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== External links ==
== External links ==
 
<!-- user4note - almost all this links are now obsolete, and need to be updated -->
* [http://www.martijn.org/ Martijn]
* [http://www.martijn.org/ Martijn]
* [http://www.nambla.org/ NAMbLA]
* [http://www.nambla.org/ NAMbLA]

Revision as of 07:52, 14 May 2016

Activism can be defined as "intentional action to bring about social or political change".[1] Such action may involve cooperation with allies having similar interests. While the term is sometimes restricted in meaning to direct or militant action, the broader sense seems to be in common use in the boylove community.

Social change

Changing the behavior of large groups of people is not well understood in general, but a variety of mechanisms are commonly used in practice to achieve such change, including publicity, advertising, and public relations.

Theory

Didaskalos, jd420, and others have discussed briefly the use of game theory for modeling interactions between boylovers, boys, parents, governments, and other parties.BC:999107

Publicity

Wikipedia

Boylove-related Wikipedia articles have been the subject of some debate, both within Wikipedia and more widely. Cryptome and digg, among others, have published articles on the edit war generated by Rookiee's contributions to the Justin Berry article. Other controversial articles include Wikipedia: Pederasty in the modern world, Wikipedia: Pedophilia and Wikipedia: Pedophile activism.

Blogs

There are a few public blogs run by boylovers and individuals with boylove-friendly attitudes, including minors. One of the most controversial blogs is Paiderastia, which was originally run by Rookiee and a rather large team of other contributors, mostly boylovers. Recently, Blogger - owned by Google - has removed many blogs by boylovers and girllovers, following complaints from vigilantes and anti-paedophile groups.

Other childlove-related blogs that have received attention include:

Boylove-related blogs have received attention on BoyChat.BC:996668

Letters to the Editor

Dave Riegel has suggested submitting letters or opinion pieces to newspapers as a way of publicizing opinion in favor of boylove. He has successfully published one such opinion piece, in the Keene (NH) Sentinel.BC:1001241

Mail

UK charity NSPCC has sent postcards to secondary school students in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and the Channel Islands in an attempt to influence their positions on sexual abuse.BC:1006149 Before the campaign, 88% of pupils surveyed by the organization had indicated they would not consider a sexual relationship between a 23-year-old woman and 15-year-old boy to be abusive.

Documentation and research

There has been some interest in documenting accounts of childhood sexual relationships and sexual activity. Howard Kline (aka Cerius) has documented some such relationships on his website, Cerius Love.[2] Other sources include the website Growing Up Sexually and Havelock Ellis's case histories of childhood sexuality, The Development of the Sexual Instinct. Researchers including Bruce Rind and Dave Riegel have studied the effects of sexual relationships between boys and men. (See also Rind Report.) Kevin Brown and researcher Sarah Goode are working on the MAA daily lives research project to document the lives of minor-attracted adults on- and off-line.BC:995538

Media

A frequently raised theme in the boylove community is the desirability of involving a variety of media types. Germaine Greer's controversial art history book The Beautiful Boy was published in 2003. Lupercus has suggested a role for television comedy and science fiction. Jeffrey Gold, of the now defunct Sure Quality Radio, has emphasized the importance of expanding the boylove presence on radio and television. Youth Talk Media is a media source for childlovers. Rookiee created a podcast series, Pedologues, which was removed following death threats from vigilante groups. Rod Downey's The Moralist has been noted as a fictional work showing boylove in a positive light. Dave Riegel suggests making such works into movies.BC:981152 slvrspun has suggested public debate with Oprah Winfrey, or with others with high profile known for their hostility to pedophilia.BC:1006859

Terms of debate

Descartes has suggested avoidance of the term consensual when discussing boylove issues, as this may lead participants in the discussion to focus on the legal definition of consent. He has proposed 'voluntary' as a replacement term. Clayboy suggests 'non-coercive'. BC:998747

Dave Riegel has argued that the first battle toward legalizing relationships with minors, as outlined by Harris Mirkin, is the "battle to prevent the battle", an effort on the part of those opposed to boylove to prevent relevant issues from being raised publicly.

NAMBLA

Among NAMBLA's goals are building understanding and support for mutually consensual relationships between men and boys, and "educating the public on the benevolent nature of man/boy love".[3]

Handling the opposition

jd420 has suggested citing incest exemption laws and statistics indicating parents as a source of harm to children to retaliate in a tit-for-tat fashion against groups that condemn boylovers.[BC:978878] He has also suggested adopting labels so extreme that opponents are left at a loss for insults, something he terms the bigger albatross theory.[BC:979182]

Committees

This section needs references.

The idea to form a committee to tackle the legal and social problems relating to boylove in a direct manner has also been suggested. Though such informal committees were attempted they usually dissolved into in-fighting and were bogged down by an inability to undertake any initiatives outside the realm of the anonymous internet.

Advertising

This section needs information regarding advertising proposals.

Public relations

BoyLove Media Watch

Dave Riegel and Peter Christian have established BoyLove Media Watch for collecting and responding to reports about boylove and accused boylovers in the media. The project website includes a database of news stories, editorial guidelines for the media, and guidelines for letter writers.

