzzFeed News |date=October 31, 2017 |language=en}}</ref> A similar ] hoax in 2018 connected NAMBLA with ], following a controversial TEDx presentation—notably unvetted by the TED organization—referring to pedophilia as an "unchangeable sexual orientation".<ref>{{cite web |title=Did Facebook Allow a Pro-Pedophilia Ad to Run? |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/facebook-ted-ad/ |website=Snopes.com|date=July 14, 2020 }}</ref>

==Opposition ==
The first documented opposition to NAMBLA from LGBT organizations occurred at the conference that organized the ].<ref name="thorstad">{{citation| journal = Journal of Homosexuality| title = Man/Boy Love and the American Gay Movement| volume = 20| issue = 1 & 2| date = February 1990| last = Thorstad| first = David| pages = 251&ndash;274| doi = 10.1300/J082v20n01_15| pmid = 2086634| issn = 0091-8369| publisher = Routledge|url=https://archive.org/details/ManboyLoveAndTheAmericanGayMovement| access-date = August 17, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612114119/https://archive.org/details/ManboyLoveAndTheAmericanGayMovement| archive-date = June 12, 2016| url-status = live}}</ref>

In 1980, a group called the Lesbian Caucus distributed a flyer urging women to split from the annual ], because according to the group, the organizing committee had been dominated by NAMBLA and its supporters.<ref name="thorstad"/> The next year, after some lesbians threatened to picket, the ] group Gay People at Cornell (Gay PAC) rescinded its invitation to NAMBLA co-founder David Thorstad to be the keynote speaker at the annual May Gay Festival.<ref name="thorstad"/> In the following years, gay rights groups tried to block NAMBLA's participation in gay pride parades, prompting leading gay rights figure ] to wear a sign proclaiming "NAMBLA walks with me" as he participated in a 1986 gay pride march in Los Angeles.<ref name=hogan>Hogan, Steve and Lee Hudson (1998). ''Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia''. New York, Henry Holt and Company. {{ISBN|0-8050-3629-6}}.</ref>

By the mid-1980s, NAMBLA was virtually alone in its positions and found itself politically isolated.<ref name="Johnson">Johnson, Matthew D. (2015). '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924022428/http://www.glbtqarchive.com/ssh/nambla_S.pdf |date=September 24, 2015 }}'' on ]. Archived from {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051027155539/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/nambla.html |date=October 27, 2005 }} (2004)</ref> Support for "groups perceived as being on the fringe of the gay community," such as NAMBLA, vanished in the process.<ref name="Johnson"/>

In 1994, Stonewall 25, a New York LGBT rights group, voted to ban NAMBLA from its international march on the ] in June of that year.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Mills|first1=Kim I.|title=Gays tell abusers they're unwelcome|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19940214&id=EWo-AAAAIBAJ&pg=2349,4115733&hl=en|access-date=September 19, 2015|work=Bangor Daily News|date=February 14, 1994|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008211646/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2457&dat=19940214&id=EWo-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=u1kMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2349,4115733&hl=en|archive-date=October 8, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref> The same year, NAMBLA was again banned from the march commemorating Stonewall. Instead, members of NAMBLA and the ] formed their own competing march called "The Spirit of Stonewall".<ref name="rhh">{{Cite news|url=http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/documents/02511115.htm|title=The real Harry Hay|date=November 7, 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530123601/http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/documents/02511115.htm |archive-date=May 30, 2009 |access-date=July 25, 2018|first=Michael|last=Bronski|publisher=]}}</ref> The ] (GLAAD) adopted a document called "Position Statement Regarding NAMBLA", which said GLAAD "deplores the North American Man Boy Love Association's (NAMBLA) goals, which include advocacy for sex between adult men and boys and the removal of legal protections for children. These goals constitute a form of child abuse and are repugnant to GLAAD."<ref name=DKDec112011>{{cite news|last1=Wooledge|first1=Scott|title=Who dropped the ball discussing the Pennsylvania State scandal?|url=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/11/1042611/-Who-dropped-the-ball-discussing-the-Pennsylvania-State-scandal#|access-date=September 19, 2015|work=Daily Kos|date=December 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151003075106/http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/11/1042611/-Who-dropped-the-ball-discussing-the-Pennsylvania-State-scandal|archive-date=October 3, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

