Why does Peter Tatchell get away with it?
He has long been a child abuse apologist, and supports efforts by men who wish to have sex with pre-pubescent children. Why is he considered a national treasure?
In 2015, I was asked by The Times to interview Tom O’Carroll, a spokesman for the thankfully now defunct, Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).
During the interview, it became obvious that O’Caroll hated Peter Tatchell. It would appear that he felt bitter resentment that Tatchell had walked away from his pro child sex abuse ideology unscathed, whereas other vile, child abuse apologists in PIE had not.
A while back, when I published an article on Peter Tatchell, asking why he was seen as a national treasure and no questions asked about his pro-paedophilia views, O’Caroll got in touch, and sent me his latest entry on his hideous blog. I didn’t reply. The man is utterly grotesque, and I wish him the worst.
You may wish to read a news report I co-wrote for the Telegraph newspaper, which should give you a clear a picture of Tatchell’s child abuse apologism.
I thought it was worth pondering, however, (which is why I am posting a copy of his email to me as well as his blog), why it is that Tatchell gets away with espousing these views? An entire Netflix documentary, at least partly funded by Elton John and his husband David Furnish, heaped praise on Tatchell and did not even mention the scandal surrounding his views. Indeed, it was a total hagiography. It would appear that men get away with holding and disseminating the most dreadful views. Funny, that. Anyone would think we live in a patriarchal society.
https://www.thearticle.com/peter-tatchell-dismisses-feminists-like-me-as-transphobes-but-he-has-his-own-skeleton-in-the-closet/
PIE members were echoing the intellectual campaign in France to reduce the age of consent, as a stepping stone to abolishing it entirely, limiting the offence to cases where violence was used. It is only very recently that France has introduced tougher laws on this, following revelations of abuse by public figures.
While this issue was linked to gay liberation in the UK because the ages of consent were unequal at the time, the French cases concerned heterosexual abusers. Therefore progressives including Liberty members were able to use gay rights for consenting adults as a cover for PIE's agenda. The Thatcher government misunderstood this, and targeted homosexuality in Section 28, when it should have targeted pederasty.
This issue is related to the lack of intervention on grooming gangs, because a cohort of social workers and teachers were taught in the 80's and 90's that limitations on childhood sexual agency were illegitimate and the result of a 'moral panic'.
I don't want to be intentionally reductive and say "It's because he's a man.". But I will. Especially when the answer is always increasingly "Because he's a man". Therefore it's not reductive really now is it?