North American Man/Boy Love Association

A NAMBLA logo

The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is (or was, since it is not clear that the group still exists), a U.S.-based organisation for male homosexual pedophiles and ephebophiles and their sympathisers, which advocates the abolition of laws against sex between adults and children or adolescents (specifically boys). The group argues that children or adolescents can give meaningful consent to sexual relations, and that sex between adults and children or adolescents is healthy and liberating for both partners.

NAMBLA labels itself a "support group for intergenerational relationships," and has adopted "sexual freedom for all" as its slogan. According to its website, its aim is to "support the rights of youth as well as adults to choose the partners with whom they wish to share and enjoy their bodies." Sympathizers and supporters contend that the group endorses a comprehensive youth rights platform of which sexual freedom is only a small portion. NAMBLA avoids the word "pedophile" and prefers to call its members "boylovers."

Its critics see NAMBLA as a front for the criminal sexual exploitation of children. The mainstream gay rights movement has gone to great lengths to distance itself from NAMBLA, asserting that there is no connection between homosexuality and paedophilia and that the great majority of gay men condemn NAMBLA's activities.

At its peak, NAMBLA boasted hundreds of members. However, decades of official surveillance and public outrage have all but dissolved the group. Its national headquarters now consists of little more than a private mail box service in San Francisco.

Purpose

According to NAMBLA's web site, the organization is a "political, civil rights, and educational organization," which aims "to end the extreme oppression of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships" by building understanding, educating the public, cooperating with other advocacy groups, and fighting ageism.

NAMBLA says that it strongly condemns the sexual abuse and coercion of youth, and that it neither encourages nor engages in illegal behavior. Detractors contend that NAMBLA is a thinly veiled alliance of sexual predators who reinforce each other's desires. The interaction of the members creates a climate that emboldens them to enact their sexual fantasies, these critics assert.

History

NAMBLA was founded in December 1978 in Boston following police raids on a house in the Boston suburb of Revere, in which 24 men were arrested and indicted on over 100 felony counts of sex with boys aged eight to thirteen. All but three of the accused were acquitted. Some members of the committee set up to protest against these prosecutions, led by Tom Reeves, convened a meeting called "Man/Boy Love and the Age of Consent." Roughly 150 people attended, and about 30 decided to form an organization, the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).

At first NAMBLA hoped to ride on the coattails of the successes of other gay rights groups. Radical gay groups such as New York's Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) opposed age of consent laws and had hosted a forum on the topic in 1976. The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Rights Coalition held a similar position. But most gay rights groups objected to the implied link between male homosexuality and pedophilia and refused to associate with NAMBLA. Organisers of public gay events such as the Stonewall Day parades in major cities have nearly always refused to allow NAMBLA to participate.

In the early 1990s, the International Lesbian and Gay Association sought consultative status as a non-governmental organization to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The U.N. admitted the group, after which time news surfaced that ILGA had ties to NAMBLA. ILGA expelled and disavowed any affiliation with the NAMBLA, but to no avail. The U.N. later reversed its decision and revoked ILGA's special status. Despite repeated attempts, ILGA has not been able to reacquire consultative status with the U.N. although it does enjoy consultative status with the European Commission.

Criminal allegations

Speculation over NAMBLA's ties to criminal activity has been recurrent from the moment of its founding.

• Rev. Paul Shanley, a priest convicted of abusing children as young as six years old over a period of three decades, allegedly participated in early movement workshops and advocacy, according to contemporaneous accounts of the events obtained by the Boston Globe. [1],[2]

• Charles Jaynes, also allegedly a member of NAMBLA, was convicted of murdering a 10-year-old boy then having intercourse with his body; the parents of the boy sued NAMBLA, alleging that Jaynes wrote in his diary that participating in NAMBLA helped him overcome his inhibitions about having sex with young boys [3],[4]. The ACLU stepped into defend NAMBLA and won a dismissal based on the specific legal issue that NAMBLA is organized as an association, not a corporation. The Curleys continued the suit as a wrongful death action against individual NAMBLA members and NAMBLA Steering Committee members. [5]

• John David Smith, a San Francisco man convicted of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy he was babysitting, unwittingly spoke of his crimes to an undercover investigator who had infiltrated NAMBLA. Upon obtaining a warrant, the investigator also found guns and child pornography in Smith's apartment [6],[7].

• Johnathan Tampico was convicted of child molestation in 1989 and paroled in 1992 on condition of not possessing 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 Tampico and others frequently traveled to Thailand in order to have 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 [8],[9], [10].

• 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 [11].

Sources

• Cohen, Art. "The Boston-Boise Affair, 1977-78." The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, Vol. 10, No. 2. March-April, 2003.
• Denizet-Lewis, Benoit. "Boy Crazy: NAMBLA: The Story of a Lost Cause." Boston Magazine. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/ArticleDisplay.php?id=27 May 2001.
• Mitzel, John. 1981. The Boston Sex Scandal. Boston: Glad Day Books.
• Thorstad, David. 1991. "Man/Boy Love and the American Gay Movement," pp. 251-274 in Male Intergenerational Intimacy edited by Theo Sandford, Edward Brongersma, and Alex Van Naerssen. New York: Haworth Press.

External links

• Home page of NAMBLA
• Gay Community Responds to Revere
• NAMBLA-related Documents on the Queer Resources Directory

See also

• Boylover
• Pederasty
• Pedophilia
• Child sexual abuse
• Rind, et al.