That year, the Board of Directors of the ] (NGLTF) adopted a resolution on NAMBLA that said, "NGLTF condemns all abuse of minors, both sexual and any other kind, perpetrated by adults. Accordingly, NGLTF condemns the organizational goals of NAMBLA and any other such organization."<ref name=DKDec112011/>

In 2000 in New York, a teacher was fired for his association with NAMBLA. There were no criminal charges or complaints about his conduct in class.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hentoff|first=Nat|date=October 30, 1993|title=A PEDOPHILE AS TEACHER|language=en-US|newspaper=]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1993/10/30/a-pedophile-as-teacher/50bfeab1-b942-4fc2-9d98-36a155b9e34e/|access-date=September 2, 2020|issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Hendrie|first=Caroline|date=March 3, 2004|title=Court Rebuffs Teacher Who Advocated 'Man-Boy' Sex - Education Week|work=Education Week|url=https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/03/03/25scotus.h23.html|access-date=September 2, 2020}}</ref>

In April 2013, the ] group ] prevented NAMBLA's website from being accessed as part of an operation dubbed "Operation Alice Day".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2wOVHN6ezA|title = Anonymous Operation Alice Day|date = April 22, 2013|website = Youtube|publisher = anon2world|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170308214131/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2wOVHN6ezA|archive-date = March 8, 2017|url-status = live|df = dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title = Operation Alice Day : Child abusers will not celebrate this year|url=https://anoninsiders.net/operation-alice-day-1788/|website = anoninsiders.net|access-date = August 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151002113935/https://anoninsiders.net/operation-alice-day-1788/|archive-date = October 2, 2015|url-status = dead}}</ref> The timing of the attack coincided with Alice Day, a Pedophilia Pride Day celebrated by a small group of pedophiles and their supporters on April 25.<ref>{{cite web|title = Anonymous Just Took Down NAMBLA's Homepage to Protest Pedophilia Pride Day|url=https://gizmodo.com/5995389/anonymous-just-took-down-namblas-homepage-to-protest-pedophilia-pride-day|access-date = August 3, 2015|first = Ashley|last = Feinberg|date=April 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709221449/http://gizmodo.com/5995389/anonymous-just-took-down-namblas-homepage-to-protest-pedophilia-pride-day|archive-date = July 9, 2015|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author1=Fleishman, Cooper|title=Anonymous is targeting every pedophile hub on the Web|url=http://www.dailydot.com/society/alice-day-anonymous-pedo-attack/|publisher=The Daily Dot|access-date=August 3, 2015|date=April 24, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707111047/http://www.dailydot.com/society/alice-day-anonymous-pedo-attack/|archive-date=July 7, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Alice Day|url=http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/aliceday.asp|website=]|access-date=August 3, 2015|date=April 20, 2015}}</ref>

