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'''Bold text'''''Italic text''You guys are all gay and you should go kill yourselves. '''Bold text'''''Italic text''You guys are all gay and you should go kill yourselves.


'''FAGS'''
==Criticism and response==
Some gay groups, ] groups, anti-sexual abuse organizations, law enforcement agencies and other critics see NAMBLA as a front for the criminal sexual exploitation of children. They say NAMBLA functions as a meeting place for male ] and ] and their sympathizers. Opponents also argue that pre-] children in particular are not capable of giving consent and that the power imbalance between adults and children makes any sexual relationship exploitative. A number of alleged NAMBLA members have been charged with and convicted of sexual offenses against children.

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."{{ref label|soto|4|b}}

Suspicion pertaining to the group's activities led both the U.S. Senate and U.S. Postal Service to conduct investigations of the group, both of which concluded without allegations of legal impropriety.

NAMBLA responds to the criticism that it is a "front for criminal and sexual exploitation of children" and that it advocates sex between men and boys by stating unequivocally that "NAMBLA does not engage in any activities that violate the law, nor do we advocate that anyone else should do so".{{ref label|who-we-are|3|b}} Since sex between adults and minors is illegal, it is presumably included in NAMBLA's avoidance of advocating activities that violate the law.

NAMBLA rejects the widely held view that sex between adults and minors is always harmful, arguing that "the outcomes of personal experiences between adults and younger people primarily depend upon whether their relationships were consensual."<ref>"" 2003.</ref> In support of this position NAMBLA cites research such as '']'', which was published in the ] in 1998. NAMBLA devoted a web page to a brief overview of the study under the heading "The Good News About Man/Boy Love," and claimed the study showed, "On average, nearly 70% of males in the studies reported that as children or adolescents their sexual experiences with adults had been positive or neutral."<ref>"." 2003.</ref> Some researchers dispute the findings of this ].<ref>.</ref>

Gay rights groups opposed to NAMBLA contend that their reason for disavowing NAMBLA has always been their sharing of the general public's disdain for pedophilia and ] (as expressed in issues statements). These gay rights groups reject NAMBLA's claims of an analogy between the campaign for gay and lesbian equality and the abolition of age-of-consent laws, and view NAMBLA's rhetoric about "the sexual rights of youth" as a cover for its members' "real agenda".

Radicals like ]<ref>Califa, Pat (1994). "The Aftermath of the Great Kiddy-Porn Panic of '77," ''The Culture of Radical Sex.''</ref> argue that politics played an important role in the gay community's rejection of NAMBLA. Califia says that although the gay rights mainstream never committed itself to NAMBLA or its platform, neither did it actively ostracise NAMBLA until opponents of gay rights used the group to link gay rights with child abuse and "recruitment." As evidence, subscribers to this theory point to statements made by prominent gay activists which contain political assessments of NAMBLA's impact on gay rights. One such statement was made by gay rights lobbyist Steve Endean. Endean, who opposed NAMBLA, said: "What NAMBLA is doing is tearing apart the movement. If you attach it to gay rights, gay rights will never happen." Gay author and activist Edmund White made a similar statement in his book ''States of Desire'': "That's the politics of self-indulgence. Our movement cannot survive the man-boy issue. It's not a question of who's right, it's a matter of political naivete."


==Related legal proceedings== ==Related legal proceedings==

Revision as of 04:34, 15 October 2006

A NAMBLA logo. The capital M and lowercase b symbolize a man and a boy.

The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a New York City and San Francisco-based unincorporated organization that opposes the use of age as the sole criterion for deciding whether minors can legally engage in sexual relations. NAMBLA defends what it asserts to be the right of minors to explore their sexuality on a much freer basis. It has resolved to "end the oppression of men and boys who have freely chosen mutually consenting relationships", and calls for "the adoption of laws that both protect children from unwanted sexual experiences and at the same time leave them free to determine the content of their own sexual experiences." NAMBLA's webpage states that 'NAMBLA does not provide encouragement, referrals or assistance for people seeking sexual contacts' and that it does not "engage in any activities that violate the law . . . advocate that anyone else should ."

There is an annual gathering in New York City and monthly meetings around the country. In the early 1980s, NAMBLA was reported to have had over 300 members, and was supported by such noted figures as Allen Ginsberg. Since then, the organization has kept membership data private, but an undercover FBI investigation in 1995 discovered that there were 1,100 people on the rolls. It is the largest organization in the umbrella group IPCE (formerly "International Pedophile and Child Emancipation").

Since 1995, public criticism and law enforcement infiltration have heavily impaired the organization. Its national headquarters now consists of little more than a private mail box service in San Francisco, and inquiries are rarely responded to. Some reports state that the group no longer has regular national meetings and few local monthly meetings.

You guys are gay.

Bold textItalic textYou guys are all gay and you should go kill yourselves.

FAGS

Related legal proceedings

Criminal cases

Although NAMBLA itself has never been prosecuted, there have been a number of prosecutions of alleged NAMBLA members for sexual offences involving children or adolescents.

