Ch 13 - Notes and References
1. In that same exposé, the Chicago Tribune (16 May, 1977) stated that the boy-lovers' newsletter Hermes sold for ten dollars an issue, with 5,000 copies being sold per issue, and that the newsletter grossed more than 300,000 dollars per year, none of which was anywhere near the truth. The publication's subscription rate was $7.50 for six issues, and it had a mailing list of only 800, with approximately another 100 copies being sold through another source. It came out bimonthly. Thus it would have grossed around 6,750 dollars per year -less than one-fortieth of the figure claimed. Exaggeration of this order casts serious doubt on claims of a 'multi-million dollar child porn industry'. (Information from D. W. Nichols, interviewed by Daniel Tsang, Midwest Gay Academic Journal, Vol. I, No.3, 1978, p. 15.)
2. Implicit in the campaign is the assumption that homosexuals are more likely to 'molest' children than heterosexuals. In fact, far more child-adult sexual encounters, whether molestations or not, are heterosexual in nature.
4. According to sources which had not, however, been confirmed at the time of going to press. So far as I know, the penalty has not yet been imposed by a court, but if any such order is made, it is almost certain to be challenged as unconstitutional, on the grounds that it is a 'cruel or unusual' punishment.
5. Douglas Sarff, 'Sex begins at a very early age', Newswest, 11 December, 1975, pp. 3-5.
6. Quoted in Pasle-Green and Haynes, op. cit., p. 52.
7. A study of the San Francisco 'swinging scene' by James R. Smith and Lynn G. Smith showed for instance that swingers appear unanimous in regarding masturbation as a proper and important part of childhood. Quoted in E. Brecker, The .Sex Researchers, Panther, London, 1972, p. 255ff.
8. 'Responsibility' in this context does not mean the adult refraining from sex with the child. Rather, the emphasis was placed on regard for a boy's feelings, and rights. The ethics of boy-love have been. approached from a positive point of view in Eglington, op. cit., and in D. W. Nichols, Toward a Perspective for Boy-Lovers, Editorial Creative Products, Lansing, Michigan, 1976.
9. One of the Revere defendants – a psychiatrist – was convicted early in 1979. Ironically, he was ordered to undergo psychiatric treatment. ^
10. Personal communication, 30 January, 1979.
12. At the time of going to press, news has just reached me that the tables were turned even more dramatically than I had supposed. Tom Reeves writes: 'The old District Attorney, who had brought the charges, was soundly defeated, partly due to the work of gay people. The new DA, after election, appeared on TV with me and said that no man need fear prison for sex involving a teenager unless coercion was involved -every single one of the Revere 24 went free; only a few were found guilty or pleaded guilty, and they received light probation. Such sentences were previously unheard of in Massachusetts, for sexual crimes of this sort. To show the impact of our work, the one man who was sentenced before our committee was formed is now serving a life sentence. We are attempting to publicize his plight and get him released. Many people -including gay people -had warned us that open gay work for so-called child molesters would backfire. It did not. It gave us strength.' (Personal communication, 8 October, 1979.)
13. R. L. Currier, Los Angeles Times, 18 September, 1977.
14. Toronto Globe, 17 February, 1979, article by David Lancashire.
15. In mid 1976 a survey was undertaken by the Institute for Preventive and Social Psychiatry at Erasmus University, Rotterdam. The question asked was: 'Imagine that you learned that someone you knew liked to play with children and took obvious sexual pleasure in handling and caressing them. Would you, then, allow this person to take care of your children in the role of a teacher?' Thirteen per cent answered 'Yes', 9 per cent had no opinion, and 77 per cent answered 'No'. To the question, 'Would you allow such a person to act as a baby-sitter for your child?', 4 per cent answered 'Yes', 89 per cent 'No', and 5 per cent had no opinion. Further, 68 per cent would: dissuade their children from marrying such a person and 44 per cent would not accept him as a next-door neighbour.
While this response is broadly negative, it is perhaps remarkable that more than one person in five (22 per cent) was either prepared to allow a paedophile to teach her/his own children, or had no discernible negative view. In Britain, I suspect the figure would be more like one in twenty-five, or less. (Survey reported in The Hague Post, 18 March, 1978. English translation in Magpie 12, December 1978.)
16. There has been a long build-up to this development. Work towards the paedophile emancipation had started in Holland in the 1950s, with the growth of the Enclave movement, which brought paedophiles into correspondence with each other, both inside and outside Holland. In 1958 Enclave also became an international publishing house specifically orientated towards paedophile books. See Frits Bernard, 'Paedophile liberation in Holland', Pan, Vol. 1, No.1, 1979, pp. 15-18.
18. Groot Uur U ('Your Big Hour'), broadcast on VARA Television, Amsterdam, 30 October, 1978.
19. He had been a neglected child, brought up in an institution. His adult lover drew him out of a period of apathy and isolation, he said, and gave him consistent encouragement with his schoolwork, which helped in his eventual achievement of a university place.
20. Reported in Algemeen Dagblad, 5 May, 1978.
21. See p. 67. [At the end of Chapter 3]
23. I am indebted for this paragraph to the Belgian paedophile group, Studiegroep Pedofilie.
24. F. Engels, The Origins of the Family, Charles Kerr, Chicago, 1902.