Introduction

Following the tragic death of Carlie Brucia in February, we have seen yet another legislative effort to try and prevent a similar fate befalling other children. Whilst the prevention of child abduction and murder is a noble cause, the legislation being thrown at the issue is often misguided, as it fails to address the real problems causing such sad incidents to occur. Like Megan’s Law, the proposed Carlie’s Law is unlikely to prevent abductions from occurring, whilst likely imposing a double jeopardy on law breakers. Furthermore, it totally overlooks the fact that stranger abductions are extremely rare. In order to prevent violent acts against children, society needs to face the fact that an overwhelming percentage of such violence is perpetrated by the family and friends of the child, not strangers.

By its very nature, amaros is perceived by many to be a promiscuous orientation, since it is an attraction to a specific age group. Common logic has it that the childlover is inclined just to discard his young lover when she has passed out of his age of attraction. This does not, however have to be the case, and no true child lover would be so callous as to subject his young lover to such hurt and rejection for such a superficial reason.

by Bill Paris

(Author's note: The following should be regarded as a preliminary document. In it I attempt to highlight issues in which I have had a considerable interest for a number of years, about which I have done some research and about which I have even written in a previous paper, "The Body, Sex and Christianity". I intend to continue my study and produce a more comprehensive report later, perhaps in a different form. However, the understanding of childhood sexuality in our culture is deplorable at this point. The attitude of both Christians and even secular people seems to be growing more reactionary and paranoid in spite of the notion that our society is becoming more liberal sexually. In addition, questions and issues related to childhood sexuality are often raised in our Internet discussions. These reasons seem to call for an attempt at this time to begin dealing with some of these critical issues.)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

—The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

Introduction

Children are money-spinners.

Throughout history, the talents of children and their images have been a commercial boon for those who have had the opportunity to harness and sell these commodities. Even in mainstream society today, the market is flooded with images of children, films featuring children and other commercial enterprises featuring the talents, bodies and faces of children. While often concerned voices have been raised to question the moral and ethical correctness of this commercialization of youth, society has always chosen to disregard these concerns and the profit motive, as it so often does, has proven a stronger factor in determining acceptability.

Introduction

Many of us amarsi continually complain about the lack of progress we are making in winning acceptance for our orientation. Indeed, we are quick to point out how resistance to amaros is in many places actually increasing rather than the reverse. At the same time, however, the methods we are employing are inadequate and must be augmented by other types of activities if we are ever to have a chance of winning acceptance from the wider public.

Unfortunately, the reason that our methodology is inadequate is often because there is actually no methodology at all as we are doing little or nothing to promote our cause. Instead, we often rely on the work of those who do not share our orientation at all to demonstrate its validity. What methodology we do have is too heavily reliant on facts and generally deficient in emotional and aesthetic content.

Last week, California voters approved Proposition Eighty-Three overwhelmingly, by a margin of seventy-one percent to twenty-nine percent. The measure, which is the most Draconian of the so-called ‘Jessica’s Laws’ to take effect so far in the Evil Empire, bans people on the sex offenders registry from living within two thousand feet (six hundred metres) of a school or a park, requires lifetime satellite tracking of sex offenders, makes more sex offenders eligible for indefinite, involuntary commitment to mental hospitals and increases sentences for a number of offenses. In other words, the Golden State’s voters have passed a resolution that runs afoul of the constitutional ban on being punished twice for the same crime (no matter what anybody says, this measure is indeed punitive), spits in the face of the ban on cruel and unusual punishment and effectively bans anybody on the offenders registry from living in most urban and suburban areas. Yet even before the proposition’s supporters could finish their bubbly, a federal injunction blocked key provisions of the law pending judicial review of its constitutionality. Furthermore, prosecutors in Iowa, where a similar but less Draconian law has already been in effect for a couple of years, are warning openly that the law may be doing more damage than good.

A number of recent cases have once again shown the idiocy of consent laws. In these cases, adults have been sent off to prison for consensual relationships with young girls who actively participated in — even initiated — activities they found enjoyable with a person of their own choice. In fact, the active role of the girls in question have even been acknowledged by the judges in these cases. So why do we continue to criminalise such activity when it is increasingly evident that children are indeed able to determine if they wish to be initimate with another person?

Amidst great fanfare, yet another draft ‘child protection’ statute has been introduced. The new law, the Children's Safety Act of 2005 promises to get tough on sex offenders to ensure that they are unable to get close enough to children to harm them. On the surface, such a goal seems noble. In a year that has seen such high-profile cases such as Jessica Lunsford, Sarah Lunde and Shasta and Dylan Groene, the public, hyped to a fever pitch by sensational ‘child protection’ advocates such as John Walsh, is baying for blood. Unfortunately, however, this new law does not address the real sources of the problem of child sexual abuse. All it achieves is to brand yet more visibly those who have been convicted of such offenses in the past, ensuring that they will be yet more stigmatized and unable to re-integrate into society. Fortunately, at least one voice, that of Patty Wetterling, a United States Senate hopeful and the mother of a missing child, is questioning several of the provisions of the draft bill.

Many people mistakenly assume that a girllover is solely attracted to young girls for sexual purposes because they do not think that it is possible for an adult to have a meaningful relationship with a young person I believe, however, that it is indeed very possible, and can be very beneficial for both parties. Our society teaches us that young people are incapable of thinking for themselves and clings to the idyllic myth that children are a blank book. Yet while young people have a more rudimentary education than those who have completed their schooling, they are by no means incapable of having deep thoughts.

The new sexual revolution is upon us. As religious conservatives and media sympathetic to them watch on in horror, this revolution takes root. It does not yet spread like wildfire; its spread is more haphazard, like the hot spots that flare up in some brush fires. Still, there is good reason to believe that this spread will hasten in coming years, despite the frantic efforts of many who would like to see it stopped. No matter how hard churches, schools and parents try, they are not going to stop their children — even their younger children — from having sex. Sexual knowledge and curiosity — much of it fueled by media, popular culture and, more recently, the Internet — has now saturated the awareness of children to the point that it is inevitable that more and more of them will attempt to engage in sexual activity. Many of those will succeed. Whether this new sexual revolution becomes an experience that affirms and celebrates the sexuality of all people or a traumatic experience that threatens not only the moral fiber of society but the psychological and physical wellbeing of its participants depends very much on how adults respond to it.