  • The most recent of these cases involved a number of men arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles and San Diego in February 2005. Seven men were charged with planning to travel to Mexico to have sex with boys, the FBI said. An eighth man was charged with distributing child pornography. According to a media report, the FBI believes that at least one of the arrested men is a member of NAMBLA's national leadership, a second organized the group's national convention last year and a third said he had been a member since the 1980s.
  • Roy Radow, a self-described pedophile and member of the NAMBLA Steering Committee sometimes described as its chairman or spokesman, was arrested in 1996 for masturbating in front of a 12-year old boy. The trial ended in a hung jury.
  • John David Smith, a San Francisco man, unwittingly spoke of his crimes to an undercover investigator who had infiltrated NAMBLA. Upon obtaining a warrant, the investigator also found child pornography in Smith's apartment. He was arrested in 1996 and was subsequently convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy he was babysitting. Smith's membership in NAMBLA was raised at trial to prove his lascivious intent.
  • Paul Shanley, a Catholic priest convicted of abusing children as young as six years old over a period of three decades, allegedly participated in NAMBLA workshops and advocacy, according to contemporaneous accounts of the events obtained by the Boston Globe.
  • Johnathan Tampico was convicted of child molestation in 1989 and paroled in 1992 on condition that he not possess child pornography. After moving without informing authorities of his new address, he was found after a broadcast of America's Most Wanted. He was arrested and convicted on child pornography charges. In his sentencing, the court stated that Tampico was a member of NAMBLA, and that he and others frequently traveled to Thailand to have easy access to young boys. The court cited a number of Polaroid pictures provided by Thai officials depicting Tampico with young Thai boys sitting on his lap as evidence of the latter claim.
  • James C. Parker, a New York man who, according to court records, told the police that he was a member of NAMBLA, was arrested in 2000 and convicted in 2001 of committing sodomy with a young boy.

Curley v. NAMBLA

In 2000, a Boston couple, Robert and Barbara Curley, sued NAMBLA. According to the Curley's suit, Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari (who were convicted of murdering the Curleys' son, Jeffrey) "stalked Jeffrey Curley... and 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." According to police, Jaynes had eight issues of a NAMBLA publication in his home at the time of his arrest. The lawsuit further alleges that "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 child pornography and promote pedophile activity."

Citing cases in which NAMBLA members have been charged with and convicted of sexual offenses against children, Larry Frisoli, the attorney representing the Curleys, argued that it is a "training ground" for adults who wish to seduce children, in which men exchange strategies on how to find and groom child sex partners. He also claims that NAMBLA has sold at its website what he calls "The Rape and Escape Manual" that details how to avoid being caught and prosecuted.

The American Civil Liberties Union stepped in to defend NAMBLA as a free speech matter and won a dismissal based on the fact that NAMBLA is organized as an unincorporated association, not a corporation. John Reinstein, the director of the ACLU Massachusetts, said that 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". The Curleys continued the suit as a wrongful death action against individual NAMBLA members, some of whom were active in the group's leadership.

The target of the wrongful death suits were Roy Radow, Joe Power, David Miller, Peter Herman, Max Hunter, Arnold Schoen and David Thorstad, a co-founder of NAMBLA and well-known writer. The Curleys alleged that Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari, who were convicted of the rape and murder of their ten-year-old son Jeffrey, were NAMBLA members.

As of April 2005 the wrongful death cases were still being considered by a Massachusetts federal court, with the American Civil Liberties Union assisting the defendants on the grounds that the suit violated their First Amendment rights to free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union makes it clear, however, that it does not endorse NAMBLA's objectives. "We've never taken a position that sexual-consent laws are beyond the state's power to legislate," John Reinstein, attorney for the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in 1997. "I've never been able to fathom their position." (Boston Globe, October 9, 1997).

Other civil cases

In addition to Curley v. NAMBLA, several other cases have been cited as evidence that NAMBLA serves as a meeting place or front for men who commit sexual crimes against children and adolescents.

  • Peter Melzer served as a NAMBLA treasurer, Steering Committee Member, fundraiser, spokesman, and Bulletin editor. In his private life he was a tenured physics teacher at the elite Bronx High School of Science, where he had taught for over three decades. The school district knew of his membership in NAMBLA in 1985 but did not act as mere membership was not an adequate cause for discipline. In 1993 a local TV news expose revealed that he was a NAMBLA member. As a result the New York City Department of Education commissioned a report. The report states that Melzer had personally expressed a sexual interest in boys up to age 16, and that he had written about having acted on those desires. The report also asserts that, while he was editor, the NAMBLA Bulletin printed instructions for seducing young boys and avoiding law enforcement along with sensual accounts of sexual encounters between adults and minors. Further, the investigators claim not to find any significant attempts by NAMBLA to advocate for changing the age of consent laws, and claim that the self-definition of advocacy group is a misleading attempt by NAMBLA to cover itself with a political purpose. Melzer was removed as a school teacher, but no criminal charges were filed in connection with the matter. The case went as far as the federal appeals court, which affirmed the dismissal of Melzer in 2003.
  • In 2005, a NAMBLA member and self-professed pedophile, Kevin Brown, called into Rick Roberts' radio show on KFMB in response to a $1000 "bounty" Roberts had placed on the heads of NAMBLA members. Brown said that he felt calling into the show to " stand on behalf of the physical safety of NAMBLA members" was a moral imperative, and stated that he would use the $1000 to finance a play he was writing which sympathetically depicted romance between adults and children. After hearing a child in the background, Roberts convinced Brown to clarify that he was a father. A little over one week and five days later, child protective services seized his 2-year-old son, citing an expired conviction for possession of child pornography and his alleged "support the sexual exploitation of minor children." Brown also lost his job and was divorced by his wife. He did not receive the $1000, and is currently seeking to have his child returned to him using legal remedies.