==Associated individuals==
*], journalist. He joined NAMBLA at the age of 15 and edited the ''NAMBLA Bulletin'' for six years.<ref name='lowenthal'>{{cite news | first = Michael | last = Lowenthal | title = The Boy-lover Next Door | date = October 24, 1996 | publisher = The Phoenix Media/Communications Group |url=http://www.bostonphoenix.com/alt1/archive/styles/96/10/NAMBLA.html | work = The Boston Phoenix | access-date = October 5, 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505071340/http://www.bostonphoenix.com/alt1/archive/styles/96/10/NAMBLA.html | archive-date = May 5, 2011 | url-status = dead }}</ref>
*] was a defender of NAMBLA and a member.<ref name='Gayhist'>{{cite book | last1 = Haggerty | first1 = George | title = Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia | publisher = Taylor & Francis | year = 2000 | pages = 627–628 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9Mj7oHEwVoC&pg=PA628 | access-date = September 17, 2010 | isbn = 978-0-8153-1880-4 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413072025/https://books.google.com/books?id=L9Mj7oHEwVoC&pg=PA628 | archive-date = April 13, 2016 | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=September 25, 2019|title=Howl of protest: Facing public pressure, Hermosa Beach Mural Project to remove poet Allen Ginsberg from work honoring counterculture|url=https://easyreadernews.com/howl-of-protest-facing-public-pressure-hermosa-beach-mural-project-to-remove-poet-allen-ginsberg-from-work-honoring-counterculture/|access-date=September 13, 2020|website=Easy Reader News|language=en-US}}</ref>
*], founding member.<ref>{{cite news | first = Hubert | last = Kennedy | author-link=Hubert Kennedy |title = Sexual Hysteria—Then and Now | year = 1991 | publisher = Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California | work = OurStories | pages = 17–18 | quote = A former president of New York's Gay Activists Alliance and a founding member of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), Thorstad is uniquely qualified to write on this topic.}}</ref>
*], prominent LGBT rights activist. Hay supported NAMBLA's inclusion in gay pride parades<ref name= rhh/> and publicly addressed their meetings in support of the organization.<ref name="Publishing1994">{{cite book|last=Weir|first=John|title=The Advocate|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KmMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA37|date=August 23, 1994|publisher=Here Publishing|chapter=Mad about the boys|journal=The Advocate: The National Gay & Lesbian Newsmagazine|page=37|issn=0001-8996}}</ref>
*Alan J. Horowitz, MD, convicted sex offender, ordained Orthodox rabbi, and psychiatrist. He specialized in working with adolescents, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, and earned a Ph.D. and medical degree from Duke University. Infamous for being the subject of a worldwide manhunt, Horowitz was known as "NAMBLA Rabbi".<ref>{{Cite web|date=June 1, 2007|title=The Orthodox rabbi and the Man/Boy Love Assoc.|url=https://jewishjournal.com/uncategorized/17306/|access-date=September 2, 2020|website=Jewish Journal|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Ruling keeps Schenectady sex offender confined {{!}} The Daily Gazette|url=https://dailygazette.com/article/2016/07/23/0723_horrowitz|access-date=September 2, 2020|website=dailygazette.com|date=July 23, 2016 }}</ref>

==In popular culture==
*In the '']'' episode "]", which first aired on June 21, 2000, ] is convinced to become a poster boy for the organization after befriending older men online.<ref>{{Cite web|title=South Park - Season 4, Ep. 5 - Cartman Joins NAMBLA|url=https://southpark.cc.com/episodes/vxu8qr/south-park-cartman-joins-nambla-season-4-ep-5|access-date=September 11, 2022|website=South Park – Comedy Central|date=June 21, 2000 }}</ref>
*In the '']'' episode “Angels,” which aired on November 1, 2002, the body of a battered young boy found in a luggage compartment of an airport shuttle bus sends the detectives to his guardian who was discovered to be a pedophile only to find his corpse in bed with his genitals removed. The subsequent investigation leads them to a travel agency specializing in exotic trips for sexual predators, some of which were NAMBLA members.

==See also==
{{Portal|Human sexuality|Politics|Law}}
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* ]
* ]
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* ]
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* ]
* ]
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==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=35em}}

==Further reading==
* Art Cohen, "The Boston-Boise Affair", ''Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide'', Vol. 10, No. 2. March–April, 2003.
* John Mitzel, ''The Boston Sex Scandal'', Boston, Glad Day Books, 1981.
* Stuart Timmons, ''The Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement'', Alyson Pubns, 1990.

