March 22

Events

1832 - What he says about pedos matters more than whether he was one - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe died on this date. He is best remembered for writing Faust. In recent years, there has been wide scholarly speculation on Goethe's sexual orientation. While there is no clear evidence on the issue at all, and might never be any, he is still the man who wrote this: "Boylove is as old as humanity itself, and one can therefore say that it is natural, that it resides in nature, even if it proceeds against nature. And what culture has won from nature will not be given up at any price." That makes him ok in my book.

1991 - Teen boys will do anything for sex - In August 1990, Gregory Smart was shot and killed at his home in Derry, New Hampshire. Ultimately, a jury concluded that the killer was a 15-year-old high school student named William Flynn. Gregory Smart's wife, Pamela Smart, had met Flynn at a high school where she was a teacher and he a student. She was found guilty on this date of murder for "hiring" Flynn to do the job. Testimony at the trial reported that Flynn and Smart were lovers, and Smart used Flynn as a hit man, threatening to terminate their relationship if he didn't follow through. Flynn was sentenced to 28 years for second degree murder, Smart to life without parole. Smart has always maintained her innocence.

1999 - Please. Just the facts, ma'am. - Dr. Laura Schlessinger criticized "A Meta-Analytic Examination of Assumed Properties of Child Sexual Abuse Using College Samples" by Dr. Bruce Rind, Dr. Robert Bauserman, and Mr. Philip Tromovitch on her show on this date. This started a wave of protest that culminated in the United States Congress voting to condemn the study. She expressed her concern that the study "could be used to normalize pedophilia, to change the legal system." The next day, the APA released a resolution titled "Statement on Childhood Sexual Abuse: Childhood Sexual Abuse Causes Serious Harm to its Victims." In this statement, the APA astoundingly declared that "no responsible mental health organization, including the American Psychological Association, endorses pedophilia." They added: "An adult who engages in sexual activity with a child is performing a criminal and immoral act which never can be considered normal or socially acceptable behavior." For a so-called "scientific" organization the question of what they do or do not endorse and questions of morality should be entirely beside the point. And their point on social acceptability revealed a significant lack of knowledge of the histories of many cultures.

2001 - Let's talk about talking about sex - In Scotland a conference devoted to tackling the issue of sexual exploitation of children on the Internet opened on this date. The safety of children on the Internet had become a bigger issue in Europe at that time. "I think the rest of the world is getting concerned," Julie Posey, director of the U.S.-based Pedowatch, said. "I'd like to see them get a lot more concerned." Scottish officials used the conference, hosted by Glasgow University's Centre for Europe's Children, as an opportunity to announce new measures aimed at protecting children online. A British report found that one in five children who use computer chat rooms have been approached by a pedo. Officials gathered in Scotland to discuss how to reverse the trend. So far, they have nor succeeded.

2001 - "If we can’t look at children’s bodies we shall soon want to look at nothing else." - Novelist Jeanette Winterson wrote a column published by the Guardian on this date in which she criticized what had been a recent public controversy over an art gallery displaying pictures that were called "child porn" by some. She wrote: "Breast and penis are often on display in Virgin/Child pictures. The penis, sometimes erect, represents Christ’s human nature. The breast is as arousing or as motherly (or both) as the artist fancied." She criticized the view that "child dicks are different, and the rule seems to be that they must be hidden. Child genitals are assuming the kind of fetish status that once belonged to women’s vaginas." She noted that "parents and children alike are being taught new guilt and fear. Parents are afraid to photograph their own children. Children are being infected with unnecessary anxieties around nakedness. Photographer Tierney Gearon’s kids of six and four, are hardly likely to care about any photos of themselves, until some sex-obsessed social worker or reporter from the tabloids turns up shouting 'abuse'."