Peter Christian of BoyLove Media Watch has been sending mail encouraging reporters to present a more factual and less defamatory representation of boylove.[BC:974800]

Media ethics

Dave Riegel has suggested that questions raised in the media about media ethics in connection with anti-boylover campaigns might be exploited.BC:989259

Terminology

Various individuals have suggested using a single term common to the boylove and girllove communities when publishing public comments, in order to reflect the common interests of both groups. Xanadu (of Veritas) and others have suggested the term "Minor Attracted Adult" or MAA,BC:1000538 but this has been criticized (by an editor of this article) as excluding minor boylovers and girllovers.BC:1000624 Missing-Link has suggested the alternative "minor-attracted individual".BC:1000678 The term was earlier used in Kevin Brown's brief for class certification.BC:975786

While the term has been criticized as implying exclusion of ephebophiles, Jeffrey Gold of Sure Quality Radio and others have suggested using the term pedophile; Jimf3 has suggested "boylove and girlove [sic]", or the shorter BGL or beagle.BC:987414 Alternatively, the communities have sometimes been defined negatively, in contrast with existing law or social policy, as in Judith Levine's book title Harmful to Minors.

TPKA Calvinist has suggested using the name of an existing, commonly recognized community to refer to boylovers, in the fashion that the pop singer Madonna adopted as her name a widely-known and popular religious term; in particular, he has noted the existing terms Calvinist, Methodist, and Baptist.BC:1031472

Public figures

It has been suggested that females may be able to more effectively argue the case for boylove than males; examples cited include Judith Levine and Germaine Greer. jd420 suggests that minor girls involved in relationships with adults may also be viewed sympathetically.BC:996506

Other campaigns

jd420 has suggested associating tolerance and support for pedophiles with sex appeal, wealth, and social acceptance.[BC:979940]

Political change

Methods of approaching political change depend on the institutions of society and the rules that govern them.

Theory

Kevin Brown has suggested dividing political actors affecting decisions relevant to boylove into three groups: policy makers, decision makers, and the body politic. BC:1005017

Law enforcement

Kevin Brown has indicated his intention to serve a FOIA request on the Washington bureau of the FBI regarding its activities related to BoyChat;BC:995842 on 22 May 2006, he indicated that he was still waiting for a response.[BC post by Kevin]

Richard Gardner has suggested that mandatory reporting laws should be repealed; and that high-profile civil lawsuits be pursued against 'psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, child protection workers, "child protection advocates," police, and detectives whose ineptitude has promulgated a false accusation [of child abuse]."[4]

Representative democracies

The Netherlands party Naastenliefde, Vrijheid en Diversiteit (NVD) has been created with the goal of eliminating age of consent and reforming other related law.BC:1002380

Various individuals, including BoyChat posters Dylan Thomas and Mike van Houten (BoyChat nick mvanhouten), have suggested lowering the voting age as an important step toward acceptance of boylove. Such a change could facilitate progress of youth rights generally, including sexual rights as a special case; it could also, more specifically, provide a means for youth to pressure politicians to stop interfering in sexual relationships involving minors.

Linca has suggested that, in places where (at least some) felons are allowed to vote, they may form a significant voting bloc, and that they might be inclined to support policy favorable to boylovers.BC:996851

Using the apparent neologism "Reverse political activism", Dave Riegel has suggested using the controversy generated by political races to encourage candidates to point out flaws in their opponents' political platforms.

Mailing materials to the United States Congress has been suggested, but the efficacy of such approaches is a subject of debate.[BC:967706]

Courts

The Rind Resolution (HCR 107, 1999) noted that the conclusions of the Rind Report could be used in a legal defense.

The district attorney in the Pamela Rogers case has claimed that male jurors are relatively unlikely to consider as abuse relations between an older female and an adolescent male.BC:995571

TPKA Keating suggests that judges ask involved boys their opinions on appropriate punishments in cases of conviction for consensual sexual crimes.

Kevin Brown has suggested arguing that there is an invidious animus directed toward minor-attracted adults, and that the state acts in furtherance of this, so that remedy can be obtained under the 14th amendment to the U.S. constitution. He included these claims in a class action lawsuit filed against the State of Indiana. On 17 January 2005, he filed a motion for class certification (Caption, Brief, Footnotes); the motion was denied (text of order) on the court's opinion that Kevin's proposal for counsel was inadequate. Plaintiffs in the case have motioned for dismissal. Kevin posted an update on 21 May 2006.BC:1000453

Non-governmental organizations

In the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union has been suggested as a possible advocate of boylover rights in judicial and legislative processes, but Kevin Brown has noted that they have declined to take an active role in his case.

Youth Coalition describes itself as "an international organization of young people between the ages of 15 & 29 committed to promoting youth sexual and reproductive rights at the national, regional and international levels." It holds that "sexual and reproductive rights are human rights, and therefore apply equally to young people."

International organizations and treaties

Occasionally suggested is a role for international politics, including treaties and existing or new international organizations. Kevin Brown and slvrspun have suggested that certain treaties and international organizations may offer protection or representation for boylovers (e.g., UNPO). Bill Evans and others have suggested that the Convention on the Rights of the Child includes guarantees of sexual freedom. TPKA DaveBOYLOVER has suggested creation of a treaty similar to the Kyoto Protocol or a non-governmental organization similar to Amnesty International.

Allies

Recognizing and exploiting similarities of interest may serve to facilitate political and social change.

Technology-related

Participants of on-line technology fora such as Slashdot and digg may be opposed to surveillance and censorship of network traffic, and may tend to be critical of arguments based on the perceived protection of children.

The EFF has filed suit against AT&T to investigate its role in surveillance of network traffic. Two leaks, one intentional, and one unintentional, have been secured so far in this case.

The experimental software Tor, supported in part by the EFF, may be of interest to those wishing to communicate anonymously, but note that Tor should not be relied on for strong anonymity, as it is currently in a beta stage of development

The Swedish political party Piratpartiet supports elimination of immaterial law and elimination of laws restricting the free flow of information. They also support stronger privacy protections, including elimination of data retention laws for ISPs.[5]

Related articles

External links

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