Who's Afraid of the Paedo Files?

For centuries homosexuals were slandered as a danger to kids. So why is the LGBTQ+ movement so reluctant to root out anyone or anything that links us to paedophilia?

Part One: The Paedo Pioneers of the LGBTQ+ movement: Harry Hay etc.

Does the LGBTQ+ lobby have a problem with child safeguarding? It’s a question given fresh urgency after a series of sex scandals involving prominent gay men such as the SNP’s Jordan Linden and Imran Ahmad Khan MP who appeared, or in the case of Linden is alleged, to have assumed the rules on the age of consent didn’t apply to them.

The extent to which some gay men have drifted away from public opinion about paedophilia was exemplified when Crispin Blunt defended his good friend Khan. He tried to turn the tables, presenting the perpetrator as victim, describing the conviction as "an international scandal" effectively driven by homophobia, “incited by lazy tropes about LGBT+ people”. It wasn’t. Blunt has subsequently apologised before then defending Khan again. Blunt seems to find the fact that a powerful older man harassed a 15 year old boy….some sort of complex and ever-evolving issue.

Where does this troubling refusal to take the dangers of paedophilia seriously come from? Some people think the question shouldn’t be asked. They point out there have been child abusers in football, in education, or in broadcasting, as Saville’s victims will attest. It’s true too that most abuse of children is carried out by people known to the child and in a family setting.

BUT….

The difference is that the LGBTQ+ lobby is exactly that ..a lobby ….and one that increasingly presses against boundaries and takes controversial stances. Whether it’s in educational materials in schools, the celebration of Drag Story Hour in libraries or the promotion of so-called bodily autonomy in 12 year olds (whom we’re told are able to perfectly assess the long-term impact of puberty blockers) an impression is being created of a lobby that’s complacent about important boundaries, and suffers from a collective denial of potential risks to children.

That’s why it’s so important for gay people to rediscover and acknowledge the ways in which paedophiles have in the past tried to suborn our movement. Only by understanding what we’ve been up against can we prevent the same happening again and ensure both the safety of kids and that of our movement’s reputation.

I have bad news. The often wilful refusal to take the dangers of paedophilia seriously was baked into the birth of the gay liberation movement and every time we think we’ve finally rooted it out …it tries to creep back in. Gender identity ideology is only the latest means by which paedophilia has gained new purchase.