February 25

Events

• Current events

• 1935 - "I write the songs that make the young boys sing" - Benjamin Britten's a cappella choral composition called A Boy Was Born had its debut performance on this date. Being the good pedo that he was, he composed it specifically to be performed, in part, by a boys choir. This was one of his first major works to receive critical acclaim, and helped to fully launch his career. The title might suggest to some a pedoish theme to the piece, but in fact it refers to the birth of Jesus, the story of a completely different type of boy worship.

• 1988 - "Let's try another take, and work your hips more this time" - Clownhouse had all the basic elements of a horror film covered. Set around Halloween, three kids are terrorized by mental hospital escapees in clown costumes. But when the film was released on this date there was another element to the horror left to be told. Nathan Winters was 12 years old when he starred in the film. he also engaged in oral sex with the film's director, Victor Salva. Salva was arrested, pleaded guilty to one count of lewd and lascivious conduct, one count of oral copulation with a person under 14 and three counts of procuring a child for pornography for videotaping the events, and was sentenced to 3 years in prison. He served 15 months behind bars before being paroled. In 1995 Salva directed Powder for Disney. The release of that film brought then 20 year old Nathan Winters out to join protests of it.

• 1999 - Persecution, vindication, devastation anyway. - Xtra! published a report on this date about a man named Matthew McGowan. When he was 23, McGowan was arrested for obscenity based on a homemade video of him having sex with two 14 year old boys - one of whom was his then live-in boyfriend. As a Canadian, having sex with the boys was legal. But under Canadian law, filming it constituted making child porn and was not legal. The charges were tossed out at a preliminary hearing twenty-two months later on the grounds that the acts were not "obscene" - no violence, degradation, or coercion were involved. "It was obvious that us three young men were having a good time," McGowan said. But the experience is one he reports as having devastated his life. The victory did not save him from the hatred of others. "My life was just turned upside down," McGowan said, pointing out that his photo was published across Toronto in major daily newspapers. "I had people come up to me - total strangers - and call me a fucking didler. Once you're charged, the press has free reign and they'll twist it to suit their purposes. Hey - sex sells." He said that the most "mortifying" experience for him was having the video screened in an open court room during his bail hearing. Apparently public viewing of "obscene" material is ok even if possessing it is not.

• 2001 - Sounds like he could be batting for our team, however... - Ann Landers gets some letters from nuts, but this one was a doosie. On this date Landers' column featured a letter from a woman who was worried that they gym teacher at her son's elementary school might be a pedo. Her reasons? (1) He was unmarried, despite being "a very attractive and personable single man in his late 30s." The mother wrote that she had never seen the teacher with a woman. (2) He worked summers as a counselor at a boys' overnight camp. (3) Many parents - especially those of boys - had hired him to babysit when they went out of town. The woman asked Ann, "Aren't these the hallmarks of a pedophile?" Ann's reply was to not sweat it if her son liked being around the man and to be careful about spreading rumors and labeling people in damaging ways. Well done, Ann!