==External links==
{{commons category|NAMBLA}}
* from the ], archived at the ]

{{Authority control}}
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Latest revision as of 01:26, 15 December 2024

American pedophilia advocacy organization

North American Man/Boy Love Association
A NAMBLA logo. The capital M and lowercase b symbolize a man and a boy.
FoundedDecember 2, 1978; 46 years ago (1978-12-02)
FounderChristopher Delsesto
TypeUnincorporated association
FocusPedophile and pederasty activism
Location
Area served North America
MethodRemoving age of consent laws

The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA, stylized as NAMbLA) is a pedophilia and pederasty advocacy organization in the United States. It works to abolish age-of-consent laws criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors and campaigns for the release of men who have been jailed for sexual contacts with minors that did not involve what it considers coercion.

The group no longer holds regular national meetings, and as of the late 1990s—to avoid local police infiltration—the organization discouraged the formation of local chapters. Around 1995, an undercover detective discovered there were 1,100 people on the organization's rolls. NAMBLA was the largest group in International Pedophile and Child Emancipation (IPCE), an international pro-pedophile activist organization. Since then, the organization has dwindled to only a handful of people, with many members joining online pedophile networks, according to Xavier Von Erck, director of operations at the anti-pedophile organization Perverted-Justice. As of 2005, a newspaper report stated that NAMBLA was based in New York and San Francisco.

History

Events such as Anita Bryant's 1977 "Save Our Children" campaign and a police raid of a Toronto-area newspaper, The Body Politic, for publishing an article by Gerald Hannon sympathetic to "boy-love" set the stage for the founding of NAMBLA.

In December 1977, police raided a house in the Boston suburb Revere. Twenty-four men were arrested and indicted on over 100 felony counts of the statutory rape of boys aged eight to fifteen. Suffolk County district attorney Garrett H. Byrne found the men had used drugs and video games to lure the boys into a house, where they photographed them as they engaged in sexual activity. The men were members of a "sex ring"; Byrne said the arrest was "the tip of the iceberg". Commenting on this issue, Boston magazine described NAMBLA as "the most despised group of men in America", which was "founded mostly by eccentric, boy-loving leftists". The "Boston-Boise Committee", a gay rights organization, was formed in response to these events (which they termed the "Boston witch-hunt"), allegedly in order to promote solidarity amongst gay men, saying in an official leaflet that: "The closet is weak. There is strength in unity and openness." NAMBLA's founding was inspired by this organization. It was co-founded by gay-rights activist and socialist David Thorstad.

In 1982, a NAMBLA member was falsely linked to the disappearance of Etan Patz. Although the accusation was groundless, the negative publicity was disastrous to the organization. NAMBLA published a book A Witchhunt Foiled: The FBI vs. NAMBLA, which documented these events. In testimony before the United States Senate, NAMBLA was exonerated from criminal activities; it said, "It is the pedophile with no organized affiliations who is the real threat to children".

Mike Echols, the author of I Know My First Name Is Steven, infiltrated NAMBLA and recorded his observations in his book, which was published in 1991. Echols published the names, addresses and telephone numbers of eighty suspected NAMBLA members on his website, which led to death threats being made to people who were not members of the organization.

Onell R. Soto, a San Diego Union-Tribune writer, wrote in February 2005, "Law enforcement officials and mental health professionals say that while NAMBLA's membership numbers are small, the group has a dangerous ripple effect through the Internet by sanctioning the behavior of those who would abuse children".

ILGA controversy

Main article: ILGA consultative status controversy

In 1993, the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) achieved United Nations consultative status. NAMBLA's membership in ILGA drew heavy criticism and caused the suspension of ILGA. Many gay organizations called for the ILGA to dissolve ties with NAMBLA. Republican Senator Jesse Helms proposed a bill to withhold US$119 million in UN contributions until U.S. President Bill Clinton could certify that no UN agency grants any official status to organizations that condoned pedophilia. The bill was unanimously approved by Congress and signed into law by Clinton in April 1994.