In the popular media

NAMBLA was parodied in episode 203 of Mr. Show, The Biggest Failure In Broadway History, and also in episode 406 of South Park, "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" (see below).

NAMBLA is identified as a lobby group in Jon Stewart's America: The Book A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction (2004), and is also alluded to on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, often tagged on to an existing lobby group's acronym for the parody (e.g., "The International Atomic Energy Agency, or NAMBLA"). The Daily Show with Jon Stewart acknowledged this in a clip retrospective on the July 27, 2006 episode, then turned the joke on its head by saying "However, for the record, the Daily Show has absolutely no affiliation with the North American Man/Boy Love Association or, as it's called, UNICEF", and again on October 2, 2006, in response to the Mark Foley scandal, "The Foley saga quickly set leaders of the North American Man/Boy Love Association, or, Congress, into action."

Mike Echols, the author of I Know My First Name is Steven, the true story of the kidnap and sexual abuse of Steven Stayner infiltrated NAMBLA and his observations are recorded in his book.

Detectives in Law And Order: SVU often ask suspects if they are in NAMBLA when they claim they had a consensual relationship with a minor.

Hardcore punk band Leftöver Crack feature a song called "Muppet NAMBLA" on their 2004 "Rock The 40oz" EP. Grindcore band Anal Cunt included a song called "I Gave NAMBLA Pictures of Your Kid" on their 1999 album It Just Gets Worse. The Norwegian band Turbonegro also has a song named "The midnight NAMBLA" on their 1995 Album Ass Cobra.

NAMBLA was featured in an episode of South Park where Cartman is ostracised from his friends, and decides to try to make new, older, "mature", friends on the internet. He unwittingly attends a NAMBLA meeting later and becomes their poster child, where they take photos of him in nothing but a speedo. A few NAMBLA members meet Stan and Kyle and they are invited to a banquet along with Cartman. It is here that they learn the true nature of NAMBLA, but the NAMBLA members are soon arrested by the police. It also introduces a second NAMBLA, the "National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes" who are in constant battle with NAMBLA for the domain name nambla.com.

NAMBLA was also briefly mentioned in a 2006 episode of the MTV show Celebrity Deathmatch. Nick Diamond comments, "We've got more fan mail than 'Lil Bow Wow at a NAMBLA convention!", to which Johnny Gomez replies "And that's a lot of mail, Nick".

On September 28th, 2006, Oprah Winfrey did an entire episode dedicated to NAMBLA and Dateline NBC's undercover investigative reports on child predators.

See also

Footnotes

  1. Radow, Roy (1994). 'NAMBLA Replies to ILGA Secretariat.'
  2. NAMBLA: Who We Are. 2003.
  3. Soto, Onell R. (2005). 'FBI targets pedophilia advocates: Little-known group promotes 'benevolent' sex', San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 February.
  4. Allen Ginsberg
  5. ipce.info
  6. ipce.info
  7. Denizet-Lewis, Benoit (2001). "Boy Crazy," Boston Magazine.
  8. cnn.com
  9. sfgate.com
  10. caselaw.findlaw.com
  11. caselaw.findlaw.com
  12. boston.com
  13. usatoday.com
  14. usdoj.gov
  15. caselaw.lp.findlaw.com
  16. courts.state.ny.us
  17. Curley v. NAMBLA
  18. Murdock, Deroy (2004). "No Boy Scouts: The ACLU defends NAMBLA."
  19. Reinstein, John. "ACLU Agrees to Represent NAMBLA in Freedom of Speech Case." ACLU of Massachusetts Press Release, 9 June 2003.
  20. NYCSI, 1993 "An Investigation Into Misconduct Relating to Pedophilia by Peter Melzer, a Teacher at The Bronx High School of Science", an objective investigation of NAMBLA and one of its officers. (PDF)
  21. nyc.gov
  22. 760kfmb.com
  23. http://unkind.atspace.com/seizure.html

References

  • Art Cohen, "The Boston-Boise Affair, 1977-78", Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Vol. 10, No. 2. March-April, 2003.
  • Benoit Denizet-Lewis, "Boy Crazy: NAMBLA: The Story of a Lost Cause," Boston Magazine http://www.bostonmagazine.com/ArticleDisplay.php?id=27 May 2001.
  • John Mitzel, The Boston Sex Scandal, Boston, Glad Day Books, 1981

External links

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