Pederasty-+NAMBLA

==== The[| North American Man/Boy Love Association] (NAMBLA) defines itself as a political and civil rights organization, dedicated to promoting education around mutually consensual relationships between men and boys in North America. ====

NAMBLA is both a sexual and philosophical sub-culture: open to those who desire pederastic relationships, and those who are sympathetic to the movement to decriminalize pederastic relationships and underage sexual activity. On the [|//Who We Are// page] of its website, NAMBLA states that it exists to “provide factual information and help educate society about the positive and beneficial nature of man/boy love.”

It was established in 1978 following the arrest of 24 prominent men in Massachusetts on charges of sexual activities with adolescent males: an event which NAMBLA remembers as the gay community’s successful campaign against a local witch hunt (Durkin & Bryant, 1999; NAMBLA, 2010). The primary objective of NAMBLA is to end the oppression and stigmatization of man/boy sexual relationships.

=NAMBLA's Portrayal of Pederasty=

NAMBLA’s literature portrays pederasty as an ancient and global form of love that is enjoyable, consensual, and beautiful, if misunderstood by Western culture (NAMBLA, 2010).
Sexual portrayals of pederasty may be pedophilic, hebophilic, or ephebophilic. There almost no accounts or stories on NAMBLA's website that portray a pedophilic relationship: one involving a prepubescent male below the age of 11. Most of the letters, fictional stories, and autobiographical stories published by NAMBLA portray hebophilic or ephebolphilic relationships: pederastic encounters involving men and boys generally aged 11 - 15 or 15 - 19, respectively.

NAMBLA’s website is rich with artistic celebrations of man/boy love and young male beauty, with separate links for “Art,” “Literature,” “Music,” “Poetry,” and “Film & Television.” The site’s authors mention some famous artists as (1) boy-lovers themselves, as (2) favoring pederastic traditions in art, or (3) as admirers of the young male form and personality – [|Michelangelo], [|Sandro Boticelli], [|Leonardo da Vinci], and [|Walt Whitman] are some of the names. [|Allen Ginsburg], author and leading figure of the Beat Generation, is credited [|on the website as a NAMBLA member].

=Advocacy=

Some legal accounts of sex-offender confessions take the form of an excuse: a guilty plea and an admission of wrongdoing. NAMBLA’s accounts explaining pederastic behavior tend to take the form of a justification: an acknowledgement of responsibility for the behavior, but a denial of the harmful ramifications of the act (Durkin & Bryant, 1999).

De Young (1989) identified NAMBLA’s justifications as condemnations of the condemner’s justifications and appeals to loyalties. A condemnation of the condemner’s justifications tends to target social workers and law enforcement for “brainwashing” children and conducting a “witch hunt” against men who love boys (Durkin & Bryant, 1999). NAMBLA’s typical appeal to loyalties attacks society’s sexual repression of minors, and advocates for children and adolescents’ right to unfettered sexual expression (de Young, 1999).

Some sexual liberation camps argue that boy-lovers are an oppressed sexual minority, that age-of-consent laws should be abolished, and child and adolescent sexual expression should be encouraged (Li, West, & Woodhouse, 1993).

NAMBLA and the LGBTQ Movement
NAMBLA and most LGBTQ movements in the United States have maintained a largely contentious relationship over NAMBLA' validity as a civil rights and sexual-minority advocacy group (Sandfort, Brongersma, & van Naerssen, 1991). Largely modeled after the LGBTQ right movement, NAMBLA uses similar language to argue for acceptance of human sexual diversity, and to end our cultural denial of child and adolescent sexuality. The argument over the naturalness of human sexual diversity implies a continuum of behaviors in which one sexual expression is no more valid or appropriate than another (Weeks, 2010).

Similar to the structures of oppression aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer men and women, NAMBLA members argue that the root of their discrimination is a problem of societal bigotry and ignorance (NAMBLA, 2010). NAMBLA strongly opposed any suggestion of mental disorder as a cause of pederastic urges or behaviors. However, dominant culture in the United States tends to regard sexual sub-cultures of all types as psychologically ill and in need of treatment: particularly pederastic cultures. American cultural fixation on the causes of perverseness serve to reinforce the disease model of sexuality, and pathologize non-heteronormative adult sexual behavior (Weeks, 2010). Though many LGBTQ groups denounce and dismiss pederasty and child sexual abuse, NAMBLA strongly identifies with the LGBTQ rights groups as fellow progressive civil rights groups.

=References=

DeYoung, M. (1989). The world according to NAMBLA: Accounting for deviance. //Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 16//, 111.

Durkin, K. F., & Bryant, C. D. (1999). Propagandizing pederasty: A thematic analysis of the on-line exculpatory accounts of unrepentant pedophiles. //Deviant Behavior 20//(2), 103-127. DOI:10.1080/016396299266524

Li, C. K., West, D. J., Woodhouse, T. P. (1993). Children’s Sexual Encounters with Adults: A Scientific Study. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books.

NAMBLA. (2010). //NAMBLA: North-American Man/Boy Love Association.// Retrieved from http://nambla.org

Sandfort, T., Brongersma, E., & van Naerssen, A. (1991). Foreword: The debate on pedophilia. In T. Sandfort, E. Brongersma, & A. van Naerssen (Eds.), Male Intergenerational Intimacy: Historical, Socio-Psychological, and Legal Perspectives (1-4). New York, NY: The Haworth Press.

Weeks, J. (2010). Sexuality (3rd ed.). New York, N.Y.: Routledge.