In 1994, ILGA expelled NAMBLA— the first U.S.-based organization to be a member—as well as Vereniging Martijn and Project Truth, because they were judged to be "organizations with a predominant aim of supporting or promoting pedophilia". Although ILGA removed NAMBLA, the UN reversed its decision to grant ILGA special consultative status. Repeated attempts by ILGA to regain special status with the UN succeeded in 2006.

Partially in response to the NAMBLA situation, Gregory King of the Human Rights Campaign later said, "NAMBLA is not a gay organization ... they are not part of our community and we thoroughly reject their efforts to insinuate that pedophilia is an issue related to gay and lesbian civil rights". NAMBLA said, "man/boy love is by definition homosexual", that "the Western homosexual tradition from Socrates to Wilde to Gide ...  many non Western homo sexualities from New Guinea and Persia to the Zulu and the Japanese" were formed by pederasty, that "man/boy lovers are part of the gay movement and central to gay history and culture", and that "homosexuals denying that it is 'not gay' to be attracted to adolescent boys are just as ludicrous as heterosexuals saying it's 'not heterosexual' to be attracted to adolescent girls".

Curley v. NAMBLA

Main article: Curley v. NAMBLA

In 2000, a Boston couple, Robert and Barbara Curley, sued NAMBLA for the wrongful death of their son. According to the suit, defendants Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari, who were convicted of murdering the Curleys' son Jeffrey, "stalked ... tortured, murdered and mutilated body on or about October 1, 1997. Upon information and belief immediately prior to said acts, Charles Jaynes accessed NAMBLA's website at the Boston Public Library." The lawsuit said, "NAMBLA serves as a conduit for an underground network of pedophiles in the United States who use their NAMBLA association and contacts therein and the Internet to obtain and promote pedophile activity". Jaynes wrote in his diary, "This was a turning point in discovery of myself ... NAMBLA's Bulletin helped me to become aware of my own sexuality and acceptance of it ... ".

Citing cases in which NAMBLA members were convicted of sexual offenses against children, Larry Frisoli, the attorney representing the Curleys, said the organization is a "training ground" for adults who wish to seduce children, in which men exchange strategies to find and groom child sex partners. Frisoli also said NAMBLA has sold on its website "The Rape and Escape Manual", which gave details about the avoidance of capture and prosecution. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) stepped in to defend NAMBLA as a free speech matter; it won a dismissal because NAMBLA is organized as an unincorporated association rather than a corporation. John Reinstein, director of the ACLU Massachusetts, said although NAMBLA "may extol conduct which is currently illegal", there was nothing on its website that "advocated or incited the commission of any illegal acts, including murder or rape".

A NAMBLA founder said the case would "break our backs, even if we win, which we will". Media reports from 2006 said that for practical purposes the group no longer exists and that it consists only of a website maintained by a few enthusiasts. The Curleys continued the suit as a wrongful death action against individual NAMBLA members, some of whom were active in the group's leadership. Targets of the wrongful death suits included NAMBLA co-founder David Thorstad. The lawsuit was dropped in April 2008 after a judge ruled that a key witness was not competent to testify.

Support

Allen Ginsberg, poet and father of the Beat Generation, was an affiliated member of NAMBLA. Claiming to have joined the organization "in defense of free speech", Ginsberg said: "Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics, witchhunting for profit, humorlessness, vanity, anger and ignorance ... I'm a member of NAMBLA because I love boys too—everybody does, who has a little humanity". He appeared in Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys, produced and directed by Adi Sideman, a documentary in which members of NAMBLA gave interviews and presented defenses of the organization.

Pat Califia argued that politics played an important role in the gay community's rejection of NAMBLA. Califia has since withdrawn much of his earlier support for the association while still maintaining that discussing an issue does not constitute criminal activity.

