[Extract]
The academic who recently resigned from a charity that promotes the medical transitioning of children had for years been writing blog entries related to pro-pedophilia activism and “minor attraction.”
Jacob Breslow, an Associate Professor at the London School of Economics, stepped down from his position as a trustee for UK-based trans activist organization Mermaids earlier this week after it was revealed that he had, on several occasions, made statements and published academic work that favorably portrayed pedophilia.
In 2011, Breslow, then a PhD student, spoke at a symposium titled “Pedophilia, Minor-Attracted Persons, and the DSM: Issues and Controversies,” hosted by pedophile advocacy organization B4U-Act. The stated purpose of the symposium was to lobby the American Psychiatric Association for changes to the diagnostic definition of pedophilia in order to “reduce stigma” against “minor-attracted people” (MAPs).
Breslow’s presentation was titled Sexual Alignment: Critiquing Sexual Orientation, The Pedophile, and the DSM V. In the lecture, Breslow promotes the concept of treating pedophilia as a sexual orientation, a goal long-advocated by B4U-Act.
B4U-Act describes itself as an organization that works toward a “collaborative effort between minor-attracted people and mental health professionals,” and has a history of lobbying medical authorities for changes in criteria which would declassify pedophilia as a disorder.
Founded in 2009 by convicted child rapist Michael Melsheimer, B4U-Act had apparently been approved by the founders of infamous pederast activist group, the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). After B4U-Act’s creation, Melsheimer had informed other pedophiles that his organization’s approach would be focused around garnering public support for normalizing pedophilia by falsely claiming the intention was to prevent child sexual abuse.
At their symposium, Breslow read from a paper in which he rejected the understanding of pedophilic attraction to children as being inherently harmful, and supported the concept of pedophilia being classified as a sexual or political orientation.
“Allowing for a form of non-diagnosable minor attraction is exciting, as it potentially creates a sexual or political identity by which activists, scholars, and clinicians can begin to better understand Minor Attracted Persons … Many tend to begin with the linkage of pedophilic desire to harmful and abusive relationships and acts, and end up proliferating, rather than questioning, normative gendered and sexual intelligibility,” read Breslow’s abstract.
The article continues with a quote from Breslow's presentation in which he compared child molestation to masturbating over a shoe. I am not going to supply that quote in full, as I think it's too disturbing to post on MN.
This material was all in the public domain, but mysteriously Mermaids didn't/couldn't find it before they appointed him as a trustee of a charity that is nominally for children. And we're supposed to think Mermaids is a valuable and safe source of support for children, are we?