NAMBLA

Template:TOCnestleft The North American Man/Boy Love Association was founded in 1978, claiming to have been inspired by "the success of a campaign based in Boston's gay community to defend against a local witchhunt". Unlike most other websites containing descriptions or depictions of an explicit sexual nature, the NAMBLA website provides no such warning, containing photos and pictures of boys and men in sexualized or nude positions as well as lengthy stories and fantasies of man/boy love situations.

Mission

NAMBLA protestors at Nuclear Weapons protest, 1982, Washington, D.C.

On its website NAMBLA states that it exists to end the "extreme oppression" of men and boys in mutually consensual relationships by,

1. Building understanding and support for such relationships.
2. Educating the general public on the benevolent nature of man/boy love.
3. Cooperating with lesbian, gay, feminist, and other liberation movements.
4. Supporting the liberation of persons of all ages from sexual prejudice and oppression.

Summing up their purpose, they state:

"The North American Man/Boy Love Association works to educate society on the positive nature of freely chosen sexual and emotional relationships. We speak out against the oppression endured by men and boys who love one another and support the right of all people to consensual intergenerational relationships. Through-out most of Western history (and not only Western), man/boy love has been the primary form of homoeroticism, and it is this love for which NAMBLA stands."

The Real Agenda

Bob Hamer is an ex-FBI agent who infiltrated NAMBLA in 1981. On October 8, 2009 Hamer appeared in an interview with Hannity on Fox News, during which he described his experiences within the group:

The infiltration was fairly easy, they had a website, I paid $35, I joined the group, they sent me a letter, praising me for my courageous step in joining the organization. I began to get emails from them - I was subscribed to their magazine, they started to send me their magazine, but they wouldn't allow me to attend any of their secret underground meetings until I'd been a member for three years, and had been sponsored by another active duty member.

They're hiding behind the First Amendment, ostensibly they claim that they are designed to abolish age-of-consent laws. I was in the organization for three years, I attended two of their national conferences, I spoke with many of their members, I corresponded with about 175 of their members. At no time during my three-year infiltration was there ever any discussion about modifying age-of-consent laws, abolishing age-of-consent laws. Every conversation I had was about where to go to have sex with little boys - how they could attract little boys, how they could groom little boys: that was their agenda.

At one of the conferences I attended, there was a discussion about, that it was actually ok, proper, there was nothing wrong with having oral sex on an eighteen-month-old boy, the rationale being that little boys play with themselves, they enjoy touching themselves, so the men were actually bringing pleasure to the little boys by committing oral sex.

Harry Hay is a long-time radical, he is sort of a NAMBLA icon - if NAMBLA had a hall of fame, he would be in it. In fact, in their 2002, when Harry Hay died, he was on the cover of their magazine, the NAMBLA Bulletin. Harry Hay spoke at NAMBLA conferences, he marched with them when they were more public with participating in parades."

People

Members

• David Thorstad, co-founder of NAMBLA and former president of New York’s Gay Activists Alliance

Associates

• Jim Kepner, founder of the Barney/Carpenter Lesbian and Gay Archives
• Morris Kight, longtime gay activist from Los Angeles
• Bob Rhodes
• Dan Tsang
• Arnold Schoen

Supporters

• Harry Hay

The NAMBLA Bulletin

NAMBLA Bulletin, Vol. 24, No. 2, 2003

The NAMBLA Bulletin contains news, fiction, feature articles, pictures, reviews of films, recordings and books, and a regular column of letters from boys and boy-lovers. It is available on newsstands and at gay and lesbian bookstores throughout the United States and Europe.

Contributors

The following is a list of people listed as contributors to the NAMBLA Bulletin:

• Walt Whitma
• Charley Shively
• Linda Frankel
• Martin Swithinbank
• Michael Alhonte
• Edward Brongersma

Current Activities

NAMBLA is currently all but defunct. This is not surprising given comments made by long-time NAMBLA supporter, Harry Hay who on Nov. 8, 1996 addressed the NAMBLA conference in Los Angeles in a panel on censorship and pornography, commented:

"And here, honeys, I might say that the Radical Faeries are way ahead of you, because don’t forget that faeries can always vanish. This is one of the things that we’re going to have to learn to do again. We have to learn to remember that when people lean on us too hard, we just simply aren’t there anymore. There are ways and means by which we can do that. I do pass on to you the remark that was passed on to the revolutionaries by Maksim Gorky long ago: He who fights and runs away will live to fight another day."

Resources

The following is a selection of publications stocked by NAMBLA, available for sale to members and the general public:

• KOINOS: "An excellent publication featuring fiction, stories, articles, photography and art. Photographs are in color and black and white printed on fine quality glossy paper. - published four times annually. (magazine cover features nude boy curled up)
• Made in the USA: "A series of photos depicting boys of many cultures in their everyday pursuits. Some photos are of nude boys but are well within Federal laws governing prohibited images"
• Alcibiades the Schoolboy: Described as the first gay novel, this 17^th Century Italian work of fiction is an erotic dialogue between a boy and his tutor where the latter seduces the boy.
• Boys Speak Out on Man/boy Love (July 1996): A book of interviews with boys who have had "positive emotional and sexual relationships with men", the youngest of these are eleven years old.

External Links

• NAMBLA website
• Wikisposure Article on NAMBLA

References

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