Camille Paglia, feminist academic and social critic, signed a manifesto supporting the group in 1993. In 1994, Paglia supported lowering the legal age of consent to fourteen. She noted in a 1995 interview with pro-pedophile activist Bill Andriette "I fail to see what is wrong with erotic fondling with any age." In a 1997 Salon column, Paglia expressed the view that male pedophilia correlates with the heights of a civilization, stating "I have repeatedly protested the lynch-mob hysteria that dogs the issue of man-boy love. In Sexual Personae, I argued that male pedophilia is intricately intertwined with the cardinal moments of Western civilization." Paglia noted in several interviews, as well as Sexual Personae, that she supports the legalization of certain forms of child pornography. She later had a change of heart on the matter. In an interview for Radio New Zealand's Saturday Morning show, conducted on April 28, 2018, by Kim Hill, Paglia was asked, "Are you a libertarian on the issue of pedophilia?", to which she replied,

"In terms of the present day, I think it's absolutely impossible to think we could reproduce the Athenian code of pedophilia, of boy-love, that was central to culture at that time. ... We must protect children, and I feel that very very strongly. The age of consent for sexual interactions between a boy and an older man is obviously disputed, at what point that should be. I used to think that fourteen (the way it is in some places in the world) was adequate. I no longer think that. I think young people need greater protection than that. ... This is one of those areas that we must confine to the realm of imagination and the history of the arts."

Feigned support

See also: Anti-LGBT rhetoric § Conflation with child abuse, and Societal attitudes toward homosexuality § Association with child abuse and pedophilia

In a 2017 protest at Columbia University against Mike Cernovich, an unidentified individual raised a pro-pedophilia banner showing logos from NAMBLA and some leftist organizations (all denying knowledge of any such cooperation). Fact-checking organizations consider this a false flag operation as alt-right personalities were quick to repost the photo without caveat and because NAMBLA had largely ceased operation by 2016. A similar 4chan hoax in 2018 connected NAMBLA with TED, following a controversial TEDx presentation—notably unvetted by the TED organization—referring to pedophilia as an "unchangeable sexual orientation".

Opposition

The first documented opposition to NAMBLA from LGBT organizations occurred at the conference that organized the first gay march on Washington in 1979.

In 1980, a group called the Lesbian Caucus distributed a flyer urging women to split from the annual New York City Gay Pride March, because according to the group, the organizing committee had been dominated by NAMBLA and its supporters. The next year, after some lesbians threatened to picket, the Cornell University group Gay People at Cornell (Gay PAC) rescinded its invitation to NAMBLA co-founder David Thorstad to be the keynote speaker at the annual May Gay Festival. In the following years, gay rights groups tried to block NAMBLA's participation in gay pride parades, prompting leading gay rights figure Harry Hay to wear a sign proclaiming "NAMBLA walks with me" as he participated in a 1986 gay pride march in Los Angeles.

By the mid-1980s, NAMBLA was virtually alone in its positions and found itself politically isolated. Support for "groups perceived as being on the fringe of the gay community," such as NAMBLA, vanished in the process.

In 1994, Stonewall 25, a New York LGBT rights group, voted to ban NAMBLA from its international march on the United Nations in June of that year. The same year, NAMBLA was again banned from the march commemorating Stonewall. Instead, members of NAMBLA and the Gay Liberation Front formed their own competing march called "The Spirit of Stonewall". The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) adopted a document called "Position Statement Regarding NAMBLA", which said GLAAD "deplores the North American Man Boy Love Association's (NAMBLA) goals, which include advocacy for sex between adult men and boys and the removal of legal protections for children. These goals constitute a form of child abuse and are repugnant to GLAAD."

That year, the Board of Directors of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) adopted a resolution on NAMBLA that said, "NGLTF condemns all abuse of minors, both sexual and any other kind, perpetrated by adults. Accordingly, NGLTF condemns the organizational goals of NAMBLA and any other such organization."

In 2000 in New York, a teacher was fired for his association with NAMBLA. There were no criminal charges or complaints about his conduct in class.

In April 2013, the hacktivist group Anonymous prevented NAMBLA's website from being accessed as part of an operation dubbed "Operation Alice Day". The timing of the attack coincided with Alice Day, a Pedophilia Pride Day celebrated by a small group of pedophiles and their supporters on April 25.

Associated individuals

  • Bill Andriette, journalist. He joined NAMBLA at the age of 15 and edited the NAMBLA Bulletin for six years.
  • Allen Ginsberg was a defender of NAMBLA and a member.
  • David Thorstad, founding member.
  • Harry Hay, prominent LGBT rights activist. Hay supported NAMBLA's inclusion in gay pride parades and publicly addressed their meetings in support of the organization.
  • Alan J. Horowitz, MD, convicted sex offender, ordained Orthodox rabbi, and psychiatrist. He specialized in working with adolescents, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, and earned a Ph.D. and medical degree from Duke University. Infamous for being the subject of a worldwide manhunt, Horowitz was known as "NAMBLA Rabbi".

In popular culture

  • In the South Park episode "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", which first aired on June 21, 2000, Eric Cartman is convinced to become a poster boy for the organization after befriending older men online.
  • In the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit episode “Angels,” which aired on November 1, 2002, the body of a battered young boy found in a luggage compartment of an airport shuttle bus sends the detectives to his guardian who was discovered to be a pedophile only to find his corpse in bed with his genitals removed. The subsequent investigation leads them to a travel agency specializing in exotic trips for sexual predators, some of which were NAMBLA members.

See also

References

  1. ^ Haggerty, George (2000). Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 627–628. ISBN 978-0-8153-1880-4. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
  2. ^ Holmes, Ronald M.; Stephen T. Holmes (2002). Current perspectives on sex crimes. SAGE. p. 165. ISBN 0-7619-2416-7.
  3. M DeYoung (March 1989). "The World According to NAMBLA: Accounting for Deviance". Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare. 16: 111–126. doi:10.15453/0191-5096.1885. S2CID 55149751.
  4. ^ Soto, Onell R. (2005). 'FBI targets pedophilia advocates: Little-known group promotes 'benevolent' sex Archived March 25, 2005, at the Wayback Machine', San Diego Union-Tribune, February 18.
  5. ^ Denizet-Lewis, Benoit (May 2001). "Boy Crazy". Boston. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved October 7, 2009.
  6. Whitfield, Charles L.; Silberg, Joyanna L.; Fink, Paul Jay (2001). Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors. Haworth Maltreatment & Trauma Press. p. 129. ISBN 9780789019004.
  7. Pearl, Mike (March 25, 2016). "Whatever Happened to NAMBLA, America's Paedophilia Advocates?". VICE US. Archived from the original on March 29, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2016.
  8. "The Boston/Boise Affair, 1977-78. (Essay). - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com. Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  9. Mitzel, John (1980). The Boston sex scandal. Glad Day Books. ISBN 0-915480-15-8.
  10. Aloisi, James (2012). "The Bonin story : the persecution of a Chief Justice and the lesson for today". Archived from the original on April 27, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  11. ^ "Gay Community Fights Back (1978)". We Raise Our Voices. Northeastern University. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved August 26, 2010.
  12. ^ Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia Archived April 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine By George E. Haggerty p. 628
  13. Jenkins, Philip (2004). Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America. Yale University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-300-10963-4. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
  14. Kennedy, Hubert (May 13, 1986). "A Witch-hunt foiled: The FBI vs. NAMBLA". The Advocate (446): 54. book review
  15. Gay histories and cultures: an encyclopedia by George E. Haggerty, p. 627
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Further reading

  • Art Cohen, "The Boston-Boise Affair", Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Vol. 10, No. 2. March–April, 2003.
  • John Mitzel, The Boston Sex Scandal, Boston, Glad Day Books, 1981.
  • Stuart Timmons, The Trouble with Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement, Alyson Pubns, 1990.

External links

Categories: