NewgonWiki - User contributions [en]

NewgonWiki:Featured/Special content

2026-10-22T03:30:38Z

Jim Burton:

[[File:7785080.jpg|150px|link=|frameless|right]][[Minor Attracted Person|MAP Identity]] is a fluid, evolving and exciting modern social trend, visible today in multiple online [https://www.map-union.org/community communities]. MAPs were also present in [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historical queer communities]]. The idea of [[queer]] MAPs is today [https://www.map-union.org/blog/are-maps-queer highly controversial] and the subject of misinformation.

'''Did you ''also'' know...'''

*Newgon has published the [[MAP Starting Guide|Starting Guide]] for MAPs and allies.
*Newgon's [[Guide To Computer Security (2022)|Guide To Computer Security]] is being compiled. We delve into the nuances of '''encryption''' and other topics.
*The MAP community is presently active in producing [[MAP-related podcasting and radio|podcasts, radio]] and [[List of MAP-related magazines|magazines]]:
::[https://fstube.net/c/open_hearts_podcast 🎙️Open Hearts] ‖ [https://fstube.net/c/kmaphq_radio_channel/videos 🎙️BL Talk]
::[https://fstube.net/c/deviants/videos 🎙️Deviants]
</div>
*The MAP community has formed enterprising activist organizations such as [[MEDAL]] and [[Mu]]. Many of our activists write essays and publish audio to encourage others to stand up for what they believe in:
:*[https://www.brianribbon.com/ BrianRibbon.com], by Brian Ribbon, see also [[The Manifesto of the Unapologetic MAP|his manifesto]].
*The MAP community faces multiple present-day challenges that have consequences for society at large:
:*[[Pedophobia]], [[Research: The Dangers of Stigma|Dangers of Stigma]], and [[List of anti-MAP quotes]].
:*[[Special Article: Adverse effects of hysteria|Adverse effects of hysteria]] - Unintended consequences, particularly re. the current Anglo-American legal scheme.
*Some MAPs are incarcerated under false charges for simply holding unpopular opinions:
:*For running updates on the Marthijn/O.U.R./Canoa situation, see at the end of [[Essay:The Gruesome Consequences of a Hysterical Witch Hunt|this]] article.

NewgonWiki:Getting involved

2026-10-22T03:22:27Z

Jim Burton: /* Editing the Wiki */

__NOTOC__
We welcome material input from those who can help expand on our reputation as a major information resource on the topics of [[Hebephilia|sexual attraction]]s and [[Minor-adult sex|relationship]]s between [[minor]]s and [[adult]]s. See below.

==Donate==

Newgon benefits from the generosity of unnamed donors. We suggest further willing donors instead support our immediate community. You can donate securely, for example, to [[FreeSpeechTube|FST's]] wallet via '''''[https://www.getmonero.org/ Monero]''''', a cryptocurrency. Funding the FST server partition contributes greatly to an "economy of scale" that allows more efficient administration and funding of what are known as Fediverse social sites - many of which do not censor MAPs. See their website for a donation address.

See also, [[B4U-ACT]] for a registered MAP Mental Health charity that accepts donations.

===Expenditure===

We have spent small amounts of Monero in 2022 and 23 - typically $20 dollars worth per batch of Twitter accounts, or to top up our SMS verification account. We are not presently active in this kind of social media activism.

==Editing the Wiki==

We are very strict selecting editors. Registration without human contact with the admins is not possible, and new editor accounts are given only to those whose work serves the goals of our editorial. Contact us via [https://www.yesmap.net/contact via email].

==Disclaimer==

Newgon, the entity, and those responsible for its hosting do not accept responsibility for what is posted on this wiki and reserve the right to exercise editorial oversight. Members of the wiki, regardless of role, are simply users, not overall site administrators, and not ultimately responsible for deciding who can edit.

For help editing and topics that need covering, see [[Help:Editing]]. It is vital that new editors take a look at these pages.

[[fr:NewgonWiki:Être_impliqué]][[Category:Advice]]

NewgonWiki:Getting involved

2026-10-22T03:20:23Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__
We welcome material input from those who can help expand on our reputation as a major information resource on the topics of [[Hebephilia|sexual attraction]]s and [[Minor-adult sex|relationship]]s between [[minor]]s and [[adult]]s. See below.

==Donate==

Newgon benefits from the generosity of unnamed donors. We suggest further willing donors instead support our immediate community. You can donate securely, for example, to [[FreeSpeechTube|FST's]] wallet via '''''[https://www.getmonero.org/ Monero]''''', a cryptocurrency. Funding the FST server partition contributes greatly to an "economy of scale" that allows more efficient administration and funding of what are known as Fediverse social sites - many of which do not censor MAPs. See their website for a donation address.

See also, [[B4U-ACT]] for a registered MAP Mental Health charity that accepts donations.

===Expenditure===

We have spent small amounts of Monero in 2022 and 23 - typically $20 dollars worth per batch of Twitter accounts, or to top up our SMS verification account. We are not presently active in this kind of social media activism.

==Editing the Wiki==

We are very strict selecting editors. Applications are closed to members of the public, and new accounts are given only to those whose editing serves the goals of our editorial. Contact us via [https://www.yesmap.net/contact via email].

==Disclaimer==

Newgon, the entity, and those responsible for its hosting do not accept responsibility for what is posted on this wiki and reserve the right to exercise editorial oversight. Members of the wiki, regardless of role, are simply users, not overall site administrators, and not ultimately responsible for deciding who can edit.

For help editing and topics that need covering, see [[Help:Editing]]. It is vital that new editors take a look at these pages.

[[fr:NewgonWiki:Être_impliqué]][[Category:Advice]]

MAP Merch Shop

2026-10-21T19:21:39Z

Jim Burton: /* Controversy */

__NOTOC__[[File:Mms banner2.png|thumb|Example of goods for sale at MMS]]
'''MAP Merch Shop''' ('''MMS''', [https://mapmerch.shop mapmerch.shop] or [https://mmsnw.com mmsnw.com], f. Mar, 2023) is a commercial [[Minor Attracted Person|MAP]] merchandise venture started by [[Katie Cruz]] - a [[MAP Movement|MAP Activist]] and graphical designer known for almost two decades in the [[Minor attracted community|community]]. The site markets a range of merchandise and clothing using the same affiliates and drop-shipping methods used by other retailers of bespoke goods.

<blockquote>
''At MAP Merch Shop, we understand the importance of expressing your identity and showing pride in who you are. That’s why we’re thrilled to offer a wide variety of high-quality products designed specifically for the MAP community.''

''Our collection includes a range of unique designs that allow MAPs to showcase their pride and share their identity with the world. From mugs featuring iconic MAP symbols to clothing with bold statements, we have something for everyone.''<ref>[https://amapin.love/2023/03/27/map-merch-shop/ A MAP in Love: Introduction to MMS]</ref>
</blockquote>

Designs featured on the site include established MAP logos, such as the [[BLogo]], [[GLogo]] and the more recent [[MAP Flag]] in a few of its variations. A Progress Pride Flag can also be found on the site, which markets itself as inclusive to [[Queer]] people.

In early 2025, MAP Merch Shop went on hiatus, as Katie stepped away due to health reasons. In September 2025, MAP Merch Shop reopened with a new owner, and Katie remained on the team as Creative Director and a vendor.

==Gallery==

<gallery>
File:Mms banner1.png|Further example of goods ([[Youth Attracted Person]] (YAP) Flag)
File:BergquamMMS.png|One of the fringe-conservative semi-virals featuring the venture. See also livestreamer, Oreo Express<ref>[https://twitter.com/OreoExpress/status/1669407479816667136 Oreo Express- Twitter]</ref>
</gallery>

==Controversy==

[[File:MMS Trolling GAG.jpg|thumb|alt=A screenshot of MAP Merch Shop with an antagonistic message directed at GAG, featuring a product made to troll them. The message reads: "Hey GAG, cry about it! Boo Fuckin Hoo!" |Screenshot of MMS trolling GAG<ref>[https://mapmerch.shop/product/mean-tweets-gag-boo-fuckin-hoo-matte-posters/ MAP Merch Shop - Mean Tweets GAG Boo Fuckin Hoo Matte Posters]</ref>]]

Surprisingly, after over two years of operation, the site had proved more controversial within the MAP community than outside of it.

===Within the community: Operational Security===

It has been argued that:

*Bespoke goods can be ordered more affordably from independent retailers.
*Customer details might be leaked accidentally or harvested by third parties (the owner introduced analogue ordering in response to these concerns).
*The site owner is seeking to profit from the venture.
*The ability to pay with Monero (a privacy-focused crypto coin) was added, but has since been discontinued due to lack of customers using this payment method.<ref>[https://amapin.love/2024/10/10/map-merch-shop-is-discontinuing-monero-as-a-payment-option/ A MAP In Love - MAP Merch Shop is Discontinuing Monero As A Payment Option]</ref>

The former site owner has responded to these criticisms by pointing out that the chances of her ever turning a profit from this kind of venture are marginal, and that the project has novelty value as an openly MAP-owned venture and exercise of free-speech rights. She pledged any revenues exceeding her costs to her ongoing activism, and otherwise helping other MAPs and their organizations.

===Outside of the community: Right-wing outrage and mainstream acknowledgement===

MMS has occasionally been mentioned on Twitter threads (featured above), in what have generally been received as unsuccessful and unsophisticated attempts to scandalize the venture.<ref>[https://x.com/againstgrmrs/status/1751292918487199862 A further thread initiated by] [[Gays Against Groomers]]</ref> MMS is frequently a target of the anti-MAP hate group [[Gays Against Groomers]]. Katie responded by mocking GAG and introducing a product that trolls them for losing their product distributors.

The first arguably mainstream attention for the project came from the London free-sheet, ''Metro'', in which investigative journalist Daisy Maskell said she found the concept disturbing as it went beyond prevention and openly celebrated the MAP identity.<ref>[https://metro.co.uk/2025/08/09/discovered-murky-world-minor-attracted-people-even-disturbing-think-23594331/ Daisy Maskell's Metro piece]</ref>

==Giving Back==

From the beginning, MAP Merch Shop has given back to the MAP community, by allowing individual vendors to donate proceeds of their products to MAP organizations and spaces. After the start of the 2023 war in Gaza, Katie introduced the I Stand With Children campaign, pledging that 100% of the proceeds from I Stand With Children branded merch goes to a children's organization of the customer's choice.<ref>[https://amapin.love/2023/11/27/i-stand-with-children-campaign/ A MAP In Love - I Stand With Children campaign]</ref><ref>[https://mapmerch.shop/product-tag/i-stand-with-children/ MAP Merch Shop - Product Tag - I Stand With Children]</ref><ref>[https://mapmerch.shop/giving-back/ MAP Merch Shop - Giving Back]</ref>
==External links==

*[https://mapmerch.shop Site home]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Art]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]]

MAP Flag

2026-10-21T19:08:47Z

Jim Burton:

{{Template:MAI}}__NOTOC__
:''For an extended list of graphics, see [[Memes and Graphics]].''

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a '''MAP Flag''', which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer, becoming a recurring meme from that point onward.

==A flag for MAPs: Early efforts==

[[File:Mapflag2018.svg|thumb|left|200px|2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a ''MAP Flag'', after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.]]
Calls for a flag appear to go back at least<ref>Other symbols had also been put on flag graphics, e.g. [https://ourlovefrontier.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/clogo_flag/ CLogo Flag]</ref> to a [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]], on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user '''Philist''', a [[pro-c]], had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

==Variations and real-life sightings==

<gallery>
File:Yesmap.png|2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive [[pro-c]] symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (some use)
File:Mapunion.png|Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
File:MAPflagunitedlarge.svg|2021 version. Designed via [[Yesmap]] server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the ''United MAP Flag'' on [[Pediverse]] due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale<ref>It can also be noted that in 2023 a MAP [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandise shop]] at one point sold goods describing this variant as the "United MAP Flag", popularizing this as the name. Sometimes, the 2021 variant is considered an unofficial [[pro-c]] symbol due to the controversy.</ref>
File:Gradient.jpeg|Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
File:Nomap-pride-pink-blue.png|2025 variant proposed as a [[NOMAP]] Flag by dreamstate, [[Virped|Virtuous Pedophiles]]. This came in [[Media:Nomap-pride-rainbow.png|two versions]] - border added.
File:Kcruz mapflag.png|[[Katie Cruz]] with MAP Flag
File:Mythebe.png|MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
File:Zoostrugburnflag.png|Small-time [[Validity Policing|Validity Sadist]] and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
File:217 - anti-map flag artist chizu type edit.png|The MAP Flag [[Anti-MAP Flag|inspired]] an imitation [[Anti]]-MAP Flag, featured here
File:MAPFlagDE.jpg|A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany<ref>[https://krumme13.org/news.php?s=read&id=4831 K13 - Limited use of MAP Flag at protest] and [https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophilia-activists-marched-for-equal-rights-at-2022-cologne-pride/ Reduxx version]</ref><ref>[https://pedofilie-info.cz/nejenhomo/Czech_and_Slovak_Pedophile_Community_%28CEPEK%29_participation_on_Prague_Pride.html Similar protest participation in Czechia, but appears not to have been updated in the "MAP Flag" era]</ref>
File:Kershaw.png|MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
File:Maprefghfgh.jpg|Flag website sticker located at roadside
File:Bnnnfgdgffg.jpg|More stickers sighted on roadside
File:Hjmmhmjmnhjgfg.jpg|Lapel pin/badge
File:German2.jpg|MAPSupport.de [[Pediverse|Fediverse]] user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
File:F6d28.jpeg|MAP and Zoo stickers, [[NNIA]].space
File:Redditmf.png|MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/179uj3p/please_help_to_identify_the_flag_i_saw_while/ Please help to identify the flag I saw while taking a walk today. Seems to be a pride flag of sorts (from colors and design), although I'm not sure.]</ref>
File:2024X.png|In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, attempting to introduce the idea that the potential link between 2009 and 2018 concepts was once presented as plagiarism
File:Orig.png|A response meme was made.
</gallery>

Some [[anti-contact]] MAPs, particularly in Germany, have issued strongly-worded denunciations of [[pro-c]] MAPs (e.g. [[Krumme13]]), who use the widely-recognized 2018 NOMAP Flag as a general symbol. These included inaccurate statements about the symbolism of the white stripe, whose presence in the earlier 2009 proposal did not imply [[NOMAP]] alignment, and whose [[#NOMAP Flag of 2018|rationale in 2018]] did not exclude non-offending pro-c's.<ref>[https://kinder-im-herzen.net/blog/flagge-bekennen KiH: Flagge bekennen]</ref> This has inspired an ongoing push for more unifying symbols.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has also allowed for the production of more varied secondary [[Memes and Graphics|graphics]] deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

==Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag==

[[File:LecterMAPChevron.png|thumb|Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs]]
The origins of the '''2018 flag''' are a Tumblr user named '''Stenna''', who published it in June of that year, according to Lecter, the admin of [[NNIA]], a former [[Pediverse]] instance.<ref>[https://comrade-lecter.dreamwidth.org/4543.html comrade_lecter Tumblr]</ref><ref name="Stenna">[https://archive.md/j2ZsP Stenna Tumblr Archive]</ref> In 2017, Lecter had designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but did not promote them intensively.<ref>[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ Chevron Flags by Lecter]</ref>

===Snowballing of 2018 controversy, false and conflicting LGBT entryism, and "hoax" claims===

Stenna's flag graphic spread throughout social media following widespread intrigue and hostile attention suggesting it was an attempt to align MAPs with LGBTQ+ politics. As our gallery demonstrates below, contrary to these claims, there was across-the-board concern among the earliest MAP Flag designers about perceived LGBTQ+ entryism and possible backlash.

After Stenna's blog was removed by Tumblr its URL was also squatted by a hostile actor,<ref>[https://archive.md/hwOAT Stenna Tumblr - Hostile takeover]</ref> leading various "fact checkers" to falsely claim that the original flag was a hoax by trolls. This was a narrative that conflicted with the LGBT entryism narrative since it was in part an attempt to answer it. The controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, also infecting the legacy gay press, who were under pressure to affirm that the flag was not an LGBTQ+ project.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220916162653/https://attitude.co.uk/article/paedophiles-want-to-be-accepted-by-the-lgbt-community-claiming-they-are-minorities/18461/ Attitude: Paedophiles want to be accepted by the LGBT community claiming they are minorities]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegayuk.com/paedophiles-have-created-their-own-pride-flag/ Thegayuk: Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag]</ref> Not all gay media fell in line with the hoax narrative, though. In one article, ''GayStarNews'' (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster using a shortened version of his name<ref>[https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/crime/fraudster-jailed-after-80000-concert-ticket-scam/ Fraudster jailed after £80,000 concert ticket scam]</ref><ref>[https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2123283/Ticket-tout-Michael-Rangos-faces-big-taxman.html Ticket tout tax avoidance]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210516004853/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/will-you-darling-meetup-london/ GayStarNews puff piece for ticket tout fraudster]</ref>) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historically ignorant]] article, GayStarNews<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333361120_I'm_Not_like_That_So_Am_I_Gay_The_Use_of_Queer-Spectrum_Identity_Labels_Among_Minor-Attracted_People Allyn Walker on MAPs and identity labels]</ref> falsely stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190321133619/https:/www.gaystarnews.com/article/no-this-isnt-a-real-pride-flag-it-represents-pedophiles/#gs.k4gift No, this isn’t a real Pride flag—it represents pedophiles - GayStarNews]</ref> These "hoax" claims were repeated more forcefully in other gay publications.<ref>[https://hornet.com/stories/minor-attracted-persons-flag-hoax/ Hornet: The ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Flag Appears to Be a Hoax to Connect LGBTQs with Pedophilia]</ref><ref>[https://www.them.us/story/behind-the-weird-internet-scheme-to-associate-pedophiles-with-the-lgbtq-community Them: Behind the Weird Internet Scheme to Associate Pedophiles with the LGBTQ+ Community]</ref>

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These too, have been wrongly interpreted as the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT]] re-entryist attempts of MAPs. The 2021 version, and a [[:File:Yesmap.png|subsequent pro-c proposal]] have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with small-time influencers burning printed versions on camera, and MAP users rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

===Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling get passed by "fact checkers"===

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at ''Snopes.com'' have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". ''AFP Fact Check'' repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164919/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maps-pride-flag/ Archived copy of Snopes' original false fact check]</ref><ref>[https://factcheck.afp.com/pride-flag-pedophiles-someone-created-one-no-one-waves-it AP's less erroneous FC]</ref><ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT/ Reuters repeats inaccurate claims based on the redacted Snopes article]</ref><ref>[https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/no-no-hay-evidencia-de-que-las-personas-atraidas-por-menores-esten-buscando-incluirse-en-el-movimiento-lgbt/ chequeado.com (in Spanish) repeats false claims]</ref> These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the [[LGBTQ+]] community after [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|years of ostracism]]. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our [[Minor Attracted Person (archive research)|research article]] demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the [[MAP Movement]] in its literature against [[Moral panic]].<ref>[https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf GPP: MANUFACTURING MORAL PANIC: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights]</ref>

====Snopes belatedly redact their false claim====

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/articles/464807/minor-attracted-persons-flag/ Improved 2023 Snopes fact check]</ref> A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/emblems-of-equality-discovering-the-world-of-lgbtq-flags/ LGBTQ Nation: List of flags]</ref>

==Symbolism and development of concept==

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

*The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
*The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
*The gradient stripes are always said to represent [[boy]]s/more masculine personal features and [[girl]]s/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

===NOMAP Flag of 2018===

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

:''"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"''<ref name="Stenna" />

===Philist's 2009 proposal===

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

:''"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. ''[...]'' A spectrum of gender and age"''<ref>[https://www.newgon.net/wiki/index.php?title=Flag_proposal_2009&direction=next&oldid=5400 Newgon Flag rationale] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509030829/https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Flag_proposal_2009 Web Archive (link now dead, domain excluded)]</ref>

====Gallery of forum discussions====

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user '''defend_yourselves555''' on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]] wiki article.

<gallery>
File:Firstpost.png|The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a [[Boylove|TBL]] using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
File:Philist0309.png|Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
File:Philist0609.png|Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
File:Philist0709.png|Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.
</gallery>

==Later controversies==
[[File:Blues clues.png|thumb|Blues clues controversy]]
In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show ''Blues Clues'', in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.<ref>[https://libreddit.esmailelbob.xyz/r/questions/comments/nqlsf4/does_the_blues_clues_lgbt_pride_parade_episode/ Reddit: Blues Clues]</ref>

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a [[Youth Attracted Person]] flag (featured in article).

Other controversies have involved use of the flag in [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandising]], and occasional minor virals in which the flag graphic is seen online and sometimes in meatspaces. The general view among MAPs as to the value of these events is a positive one, since they are seen as normalizing the presence of semi-open MAPs in the community. A notable [[MAPocalypse|controversy]] in 2026 involved the "Pedo Lives Matter" variant of the [[Mu|2023 Union MAP Flag]], as shared in a space populated by [[Lolicon]]s.

===MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag?===

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned [[Wikipedia:Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#Variations|Progress Pride Flag]] contains the colors of the MAP Flag,<ref>[https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2023/7/12/paedophile-reference-in-progress-pride-flag Catholic Arena: Groomer colours in the Transgender & Progress-Pride Flags]</ref> in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims appeared years after the debunked claims about the LGBTQ+ community's role in the creation of a MAP Flag. They appear to be far-fetched, and are again disputed by fact checkers.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT Reuters Fact Check: Progress Pride Flag]</ref>

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both ''boys and girls'' (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a [[wikipedia:Transgender_flag|''Trans'' Pride Flag]] that ''predated'' the MAP Flag.<ref>[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-the-colors-of-the-new-pride-flag-mean-5189173 What Do the Colors of the New Pride Flag Mean?], and [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/04/28/transgender-pride-flag-colors-meaning/11697579002/ Blue, pink and white: Here's what the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag mean], and [https://www.seventeen.com/life/a36610926/trans-flag-colors-meaning/ Here’s the Meaning Behind the Colors of the Transgender Pride Flag]. See also multiple examples, including the creator's own blog: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503004804/http://transgendersociety.yolasite.com/tg-pride-flag-history-timeline.php], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-flag_n_2166742], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301065716/http://www.monicahelms.com/blog/category/tg-pride-flag], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705172626/http://www.glbtq.com/slideshows/symbols,15.html], [https://www.pointofpride.org/blog/the-history-of-the-transgender-flag], [https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/what-is-gender-affirmation.html].</ref> The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.<ref>See [https://archive.md/j2ZsP] and [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot] and [https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag]</ref>

==External links==
[[File:Mornington.png|thumb|A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIo1VPnD2A Vox populi video (source unknown)] - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
*[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ MAP Wiki Article] - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a [[Minor MAP]] Flag.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

MAP Flag

2026-10-21T18:53:50Z

Jim Burton: /* Snowballing of 2018 controversy, false and conflicting LGBT entryism, and "hoax" claims */

{{Template:MAI}}__NOTOC__
:''For an extended list of graphics, see [[Memes and Graphics]].''

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a '''MAP Flag''', which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer, becoming a recurring meme from that point onward.

==A flag for MAPs: Early efforts==

[[File:Mapflag2018.svg|thumb|left|200px|2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a ''MAP Flag'', after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.]]
Calls for a flag appear to go back at least<ref>Other symbols had also been put on flag graphics, e.g. [https://ourlovefrontier.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/clogo_flag/ CLogo Flag]</ref> to a [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]], on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user '''Philist''', a [[pro-c]], had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

==Variations and real-life sightings==

<gallery>
File:Yesmap.png|2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive [[pro-c]] symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (some use)
File:Mapunion.png|Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
File:MAPflagunitedlarge.svg|2021 version. Designed via [[Yesmap]] server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the ''United MAP Flag'' on [[Pediverse]] due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale<ref>It can also be noted that in 2023 a MAP [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandise shop]] at one point sold goods describing this variant as the "United MAP Flag", popularizing this as the name. Sometimes, the 2021 variant is considered an unofficial [[pro-c]] symbol due to the controversy.</ref>
File:Gradient.jpeg|Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
File:Nomap-pride-pink-blue.png|2025 variant proposed as a [[NOMAP]] Flag by dreamstate, [[Virped|Virtuous Pedophiles]]. This came in [[Media:Nomap-pride-rainbow.png|two versions]] - border added.
File:Kcruz mapflag.png|[[Katie Cruz]] with MAP Flag
File:Mythebe.png|MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
File:Zoostrugburnflag.png|Small-time [[Validity Policing|Validity Sadist]] and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
File:217 - anti-map flag artist chizu type edit.png|The MAP Flag [[Anti-MAP Flag|inspired]] an imitation [[Anti]]-MAP Flag, featured here
File:MAPFlagDE.jpg|A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany<ref>[https://krumme13.org/news.php?s=read&id=4831 K13 - Limited use of MAP Flag at protest] and [https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophilia-activists-marched-for-equal-rights-at-2022-cologne-pride/ Reduxx version]</ref><ref>[https://pedofilie-info.cz/nejenhomo/Czech_and_Slovak_Pedophile_Community_%28CEPEK%29_participation_on_Prague_Pride.html Similar protest participation in Czechia, but appears not to have been updated in the "MAP Flag" era]</ref>
File:Kershaw.png|MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
File:Maprefghfgh.jpg|Flag website sticker located at roadside
File:Bnnnfgdgffg.jpg|More stickers sighted on roadside
File:Hjmmhmjmnhjgfg.jpg|Lapel pin/badge
File:German2.jpg|MAPSupport.de [[Pediverse|Fediverse]] user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
File:F6d28.jpeg|MAP and Zoo stickers, NNIA.space
File:Redditmf.png|MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/179uj3p/please_help_to_identify_the_flag_i_saw_while/ Please help to identify the flag I saw while taking a walk today. Seems to be a pride flag of sorts (from colors and design), although I'm not sure.]</ref>
File:2024X.png|In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, attempting to introduce the idea that the potential link between 2009 and 2018 concepts was once presented as plagiarism
File:Orig.png|A response meme was made.
</gallery>

Some [[anti-contact]] MAPs, particularly in Germany, have issued strongly-worded denunciations of [[pro-c]] MAPs (e.g. [[Krumme13]]), who use the widely-recognized 2018 NOMAP Flag as a general symbol. These included inaccurate statements about the symbolism of the white stripe, whose presence in the earlier 2009 proposal did not imply [[NOMAP]] alignment, and whose [[#NOMAP Flag of 2018|rationale in 2018]] did not exclude non-offending pro-c's.<ref>[https://kinder-im-herzen.net/blog/flagge-bekennen KiH: Flagge bekennen]</ref> This has inspired an ongoing push for more unifying symbols.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has also allowed for the production of more varied secondary [[Memes and Graphics|graphics]] deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

==Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag==

[[File:LecterMAPChevron.png|thumb|Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs]]
The origins of the '''2018 flag''' are a Tumblr user named '''Stenna''', who published it in June of that year, according to Lecter, the admin of NNIA, a former [[Pediverse]] instance.<ref>[https://comrade-lecter.dreamwidth.org/4543.html comrade_lecter Tumblr]</ref><ref name="Stenna">[https://archive.md/j2ZsP Stenna Tumblr Archive]</ref> In 2017, Lecter had designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but did not promote them intensively.<ref>[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ Chevron Flags by Lecter]</ref>

===Snowballing of 2018 controversy, false and conflicting LGBT entryism, and "hoax" claims===

Stenna's flag graphic spread throughout social media following widespread intrigue and hostile attention suggesting it was an attempt to align MAPs with LGBTQ+ politics. As our gallery demonstrates below, contrary to these claims, there was across-the-board concern among the earliest MAP Flag designers about perceived LGBTQ+ entryism and possible backlash.

After Stenna's blog was removed by Tumblr its URL was also squatted by a hostile actor,<ref>[https://archive.md/hwOAT Stenna Tumblr - Hostile takeover]</ref> leading various "fact checkers" to falsely claim that the original flag was a hoax by trolls. This was a narrative that conflicted with the LGBT entryism narrative since it was in part an attempt to answer it. The controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, also infecting the legacy gay press, who were under pressure to affirm that the flag was not an LGBTQ+ project.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220916162653/https://attitude.co.uk/article/paedophiles-want-to-be-accepted-by-the-lgbt-community-claiming-they-are-minorities/18461/ Attitude: Paedophiles want to be accepted by the LGBT community claiming they are minorities]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegayuk.com/paedophiles-have-created-their-own-pride-flag/ Thegayuk: Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag]</ref> Not all gay media fell in line with the hoax narrative, though. In one article, ''GayStarNews'' (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster using a shortened version of his name<ref>[https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/crime/fraudster-jailed-after-80000-concert-ticket-scam/ Fraudster jailed after £80,000 concert ticket scam]</ref><ref>[https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2123283/Ticket-tout-Michael-Rangos-faces-big-taxman.html Ticket tout tax avoidance]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210516004853/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/will-you-darling-meetup-london/ GayStarNews puff piece for ticket tout fraudster]</ref>) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historically ignorant]] article, GayStarNews<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333361120_I'm_Not_like_That_So_Am_I_Gay_The_Use_of_Queer-Spectrum_Identity_Labels_Among_Minor-Attracted_People Allyn Walker on MAPs and identity labels]</ref> falsely stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190321133619/https:/www.gaystarnews.com/article/no-this-isnt-a-real-pride-flag-it-represents-pedophiles/#gs.k4gift No, this isn’t a real Pride flag—it represents pedophiles - GayStarNews]</ref> These "hoax" claims were repeated more forcefully in other gay publications.<ref>[https://hornet.com/stories/minor-attracted-persons-flag-hoax/ Hornet: The ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Flag Appears to Be a Hoax to Connect LGBTQs with Pedophilia]</ref><ref>[https://www.them.us/story/behind-the-weird-internet-scheme-to-associate-pedophiles-with-the-lgbtq-community Them: Behind the Weird Internet Scheme to Associate Pedophiles with the LGBTQ+ Community]</ref>

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These too, have been wrongly interpreted as the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT]] re-entryist attempts of MAPs. The 2021 version, and a [[:File:Yesmap.png|subsequent pro-c proposal]] have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with small-time influencers burning printed versions on camera, and MAP users rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

===Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling get passed by "fact checkers"===

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at ''Snopes.com'' have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". ''AFP Fact Check'' repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164919/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maps-pride-flag/ Archived copy of Snopes' original false fact check]</ref><ref>[https://factcheck.afp.com/pride-flag-pedophiles-someone-created-one-no-one-waves-it AP's less erroneous FC]</ref><ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT/ Reuters repeats inaccurate claims based on the redacted Snopes article]</ref><ref>[https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/no-no-hay-evidencia-de-que-las-personas-atraidas-por-menores-esten-buscando-incluirse-en-el-movimiento-lgbt/ chequeado.com (in Spanish) repeats false claims]</ref> These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the [[LGBTQ+]] community after [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|years of ostracism]]. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our [[Minor Attracted Person (archive research)|research article]] demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the [[MAP Movement]] in its literature against [[Moral panic]].<ref>[https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf GPP: MANUFACTURING MORAL PANIC: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights]</ref>

====Snopes belatedly redact their false claim====

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/articles/464807/minor-attracted-persons-flag/ Improved 2023 Snopes fact check]</ref> A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/emblems-of-equality-discovering-the-world-of-lgbtq-flags/ LGBTQ Nation: List of flags]</ref>

==Symbolism and development of concept==

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

*The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
*The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
*The gradient stripes are always said to represent [[boy]]s/more masculine personal features and [[girl]]s/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

===NOMAP Flag of 2018===

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

:''"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"''<ref name="Stenna" />

===Philist's 2009 proposal===

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

:''"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. ''[...]'' A spectrum of gender and age"''<ref>[https://www.newgon.net/wiki/index.php?title=Flag_proposal_2009&direction=next&oldid=5400 Newgon Flag rationale] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509030829/https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Flag_proposal_2009 Web Archive (link now dead, domain excluded)]</ref>

====Gallery of forum discussions====

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user '''defend_yourselves555''' on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]] wiki article.

<gallery>
File:Firstpost.png|The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a [[Boylove|TBL]] using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
File:Philist0309.png|Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
File:Philist0609.png|Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
File:Philist0709.png|Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.
</gallery>

==Later controversies==
[[File:Blues clues.png|thumb|Blues clues controversy]]
In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show ''Blues Clues'', in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.<ref>[https://libreddit.esmailelbob.xyz/r/questions/comments/nqlsf4/does_the_blues_clues_lgbt_pride_parade_episode/ Reddit: Blues Clues]</ref>

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a [[Youth Attracted Person]] flag (featured in article).

Other controversies have involved use of the flag in [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandising]], and occasional minor virals in which the flag graphic is seen online and sometimes in meatspaces. The general view among MAPs as to the value of these events is a positive one, since they are seen as normalizing the presence of semi-open MAPs in the community. A notable [[MAPocalypse|controversy]] in 2026 involved the "Pedo Lives Matter" variant of the [[Mu|2023 Union MAP Flag]], as shared in a space populated by [[Lolicon]]s.

===MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag?===

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned [[Wikipedia:Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#Variations|Progress Pride Flag]] contains the colors of the MAP Flag,<ref>[https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2023/7/12/paedophile-reference-in-progress-pride-flag Catholic Arena: Groomer colours in the Transgender & Progress-Pride Flags]</ref> in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims appeared years after the debunked claims about the LGBTQ+ community's role in the creation of a MAP Flag. They appear to be far-fetched, and are again disputed by fact checkers.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT Reuters Fact Check: Progress Pride Flag]</ref>

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both ''boys and girls'' (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a [[wikipedia:Transgender_flag|''Trans'' Pride Flag]] that ''predated'' the MAP Flag.<ref>[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-the-colors-of-the-new-pride-flag-mean-5189173 What Do the Colors of the New Pride Flag Mean?], and [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/04/28/transgender-pride-flag-colors-meaning/11697579002/ Blue, pink and white: Here's what the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag mean], and [https://www.seventeen.com/life/a36610926/trans-flag-colors-meaning/ Here’s the Meaning Behind the Colors of the Transgender Pride Flag]. See also multiple examples, including the creator's own blog: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503004804/http://transgendersociety.yolasite.com/tg-pride-flag-history-timeline.php], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-flag_n_2166742], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301065716/http://www.monicahelms.com/blog/category/tg-pride-flag], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705172626/http://www.glbtq.com/slideshows/symbols,15.html], [https://www.pointofpride.org/blog/the-history-of-the-transgender-flag], [https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/what-is-gender-affirmation.html].</ref> The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.<ref>See [https://archive.md/j2ZsP] and [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot] and [https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag]</ref>

==External links==
[[File:Mornington.png|thumb|A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIo1VPnD2A Vox populi video (source unknown)] - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
*[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ MAP Wiki Article] - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a [[Minor MAP]] Flag.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

MAP Flag

2026-10-21T18:52:04Z

Jim Burton: /* Snowballing of 2018 controversy, false and conflicting LGBT entryism, and "hoax" claims */

{{Template:MAI}}__NOTOC__
:''For an extended list of graphics, see [[Memes and Graphics]].''

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a '''MAP Flag''', which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer, becoming a recurring meme from that point onward.

==A flag for MAPs: Early efforts==

[[File:Mapflag2018.svg|thumb|left|200px|2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a ''MAP Flag'', after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.]]
Calls for a flag appear to go back at least<ref>Other symbols had also been put on flag graphics, e.g. [https://ourlovefrontier.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/clogo_flag/ CLogo Flag]</ref> to a [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]], on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user '''Philist''', a [[pro-c]], had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

==Variations and real-life sightings==

<gallery>
File:Yesmap.png|2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive [[pro-c]] symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (some use)
File:Mapunion.png|Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
File:MAPflagunitedlarge.svg|2021 version. Designed via [[Yesmap]] server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the ''United MAP Flag'' on [[Pediverse]] due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale<ref>It can also be noted that in 2023 a MAP [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandise shop]] at one point sold goods describing this variant as the "United MAP Flag", popularizing this as the name. Sometimes, the 2021 variant is considered an unofficial [[pro-c]] symbol due to the controversy.</ref>
File:Gradient.jpeg|Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
File:Nomap-pride-pink-blue.png|2025 variant proposed as a [[NOMAP]] Flag by dreamstate, [[Virped|Virtuous Pedophiles]]. This came in [[Media:Nomap-pride-rainbow.png|two versions]] - border added.
File:Kcruz mapflag.png|[[Katie Cruz]] with MAP Flag
File:Mythebe.png|MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
File:Zoostrugburnflag.png|Small-time [[Validity Policing|Validity Sadist]] and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
File:217 - anti-map flag artist chizu type edit.png|The MAP Flag [[Anti-MAP Flag|inspired]] an imitation [[Anti]]-MAP Flag, featured here
File:MAPFlagDE.jpg|A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany<ref>[https://krumme13.org/news.php?s=read&id=4831 K13 - Limited use of MAP Flag at protest] and [https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophilia-activists-marched-for-equal-rights-at-2022-cologne-pride/ Reduxx version]</ref><ref>[https://pedofilie-info.cz/nejenhomo/Czech_and_Slovak_Pedophile_Community_%28CEPEK%29_participation_on_Prague_Pride.html Similar protest participation in Czechia, but appears not to have been updated in the "MAP Flag" era]</ref>
File:Kershaw.png|MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
File:Maprefghfgh.jpg|Flag website sticker located at roadside
File:Bnnnfgdgffg.jpg|More stickers sighted on roadside
File:Hjmmhmjmnhjgfg.jpg|Lapel pin/badge
File:German2.jpg|MAPSupport.de [[Pediverse|Fediverse]] user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
File:F6d28.jpeg|MAP and Zoo stickers, NNIA.space
File:Redditmf.png|MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/179uj3p/please_help_to_identify_the_flag_i_saw_while/ Please help to identify the flag I saw while taking a walk today. Seems to be a pride flag of sorts (from colors and design), although I'm not sure.]</ref>
File:2024X.png|In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, attempting to introduce the idea that the potential link between 2009 and 2018 concepts was once presented as plagiarism
File:Orig.png|A response meme was made.
</gallery>

Some [[anti-contact]] MAPs, particularly in Germany, have issued strongly-worded denunciations of [[pro-c]] MAPs (e.g. [[Krumme13]]), who use the widely-recognized 2018 NOMAP Flag as a general symbol. These included inaccurate statements about the symbolism of the white stripe, whose presence in the earlier 2009 proposal did not imply [[NOMAP]] alignment, and whose [[#NOMAP Flag of 2018|rationale in 2018]] did not exclude non-offending pro-c's.<ref>[https://kinder-im-herzen.net/blog/flagge-bekennen KiH: Flagge bekennen]</ref> This has inspired an ongoing push for more unifying symbols.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has also allowed for the production of more varied secondary [[Memes and Graphics|graphics]] deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

==Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag==

[[File:LecterMAPChevron.png|thumb|Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs]]
The origins of the '''2018 flag''' are a Tumblr user named '''Stenna''', who published it in June of that year, according to Lecter, the admin of NNIA, a former [[Pediverse]] instance.<ref>[https://comrade-lecter.dreamwidth.org/4543.html comrade_lecter Tumblr]</ref><ref name="Stenna">[https://archive.md/j2ZsP Stenna Tumblr Archive]</ref> In 2017, Lecter had designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but did not promote them intensively.<ref>[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ Chevron Flags by Lecter]</ref>

===Snowballing of 2018 controversy, false and conflicting LGBT entryism, and "hoax" claims===

Stenna's flag graphic spread throughout social media following widespread intrigue and hostile attention suggesting it was an attempt to align MAPs with LGBTQ+ politics.

After Stenna's blog was removed by Tumblr its URL was also squatted by a hostile actor,<ref>[https://archive.md/hwOAT Stenna Tumblr - Hostile takeover]</ref> leading various "fact checkers" to falsely claim that the original flag was a hoax by trolls - a narrative that conflicted with the LGBT entryism narrative since it was in part an attempt to answer it. The controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, also infecting the legacy gay press, who were under pressure to affirm that the flag was not an LGBTQ+ project.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220916162653/https://attitude.co.uk/article/paedophiles-want-to-be-accepted-by-the-lgbt-community-claiming-they-are-minorities/18461/ Attitude: Paedophiles want to be accepted by the LGBT community claiming they are minorities]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegayuk.com/paedophiles-have-created-their-own-pride-flag/ Thegayuk: Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag]</ref> Not all gay media fell in line with the hoax narrative, though. In one article, ''GayStarNews'' (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster using a shortened version of his name<ref>[https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/crime/fraudster-jailed-after-80000-concert-ticket-scam/ Fraudster jailed after £80,000 concert ticket scam]</ref><ref>[https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2123283/Ticket-tout-Michael-Rangos-faces-big-taxman.html Ticket tout tax avoidance]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210516004853/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/will-you-darling-meetup-london/ GayStarNews puff piece for ticket tout fraudster]</ref>) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historically ignorant]] article, GayStarNews<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333361120_I'm_Not_like_That_So_Am_I_Gay_The_Use_of_Queer-Spectrum_Identity_Labels_Among_Minor-Attracted_People Allyn Walker on MAPs and identity labels]</ref> falsely stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190321133619/https:/www.gaystarnews.com/article/no-this-isnt-a-real-pride-flag-it-represents-pedophiles/#gs.k4gift No, this isn’t a real Pride flag—it represents pedophiles - GayStarNews]</ref> These "hoax" claims were repeated more forcefully in other gay publications.<ref>[https://hornet.com/stories/minor-attracted-persons-flag-hoax/ Hornet: The ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Flag Appears to Be a Hoax to Connect LGBTQs with Pedophilia]</ref><ref>[https://www.them.us/story/behind-the-weird-internet-scheme-to-associate-pedophiles-with-the-lgbtq-community Them: Behind the Weird Internet Scheme to Associate Pedophiles with the LGBTQ+ Community]</ref> As our gallery demonstrates below, there was across-the-board concern among the earliest MAP Flag designers about perceived LGBTQ+ entryism and possible backlash.

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These too, have been wrongly interpreted as the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT]] re-entryist attempts of MAPs. The 2021 version, and a [[:File:Yesmap.png|subsequent pro-c proposal]] have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with small-time influencers burning printed versions on camera, and MAP users rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

===Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling get passed by "fact checkers"===

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at ''Snopes.com'' have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". ''AFP Fact Check'' repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164919/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maps-pride-flag/ Archived copy of Snopes' original false fact check]</ref><ref>[https://factcheck.afp.com/pride-flag-pedophiles-someone-created-one-no-one-waves-it AP's less erroneous FC]</ref><ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT/ Reuters repeats inaccurate claims based on the redacted Snopes article]</ref><ref>[https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/no-no-hay-evidencia-de-que-las-personas-atraidas-por-menores-esten-buscando-incluirse-en-el-movimiento-lgbt/ chequeado.com (in Spanish) repeats false claims]</ref> These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the [[LGBTQ+]] community after [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|years of ostracism]]. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our [[Minor Attracted Person (archive research)|research article]] demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the [[MAP Movement]] in its literature against [[Moral panic]].<ref>[https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf GPP: MANUFACTURING MORAL PANIC: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights]</ref>

====Snopes belatedly redact their false claim====

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/articles/464807/minor-attracted-persons-flag/ Improved 2023 Snopes fact check]</ref> A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/emblems-of-equality-discovering-the-world-of-lgbtq-flags/ LGBTQ Nation: List of flags]</ref>

==Symbolism and development of concept==

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

*The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
*The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
*The gradient stripes are always said to represent [[boy]]s/more masculine personal features and [[girl]]s/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

===NOMAP Flag of 2018===

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

:''"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"''<ref name="Stenna" />

===Philist's 2009 proposal===

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

:''"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. ''[...]'' A spectrum of gender and age"''<ref>[https://www.newgon.net/wiki/index.php?title=Flag_proposal_2009&direction=next&oldid=5400 Newgon Flag rationale] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509030829/https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Flag_proposal_2009 Web Archive (link now dead, domain excluded)]</ref>

====Gallery of forum discussions====

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user '''defend_yourselves555''' on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]] wiki article.

<gallery>
File:Firstpost.png|The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a [[Boylove|TBL]] using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
File:Philist0309.png|Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
File:Philist0609.png|Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
File:Philist0709.png|Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.
</gallery>

==Later controversies==
[[File:Blues clues.png|thumb|Blues clues controversy]]
In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show ''Blues Clues'', in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.<ref>[https://libreddit.esmailelbob.xyz/r/questions/comments/nqlsf4/does_the_blues_clues_lgbt_pride_parade_episode/ Reddit: Blues Clues]</ref>

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a [[Youth Attracted Person]] flag (featured in article).

Other controversies have involved use of the flag in [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandising]], and occasional minor virals in which the flag graphic is seen online and sometimes in meatspaces. The general view among MAPs as to the value of these events is a positive one, since they are seen as normalizing the presence of semi-open MAPs in the community. A notable [[MAPocalypse|controversy]] in 2026 involved the "Pedo Lives Matter" variant of the [[Mu|2023 Union MAP Flag]], as shared in a space populated by [[Lolicon]]s.

===MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag?===

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned [[Wikipedia:Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#Variations|Progress Pride Flag]] contains the colors of the MAP Flag,<ref>[https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2023/7/12/paedophile-reference-in-progress-pride-flag Catholic Arena: Groomer colours in the Transgender & Progress-Pride Flags]</ref> in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims appeared years after the debunked claims about the LGBTQ+ community's role in the creation of a MAP Flag. They appear to be far-fetched, and are again disputed by fact checkers.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT Reuters Fact Check: Progress Pride Flag]</ref>

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both ''boys and girls'' (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a [[wikipedia:Transgender_flag|''Trans'' Pride Flag]] that ''predated'' the MAP Flag.<ref>[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-the-colors-of-the-new-pride-flag-mean-5189173 What Do the Colors of the New Pride Flag Mean?], and [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/04/28/transgender-pride-flag-colors-meaning/11697579002/ Blue, pink and white: Here's what the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag mean], and [https://www.seventeen.com/life/a36610926/trans-flag-colors-meaning/ Here’s the Meaning Behind the Colors of the Transgender Pride Flag]. See also multiple examples, including the creator's own blog: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503004804/http://transgendersociety.yolasite.com/tg-pride-flag-history-timeline.php], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-flag_n_2166742], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301065716/http://www.monicahelms.com/blog/category/tg-pride-flag], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705172626/http://www.glbtq.com/slideshows/symbols,15.html], [https://www.pointofpride.org/blog/the-history-of-the-transgender-flag], [https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/what-is-gender-affirmation.html].</ref> The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.<ref>See [https://archive.md/j2ZsP] and [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot] and [https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag]</ref>

==External links==
[[File:Mornington.png|thumb|A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIo1VPnD2A Vox populi video (source unknown)] - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
*[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ MAP Wiki Article] - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a [[Minor MAP]] Flag.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

MAP Flag

2026-10-21T18:49:25Z

Jim Burton: /* Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag */

{{Template:MAI}}__NOTOC__
:''For an extended list of graphics, see [[Memes and Graphics]].''

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a '''MAP Flag''', which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer, becoming a recurring meme from that point onward.

==A flag for MAPs: Early efforts==

[[File:Mapflag2018.svg|thumb|left|200px|2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a ''MAP Flag'', after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.]]
Calls for a flag appear to go back at least<ref>Other symbols had also been put on flag graphics, e.g. [https://ourlovefrontier.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/clogo_flag/ CLogo Flag]</ref> to a [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]], on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user '''Philist''', a [[pro-c]], had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

==Variations and real-life sightings==

<gallery>
File:Yesmap.png|2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive [[pro-c]] symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (some use)
File:Mapunion.png|Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
File:MAPflagunitedlarge.svg|2021 version. Designed via [[Yesmap]] server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the ''United MAP Flag'' on [[Pediverse]] due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale<ref>It can also be noted that in 2023 a MAP [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandise shop]] at one point sold goods describing this variant as the "United MAP Flag", popularizing this as the name. Sometimes, the 2021 variant is considered an unofficial [[pro-c]] symbol due to the controversy.</ref>
File:Gradient.jpeg|Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
File:Nomap-pride-pink-blue.png|2025 variant proposed as a [[NOMAP]] Flag by dreamstate, [[Virped|Virtuous Pedophiles]]. This came in [[Media:Nomap-pride-rainbow.png|two versions]] - border added.
File:Kcruz mapflag.png|[[Katie Cruz]] with MAP Flag
File:Mythebe.png|MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
File:Zoostrugburnflag.png|Small-time [[Validity Policing|Validity Sadist]] and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
File:217 - anti-map flag artist chizu type edit.png|The MAP Flag [[Anti-MAP Flag|inspired]] an imitation [[Anti]]-MAP Flag, featured here
File:MAPFlagDE.jpg|A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany<ref>[https://krumme13.org/news.php?s=read&id=4831 K13 - Limited use of MAP Flag at protest] and [https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophilia-activists-marched-for-equal-rights-at-2022-cologne-pride/ Reduxx version]</ref><ref>[https://pedofilie-info.cz/nejenhomo/Czech_and_Slovak_Pedophile_Community_%28CEPEK%29_participation_on_Prague_Pride.html Similar protest participation in Czechia, but appears not to have been updated in the "MAP Flag" era]</ref>
File:Kershaw.png|MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
File:Maprefghfgh.jpg|Flag website sticker located at roadside
File:Bnnnfgdgffg.jpg|More stickers sighted on roadside
File:Hjmmhmjmnhjgfg.jpg|Lapel pin/badge
File:German2.jpg|MAPSupport.de [[Pediverse|Fediverse]] user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
File:F6d28.jpeg|MAP and Zoo stickers, NNIA.space
File:Redditmf.png|MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/179uj3p/please_help_to_identify_the_flag_i_saw_while/ Please help to identify the flag I saw while taking a walk today. Seems to be a pride flag of sorts (from colors and design), although I'm not sure.]</ref>
File:2024X.png|In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, attempting to introduce the idea that the potential link between 2009 and 2018 concepts was once presented as plagiarism
File:Orig.png|A response meme was made.
</gallery>

Some [[anti-contact]] MAPs, particularly in Germany, have issued strongly-worded denunciations of [[pro-c]] MAPs (e.g. [[Krumme13]]), who use the widely-recognized 2018 NOMAP Flag as a general symbol. These included inaccurate statements about the symbolism of the white stripe, whose presence in the earlier 2009 proposal did not imply [[NOMAP]] alignment, and whose [[#NOMAP Flag of 2018|rationale in 2018]] did not exclude non-offending pro-c's.<ref>[https://kinder-im-herzen.net/blog/flagge-bekennen KiH: Flagge bekennen]</ref> This has inspired an ongoing push for more unifying symbols.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has also allowed for the production of more varied secondary [[Memes and Graphics|graphics]] deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

==Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag==

[[File:LecterMAPChevron.png|thumb|Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs]]
The origins of the '''2018 flag''' are a Tumblr user named '''Stenna''', who published it in June of that year, according to Lecter, the admin of NNIA, a former [[Pediverse]] instance.<ref>[https://comrade-lecter.dreamwidth.org/4543.html comrade_lecter Tumblr]</ref><ref name="Stenna">[https://archive.md/j2ZsP Stenna Tumblr Archive]</ref> In 2017, Lecter had designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but did not promote them intensively.<ref>[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ Chevron Flags by Lecter]</ref>

===Snowballing of 2018 controversy, false and conflicting LGBT entryism, and "hoax" claims===

Stenna's flag graphic spread throughout social media following widespread intrigue and hostile attention suggesting it was an attempt to align MAPs with LGBTQ+ politics.

After Stenna's blog was removed by Tumblr its URL was also squatted by a hostile actor,<ref>[https://archive.md/hwOAT Stenna Tumblr - Hostile takeover]</ref> leading various "fact checkers" to falsely claim that the original flag was a hoax by trolls - a narrative that conflicted with the LGBT entryism narrative since it was in part an attempt to answer it. The controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, also infecting the legacy gay press, who were under pressure to affirm that the flag was not an LGBTQ+ project.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220916162653/https://attitude.co.uk/article/paedophiles-want-to-be-accepted-by-the-lgbt-community-claiming-they-are-minorities/18461/ Attitude: Paedophiles want to be accepted by the LGBT community claiming they are minorities]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegayuk.com/paedophiles-have-created-their-own-pride-flag/ Thegayuk: Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag]</ref> Not all gay media fell in line with the hoax narrative, though. In one article, ''GayStarNews'' (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster using a shortened version of his name<ref>[https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/crime/fraudster-jailed-after-80000-concert-ticket-scam/ Fraudster jailed after £80,000 concert ticket scam]</ref><ref>[https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2123283/Ticket-tout-Michael-Rangos-faces-big-taxman.html Ticket tout tax avoidance]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210516004853/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/will-you-darling-meetup-london/ GayStarNews puff piece for ticket tout fraudster]</ref>) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historically ignorant]] article, GayStarNews<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333361120_I'm_Not_like_That_So_Am_I_Gay_The_Use_of_Queer-Spectrum_Identity_Labels_Among_Minor-Attracted_People Allyn Walker on MAPs and identity labels]</ref> falsely stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190321133619/https:/www.gaystarnews.com/article/no-this-isnt-a-real-pride-flag-it-represents-pedophiles/#gs.k4gift No, this isn’t a real Pride flag—it represents pedophiles - GayStarNews]</ref> These "hoax" claims were repeated elsewhere.<ref>[https://hornet.com/stories/minor-attracted-persons-flag-hoax/ Hornet: The ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Flag Appears to Be a Hoax to Connect LGBTQs with Pedophilia]</ref><ref>[https://www.them.us/story/behind-the-weird-internet-scheme-to-associate-pedophiles-with-the-lgbtq-community Them: Behind the Weird Internet Scheme to Associate Pedophiles with the LGBTQ+ Community]</ref> As our gallery demonstrates below, there was across-the-board concern among the earliest MAP Flag designers about perceived LGBTQ+ entryism and possible backlash.

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These too, have been wrongly interpreted as the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT]] re-entryist attempts of MAPs. The 2021 version, and a [[:File:Yesmap.png|subsequent pro-c proposal]] have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with small-time influencers burning printed versions on camera, and MAP users rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

===Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling get passed by "fact checkers"===

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at ''Snopes.com'' have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". ''AFP Fact Check'' repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164919/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maps-pride-flag/ Archived copy of Snopes' original false fact check]</ref><ref>[https://factcheck.afp.com/pride-flag-pedophiles-someone-created-one-no-one-waves-it AP's less erroneous FC]</ref><ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT/ Reuters repeats inaccurate claims based on the redacted Snopes article]</ref><ref>[https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/no-no-hay-evidencia-de-que-las-personas-atraidas-por-menores-esten-buscando-incluirse-en-el-movimiento-lgbt/ chequeado.com (in Spanish) repeats false claims]</ref> These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the [[LGBTQ+]] community after [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|years of ostracism]]. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our [[Minor Attracted Person (archive research)|research article]] demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the [[MAP Movement]] in its literature against [[Moral panic]].<ref>[https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf GPP: MANUFACTURING MORAL PANIC: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights]</ref>

====Snopes belatedly redact their false claim====

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/articles/464807/minor-attracted-persons-flag/ Improved 2023 Snopes fact check]</ref> A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/emblems-of-equality-discovering-the-world-of-lgbtq-flags/ LGBTQ Nation: List of flags]</ref>

==Symbolism and development of concept==

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

*The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
*The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
*The gradient stripes are always said to represent [[boy]]s/more masculine personal features and [[girl]]s/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

===NOMAP Flag of 2018===

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

:''"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"''<ref name="Stenna" />

===Philist's 2009 proposal===

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

:''"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. ''[...]'' A spectrum of gender and age"''<ref>[https://www.newgon.net/wiki/index.php?title=Flag_proposal_2009&direction=next&oldid=5400 Newgon Flag rationale] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509030829/https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Flag_proposal_2009 Web Archive (link now dead, domain excluded)]</ref>

====Gallery of forum discussions====

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user '''defend_yourselves555''' on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]] wiki article.

<gallery>
File:Firstpost.png|The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a [[Boylove|TBL]] using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
File:Philist0309.png|Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
File:Philist0609.png|Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
File:Philist0709.png|Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.
</gallery>

==Later controversies==
[[File:Blues clues.png|thumb|Blues clues controversy]]
In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show ''Blues Clues'', in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.<ref>[https://libreddit.esmailelbob.xyz/r/questions/comments/nqlsf4/does_the_blues_clues_lgbt_pride_parade_episode/ Reddit: Blues Clues]</ref>

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a [[Youth Attracted Person]] flag (featured in article).

Other controversies have involved use of the flag in [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandising]], and occasional minor virals in which the flag graphic is seen online and sometimes in meatspaces. The general view among MAPs as to the value of these events is a positive one, since they are seen as normalizing the presence of semi-open MAPs in the community. A notable [[MAPocalypse|controversy]] in 2026 involved the "Pedo Lives Matter" variant of the [[Mu|2023 Union MAP Flag]], as shared in a space populated by [[Lolicon]]s.

===MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag?===

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned [[Wikipedia:Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#Variations|Progress Pride Flag]] contains the colors of the MAP Flag,<ref>[https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2023/7/12/paedophile-reference-in-progress-pride-flag Catholic Arena: Groomer colours in the Transgender & Progress-Pride Flags]</ref> in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims appeared years after the debunked claims about the LGBTQ+ community's role in the creation of a MAP Flag. They appear to be far-fetched, and are again disputed by fact checkers.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT Reuters Fact Check: Progress Pride Flag]</ref>

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both ''boys and girls'' (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a [[wikipedia:Transgender_flag|''Trans'' Pride Flag]] that ''predated'' the MAP Flag.<ref>[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-the-colors-of-the-new-pride-flag-mean-5189173 What Do the Colors of the New Pride Flag Mean?], and [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/04/28/transgender-pride-flag-colors-meaning/11697579002/ Blue, pink and white: Here's what the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag mean], and [https://www.seventeen.com/life/a36610926/trans-flag-colors-meaning/ Here’s the Meaning Behind the Colors of the Transgender Pride Flag]. See also multiple examples, including the creator's own blog: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503004804/http://transgendersociety.yolasite.com/tg-pride-flag-history-timeline.php], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-flag_n_2166742], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301065716/http://www.monicahelms.com/blog/category/tg-pride-flag], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705172626/http://www.glbtq.com/slideshows/symbols,15.html], [https://www.pointofpride.org/blog/the-history-of-the-transgender-flag], [https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/what-is-gender-affirmation.html].</ref> The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.<ref>See [https://archive.md/j2ZsP] and [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot] and [https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag]</ref>

==External links==
[[File:Mornington.png|thumb|A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIo1VPnD2A Vox populi video (source unknown)] - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
*[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ MAP Wiki Article] - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a [[Minor MAP]] Flag.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

MAP Flag

2026-10-21T18:32:38Z

Jim Burton: /* MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag? */

{{Template:MAI}}__NOTOC__
:''For an extended list of graphics, see [[Memes and Graphics]].''

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a '''MAP Flag''', which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer, becoming a recurring meme from that point onward.

==A flag for MAPs: Early efforts==

[[File:Mapflag2018.svg|thumb|left|200px|2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a ''MAP Flag'', after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.]]
Calls for a flag appear to go back at least<ref>Other symbols had also been put on flag graphics, e.g. [https://ourlovefrontier.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/clogo_flag/ CLogo Flag]</ref> to a [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]], on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user '''Philist''', a [[pro-c]], had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

==Variations and real-life sightings==

<gallery>
File:Yesmap.png|2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive [[pro-c]] symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (some use)
File:Mapunion.png|Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
File:MAPflagunitedlarge.svg|2021 version. Designed via [[Yesmap]] server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the ''United MAP Flag'' on [[Pediverse]] due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale<ref>It can also be noted that in 2023 a MAP [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandise shop]] at one point sold goods describing this variant as the "United MAP Flag", popularizing this as the name. Sometimes, the 2021 variant is considered an unofficial [[pro-c]] symbol due to the controversy.</ref>
File:Gradient.jpeg|Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
File:Nomap-pride-pink-blue.png|2025 variant proposed as a [[NOMAP]] Flag by dreamstate, [[Virped|Virtuous Pedophiles]]. This came in [[Media:Nomap-pride-rainbow.png|two versions]] - border added.
File:Kcruz mapflag.png|[[Katie Cruz]] with MAP Flag
File:Mythebe.png|MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
File:Zoostrugburnflag.png|Small-time [[Validity Policing|Validity Sadist]] and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
File:217 - anti-map flag artist chizu type edit.png|The MAP Flag [[Anti-MAP Flag|inspired]] an imitation [[Anti]]-MAP Flag, featured here
File:MAPFlagDE.jpg|A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany<ref>[https://krumme13.org/news.php?s=read&id=4831 K13 - Limited use of MAP Flag at protest] and [https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophilia-activists-marched-for-equal-rights-at-2022-cologne-pride/ Reduxx version]</ref><ref>[https://pedofilie-info.cz/nejenhomo/Czech_and_Slovak_Pedophile_Community_%28CEPEK%29_participation_on_Prague_Pride.html Similar protest participation in Czechia, but appears not to have been updated in the "MAP Flag" era]</ref>
File:Kershaw.png|MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
File:Maprefghfgh.jpg|Flag website sticker located at roadside
File:Bnnnfgdgffg.jpg|More stickers sighted on roadside
File:Hjmmhmjmnhjgfg.jpg|Lapel pin/badge
File:German2.jpg|MAPSupport.de [[Pediverse|Fediverse]] user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
File:F6d28.jpeg|MAP and Zoo stickers, NNIA.space
File:Redditmf.png|MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/179uj3p/please_help_to_identify_the_flag_i_saw_while/ Please help to identify the flag I saw while taking a walk today. Seems to be a pride flag of sorts (from colors and design), although I'm not sure.]</ref>
File:2024X.png|In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, attempting to introduce the idea that the potential link between 2009 and 2018 concepts was once presented as plagiarism
File:Orig.png|A response meme was made.
</gallery>

Some [[anti-contact]] MAPs, particularly in Germany, have issued strongly-worded denunciations of [[pro-c]] MAPs (e.g. [[Krumme13]]), who use the widely-recognized 2018 NOMAP Flag as a general symbol. These included inaccurate statements about the symbolism of the white stripe, whose presence in the earlier 2009 proposal did not imply [[NOMAP]] alignment, and whose [[#NOMAP Flag of 2018|rationale in 2018]] did not exclude non-offending pro-c's.<ref>[https://kinder-im-herzen.net/blog/flagge-bekennen KiH: Flagge bekennen]</ref> This has inspired an ongoing push for more unifying symbols.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has also allowed for the production of more varied secondary [[Memes and Graphics|graphics]] deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

==Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag==

[[File:LecterMAPChevron.png|thumb|Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs]]
The origins of the '''2018 flag''' are a Tumblr user named '''Stenna''', who published it in June of that year, according to Lecter, the admin of NNIA, a former [[Pediverse]] instance.<ref>[https://comrade-lecter.dreamwidth.org/4543.html comrade_lecter Tumblr]</ref><ref name="Stenna">[https://archive.md/j2ZsP Stenna Tumblr Archive]</ref> In 2017, Lecter had designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but did not promote them intensively.<ref>[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ Chevron Flags by Lecter]</ref>

Stenna's flag graphic spread throughout social media following widespread intrigue and hostile attention suggesting it was an attempt to align MAPs with LGBTQ+ politics. After Stenna's blog was removed by Tumblr its URL was squatted by a hostile actor,<ref>[https://archive.md/hwOAT Stenna Tumblr - Hostile takeover]</ref> leading various "fact checkers" to falsely claim that the original flag was a hoax by trolls. The initial controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, also infecting the legacy gay press, who were under pressure to affirm that the flag was not an LGBTQ+ project.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220916162653/https://attitude.co.uk/article/paedophiles-want-to-be-accepted-by-the-lgbt-community-claiming-they-are-minorities/18461/ Attitude: Paedophiles want to be accepted by the LGBT community claiming they are minorities]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegayuk.com/paedophiles-have-created-their-own-pride-flag/ Thegayuk: Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag]</ref> In one article, ''GayStarNews'' (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster using a shortened version of his name<ref>[https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/crime/fraudster-jailed-after-80000-concert-ticket-scam/ Fraudster jailed after £80,000 concert ticket scam]</ref><ref>[https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2123283/Ticket-tout-Michael-Rangos-faces-big-taxman.html Ticket tout tax avoidance]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210516004853/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/will-you-darling-meetup-london/ GayStarNews puff piece for ticket tout fraudster]</ref>) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historically ignorant]] article, GayStarNews<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333361120_I'm_Not_like_That_So_Am_I_Gay_The_Use_of_Queer-Spectrum_Identity_Labels_Among_Minor-Attracted_People Allyn Walker on MAPs and identity labels]</ref> falsely stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190321133619/https:/www.gaystarnews.com/article/no-this-isnt-a-real-pride-flag-it-represents-pedophiles/#gs.k4gift No, this isn’t a real Pride flag—it represents pedophiles - GayStarNews]</ref> These "hoax" claims were repeated elsewhere.<ref>[https://hornet.com/stories/minor-attracted-persons-flag-hoax/ Hornet: The ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Flag Appears to Be a Hoax to Connect LGBTQs with Pedophilia]</ref><ref>[https://www.them.us/story/behind-the-weird-internet-scheme-to-associate-pedophiles-with-the-lgbtq-community Them: Behind the Weird Internet Scheme to Associate Pedophiles with the LGBTQ+ Community]</ref>

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These too, have been wrongly interpreted as the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT]] re-entryist attempts of MAPs. The 2021 version, and a [[:File:Yesmap.png|subsequent pro-c proposal]] have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with small-time influencers burning printed versions on camera, and MAP users rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

===Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling by "fact checkers"===

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at ''Snopes.com'' have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". ''AFP Fact Check'' repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164919/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maps-pride-flag/ Archived copy of Snopes' original false fact check]</ref><ref>[https://factcheck.afp.com/pride-flag-pedophiles-someone-created-one-no-one-waves-it AP's less erroneous FC]</ref><ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT/ Reuters repeats inaccurate claims based on the redacted Snopes article]</ref><ref>[https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/no-no-hay-evidencia-de-que-las-personas-atraidas-por-menores-esten-buscando-incluirse-en-el-movimiento-lgbt/ chequeado.com (in Spanish) repeats false claims]</ref> These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the [[LGBTQ+]] community after [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|years of ostracism]]. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our [[Minor Attracted Person (archive research)|research article]] demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the [[MAP Movement]] in its literature against [[Moral panic]].<ref>[https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf GPP: MANUFACTURING MORAL PANIC: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights]</ref>

====Snopes belatedly redact their false claim====

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/articles/464807/minor-attracted-persons-flag/ Improved 2023 Snopes fact check]</ref> A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/emblems-of-equality-discovering-the-world-of-lgbtq-flags/ LGBTQ Nation: List of flags]</ref>

==Symbolism and development of concept==

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

*The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
*The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
*The gradient stripes are always said to represent [[boy]]s/more masculine personal features and [[girl]]s/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

===NOMAP Flag of 2018===

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

:''"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"''<ref name="Stenna" />

===Philist's 2009 proposal===

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

:''"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. ''[...]'' A spectrum of gender and age"''<ref>[https://www.newgon.net/wiki/index.php?title=Flag_proposal_2009&direction=next&oldid=5400 Newgon Flag rationale] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509030829/https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Flag_proposal_2009 Web Archive (link now dead, domain excluded)]</ref>

====Gallery of forum discussions====

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user '''defend_yourselves555''' on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]] wiki article.

<gallery>
File:Firstpost.png|The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a [[Boylove|TBL]] using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
File:Philist0309.png|Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
File:Philist0609.png|Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
File:Philist0709.png|Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.
</gallery>

==Later controversies==
[[File:Blues clues.png|thumb|Blues clues controversy]]
In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show ''Blues Clues'', in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.<ref>[https://libreddit.esmailelbob.xyz/r/questions/comments/nqlsf4/does_the_blues_clues_lgbt_pride_parade_episode/ Reddit: Blues Clues]</ref>

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a [[Youth Attracted Person]] flag (featured in article).

Other controversies have involved use of the flag in [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandising]], and occasional minor virals in which the flag graphic is seen online and sometimes in meatspaces. The general view among MAPs as to the value of these events is a positive one, since they are seen as normalizing the presence of semi-open MAPs in the community. A notable [[MAPocalypse|controversy]] in 2026 involved the "Pedo Lives Matter" variant of the [[Mu|2023 Union MAP Flag]], as shared in a space populated by [[Lolicon]]s.

===MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag?===

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned [[Wikipedia:Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#Variations|Progress Pride Flag]] contains the colors of the MAP Flag,<ref>[https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2023/7/12/paedophile-reference-in-progress-pride-flag Catholic Arena: Groomer colours in the Transgender & Progress-Pride Flags]</ref> in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims appeared years after the debunked claims about the LGBTQ+ community's role in the creation of a MAP Flag. They appear to be far-fetched, and are again disputed by fact checkers.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT Reuters Fact Check: Progress Pride Flag]</ref>

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both ''boys and girls'' (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a [[wikipedia:Transgender_flag|''Trans'' Pride Flag]] that ''predated'' the MAP Flag.<ref>[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-the-colors-of-the-new-pride-flag-mean-5189173 What Do the Colors of the New Pride Flag Mean?], and [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/04/28/transgender-pride-flag-colors-meaning/11697579002/ Blue, pink and white: Here's what the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag mean], and [https://www.seventeen.com/life/a36610926/trans-flag-colors-meaning/ Here’s the Meaning Behind the Colors of the Transgender Pride Flag]. See also multiple examples, including the creator's own blog: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503004804/http://transgendersociety.yolasite.com/tg-pride-flag-history-timeline.php], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-flag_n_2166742], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301065716/http://www.monicahelms.com/blog/category/tg-pride-flag], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705172626/http://www.glbtq.com/slideshows/symbols,15.html], [https://www.pointofpride.org/blog/the-history-of-the-transgender-flag], [https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/what-is-gender-affirmation.html].</ref> The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.<ref>See [https://archive.md/j2ZsP] and [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot] and [https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag]</ref>

==External links==
[[File:Mornington.png|thumb|A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIo1VPnD2A Vox populi video (source unknown)] - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
*[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ MAP Wiki Article] - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a [[Minor MAP]] Flag.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

MAP Flag

2026-10-21T18:25:36Z

Jim Burton: /* Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag */

{{Template:MAI}}__NOTOC__
:''For an extended list of graphics, see [[Memes and Graphics]].''

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a '''MAP Flag''', which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer, becoming a recurring meme from that point onward.

==A flag for MAPs: Early efforts==

[[File:Mapflag2018.svg|thumb|left|200px|2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a ''MAP Flag'', after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.]]
Calls for a flag appear to go back at least<ref>Other symbols had also been put on flag graphics, e.g. [https://ourlovefrontier.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/clogo_flag/ CLogo Flag]</ref> to a [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]], on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user '''Philist''', a [[pro-c]], had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

==Variations and real-life sightings==

<gallery>
File:Yesmap.png|2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive [[pro-c]] symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (some use)
File:Mapunion.png|Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
File:MAPflagunitedlarge.svg|2021 version. Designed via [[Yesmap]] server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the ''United MAP Flag'' on [[Pediverse]] due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale<ref>It can also be noted that in 2023 a MAP [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandise shop]] at one point sold goods describing this variant as the "United MAP Flag", popularizing this as the name. Sometimes, the 2021 variant is considered an unofficial [[pro-c]] symbol due to the controversy.</ref>
File:Gradient.jpeg|Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
File:Nomap-pride-pink-blue.png|2025 variant proposed as a [[NOMAP]] Flag by dreamstate, [[Virped|Virtuous Pedophiles]]. This came in [[Media:Nomap-pride-rainbow.png|two versions]] - border added.
File:Kcruz mapflag.png|[[Katie Cruz]] with MAP Flag
File:Mythebe.png|MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
File:Zoostrugburnflag.png|Small-time [[Validity Policing|Validity Sadist]] and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
File:217 - anti-map flag artist chizu type edit.png|The MAP Flag [[Anti-MAP Flag|inspired]] an imitation [[Anti]]-MAP Flag, featured here
File:MAPFlagDE.jpg|A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany<ref>[https://krumme13.org/news.php?s=read&id=4831 K13 - Limited use of MAP Flag at protest] and [https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophilia-activists-marched-for-equal-rights-at-2022-cologne-pride/ Reduxx version]</ref><ref>[https://pedofilie-info.cz/nejenhomo/Czech_and_Slovak_Pedophile_Community_%28CEPEK%29_participation_on_Prague_Pride.html Similar protest participation in Czechia, but appears not to have been updated in the "MAP Flag" era]</ref>
File:Kershaw.png|MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
File:Maprefghfgh.jpg|Flag website sticker located at roadside
File:Bnnnfgdgffg.jpg|More stickers sighted on roadside
File:Hjmmhmjmnhjgfg.jpg|Lapel pin/badge
File:German2.jpg|MAPSupport.de [[Pediverse|Fediverse]] user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
File:F6d28.jpeg|MAP and Zoo stickers, NNIA.space
File:Redditmf.png|MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/179uj3p/please_help_to_identify_the_flag_i_saw_while/ Please help to identify the flag I saw while taking a walk today. Seems to be a pride flag of sorts (from colors and design), although I'm not sure.]</ref>
File:2024X.png|In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, attempting to introduce the idea that the potential link between 2009 and 2018 concepts was once presented as plagiarism
File:Orig.png|A response meme was made.
</gallery>

Some [[anti-contact]] MAPs, particularly in Germany, have issued strongly-worded denunciations of [[pro-c]] MAPs (e.g. [[Krumme13]]), who use the widely-recognized 2018 NOMAP Flag as a general symbol. These included inaccurate statements about the symbolism of the white stripe, whose presence in the earlier 2009 proposal did not imply [[NOMAP]] alignment, and whose [[#NOMAP Flag of 2018|rationale in 2018]] did not exclude non-offending pro-c's.<ref>[https://kinder-im-herzen.net/blog/flagge-bekennen KiH: Flagge bekennen]</ref> This has inspired an ongoing push for more unifying symbols.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has also allowed for the production of more varied secondary [[Memes and Graphics|graphics]] deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

==Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag==

[[File:LecterMAPChevron.png|thumb|Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs]]
The origins of the '''2018 flag''' are a Tumblr user named '''Stenna''', who published it in June of that year, according to Lecter, the admin of NNIA, a former [[Pediverse]] instance.<ref>[https://comrade-lecter.dreamwidth.org/4543.html comrade_lecter Tumblr]</ref><ref name="Stenna">[https://archive.md/j2ZsP Stenna Tumblr Archive]</ref> In 2017, Lecter had designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but did not promote them intensively.<ref>[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ Chevron Flags by Lecter]</ref>

Stenna's flag graphic spread throughout social media following widespread intrigue and hostile attention suggesting it was an attempt to align MAPs with LGBTQ+ politics. After Stenna's blog was removed by Tumblr its URL was squatted by a hostile actor,<ref>[https://archive.md/hwOAT Stenna Tumblr - Hostile takeover]</ref> leading various "fact checkers" to falsely claim that the original flag was a hoax by trolls. The initial controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, also infecting the legacy gay press, who were under pressure to affirm that the flag was not an LGBTQ+ project.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220916162653/https://attitude.co.uk/article/paedophiles-want-to-be-accepted-by-the-lgbt-community-claiming-they-are-minorities/18461/ Attitude: Paedophiles want to be accepted by the LGBT community claiming they are minorities]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegayuk.com/paedophiles-have-created-their-own-pride-flag/ Thegayuk: Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag]</ref> In one article, ''GayStarNews'' (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster using a shortened version of his name<ref>[https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/crime/fraudster-jailed-after-80000-concert-ticket-scam/ Fraudster jailed after £80,000 concert ticket scam]</ref><ref>[https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2123283/Ticket-tout-Michael-Rangos-faces-big-taxman.html Ticket tout tax avoidance]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210516004853/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/will-you-darling-meetup-london/ GayStarNews puff piece for ticket tout fraudster]</ref>) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historically ignorant]] article, GayStarNews<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333361120_I'm_Not_like_That_So_Am_I_Gay_The_Use_of_Queer-Spectrum_Identity_Labels_Among_Minor-Attracted_People Allyn Walker on MAPs and identity labels]</ref> falsely stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190321133619/https:/www.gaystarnews.com/article/no-this-isnt-a-real-pride-flag-it-represents-pedophiles/#gs.k4gift No, this isn’t a real Pride flag—it represents pedophiles - GayStarNews]</ref> These "hoax" claims were repeated elsewhere.<ref>[https://hornet.com/stories/minor-attracted-persons-flag-hoax/ Hornet: The ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Flag Appears to Be a Hoax to Connect LGBTQs with Pedophilia]</ref><ref>[https://www.them.us/story/behind-the-weird-internet-scheme-to-associate-pedophiles-with-the-lgbtq-community Them: Behind the Weird Internet Scheme to Associate Pedophiles with the LGBTQ+ Community]</ref>

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These too, have been wrongly interpreted as the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT]] re-entryist attempts of MAPs. The 2021 version, and a [[:File:Yesmap.png|subsequent pro-c proposal]] have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with small-time influencers burning printed versions on camera, and MAP users rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

===Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling by "fact checkers"===

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at ''Snopes.com'' have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". ''AFP Fact Check'' repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164919/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maps-pride-flag/ Archived copy of Snopes' original false fact check]</ref><ref>[https://factcheck.afp.com/pride-flag-pedophiles-someone-created-one-no-one-waves-it AP's less erroneous FC]</ref><ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT/ Reuters repeats inaccurate claims based on the redacted Snopes article]</ref><ref>[https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/no-no-hay-evidencia-de-que-las-personas-atraidas-por-menores-esten-buscando-incluirse-en-el-movimiento-lgbt/ chequeado.com (in Spanish) repeats false claims]</ref> These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the [[LGBTQ+]] community after [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|years of ostracism]]. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our [[Minor Attracted Person (archive research)|research article]] demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the [[MAP Movement]] in its literature against [[Moral panic]].<ref>[https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf GPP: MANUFACTURING MORAL PANIC: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights]</ref>

====Snopes belatedly redact their false claim====

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/articles/464807/minor-attracted-persons-flag/ Improved 2023 Snopes fact check]</ref> A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/emblems-of-equality-discovering-the-world-of-lgbtq-flags/ LGBTQ Nation: List of flags]</ref>

==Symbolism and development of concept==

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

*The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
*The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
*The gradient stripes are always said to represent [[boy]]s/more masculine personal features and [[girl]]s/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

===NOMAP Flag of 2018===

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

:''"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"''<ref name="Stenna" />

===Philist's 2009 proposal===

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

:''"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. ''[...]'' A spectrum of gender and age"''<ref>[https://www.newgon.net/wiki/index.php?title=Flag_proposal_2009&direction=next&oldid=5400 Newgon Flag rationale] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509030829/https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Flag_proposal_2009 Web Archive (link now dead, domain excluded)]</ref>

====Gallery of forum discussions====

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user '''defend_yourselves555''' on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]] wiki article.

<gallery>
File:Firstpost.png|The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a [[Boylove|TBL]] using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
File:Philist0309.png|Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
File:Philist0609.png|Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
File:Philist0709.png|Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.
</gallery>

==Later controversies==
[[File:Blues clues.png|thumb|Blues clues controversy]]
In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show ''Blues Clues'', in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.<ref>[https://libreddit.esmailelbob.xyz/r/questions/comments/nqlsf4/does_the_blues_clues_lgbt_pride_parade_episode/ Reddit: Blues Clues]</ref>

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a [[Youth Attracted Person]] flag (featured in article).

Other controversies have involved use of the flag in [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandising]], and occasional minor virals in which the flag graphic is seen online and sometimes in meatspaces. The general view among MAPs as to the value of these events is a positive one, since they are seen as normalizing the presence of semi-open MAPs in the community. A notable [[MAPocalypse|controversy]] in 2026 involved the "Pedo Lives Matter" variant of the [[Mu|2023 Union MAP Flag]], as shared in a space populated by [[Lolicon]]s.

===MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag?===

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned [[Wikipedia:Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#Variations|Progress Pride Flag]] contains the colors of the MAP Flag,<ref>[https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2023/7/12/paedophile-reference-in-progress-pride-flag Catholic Arena: Groomer colours in the Transgender & Progress-Pride Flags]</ref> in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims, which appear to be far-fetched, are disputed by fact checkers.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT Reuters Fact Check: Progress Pride Flag]</ref>

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both ''boys and girls'' (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a [[wikipedia:Transgender_flag|''Trans'' Pride Flag]] that ''predated'' the MAP Flag.<ref>[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-the-colors-of-the-new-pride-flag-mean-5189173 What Do the Colors of the New Pride Flag Mean?], and [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/04/28/transgender-pride-flag-colors-meaning/11697579002/ Blue, pink and white: Here's what the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag mean], and [https://www.seventeen.com/life/a36610926/trans-flag-colors-meaning/ Here’s the Meaning Behind the Colors of the Transgender Pride Flag]. See also multiple examples, including the creator's own blog: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503004804/http://transgendersociety.yolasite.com/tg-pride-flag-history-timeline.php], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-flag_n_2166742], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301065716/http://www.monicahelms.com/blog/category/tg-pride-flag], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705172626/http://www.glbtq.com/slideshows/symbols,15.html], [https://www.pointofpride.org/blog/the-history-of-the-transgender-flag], [https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/what-is-gender-affirmation.html].</ref> The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.<ref>See [https://archive.md/j2ZsP] and [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot] and [https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag]</ref>

==External links==
[[File:Mornington.png|thumb|A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIo1VPnD2A Vox populi video (source unknown)] - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
*[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ MAP Wiki Article] - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a [[Minor MAP]] Flag.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

MAP Flag

2026-10-21T18:24:50Z

Jim Burton: /* Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag */

{{Template:MAI}}__NOTOC__
:''For an extended list of graphics, see [[Memes and Graphics]].''

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a '''MAP Flag''', which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer, becoming a recurring meme from that point onward.

==A flag for MAPs: Early efforts==

[[File:Mapflag2018.svg|thumb|left|200px|2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a ''MAP Flag'', after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.]]
Calls for a flag appear to go back at least<ref>Other symbols had also been put on flag graphics, e.g. [https://ourlovefrontier.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/clogo_flag/ CLogo Flag]</ref> to a [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]], on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user '''Philist''', a [[pro-c]], had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

==Variations and real-life sightings==

<gallery>
File:Yesmap.png|2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive [[pro-c]] symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (some use)
File:Mapunion.png|Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
File:MAPflagunitedlarge.svg|2021 version. Designed via [[Yesmap]] server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the ''United MAP Flag'' on [[Pediverse]] due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale<ref>It can also be noted that in 2023 a MAP [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandise shop]] at one point sold goods describing this variant as the "United MAP Flag", popularizing this as the name. Sometimes, the 2021 variant is considered an unofficial [[pro-c]] symbol due to the controversy.</ref>
File:Gradient.jpeg|Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
File:Nomap-pride-pink-blue.png|2025 variant proposed as a [[NOMAP]] Flag by dreamstate, [[Virped|Virtuous Pedophiles]]. This came in [[Media:Nomap-pride-rainbow.png|two versions]] - border added.
File:Kcruz mapflag.png|[[Katie Cruz]] with MAP Flag
File:Mythebe.png|MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
File:Zoostrugburnflag.png|Small-time [[Validity Policing|Validity Sadist]] and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
File:217 - anti-map flag artist chizu type edit.png|The MAP Flag [[Anti-MAP Flag|inspired]] an imitation [[Anti]]-MAP Flag, featured here
File:MAPFlagDE.jpg|A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany<ref>[https://krumme13.org/news.php?s=read&id=4831 K13 - Limited use of MAP Flag at protest] and [https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophilia-activists-marched-for-equal-rights-at-2022-cologne-pride/ Reduxx version]</ref><ref>[https://pedofilie-info.cz/nejenhomo/Czech_and_Slovak_Pedophile_Community_%28CEPEK%29_participation_on_Prague_Pride.html Similar protest participation in Czechia, but appears not to have been updated in the "MAP Flag" era]</ref>
File:Kershaw.png|MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
File:Maprefghfgh.jpg|Flag website sticker located at roadside
File:Bnnnfgdgffg.jpg|More stickers sighted on roadside
File:Hjmmhmjmnhjgfg.jpg|Lapel pin/badge
File:German2.jpg|MAPSupport.de [[Pediverse|Fediverse]] user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
File:F6d28.jpeg|MAP and Zoo stickers, NNIA.space
File:Redditmf.png|MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/179uj3p/please_help_to_identify_the_flag_i_saw_while/ Please help to identify the flag I saw while taking a walk today. Seems to be a pride flag of sorts (from colors and design), although I'm not sure.]</ref>
File:2024X.png|In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, attempting to introduce the idea that the potential link between 2009 and 2018 concepts was once presented as plagiarism
File:Orig.png|A response meme was made.
</gallery>

Some [[anti-contact]] MAPs, particularly in Germany, have issued strongly-worded denunciations of [[pro-c]] MAPs (e.g. [[Krumme13]]), who use the widely-recognized 2018 NOMAP Flag as a general symbol. These included inaccurate statements about the symbolism of the white stripe, whose presence in the earlier 2009 proposal did not imply [[NOMAP]] alignment, and whose [[#NOMAP Flag of 2018|rationale in 2018]] did not exclude non-offending pro-c's.<ref>[https://kinder-im-herzen.net/blog/flagge-bekennen KiH: Flagge bekennen]</ref> This has inspired an ongoing push for more unifying symbols.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has also allowed for the production of more varied secondary [[Memes and Graphics|graphics]] deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

==Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag==

[[File:LecterMAPChevron.png|thumb|Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs]]
The origins of the '''2018 flag''' are a Tumblr user named '''Stenna''', who published it in June of that year, according to Lecter, the admin of NNIA, a former [[Pediverse]] instance.<ref>[https://comrade-lecter.dreamwidth.org/4543.html comrade_lecter Tumblr]</ref><ref name="Stenna">[https://archive.md/j2ZsP Stenna Tumblr Archive]</ref> In 2017, Lecter had designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but did not promote them intensively.<ref>[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ Chevron Flags by Lecter]</ref>

Stenna's flag graphic spread throughout social media following widespread intrigue and hostile attention suggesting it was an attempt to align MAPs with LGBTQ+ politics. After Stenna's blog was removed by Tumblr its URL was squatted by a hostile actor,<ref>[https://archive.md/hwOAT Stenna Tumblr - Hostile takeover]</ref> leading various "fact checkers" to falsely claim that the original flag was a hoax by trolls. The initial controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, also infecting the legacy gay press, who were under pressure to affirm that the flag was not an LGBTQ+ project.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220916162653/https://attitude.co.uk/article/paedophiles-want-to-be-accepted-by-the-lgbt-community-claiming-they-are-minorities/18461/ Attitude: Paedophiles want to be accepted by the LGBT community claiming they are minorities]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegayuk.com/paedophiles-have-created-their-own-pride-flag/ Thegayuk: Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag]</ref> In one article, ''GayStarNews'' (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster using a shortened version of his name<ref>[https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/crime/fraudster-jailed-after-80000-concert-ticket-scam/ Fraudster jailed after £80,000 concert ticket scam]</ref><ref>[https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2123283/Ticket-tout-Michael-Rangos-faces-big-taxman.html Ticket tout tax avoidance]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210516004853/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/will-you-darling-meetup-london/ GayStarNews puff piece for ticket tout fraudster]</ref>) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historically ignorant]] article, GayStarNews<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333361120_I'm_Not_like_That_So_Am_I_Gay_The_Use_of_Queer-Spectrum_Identity_Labels_Among_Minor-Attracted_People Allyn Walker on MAPs and identity labels]</ref> falsely stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190321133619/https:/www.gaystarnews.com/article/no-this-isnt-a-real-pride-flag-it-represents-pedophiles/#gs.k4gift No, this isn’t a real Pride flag—it represents pedophiles - GayStarNews]</ref> These "hoax" claims were repeated elsewhere.<ref>[https://hornet.com/stories/minor-attracted-persons-flag-hoax/ Hornet: The ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Flag Appears to Be a Hoax to Connect LGBTQs with Pedophilia]</ref><ref>[https://www.them.us/story/behind-the-weird-internet-scheme-to-associate-pedophiles-with-the-lgbtq-community Them: Behind the Weird Internet Scheme to Associate Pedophiles with the LGBTQ+ Community]</ref>

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These too, have been wrongly interpreted as [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT]] re-entryist attempts by MAPs. The 2021 version, and a [[:File:Yesmap.png|subsequent pro-c proposal]] have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with small-time influencers burning printed versions on camera, and MAP users rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

===Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling by "fact checkers"===

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at ''Snopes.com'' have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". ''AFP Fact Check'' repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164919/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maps-pride-flag/ Archived copy of Snopes' original false fact check]</ref><ref>[https://factcheck.afp.com/pride-flag-pedophiles-someone-created-one-no-one-waves-it AP's less erroneous FC]</ref><ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT/ Reuters repeats inaccurate claims based on the redacted Snopes article]</ref><ref>[https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/no-no-hay-evidencia-de-que-las-personas-atraidas-por-menores-esten-buscando-incluirse-en-el-movimiento-lgbt/ chequeado.com (in Spanish) repeats false claims]</ref> These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the [[LGBTQ+]] community after [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|years of ostracism]]. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our [[Minor Attracted Person (archive research)|research article]] demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the [[MAP Movement]] in its literature against [[Moral panic]].<ref>[https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf GPP: MANUFACTURING MORAL PANIC: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights]</ref>

====Snopes belatedly redact their false claim====

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/articles/464807/minor-attracted-persons-flag/ Improved 2023 Snopes fact check]</ref> A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/emblems-of-equality-discovering-the-world-of-lgbtq-flags/ LGBTQ Nation: List of flags]</ref>

==Symbolism and development of concept==

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

*The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
*The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
*The gradient stripes are always said to represent [[boy]]s/more masculine personal features and [[girl]]s/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

===NOMAP Flag of 2018===

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

:''"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"''<ref name="Stenna" />

===Philist's 2009 proposal===

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

:''"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. ''[...]'' A spectrum of gender and age"''<ref>[https://www.newgon.net/wiki/index.php?title=Flag_proposal_2009&direction=next&oldid=5400 Newgon Flag rationale] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509030829/https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Flag_proposal_2009 Web Archive (link now dead, domain excluded)]</ref>

====Gallery of forum discussions====

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user '''defend_yourselves555''' on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]] wiki article.

<gallery>
File:Firstpost.png|The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a [[Boylove|TBL]] using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
File:Philist0309.png|Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
File:Philist0609.png|Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
File:Philist0709.png|Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.
</gallery>

==Later controversies==
[[File:Blues clues.png|thumb|Blues clues controversy]]
In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show ''Blues Clues'', in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.<ref>[https://libreddit.esmailelbob.xyz/r/questions/comments/nqlsf4/does_the_blues_clues_lgbt_pride_parade_episode/ Reddit: Blues Clues]</ref>

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a [[Youth Attracted Person]] flag (featured in article).

Other controversies have involved use of the flag in [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandising]], and occasional minor virals in which the flag graphic is seen online and sometimes in meatspaces. The general view among MAPs as to the value of these events is a positive one, since they are seen as normalizing the presence of semi-open MAPs in the community. A notable [[MAPocalypse|controversy]] in 2026 involved the "Pedo Lives Matter" variant of the [[Mu|2023 Union MAP Flag]], as shared in a space populated by [[Lolicon]]s.

===MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag?===

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned [[Wikipedia:Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#Variations|Progress Pride Flag]] contains the colors of the MAP Flag,<ref>[https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2023/7/12/paedophile-reference-in-progress-pride-flag Catholic Arena: Groomer colours in the Transgender & Progress-Pride Flags]</ref> in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims, which appear to be far-fetched, are disputed by fact checkers.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT Reuters Fact Check: Progress Pride Flag]</ref>

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both ''boys and girls'' (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a [[wikipedia:Transgender_flag|''Trans'' Pride Flag]] that ''predated'' the MAP Flag.<ref>[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-the-colors-of-the-new-pride-flag-mean-5189173 What Do the Colors of the New Pride Flag Mean?], and [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/04/28/transgender-pride-flag-colors-meaning/11697579002/ Blue, pink and white: Here's what the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag mean], and [https://www.seventeen.com/life/a36610926/trans-flag-colors-meaning/ Here’s the Meaning Behind the Colors of the Transgender Pride Flag]. See also multiple examples, including the creator's own blog: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503004804/http://transgendersociety.yolasite.com/tg-pride-flag-history-timeline.php], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-flag_n_2166742], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301065716/http://www.monicahelms.com/blog/category/tg-pride-flag], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705172626/http://www.glbtq.com/slideshows/symbols,15.html], [https://www.pointofpride.org/blog/the-history-of-the-transgender-flag], [https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/what-is-gender-affirmation.html].</ref> The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.<ref>See [https://archive.md/j2ZsP] and [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot] and [https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag]</ref>

==External links==
[[File:Mornington.png|thumb|A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIo1VPnD2A Vox populi video (source unknown)] - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
*[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ MAP Wiki Article] - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a [[Minor MAP]] Flag.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

MAP Flag

2026-10-21T18:22:45Z

Jim Burton: /* Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag */

{{Template:MAI}}__NOTOC__
:''For an extended list of graphics, see [[Memes and Graphics]].''

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have designed a '''MAP Flag''', which garnered widespread social media attention in July and August 2018, along with widespread attention for the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]". Rumors had spread on social media, that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride events, and these fears resurfaced the following summer, becoming a recurring meme from that point onward.

==A flag for MAPs: Early efforts==

[[File:Mapflag2018.svg|thumb|left|200px|2018 (NOMAP/MAP Flag) by Stenna. Conceived on Tumblr, it was the first design to be widely known as a ''MAP Flag'', after social media publicity and a now-redacted "debunk" by Snopes.]]
Calls for a flag appear to go back at least<ref>Other symbols had also been put on flag graphics, e.g. [https://ourlovefrontier.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/clogo_flag/ CLogo Flag]</ref> to a [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]], on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. The German user '''Philist''', a [[pro-c]], had signed up to the now-defunct Newgon Forum (screencaps of archive further down the article) with the primary purpose of submitting stripe and gradient-based flag designs, some of them with symbols. Philist was insistent that activism would be furthered via symbolism, and many of their designs were forwarded to the competition, including the "gradient" flag in the gallery below. The gradient and gradient-star flags also gained some support in the voting phase, but this stage was never completed, as it co-incided with a reduction of admin support for the forum, and its eventual closure in mid-2011.

The 2009 concept laid dormant for many years, along with the rest of the Newgon website, and its relationship to the later design, or lack thereof is a current point of controversy in the community. Instead of speculating as to the likelihood of a relationship, our article displays both flags and their designers' respective rationales.

==Variations and real-life sightings==

<gallery>
File:Yesmap.png|2022 "Yesmap Flag" - exclusive [[pro-c]] symbol, designed on Yesmap server and first published here (some use)
File:Mapunion.png|Union MAP Flag conceived on Element in 2023, finalized by Jim Burton. The horizontal gradient runs between colors approximating those of both the 2021 and 2018 flags, each usually preferred by different parts of the community.
File:MAPflagunitedlarge.svg|2021 version. Designed via [[Yesmap]] server and first published here as a Flag to be used by all MAPs. Sometimes referred to as the ''United MAP Flag'' on [[Pediverse]] due to the fact its creator stated that as his rationale<ref>It can also be noted that in 2023 a MAP [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandise shop]] at one point sold goods describing this variant as the "United MAP Flag", popularizing this as the name. Sometimes, the 2021 variant is considered an unofficial [[pro-c]] symbol due to the controversy.</ref>
File:Gradient.jpeg|Philist's (2009) concept. Designed on Newgon Forums, this is among the first known attempts to design a flag by and for MAPs. Due to its age, it remains little-known.
File:Nomap-pride-pink-blue.png|2025 variant proposed as a [[NOMAP]] Flag by dreamstate, [[Virped|Virtuous Pedophiles]]. This came in [[Media:Nomap-pride-rainbow.png|two versions]] - border added.
File:Kcruz mapflag.png|[[Katie Cruz]] with MAP Flag
File:Mythebe.png|MAP Flag Coffee Cup (Mythebe, Free Speech Tube)
File:Zoostrugburnflag.png|Small-time [[Validity Policing|Validity Sadist]] and MAP-Adjacent Influencer, "Zoophile Struggle Tweets" burns Newgon's revised MAP Flag and lights a joint
File:217 - anti-map flag artist chizu type edit.png|The MAP Flag [[Anti-MAP Flag|inspired]] an imitation [[Anti]]-MAP Flag, featured here
File:MAPFlagDE.jpg|A MAP Flag is unfurled at a (2022) Pride protest in Cologne, Germany<ref>[https://krumme13.org/news.php?s=read&id=4831 K13 - Limited use of MAP Flag at protest] and [https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophilia-activists-marched-for-equal-rights-at-2022-cologne-pride/ Reduxx version]</ref><ref>[https://pedofilie-info.cz/nejenhomo/Czech_and_Slovak_Pedophile_Community_%28CEPEK%29_participation_on_Prague_Pride.html Similar protest participation in Czechia, but appears not to have been updated in the "MAP Flag" era]</ref>
File:Kershaw.png|MAP Flag allegedly found in a service station toilet by an X user.
File:Maprefghfgh.jpg|Flag website sticker located at roadside
File:Bnnnfgdgffg.jpg|More stickers sighted on roadside
File:Hjmmhmjmnhjgfg.jpg|Lapel pin/badge
File:German2.jpg|MAPSupport.de [[Pediverse|Fediverse]] user Consuela creates T Shirts from a meme
File:F6d28.jpeg|MAP and Zoo stickers, NNIA.space
File:Redditmf.png|MAP Flag spotted in an urban environment in 2023 by a Reddit user.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/179uj3p/please_help_to_identify_the_flag_i_saw_while/ Please help to identify the flag I saw while taking a walk today. Seems to be a pride flag of sorts (from colors and design), although I'm not sure.]</ref>
File:2024X.png|In 2024, Anti-c's on X attempted to de-legitimize variants of the MAP Flag, attempting to introduce the idea that the potential link between 2009 and 2018 concepts was once presented as plagiarism
File:Orig.png|A response meme was made.
</gallery>

Some [[anti-contact]] MAPs, particularly in Germany, have issued strongly-worded denunciations of [[pro-c]] MAPs (e.g. [[Krumme13]]), who use the widely-recognized 2018 NOMAP Flag as a general symbol. These included inaccurate statements about the symbolism of the white stripe, whose presence in the earlier 2009 proposal did not imply [[NOMAP]] alignment, and whose [[#NOMAP Flag of 2018|rationale in 2018]] did not exclude non-offending pro-c's.<ref>[https://kinder-im-herzen.net/blog/flagge-bekennen KiH: Flagge bekennen]</ref> This has inspired an ongoing push for more unifying symbols.

The limited recognition of variant MAP Flags with a darker color palette has also allowed for the production of more varied secondary [[Memes and Graphics|graphics]] deriving from the flag's aesthetic.

==Origin of 2018 MAP/NOMAP flag==

[[File:LecterMAPChevron.png|thumb|Lecter's 2017 MAP/Ally chevron designs]]
The origins of the '''2018 flag''' are a Tumblr user named '''Stenna''', who published it in June of that year, according to Lecter, the admin of NNIA, a former [[Pediverse]] instance.<ref>[https://comrade-lecter.dreamwidth.org/4543.html comrade_lecter Tumblr]</ref><ref name="Stenna">[https://archive.md/j2ZsP Stenna Tumblr Archive]</ref> In 2017, Lecter had designed two chevron flags on Tumblr for MAPs and Allies, but did not promote them intensively.<ref>[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ Chevron Flags by Lecter]</ref>

Stenna's flag graphic spread throughout social media following widespread intrigue and hostile attention suggesting it was an attempt to align MAPs with LGBTQ+ politics. After Stenna's blog was removed by Tumblr its URL was squatted by a hostile actor,<ref>[https://archive.md/hwOAT Stenna Tumblr - Hostile takeover]</ref> leading various "fact checkers" to falsely claim that the original flag was a hoax by trolls. The initial controversy surrounding Stenna's 2018 flag extended beyond social media, also infecting the legacy gay press, who were under pressure to affirm that the flag was not an LGBTQ+ project.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220916162653/https://attitude.co.uk/article/paedophiles-want-to-be-accepted-by-the-lgbt-community-claiming-they-are-minorities/18461/ Attitude: Paedophiles want to be accepted by the LGBT community claiming they are minorities]</ref><ref>[https://www.thegayuk.com/paedophiles-have-created-their-own-pride-flag/ Thegayuk: Disgustingly, paedophiles have created their own Pride flag]</ref> In one article, ''GayStarNews'' (an outlet who once ran a puff piece for the events of a convicted ticketing fraudster using a shortened version of his name<ref>[https://southwarknews.co.uk/news/crime/fraudster-jailed-after-80000-concert-ticket-scam/ Fraudster jailed after £80,000 concert ticket scam]</ref><ref>[https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2123283/Ticket-tout-Michael-Rangos-faces-big-taxman.html Ticket tout tax avoidance]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210516004853/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/will-you-darling-meetup-london/ GayStarNews puff piece for ticket tout fraudster]</ref>) attempted to discredit the 2018 flag as not being "a real pride flag". In the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historically ignorant]] article, GayStarNews incorrectly<ref>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333361120_I'm_Not_like_That_So_Am_I_Gay_The_Use_of_Queer-Spectrum_Identity_Labels_Among_Minor-Attracted_People Allyn Walker on MAPs and identity labels]</ref> falsely stated that pedophiles were attempting to re-enter the LGBTQ community, also comparing the publicity to a known [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20190321133619/https:/www.gaystarnews.com/article/no-this-isnt-a-real-pride-flag-it-represents-pedophiles/#gs.k4gift No, this isn’t a real Pride flag—it represents pedophiles - GayStarNews]</ref> These "hoax" claims were repeated elsewhere.<ref>[https://hornet.com/stories/minor-attracted-persons-flag-hoax/ Hornet: The ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ Flag Appears to Be a Hoax to Connect LGBTQs with Pedophilia]</ref><ref>[https://www.them.us/story/behind-the-weird-internet-scheme-to-associate-pedophiles-with-the-lgbtq-community Them: Behind the Weird Internet Scheme to Associate Pedophiles with the LGBTQ+ Community]</ref>

Since it was published, the MAP Flag has become internet folklore, attracting many variations inspired by common alternative pride flags. These too, have been wrongly interpreted as [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT]] re-entryist attempts by MAPs. The 2021 version, and a [[:File:Yesmap.png|subsequent pro-c proposal]] have caused some controversy on Twitter.com, with small-time influencers burning printed versions on camera, and MAP users rowing over what version of the flag should be considered the "legitimate" MAP Flag.

===Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling by "fact checkers"===

At around the same time as the aforementioned viral "hoax" claims, mainstream "Fact Checkers" at ''Snopes.com'' have claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". ''AFP Fact Check'' repeated some of those claims, as did other fact-checkers such as Reuters, much later.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20211101164919/https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/maps-pride-flag/ Archived copy of Snopes' original false fact check]</ref><ref>[https://factcheck.afp.com/pride-flag-pedophiles-someone-created-one-no-one-waves-it AP's less erroneous FC]</ref><ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT/ Reuters repeats inaccurate claims based on the redacted Snopes article]</ref><ref>[https://chequeado.com/el-explicador/no-no-hay-evidencia-de-que-las-personas-atraidas-por-menores-esten-buscando-incluirse-en-el-movimiento-lgbt/ chequeado.com (in Spanish) repeats false claims]</ref> These hastily compiled "fact checks" appeared to be based upon a fear that MAPs were attempting to rejoin the [[LGBTQ+]] community after [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|years of ostracism]]. It was also claimed that Minor Attracted People did not coin their own term of identification, which as our [[Minor Attracted Person (archive research)|research article]] demonstrates, is false and erases the influence of MAPs in history - for example leading GPP authors to make incorrect statements about the [[MAP Movement]] in its literature against [[Moral panic]].<ref>[https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Manufacturing-Moral-Panic-Report.pdf GPP: MANUFACTURING MORAL PANIC: Weaponizing Children to Undermine Gender Justice and Human Rights]</ref>

====Snopes belatedly redact their false claim====

Snopes later went on to correct themselves in a 2023 article referring (among other things) to Brian Ribbon's use of the term in 2007 comment threads.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/articles/464807/minor-attracted-persons-flag/ Improved 2023 Snopes fact check]</ref> A 2023 list of pride flags did not consider the MAP Flag among the many LGBTQ+ pride flags listed, despite the fact that it emerged from a Tumblr community, like many flags of its era. Even flags depicting allyship with heterosexuals were included on the list.<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/06/emblems-of-equality-discovering-the-world-of-lgbtq-flags/ LGBTQ Nation: List of flags]</ref>

==Symbolism and development of concept==

There have been many variations of the symbolism rationale for a gradient/MAP Flag. Within the context of the MAP Flag and its 2009 predecessor:

*The white stripe has been said to represent unwillingness to offend, or neutrality/purity. "Peace" and unity between MAPs of different persuasions is another possible rationale.
*The yellow could be said to represent liberty. In the NOMAP Flag, it represents minors, with no emphasis on gender.
*The gradient stripes are always said to represent [[boy]]s/more masculine personal features and [[girl]]s/more feminine personal features, sometimes of differing life stages.

===NOMAP Flag of 2018===

Stenna's original rationale for the NOMAP Flag:

:''"The top two stripes are blue to represent NOMAPs attracted to young boys. The bottom two stripes are pink to represent NOMAPS attracted to young girls. The inner stripes are yellow to represent childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender. The middle stripe is white to represent our innocence and unwillingness to offend. Please feel free to use this flag and make icons out of it etc!"''<ref name="Stenna" />

===Philist's 2009 proposal===

On the 7th of August, 2009, in the 345th post of Newgon Forum's 123rd topic, the German, Philist submitted the first known design for a gradient flag by a MAP - an idea that he had been developing for months. Shortly after this, Newgon admin (relaying a rationale submitted by Philist in the forum thread) stated:

:''"Like the tricolor concept, gradient stripes attempt to represent all aspects of the erotic. The color pink represents the feminine, blue for the masculine, and white both for the purity of these and for all those not included in the two categories of CL expression. ''[...]'' A spectrum of gender and age"''<ref>[https://www.newgon.net/wiki/index.php?title=Flag_proposal_2009&direction=next&oldid=5400 Newgon Flag rationale] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20100509030829/https://www.newgon.com/wiki/Flag_proposal_2009 Web Archive (link now dead, domain excluded)]</ref>

====Gallery of forum discussions====

The discussion "We need a Flag" was started by Newgon Forum user '''defend_yourselves555''' on 14 May, 2008, and ran to 449 posts prior to the doomed voting phase. Here, using a temporary archive of our PunBB database, we reproduce some of the contributions relevant to the gradient flag predecessor to the MAP Flag. Images were externally hosted on now-defunct sharing sites, and are therefore sadly no longer visible. Nevertheless, the designs discussed and their dates match the submissions to the [[Flag_proposal_2009|2009 competition]] wiki article.

<gallery>
File:Firstpost.png|The first post in defend_yourselves555's thread. The forum's founder, Daniel Lievre (a [[Boylove|TBL]] using the pseudonym Llort) then pointed out that the symbol should encompass all attraction to minors, not just pedophilia, and suggested that a designer "plaster the amarosymbol [a two-tone diamond design] on my avatar". Despite his muted tone, the thread soon took off with an array of designs.
File:Philist0309.png|Philist, who joined the thread early, explains their personal rationale for an (at that time) simplistic three-color flag.
File:Philist0609.png|Philist develops their idea, after disagreements as to perceptions of LGBT entryism, and the length of time that was being spent on the proposal.
File:Philist0709.png|Over a year into the discussion, Philist submits the 2009 design featured in this article, along with the "star" variant.
</gallery>

==Later controversies==
[[File:Blues clues.png|thumb|Blues clues controversy]]
In June, 2021, a video posted by the iconic children’s TV show ''Blues Clues'', in support of Pride month, appeared to show an inverted NOMAP Flag in one of its segments, leading to further hysteria on social media. Some users have since pointed out that the flag represented appeared to be the Gender Questioning Flag.<ref>[https://libreddit.esmailelbob.xyz/r/questions/comments/nqlsf4/does_the_blues_clues_lgbt_pride_parade_episode/ Reddit: Blues Clues]</ref>

In 2023, considerable controversy ensued after a Twitter user revealed what she described as a [[Youth Attracted Person]] flag (featured in article).

Other controversies have involved use of the flag in [[MAP Merch Shop|merchandising]], and occasional minor virals in which the flag graphic is seen online and sometimes in meatspaces. The general view among MAPs as to the value of these events is a positive one, since they are seen as normalizing the presence of semi-open MAPs in the community. A notable [[MAPocalypse|controversy]] in 2026 involved the "Pedo Lives Matter" variant of the [[Mu|2023 Union MAP Flag]], as shared in a space populated by [[Lolicon]]s.

===MAP colours supposedly copied to LGBTQ+ "Progress Pride" flag?===

One common claim, often seen among American Christian conspiracy theorists is that the better-known and much-maligned [[Wikipedia:Rainbow_flag_(LGBT)#Variations|Progress Pride Flag]] contains the colors of the MAP Flag,<ref>[https://www.catholicarena.com/latest/2023/7/12/paedophile-reference-in-progress-pride-flag Catholic Arena: Groomer colours in the Transgender & Progress-Pride Flags]</ref> in order to "include MAPs in the LGBTQ+ community". These claims, which appear to be far-fetched, are disputed by fact checkers.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N37S2DT Reuters Fact Check: Progress Pride Flag]</ref>

While it is widely accepted the colors pink and blue in the Progress Pride Flag do represent both ''boys and girls'' (as they often do in the MAP Flag), this is because similar colors were used to represent (baby) boys and girls in a [[wikipedia:Transgender_flag|''Trans'' Pride Flag]] that ''predated'' the MAP Flag.<ref>[https://www.verywellmind.com/what-the-colors-of-the-new-pride-flag-mean-5189173 What Do the Colors of the New Pride Flag Mean?], and [https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2023/04/28/transgender-pride-flag-colors-meaning/11697579002/ Blue, pink and white: Here's what the colors of the Transgender Pride Flag mean], and [https://www.seventeen.com/life/a36610926/trans-flag-colors-meaning/ Here’s the Meaning Behind the Colors of the Transgender Pride Flag]. See also multiple examples, including the creator's own blog: [https://web.archive.org/web/20190503004804/http://transgendersociety.yolasite.com/tg-pride-flag-history-timeline.php], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/transgender-flag_n_2166742], [https://web.archive.org/web/20120301065716/http://www.monicahelms.com/blog/category/tg-pride-flag], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150705172626/http://www.glbtq.com/slideshows/symbols,15.html], [https://www.pointofpride.org/blog/the-history-of-the-transgender-flag], [https://www.sydney.edu.au/students/what-is-gender-affirmation.html].</ref> The Progress Pride Flag is therefore not derivative of the MAP Flag; indeed, it even predated the MAP Flag by a week. Both were released and promoted in pride season of 2018.<ref>See [https://archive.md/j2ZsP] and [https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/danielquasar/progress-a-pride-flag-reboot] and [https://www.advocate.com/pride/2018/6/08/will-everyone-feel-included-artists-new-pride-flag]</ref>

==External links==
[[File:Mornington.png|thumb|A Mornington News letter-writer fell prey to the conspiracy theory]]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJIo1VPnD2A Vox populi video (source unknown)] - In which members of the public are quizzed about their knowledge of the flag.
*[https://archive.is/mK0ZJ MAP Wiki Article] - Article on Anti-c Wiki, explaining some rationale for the NOMAP Flag. This article also contains some peripheral alternative flags, such as a [[Minor MAP]] Flag.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Terminology: Popular]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

PCMA

2026-10-10T03:12:36Z

Jim Burton:

[[File:Pcmpub.png|thumb|Basic PCMA logo, at around the point it became an independent group]]
__NOTOC__The [[Pro-c]] MAP Activist (PCMA, officially f. April 2022) chat is a presently active, radically [[pro-c]], Matrix-federated [[MAP Movement|MAP Activist]] workgroup and political organization. Members of the workgroup offer live support and knowledge to others, and collaborate to make phone verification, cryptocurrency and account-creation services more widely available. It was formerly associated with the [[Yesmap]] server funded by [[Newgon]]. While various websites have been proposed as either stand-alone projects or a shop window for PCMA, none have ever been published.

PCMA is responsible for [[MAP visibility on Twitter|various online controversies]], usually involving the mobilization of conservative outrage via psychological manipulation on platforms such as X (Twitter). At its peak, these generated many millions of impressions for MAP talking points, although as recently as 2026, PCMA caused controversy on Reddit concerning a [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]] perpetuated by a [[Pediverse]] server against [[Chris Hansen]]. Earlier that year, had the [[Anti]] researcher G Patrick included PCMA in his investigations.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/cringereels/comments/1x0u6zb/that_time_chris_hansen_shilled_for_a_pediverse/ Reddit Thread]</ref><ref>[https://gpatricksec.com/hidden-in-plain-site/ Post by G Patrick]</ref>

PCMA members have been described as trolls who use throwaway shock-sock accounts as a means to their ends, but they have employed a variety of tactics including arguing at length with members of the public, and impersonating [[anti]]s in order to gin up popular hysteria or simply lose debates/project bad optics of the anti cause.

In 2023, PCMA and the Yesmap server, having achieved most of its publicity goals via the prior strategy, each moved independently towards a model of increasing visibility via community-building efforts such as expansion of the [[Pediverse|Fediverse]]. A piece in the New Zealand media was titled to reflect a PCMA infiltrator's opinion of the group.<ref>[https://goodoil.news/organised-aggrieved-and-determined-to-win/ Organised, Aggrieved and Determined to Win]</ref>

==Controversy==

[[File:Pcmaflag.png|thumb|PCMA [https://archive.is/AVKMS call to action], 2022]]
PCMA (and some of its predecessors) have been criticized, mainly by anarcho-communist MAPs, for tolerating controversial, or heterodox debating topics (various spaces and rooms have been created to distance debates from functioning of the workgroup). Some members have also sought to mobilize "chan culture", i.e. adapting to the cultural norms of [[Wikipedia:4chan|chansites]] in order to recast MAP talking points positively within said communities.

Yesmap server users have set up differing spaces as a result of disagreements, embracing both leftist and libertarian philosophies, but no such group has thusfar been as active as PCMA in terms of offsite tactical operations.

===Independence===

In 2023, discussions on PCMA took a turn towards the political, and offsite operations waned. This followed attempts by [[Pediverse]] users to disrupt the activities of the group, which had some indirect success in that PCMA became more factional and less active as a workgroup.

PCMA then became independent of [[Newgon]]/Yesmap by hosting its own Matrix server, following Yesmap's server's notice to disable support for Matrix accounts. This followed a controversy centering on a fediverse instance named "childlove.space", a site not supported or worked on by Yesmap admin or members of Newgon. Yesmap moved towards a model based upon social [[pediverse|Fediverse]] hosting rather than chat support. While it has no remaining official link, Newgon maintains an interest in moderating standards of discourse in the group, and deradicalizing new members where necessary.

==Predecessors==

A previous group called Zed existed on Matrix, sharing some members in common. The same can be said for the Greyzone Matrix chat, in its various incarnations.

A discord group by the name of Handsome Jack's Boys existed in 2021, with nearly all of its members moving over to the more secure Matrix in 2022, following [[Newgon]]'s support of the initiative. Eventually, a Yesmap server was paid for by Newgon to secure the newly-named PCMA - which was piggybacking on the Midov server.

Many of PCMA's members were active together on the first edition of [[FreeSpeechTube]].

==Public statements of the group==

Owing to its discreet nature, and history carrying out covert operations, the group has erred on the side of caution when making public statements. Only one such example exists.

*[[Essay:The Zionists Are Our Enemies]]

==Joining the workgroup==

*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat]]

==See also==

*[[Pediverse]]

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Organisations]][[Category:Organisations: Sympathetic]] [[Category:Organisations: Web-based]][[Category:Organisations: International]][[Category:Organisations: Indian]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

==External links==

*[https://fstube.net/c/pcmaprojects/videos PCMA Projects]

==References==

PCMA

2026-10-10T03:09:24Z

Jim Burton:

[[File:Pcmpub.png|thumb|Basic PCMA logo, at around the point it became an independent group]]
__NOTOC__The [[Pro-c]] MAP Activist (PCMA, officially f. April 2022) chat is a presently active, radically [[pro-c]], Matrix-federated [[MAP Movement|MAP Activist]] workgroup and political organization. Members of the workgroup offer live support and knowledge to others, and collaborate to make phone verification, cryptocurrency and account-creation services more widely available. It was formerly associated with the [[Yesmap]] server funded by [[Newgon]]. While various websites have been proposed as either stand-alone projects or a shop window for PCMA, none have ever been published.

PCMA is responsible for [[MAP visibility on Twitter|various online controversies]], usually involving the mobilization of conservative outrage via psychological manipulation on platforms such as X (Twitter). At its peak, these generated many millions of impressions for MAP talking points, although as recently as 2026, PCMA caused controversy on Reddit concerning a [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]] perpetuated by a [[Pediverse]] server against [[Chris Hansen]]. Earlier that year, had the [[Anti]] researcher G Patrick included PCMA in his investigations.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/cringereels/comments/1x0u6zb/that_time_chris_hansen_shilled_for_a_pediverse/ Reddit Thread]</ref><ref>[https://gpatricksec.com/hidden-in-plain-site/ Post by G Patrick]</ref>

PCMA members have been described as trolls who use sock accounts to achieve their ends, but have employed a variety of tactics including arguing at length with members of the public, and impersonating [[anti]]s in order to lose debates and project bad optics.

In 2023, PCMA and the Yesmap server, having achieved most of its publicity goals via the prior strategy, each moved independently towards a model of increasing visibility via community-building efforts such as expansion of the [[Pediverse|Fediverse]]. A piece in the New Zealand media was titled to reflect a PCMA infiltrator's opinion of the group.<ref>[https://goodoil.news/organised-aggrieved-and-determined-to-win/ Organised, Aggrieved and Determined to Win]</ref>

==Controversy==

[[File:Pcmaflag.png|thumb|PCMA [https://archive.is/AVKMS call to action], 2022]]
PCMA (and some of its predecessors) have been criticized, mainly by anarcho-communist MAPs, for tolerating controversial, or heterodox debating topics (various spaces and rooms have been created to distance debates from functioning of the workgroup). Some members have also sought to mobilize "chan culture", i.e. adapting to the cultural norms of [[Wikipedia:4chan|chansites]] in order to recast MAP talking points positively within said communities.

Yesmap server users have set up differing spaces as a result of disagreements, embracing both leftist and libertarian philosophies, but no such group has thusfar been as active as PCMA in terms of offsite tactical operations.

===Independence===

In 2023, discussions on PCMA took a turn towards the political, and offsite operations waned. This followed attempts by [[Pediverse]] users to disrupt the activities of the group, which had some indirect success in that PCMA became more factional and less active as a workgroup.

PCMA then became independent of [[Newgon]]/Yesmap by hosting its own Matrix server, following Yesmap's server's notice to disable support for Matrix accounts. This followed a controversy centering on a fediverse instance named "childlove.space", a site not supported or worked on by Yesmap admin or members of Newgon. Yesmap moved towards a model based upon social [[pediverse|Fediverse]] hosting rather than chat support. While it has no remaining official link, Newgon maintains an interest in moderating standards of discourse in the group, and deradicalizing new members where necessary.

==Predecessors==

A previous group called Zed existed on Matrix, sharing some members in common. The same can be said for the Greyzone Matrix chat, in its various incarnations.

A discord group by the name of Handsome Jack's Boys existed in 2021, with nearly all of its members moving over to the more secure Matrix in 2022, following [[Newgon]]'s support of the initiative. Eventually, a Yesmap server was paid for by Newgon to secure the newly-named PCMA - which was piggybacking on the Midov server.

Many of PCMA's members were active together on the first edition of [[FreeSpeechTube]].

==Public statements of the group==

Owing to its discreet nature, and history carrying out covert operations, the group has erred on the side of caution when making public statements. Only one such example exists.

*[[Essay:The Zionists Are Our Enemies]]

==Joining the workgroup==

*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat]]

==See also==

*[[Pediverse]]

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Organisations]][[Category:Organisations: Sympathetic]] [[Category:Organisations: Web-based]][[Category:Organisations: International]][[Category:Organisations: Indian]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

==External links==

*[https://fstube.net/c/pcmaprojects/videos PCMA Projects]

==References==

Pediverse

2026-09-29T13:24:13Z

Jim Burton: /* Generally considered safe */

__NOTOC__[[File:Pedi tree.png|thumb|Representation of the wider [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]] as a tree (late 2022)]]
The '''Pediverse''', (a portmanteau of "[[Pedophilia|pedophile]]" and "universe", deriving from the widely-used term "'''[[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]]'''") or '''Pedi''' for short, is an ensemble of [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|federated (i.e. interconnected) servers]] or services that are used by [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs and allies]] for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting. It is increasingly used by a wider group of [[Radqueer]]s, but widely blocked by the rest of the Fediverse.

While independently hosted, users on these servers can communicate with users on other servers, although one server owner may freely decide to block other servers, or promote particular servers to their userbase. On different servers (technically instances), pediverse users can create profiles on what are typically [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|open-source social media platforms]] modeled on popular social networks such as [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]]. These profiles are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more ''communication protocols'' that follow an open standard.

As an identity on the pediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities. In some cases, users can show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities, and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

The Pediverse is distinct from other social platforms in the clear-web [[Minor-attracted community|MAP Community]] (e.g. [[Virtuous Pedophiles]], [[Mu]], [[B4U-ACT]]) and shows a degree of cultural and generational ghettoization.

==Pediverse as a concept==

The idea of a distinct pediverse community, and its realization, is a thing of the early 20s, while other MAP communities have pre-existed it by decades.

MAP social media servers had long existed on Mastodon (2019, according to our section on NNIA predecessors) by the time "Pediverse" came into use. It is not known when the exact term first came into use, but excluding misspellings of "fediverse", there are a few important dates per platform:

*21 Dec, 2022 on X<ref>[https://x.com/sikanomaly/status/1605667884562145281 "You know they wanted to call it the pediverse. Sounds better than Groomerville."]</ref> Mentioned with increasing velocity from later in 2023.
*10 Mar, 2023 on NewgonWiki (this article's creation).
*09 Oct, 2023 in a blog post by a server admin.<ref>[https://www.mapblog.xyz/?p=641 Joining & Changing the Pediverse]</ref>
*23 Jun, 2024 on Kiwifarms. Various "callouts" had by then referred to it as "Pediverse".
*18 Sept, 2025 for a massive expose by the YouTuber gone_fishinq.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnHmd9N2CdA (...) The Internet's Epstein Island]</ref>

It is highly likely that "Pediverse"/"Pedi" is a transmutation of "Fediverse" that fell into popular use following ironic use among [[Anti]]s and the publication of this article with said title.

===Safety===

Pediverse has presented a number of unique user-safety challenges. The vast bulk of Pediverse users do not seek illegal material, as there simply is no point using (relatively insecure) clear web applications to exchange this material, even if it were sought-after. However, some servers on the fringe of Pediverse have been known to pursue lax enforcement against violating material, particularly AI and drawn erotica, which to complicate matters, may be legal in some jurisdictions. It has therefore been the source of controversy, what servers are federated, or not federated by some of the better-used servers. This exact challenge, and the alleged "grooming" of users who may or may not be "roleplaying" or "identified" as minors (but often not minors ''de jure'') was the reason given for the closure of [[NNIA]], the largest Pediverse server. To make matters worse, the "closed" nature of most fediverse servers has fostered a false sense of security, with many users disclosing details that have been abused by hostile parties and used in doxing and callouts.

The user-operated/managed nature of Fediverse servers also poses another content-moderation challenge. This is the necessity for server admins and moderators to ''assess'' the content of neighboring servers, some of it posted in violation of server rules, and a portion thereof, legally violating. In effect, content moderators must view; "download" material to a cache, or use "private browsing" for any browsing activity that might risk coming in to contact with violating content, i.e. ''all'' browsing activity. This potential exposure of some users to violating content is (ironically) necessary to protect other users from violating content. Regular users may also come into contact with unmoderated violating content on feeds, without intending to do so, before it is reported and removed.

This "blurred line" between violating and nonviolating content, intentional and nonintentional exposure, minor and fake-minor user, plus the sheer number of servers involved, is the likely reason the FBI have been unable to progress an investigation into Pediverse, according to the popular [[anti]] Youtuber, gone_fishinq, who has published a three-hour video investigating various Pediverse personalities.

==Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance[[Ethos of Newgon#Official Guidance|⁽ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗʰᶦˢˀ⁾]]==

:''Readers are advised to conduct their own research on instance content and the legalities within their home jurisdiction before viewing these servers. We are not responsible for their content and do not share their names or addresses to facilitate sharing of content that may violate any law.''

MAPs have been proactive in setting up federated/decentralized communication platforms, because of well-founded fears centering on [[censorship]] and [[Vigilantism|harassment]], mental health and [[Validity Policing|validity policing]].

Front-ends/user interfaces include Mastodon, and Akkoma/Pleroma, but the information being shared remains the same regardless of what server you are accessing it from, and what software is being used on the server. Pediverse servers uniformly prohibit [[Child Pornography|CP]] sharing and other illegal activity within their own effective jurisdictions, and most build in contingencies for user jurisdictions.

All such servers permit communication with one another. A few exceptions exist, such as NNIA's defederation of Youjo, Yesmap and Childlove, and the Xelebre.com instance, which has blocked almost every Pediverse instance, despite claiming to be anti-censorship and pro-free-speech. Most recently, the closure of Nyaw and NNIA led users to rush to instances like Cottoncandy.cafe.

The better-known federated social (ActivityPub) instances are listed below underneath their advisory ratings. These ratings are to be read as a guide only, and the factors determining how an instance is rated by us, are in constant flux. Please inform us if things change.

===Generally considered safe===

Excluding NNIA, the first pediverse servers that were "built to last" began to come out in 2023, observing content-moderation standards that allowed them to avoid the suspension of domain properties - something that effectively killed an instance due to the way servers federated.

The below are to the best of our knowledge safe-to-register and not managed by hostile parties. This does not imply that the content posted on said instances will be legal in your home jurisdiction - always research legality of content before accessing a server.

*'''MAPSupport.de (from Mar 2023, 360 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::The instance federated NNIA (below) but defederates Yesmap. It contains general MAP related content and has survived for a long time by imposing strict rules against erotica and fascism. The instance's owner has been investigated by their local police department after a false report, but no fictional pornography could be found on their hard drive. They have been criticized for falsely alleging that other instances are involved in the trading of pornography and malicious behavior - this followed pressure from [[anti]]s who turned the site into an "anti-woke" meme on X.com.

::This instance had grown to be as large as NNIA by active number of user accounts (at the time of NNIA's closure).

*'''Revpara.onl (from Aug 2026, Akkoma)'''

::Instance that gives freedom of expression to [[paraphilia|paraphiles]] - over 400 users per month in its early existence.

*'''Fedi.yesmap.net (from Jan 2024, 40 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::[[Newgon]]-funded instance. Designed to have high levels of tolerance for freedom of speech, while completely excluding erotica, eye-candy/gooning, malicious sharing of personal information, illegal conduct and anti-MAP propaganda/disruption. It is thus intended to act as an "instance of last resort", providing sanctuary for those who have reservations about administrators on other instances, or who were not invited. Generally now used for main accounts of individuals with little interest in erotica looking for a sustainable instance.

::The concept underlying Yesmap's social, is that its domain has the highest levels of security, and its content has the lowest levels of liability. Therefore, when other instances go down, fediverse users will log in to their Yesmap account to view the entire Fediverse and receive updates concerning what the admins of those other instances intend to do. Yesmap will also serve as a repository for Fediverse users' more "meaningful" contributions, ensuring they are not lost for eternity.

*'''[[FreeSpeechTube]] (from Jun 2023, 120 MAU)'''

::A [[Wikipedia:PeerTube|Peertube]] instance with around 140 monthly active users. PeerTube is a network of servers devoted to the sharing and archiving of '''video content'''. Easy to register. Swedish law.

*'''Cottoncandy.cafe'''

::Akkoma instance that is relatively popular and established. Invite. Swedish law.

*'''Youjo (youjo.love, runs on modified Pleroma/Akkoma)'''

::An invite-only instance that is curated according to the owner's wishes, but pro-federation with respect to other servers. [[Pro-c]] predominates - the site was suspended and run as an unfederated private community for years following a misfortune with false reports and the domain registrar, leading to loss of domain.

::MAPs on other instances have criticized the admin of Youjo for platforming politically incorrect and extremist personalities, including donors - something she openly acknowledges as part of the instance's mode of operation in its previous form.

::As a social, Youjo is generally thought to run smoother than the Mastodon instances, which have suffered from loss of technical features. Other personal, invite-only instances do exist, and some host small cliques of friends. Youjo is one of the most popular examples of such an instance.

===Unknown===

*'''Numerous other servers'''

::Less information about reputation is available, and the servers are now constantly being replaced because registrars routinely suspend their domains. By signing up for servers with stricter rules against erotica, users can gain insight into what other servers might host or federate material which is legal in their jurisdiction.

===Extreme caution===

*'''Pawoo (runs on Mastodon)'''

::Described as *''adjacent'' to the Pediverse, this huge Mastodon instance is home to a large community of deviance fetishists ("Goons") who exchange masturbatory fictional material - most controversially on the topic of [[rape]]. Pawoo users are therefore often seen as stereotyped [[Teleiophilia|Teleiophiles]] or "normie" self-denying MAPs by users of "true" Pediverse instances who derogatorily refer to them as "''Pawooners''" (Pawoo + Gooners). Other pediverse users have attempted to convert Pawooners into self-aware MAPs.

::Has often had its domains suspended. Is often filtered by smaller instances due to the large amount of graphic material it contains. Mentioned here not as a promotion, but due to its fame and notoriety, and potentially for protection of other instances.

*'''[[NNIA]].space, NNIAS.net and NNIA.cc* (run on Mastodon and Soapbox respectively)'''

::Although MAP social networking sites had existed before it,<ref>NNIA's Map-Wiki offshoot [https://archive.is/9vg6I#selection-1099.0-1103.179 claims] there was an almost unknown instance that existed before it:

'''''"Phenomenal.masto.host'''. Launched in 2019 by an ex member of map Tumblr, this was the first known map Mastodon instance. It never gained publicity and was shut down by the admin after a couple of months."'' </ref> NNIA.space (created in May 2020) was the first true Pediverse social in the wider ''Fediverse''. NNIA runs on '''Mastodon''', and [[Anti-contact]] predominates, due to restrictions on contact debate/discourse. Putting aside the restrictions against contact debates, NNIA is home to a lot of identity discourse not seen elsewhere, with identities that could be seen as "more marginalized" and "less assimilated" being embraced. For example, following the earlier celebration of "[[Wikipedia:Zoosadism|Zoosadist]] Pride",<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Zoosadist_by_Lecter.png Zoosadist Pride Flag. Of note is the fact that the wiki has as many flags for Zoosadists as it does Zoosexuals]</ref> in 2023, a flag featuring hard candy<ref>Various flags: [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Aptomap_by_Lecter.png Aptomap], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Apto_by_Vile.png Apto], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necro_MAP_explained_by_Nyan_(Mewzyz_on_Twitter).png Necro MAP], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necropedozoo_by_Pappy.png Necropedozoo]</ref><ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Flags Flags for Over 1000 paraphilias, designed by NNIA members, including the "apto" (grooming) flags featuring hard candy.]</ref> was even created for individuals who are attracted to the idea of "grooming children" (while it is claimed these are genuine attempts at creating new identities, some disagree with this and suspect other motives). Nazi Fetish flags are among their other contributions.<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_fetish_by_Vinnie.png Nazi Fetish], and [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_kink_2_by_Death.png Nazi Kink]</ref> Defederation (i.e. censorship) of other MAPs for political/trivial reasons such as edgy humor makes the instance unsuitable for those accustomed to an unfiltered internet, or prone to political incorrectness.

::In 2025, NNIA announced its broadest-sweeping crackdown on non-conforming expression, with all individuals involved in [[pro-c]] organizing (anywhere) or sharing of child erotica asked to migrate away from NNIA. Numerous servers, including those opposed to the sharing of erotica, were also to be defederated due to pro-c opinions. After facing criticism, it was decided that all federating parts of NNIA would be shut down, possibly with permanent effect, leaving the self-contained NNIA.cc server in operation.

::Users should be '''cautioned''' that prominent administrators and users of NNIA have been implicated in [[Special Article: Anti-c MAP Tumblr, Twitter and Fediverse - Material for Character Analysis|doxing]].

===Defunct===

*'''Nyaw.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Appeared for around a week or two after Cutiepaws disappeared.

*'''Cutiepaws.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Successor to Puppyspace.org, a previous and similar instance. This was a large instance by the time admin decided it was too much work to keep running. A grace period was given to allow account migration.

*'''RQD2.net (runs on Lemmy)'''

::[[Alternative Initialism|Radqueer/Inclusionist]] instance that had some restrictions against uncivil conduct, while being more serious about limiting trolls and malicious actors than other instances. It ran on Lemmy, at the time an untested front-end, and new frontier in fediverse. The creator of this instance had stated they would not carry out discriminatory actions against users regardless of whether they are [[pro-c]] or [[anti-contact]]. Maintaining it became too much of a chore, and it had problems with some unregulated content.

*'''Oddballs.online'''

::A famous instance run by Ezra, and the subject of doxxing and YouTube videos. It was home to anti, neutral and pro-c MAPs among others and contained a high proportion of ironic, fiction and art posting.

::Shut down after prolonged DDoS attack.

*'''Lolison (.network .top, various domains runs on Pleroma)'''

::A large and multi-faceted instance, said to have its own forum and other projects.

*'''Childlove - (runs on Mangane, all domains suspended)'''

::Created as a Soapbox instance by Yesmap server members in October 2023, but independent of Yesmap.net and [[PCMA]], this was an anti-censorship instance that did not disable members for political opinions of any kind, and grew to 1000+ members within 2 weeks of opening. This was after concerns emerged re. doxxing and malicious conduct on other instances, and shortly before Youjo's domain was suspended for unrelated reasons, leading to an influx of refugees. Rules similar to Youjo.love, but open application (no invite required).

::Has faced minor controversy concerning two openly-identified Nazi members - although they were eventually banned for harassment or disappeared/left the instance voluntarily for alternatives including one server notorious for hosting Nazi MAPs. Has sometimes been criticized and ridiculed because of its administrators' "absolutist" view of borderline images featuring minors as a freedom of speech issue. It is held that this instance has no responsibility toward users in jurisdictions other than host country, Luxembourg, which has rather lax laws. Following the suspension of the .space domain by Namesilo, an .su alternative launched in November 2023 but was suspended.

::Another reincarnation appeared briefly in 2024 and 2025. Other instances often defederate childlove's new domains because of its content.

*'''Freak.university (runs on Mastodon, social currently unavailable)'''

::Similar to NNIA (above), with less restrictions on discourse. According to them, their userbase ''"includes paraphiles, the mentally ill, queer folk, transX folk, and people with any other non-normative or heavily stigmatized identity."'' Was relatively easy to join, and was known as the place some NNIA users take advantage of the more relaxed rules.

::There was varied debate in the community relating to this instance's toleration/amplification of malicious conduct. In 2023, following a leadership crisis in the community, FU administration did after some time take definitive action against two leading NNIA personalities for malicious behavior against other MAPs.

::One concern within the community related to the administrator's personal situation, which some believed made her instance vulnerable to law enforcement infiltration. There has, however, been no known fallout from this situation thus far.

::Parts of the site are slowly returning in 2024.

==Real-time chat==

Numerous servers host [[Wikipedia:Matrix (protocol)|Matrix accounts]] and promote lists of rooms with varying degrees of openness to MAPs. '''Yesmap.net''' (funded by us) was one such example, promoting an activist workgroup called [[Help:Joining_PCMA_chat|PCMA]], which links up with various others. Since Yesmap left the Matrix scene, some of the remaining servers are '''midov.pl''', '''needsmo.re''' '''crypted.cafe'''. Some users opt for the standard Matrix.org account, although Matrix.org has sometimes arbitrarily blocked access to legally nonviolating MAP servers.

==See also==

*[[Minor attracted community]]
*[[MAP Starting Guide]]

==External links==

*[https://map-wiki.com/index.php/Map_fediverse MAP Fediverse] - Wiki article. We are not responsible for the content of instances this article refers to and advise reviewers to conduct the necessary research before visiting them.
*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA joining instructions]]
*[https://wowana.me/blog/toward-a-healthier-federation.xht Toward a healthier federation] - Details (e.g.) Nil's anime.website.
*[https://wedistribute.org/2023/08/child-safety-fediverse/ Digesting the “Child Safety on Federated Social Media” Report ]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Censorship]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

Pediverse

2026-09-29T13:18:19Z

Jim Burton: /* Generally considered safe */

__NOTOC__[[File:Pedi tree.png|thumb|Representation of the wider [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]] as a tree (late 2022)]]
The '''Pediverse''', (a portmanteau of "[[Pedophilia|pedophile]]" and "universe", deriving from the widely-used term "'''[[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]]'''") or '''Pedi''' for short, is an ensemble of [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|federated (i.e. interconnected) servers]] or services that are used by [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs and allies]] for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting. It is increasingly used by a wider group of [[Radqueer]]s, but widely blocked by the rest of the Fediverse.

While independently hosted, users on these servers can communicate with users on other servers, although one server owner may freely decide to block other servers, or promote particular servers to their userbase. On different servers (technically instances), pediverse users can create profiles on what are typically [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|open-source social media platforms]] modeled on popular social networks such as [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]]. These profiles are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more ''communication protocols'' that follow an open standard.

As an identity on the pediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities. In some cases, users can show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities, and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

The Pediverse is distinct from other social platforms in the clear-web [[Minor-attracted community|MAP Community]] (e.g. [[Virtuous Pedophiles]], [[Mu]], [[B4U-ACT]]) and shows a degree of cultural and generational ghettoization.

==Pediverse as a concept==

The idea of a distinct pediverse community, and its realization, is a thing of the early 20s, while other MAP communities have pre-existed it by decades.

MAP social media servers had long existed on Mastodon (2019, according to our section on NNIA predecessors) by the time "Pediverse" came into use. It is not known when the exact term first came into use, but excluding misspellings of "fediverse", there are a few important dates per platform:

*21 Dec, 2022 on X<ref>[https://x.com/sikanomaly/status/1605667884562145281 "You know they wanted to call it the pediverse. Sounds better than Groomerville."]</ref> Mentioned with increasing velocity from later in 2023.
*10 Mar, 2023 on NewgonWiki (this article's creation).
*09 Oct, 2023 in a blog post by a server admin.<ref>[https://www.mapblog.xyz/?p=641 Joining & Changing the Pediverse]</ref>
*23 Jun, 2024 on Kiwifarms. Various "callouts" had by then referred to it as "Pediverse".
*18 Sept, 2025 for a massive expose by the YouTuber gone_fishinq.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnHmd9N2CdA (...) The Internet's Epstein Island]</ref>

It is highly likely that "Pediverse"/"Pedi" is a transmutation of "Fediverse" that fell into popular use following ironic use among [[Anti]]s and the publication of this article with said title.

===Safety===

Pediverse has presented a number of unique user-safety challenges. The vast bulk of Pediverse users do not seek illegal material, as there simply is no point using (relatively insecure) clear web applications to exchange this material, even if it were sought-after. However, some servers on the fringe of Pediverse have been known to pursue lax enforcement against violating material, particularly AI and drawn erotica, which to complicate matters, may be legal in some jurisdictions. It has therefore been the source of controversy, what servers are federated, or not federated by some of the better-used servers. This exact challenge, and the alleged "grooming" of users who may or may not be "roleplaying" or "identified" as minors (but often not minors ''de jure'') was the reason given for the closure of [[NNIA]], the largest Pediverse server. To make matters worse, the "closed" nature of most fediverse servers has fostered a false sense of security, with many users disclosing details that have been abused by hostile parties and used in doxing and callouts.

The user-operated/managed nature of Fediverse servers also poses another content-moderation challenge. This is the necessity for server admins and moderators to ''assess'' the content of neighboring servers, some of it posted in violation of server rules, and a portion thereof, legally violating. In effect, content moderators must view; "download" material to a cache, or use "private browsing" for any browsing activity that might risk coming in to contact with violating content, i.e. ''all'' browsing activity. This potential exposure of some users to violating content is (ironically) necessary to protect other users from violating content. Regular users may also come into contact with unmoderated violating content on feeds, without intending to do so, before it is reported and removed.

This "blurred line" between violating and nonviolating content, intentional and nonintentional exposure, minor and fake-minor user, plus the sheer number of servers involved, is the likely reason the FBI have been unable to progress an investigation into Pediverse, according to the popular [[anti]] Youtuber, gone_fishinq, who has published a three-hour video investigating various Pediverse personalities.

==Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance[[Ethos of Newgon#Official Guidance|⁽ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗʰᶦˢˀ⁾]]==

:''Readers are advised to conduct their own research on instance content and the legalities within their home jurisdiction before viewing these servers. We are not responsible for their content and do not share their names or addresses to facilitate sharing of content that may violate any law.''

MAPs have been proactive in setting up federated/decentralized communication platforms, because of well-founded fears centering on [[censorship]] and [[Vigilantism|harassment]], mental health and [[Validity Policing|validity policing]].

Front-ends/user interfaces include Mastodon, and Akkoma/Pleroma, but the information being shared remains the same regardless of what server you are accessing it from, and what software is being used on the server. Pediverse servers uniformly prohibit [[Child Pornography|CP]] sharing and other illegal activity within their own effective jurisdictions, and most build in contingencies for user jurisdictions.

All such servers permit communication with one another. A few exceptions exist, such as NNIA's defederation of Youjo, Yesmap and Childlove, and the Xelebre.com instance, which has blocked almost every Pediverse instance, despite claiming to be anti-censorship and pro-free-speech. Most recently, the closure of Nyaw and NNIA led users to rush to instances like Cottoncandy.cafe.

The better-known federated social (ActivityPub) instances are listed below underneath their advisory ratings. These ratings are to be read as a guide only, and the factors determining how an instance is rated by us, are in constant flux. Please inform us if things change.

===Generally considered safe===

Excluding NNIA, the first pediverse servers that were "built to last" began to come out in 2023, observing content-moderation standards that allowed them to avoid the suspension of domain properties - something that effectively killed an instance due to the way servers federated.

*'''MAPSupport.de (from Mar 2023, 360 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::The instance federated NNIA (below) but defederates Yesmap. It contains general MAP related content and has survived for a long time by imposing strict rules against erotica and fascism. The instance's owner has been investigated by their local police department after a false report, but no fictional pornography could be found on their hard drive. They have been criticized for falsely alleging that other instances are involved in the trading of pornography and malicious behavior - this followed pressure from [[anti]]s who turned the site into an "anti-woke" meme on X.com.

::This instance had grown to be as large as NNIA by active number of user accounts (at the time of NNIA's closure).

*'''Revpara.onl (from Aug 2026, Akkoma)'''

::Instance that gives freedom of expression to [[paraphilia|paraphiles]] - over 400 users per month in its early existence.

*'''Fedi.yesmap.net (from Jan 2024, 40 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::[[Newgon]]-funded instance. Designed to have high levels of tolerance for freedom of speech, while completely excluding erotica, eye-candy/gooning, malicious sharing of personal information, illegal conduct and anti-MAP propaganda/disruption. It is thus intended to act as an "instance of last resort", providing sanctuary for those who have reservations about administrators on other instances, or who were not invited. Generally now used for main accounts of individuals with little interest in erotica looking for a sustainable instance.

::The concept underlying Yesmap's social, is that its domain has the highest levels of security, and its content has the lowest levels of liability. Therefore, when other instances go down, fediverse users will log in to their Yesmap account to view the entire Fediverse and receive updates concerning what the admins of those other instances intend to do. Yesmap will also serve as a repository for Fediverse users' more "meaningful" contributions, ensuring they are not lost for eternity.

*'''[[FreeSpeechTube]] (from Jun 2023, 120 MAU)'''

::A [[Wikipedia:PeerTube|Peertube]] instance with around 140 monthly active users. PeerTube is a network of servers devoted to the sharing and archiving of '''video content'''. Easy to register. Swedish law.

*'''Cottoncandy.cafe'''

::Akkoma instance that is relatively popular and established. Invite. Swedish law.

*'''Youjo (youjo.love, runs on modified Pleroma/Akkoma)'''

::An invite-only instance that is curated according to the owner's wishes, but pro-federation with respect to other servers. [[Pro-c]] predominates - the site was suspended and run as an unfederated private community for years following a misfortune with false reports and the domain registrar, leading to loss of domain.

::MAPs on other instances have criticized the admin of Youjo for platforming politically incorrect and extremist personalities, including donors - something she openly acknowledges as part of the instance's mode of operation in its previous form.

::As a social, Youjo is generally thought to run smoother than the Mastodon instances, which have suffered from loss of technical features. Other personal, invite-only instances do exist, and some host small cliques of friends. Youjo is one of the most popular examples of such an instance.

===Unknown===

*'''Numerous other servers'''

::Less information about reputation is available, and the servers are now constantly being replaced because registrars routinely suspend their domains. By signing up for servers with stricter rules against erotica, users can gain insight into what other servers might host or federate material which is legal in their jurisdiction.

===Extreme caution===

*'''Pawoo (runs on Mastodon)'''

::Described as *''adjacent'' to the Pediverse, this huge Mastodon instance is home to a large community of deviance fetishists ("Goons") who exchange masturbatory fictional material - most controversially on the topic of [[rape]]. Pawoo users are therefore often seen as stereotyped [[Teleiophilia|Teleiophiles]] or "normie" self-denying MAPs by users of "true" Pediverse instances who derogatorily refer to them as "''Pawooners''" (Pawoo + Gooners). Other pediverse users have attempted to convert Pawooners into self-aware MAPs.

::Has often had its domains suspended. Is often filtered by smaller instances due to the large amount of graphic material it contains. Mentioned here not as a promotion, but due to its fame and notoriety, and potentially for protection of other instances.

*'''[[NNIA]].space, NNIAS.net and NNIA.cc* (run on Mastodon and Soapbox respectively)'''

::Although MAP social networking sites had existed before it,<ref>NNIA's Map-Wiki offshoot [https://archive.is/9vg6I#selection-1099.0-1103.179 claims] there was an almost unknown instance that existed before it:

'''''"Phenomenal.masto.host'''. Launched in 2019 by an ex member of map Tumblr, this was the first known map Mastodon instance. It never gained publicity and was shut down by the admin after a couple of months."'' </ref> NNIA.space (created in May 2020) was the first true Pediverse social in the wider ''Fediverse''. NNIA runs on '''Mastodon''', and [[Anti-contact]] predominates, due to restrictions on contact debate/discourse. Putting aside the restrictions against contact debates, NNIA is home to a lot of identity discourse not seen elsewhere, with identities that could be seen as "more marginalized" and "less assimilated" being embraced. For example, following the earlier celebration of "[[Wikipedia:Zoosadism|Zoosadist]] Pride",<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Zoosadist_by_Lecter.png Zoosadist Pride Flag. Of note is the fact that the wiki has as many flags for Zoosadists as it does Zoosexuals]</ref> in 2023, a flag featuring hard candy<ref>Various flags: [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Aptomap_by_Lecter.png Aptomap], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Apto_by_Vile.png Apto], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necro_MAP_explained_by_Nyan_(Mewzyz_on_Twitter).png Necro MAP], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necropedozoo_by_Pappy.png Necropedozoo]</ref><ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Flags Flags for Over 1000 paraphilias, designed by NNIA members, including the "apto" (grooming) flags featuring hard candy.]</ref> was even created for individuals who are attracted to the idea of "grooming children" (while it is claimed these are genuine attempts at creating new identities, some disagree with this and suspect other motives). Nazi Fetish flags are among their other contributions.<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_fetish_by_Vinnie.png Nazi Fetish], and [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_kink_2_by_Death.png Nazi Kink]</ref> Defederation (i.e. censorship) of other MAPs for political/trivial reasons such as edgy humor makes the instance unsuitable for those accustomed to an unfiltered internet, or prone to political incorrectness.

::In 2025, NNIA announced its broadest-sweeping crackdown on non-conforming expression, with all individuals involved in [[pro-c]] organizing (anywhere) or sharing of child erotica asked to migrate away from NNIA. Numerous servers, including those opposed to the sharing of erotica, were also to be defederated due to pro-c opinions. After facing criticism, it was decided that all federating parts of NNIA would be shut down, possibly with permanent effect, leaving the self-contained NNIA.cc server in operation.

::Users should be '''cautioned''' that prominent administrators and users of NNIA have been implicated in [[Special Article: Anti-c MAP Tumblr, Twitter and Fediverse - Material for Character Analysis|doxing]].

===Defunct===

*'''Nyaw.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Appeared for around a week or two after Cutiepaws disappeared.

*'''Cutiepaws.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Successor to Puppyspace.org, a previous and similar instance. This was a large instance by the time admin decided it was too much work to keep running. A grace period was given to allow account migration.

*'''RQD2.net (runs on Lemmy)'''

::[[Alternative Initialism|Radqueer/Inclusionist]] instance that had some restrictions against uncivil conduct, while being more serious about limiting trolls and malicious actors than other instances. It ran on Lemmy, at the time an untested front-end, and new frontier in fediverse. The creator of this instance had stated they would not carry out discriminatory actions against users regardless of whether they are [[pro-c]] or [[anti-contact]]. Maintaining it became too much of a chore, and it had problems with some unregulated content.

*'''Oddballs.online'''

::A famous instance run by Ezra, and the subject of doxxing and YouTube videos. It was home to anti, neutral and pro-c MAPs among others and contained a high proportion of ironic, fiction and art posting.

::Shut down after prolonged DDoS attack.

*'''Lolison (.network .top, various domains runs on Pleroma)'''

::A large and multi-faceted instance, said to have its own forum and other projects.

*'''Childlove - (runs on Mangane, all domains suspended)'''

::Created as a Soapbox instance by Yesmap server members in October 2023, but independent of Yesmap.net and [[PCMA]], this was an anti-censorship instance that did not disable members for political opinions of any kind, and grew to 1000+ members within 2 weeks of opening. This was after concerns emerged re. doxxing and malicious conduct on other instances, and shortly before Youjo's domain was suspended for unrelated reasons, leading to an influx of refugees. Rules similar to Youjo.love, but open application (no invite required).

::Has faced minor controversy concerning two openly-identified Nazi members - although they were eventually banned for harassment or disappeared/left the instance voluntarily for alternatives including one server notorious for hosting Nazi MAPs. Has sometimes been criticized and ridiculed because of its administrators' "absolutist" view of borderline images featuring minors as a freedom of speech issue. It is held that this instance has no responsibility toward users in jurisdictions other than host country, Luxembourg, which has rather lax laws. Following the suspension of the .space domain by Namesilo, an .su alternative launched in November 2023 but was suspended.

::Another reincarnation appeared briefly in 2024 and 2025. Other instances often defederate childlove's new domains because of its content.

*'''Freak.university (runs on Mastodon, social currently unavailable)'''

::Similar to NNIA (above), with less restrictions on discourse. According to them, their userbase ''"includes paraphiles, the mentally ill, queer folk, transX folk, and people with any other non-normative or heavily stigmatized identity."'' Was relatively easy to join, and was known as the place some NNIA users take advantage of the more relaxed rules.

::There was varied debate in the community relating to this instance's toleration/amplification of malicious conduct. In 2023, following a leadership crisis in the community, FU administration did after some time take definitive action against two leading NNIA personalities for malicious behavior against other MAPs.

::One concern within the community related to the administrator's personal situation, which some believed made her instance vulnerable to law enforcement infiltration. There has, however, been no known fallout from this situation thus far.

::Parts of the site are slowly returning in 2024.

==Real-time chat==

Numerous servers host [[Wikipedia:Matrix (protocol)|Matrix accounts]] and promote lists of rooms with varying degrees of openness to MAPs. '''Yesmap.net''' (funded by us) was one such example, promoting an activist workgroup called [[Help:Joining_PCMA_chat|PCMA]], which links up with various others. Since Yesmap left the Matrix scene, some of the remaining servers are '''midov.pl''', '''needsmo.re''' '''crypted.cafe'''. Some users opt for the standard Matrix.org account, although Matrix.org has sometimes arbitrarily blocked access to legally nonviolating MAP servers.

==See also==

*[[Minor attracted community]]
*[[MAP Starting Guide]]

==External links==

*[https://map-wiki.com/index.php/Map_fediverse MAP Fediverse] - Wiki article. We are not responsible for the content of instances this article refers to and advise reviewers to conduct the necessary research before visiting them.
*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA joining instructions]]
*[https://wowana.me/blog/toward-a-healthier-federation.xht Toward a healthier federation] - Details (e.g.) Nil's anime.website.
*[https://wedistribute.org/2023/08/child-safety-fediverse/ Digesting the “Child Safety on Federated Social Media” Report ]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Censorship]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

Pediverse

2026-09-29T13:18:07Z

Jim Burton: /* Generally considered safe */

__NOTOC__[[File:Pedi tree.png|thumb|Representation of the wider [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]] as a tree (late 2022)]]
The '''Pediverse''', (a portmanteau of "[[Pedophilia|pedophile]]" and "universe", deriving from the widely-used term "'''[[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]]'''") or '''Pedi''' for short, is an ensemble of [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|federated (i.e. interconnected) servers]] or services that are used by [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs and allies]] for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting. It is increasingly used by a wider group of [[Radqueer]]s, but widely blocked by the rest of the Fediverse.

While independently hosted, users on these servers can communicate with users on other servers, although one server owner may freely decide to block other servers, or promote particular servers to their userbase. On different servers (technically instances), pediverse users can create profiles on what are typically [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|open-source social media platforms]] modeled on popular social networks such as [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]]. These profiles are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more ''communication protocols'' that follow an open standard.

As an identity on the pediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities. In some cases, users can show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities, and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

The Pediverse is distinct from other social platforms in the clear-web [[Minor-attracted community|MAP Community]] (e.g. [[Virtuous Pedophiles]], [[Mu]], [[B4U-ACT]]) and shows a degree of cultural and generational ghettoization.

==Pediverse as a concept==

The idea of a distinct pediverse community, and its realization, is a thing of the early 20s, while other MAP communities have pre-existed it by decades.

MAP social media servers had long existed on Mastodon (2019, according to our section on NNIA predecessors) by the time "Pediverse" came into use. It is not known when the exact term first came into use, but excluding misspellings of "fediverse", there are a few important dates per platform:

*21 Dec, 2022 on X<ref>[https://x.com/sikanomaly/status/1605667884562145281 "You know they wanted to call it the pediverse. Sounds better than Groomerville."]</ref> Mentioned with increasing velocity from later in 2023.
*10 Mar, 2023 on NewgonWiki (this article's creation).
*09 Oct, 2023 in a blog post by a server admin.<ref>[https://www.mapblog.xyz/?p=641 Joining & Changing the Pediverse]</ref>
*23 Jun, 2024 on Kiwifarms. Various "callouts" had by then referred to it as "Pediverse".
*18 Sept, 2025 for a massive expose by the YouTuber gone_fishinq.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnHmd9N2CdA (...) The Internet's Epstein Island]</ref>

It is highly likely that "Pediverse"/"Pedi" is a transmutation of "Fediverse" that fell into popular use following ironic use among [[Anti]]s and the publication of this article with said title.

===Safety===

Pediverse has presented a number of unique user-safety challenges. The vast bulk of Pediverse users do not seek illegal material, as there simply is no point using (relatively insecure) clear web applications to exchange this material, even if it were sought-after. However, some servers on the fringe of Pediverse have been known to pursue lax enforcement against violating material, particularly AI and drawn erotica, which to complicate matters, may be legal in some jurisdictions. It has therefore been the source of controversy, what servers are federated, or not federated by some of the better-used servers. This exact challenge, and the alleged "grooming" of users who may or may not be "roleplaying" or "identified" as minors (but often not minors ''de jure'') was the reason given for the closure of [[NNIA]], the largest Pediverse server. To make matters worse, the "closed" nature of most fediverse servers has fostered a false sense of security, with many users disclosing details that have been abused by hostile parties and used in doxing and callouts.

The user-operated/managed nature of Fediverse servers also poses another content-moderation challenge. This is the necessity for server admins and moderators to ''assess'' the content of neighboring servers, some of it posted in violation of server rules, and a portion thereof, legally violating. In effect, content moderators must view; "download" material to a cache, or use "private browsing" for any browsing activity that might risk coming in to contact with violating content, i.e. ''all'' browsing activity. This potential exposure of some users to violating content is (ironically) necessary to protect other users from violating content. Regular users may also come into contact with unmoderated violating content on feeds, without intending to do so, before it is reported and removed.

This "blurred line" between violating and nonviolating content, intentional and nonintentional exposure, minor and fake-minor user, plus the sheer number of servers involved, is the likely reason the FBI have been unable to progress an investigation into Pediverse, according to the popular [[anti]] Youtuber, gone_fishinq, who has published a three-hour video investigating various Pediverse personalities.

==Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance[[Ethos of Newgon#Official Guidance|⁽ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗʰᶦˢˀ⁾]]==

:''Readers are advised to conduct their own research on instance content and the legalities within their home jurisdiction before viewing these servers. We are not responsible for their content and do not share their names or addresses to facilitate sharing of content that may violate any law.''

MAPs have been proactive in setting up federated/decentralized communication platforms, because of well-founded fears centering on [[censorship]] and [[Vigilantism|harassment]], mental health and [[Validity Policing|validity policing]].

Front-ends/user interfaces include Mastodon, and Akkoma/Pleroma, but the information being shared remains the same regardless of what server you are accessing it from, and what software is being used on the server. Pediverse servers uniformly prohibit [[Child Pornography|CP]] sharing and other illegal activity within their own effective jurisdictions, and most build in contingencies for user jurisdictions.

All such servers permit communication with one another. A few exceptions exist, such as NNIA's defederation of Youjo, Yesmap and Childlove, and the Xelebre.com instance, which has blocked almost every Pediverse instance, despite claiming to be anti-censorship and pro-free-speech. Most recently, the closure of Nyaw and NNIA led users to rush to instances like Cottoncandy.cafe.

The better-known federated social (ActivityPub) instances are listed below underneath their advisory ratings. These ratings are to be read as a guide only, and the factors determining how an instance is rated by us, are in constant flux. Please inform us if things change.

===Generally considered safe===

Excluding NNIA, the first pediverse servers that were "built to last" began to come out in 2023, observing content-moderation standards that allowed them to avoid the suspension of domain properties - something that effectively killed an instance due to the way servers federated.

*'''MAPSupport.de (from Mar 2023, 360 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::The instance federated NNIA (below) but defederates Yesmap. It contains general MAP related content and has survived for a long time by imposing strict rules against erotica and fascism. The instance's owner has been investigated by their local police department after a false report, but no fictional pornography could be found on their hard drive. They have been criticized for falsely alleging that other instances are involved in the trading of pornography and malicious behavior - this followed pressure from [[anti]]s who turned the site into an "anti-woke" meme on X.com.

::This instance had grown to be as large as NNIA by active number of user accounts (at the time of NNIA's closure).

*'''Revpara.onl (from Aug 2026, Akkoma)'''

Instance that gives freedom of expression to [[paraphilia|paraphiles]] - over 400 users per month in its early existence.

*'''Fedi.yesmap.net (from Jan 2024, 40 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::[[Newgon]]-funded instance. Designed to have high levels of tolerance for freedom of speech, while completely excluding erotica, eye-candy/gooning, malicious sharing of personal information, illegal conduct and anti-MAP propaganda/disruption. It is thus intended to act as an "instance of last resort", providing sanctuary for those who have reservations about administrators on other instances, or who were not invited. Generally now used for main accounts of individuals with little interest in erotica looking for a sustainable instance.

::The concept underlying Yesmap's social, is that its domain has the highest levels of security, and its content has the lowest levels of liability. Therefore, when other instances go down, fediverse users will log in to their Yesmap account to view the entire Fediverse and receive updates concerning what the admins of those other instances intend to do. Yesmap will also serve as a repository for Fediverse users' more "meaningful" contributions, ensuring they are not lost for eternity.

*'''[[FreeSpeechTube]] (from Jun 2023, 120 MAU)'''

::A [[Wikipedia:PeerTube|Peertube]] instance with around 140 monthly active users. PeerTube is a network of servers devoted to the sharing and archiving of '''video content'''. Easy to register. Swedish law.

*'''Cottoncandy.cafe'''

::Akkoma instance that is relatively popular and established. Invite. Swedish law.

*'''Youjo (youjo.love, runs on modified Pleroma/Akkoma)'''

::An invite-only instance that is curated according to the owner's wishes, but pro-federation with respect to other servers. [[Pro-c]] predominates - the site was suspended and run as an unfederated private community for years following a misfortune with false reports and the domain registrar, leading to loss of domain.

::MAPs on other instances have criticized the admin of Youjo for platforming politically incorrect and extremist personalities, including donors - something she openly acknowledges as part of the instance's mode of operation in its previous form.

::As a social, Youjo is generally thought to run smoother than the Mastodon instances, which have suffered from loss of technical features. Other personal, invite-only instances do exist, and some host small cliques of friends. Youjo is one of the most popular examples of such an instance.

===Unknown===

*'''Numerous other servers'''

::Less information about reputation is available, and the servers are now constantly being replaced because registrars routinely suspend their domains. By signing up for servers with stricter rules against erotica, users can gain insight into what other servers might host or federate material which is legal in their jurisdiction.

===Extreme caution===

*'''Pawoo (runs on Mastodon)'''

::Described as *''adjacent'' to the Pediverse, this huge Mastodon instance is home to a large community of deviance fetishists ("Goons") who exchange masturbatory fictional material - most controversially on the topic of [[rape]]. Pawoo users are therefore often seen as stereotyped [[Teleiophilia|Teleiophiles]] or "normie" self-denying MAPs by users of "true" Pediverse instances who derogatorily refer to them as "''Pawooners''" (Pawoo + Gooners). Other pediverse users have attempted to convert Pawooners into self-aware MAPs.

::Has often had its domains suspended. Is often filtered by smaller instances due to the large amount of graphic material it contains. Mentioned here not as a promotion, but due to its fame and notoriety, and potentially for protection of other instances.

*'''[[NNIA]].space, NNIAS.net and NNIA.cc* (run on Mastodon and Soapbox respectively)'''

::Although MAP social networking sites had existed before it,<ref>NNIA's Map-Wiki offshoot [https://archive.is/9vg6I#selection-1099.0-1103.179 claims] there was an almost unknown instance that existed before it:

'''''"Phenomenal.masto.host'''. Launched in 2019 by an ex member of map Tumblr, this was the first known map Mastodon instance. It never gained publicity and was shut down by the admin after a couple of months."'' </ref> NNIA.space (created in May 2020) was the first true Pediverse social in the wider ''Fediverse''. NNIA runs on '''Mastodon''', and [[Anti-contact]] predominates, due to restrictions on contact debate/discourse. Putting aside the restrictions against contact debates, NNIA is home to a lot of identity discourse not seen elsewhere, with identities that could be seen as "more marginalized" and "less assimilated" being embraced. For example, following the earlier celebration of "[[Wikipedia:Zoosadism|Zoosadist]] Pride",<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Zoosadist_by_Lecter.png Zoosadist Pride Flag. Of note is the fact that the wiki has as many flags for Zoosadists as it does Zoosexuals]</ref> in 2023, a flag featuring hard candy<ref>Various flags: [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Aptomap_by_Lecter.png Aptomap], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Apto_by_Vile.png Apto], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necro_MAP_explained_by_Nyan_(Mewzyz_on_Twitter).png Necro MAP], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necropedozoo_by_Pappy.png Necropedozoo]</ref><ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Flags Flags for Over 1000 paraphilias, designed by NNIA members, including the "apto" (grooming) flags featuring hard candy.]</ref> was even created for individuals who are attracted to the idea of "grooming children" (while it is claimed these are genuine attempts at creating new identities, some disagree with this and suspect other motives). Nazi Fetish flags are among their other contributions.<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_fetish_by_Vinnie.png Nazi Fetish], and [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_kink_2_by_Death.png Nazi Kink]</ref> Defederation (i.e. censorship) of other MAPs for political/trivial reasons such as edgy humor makes the instance unsuitable for those accustomed to an unfiltered internet, or prone to political incorrectness.

::In 2025, NNIA announced its broadest-sweeping crackdown on non-conforming expression, with all individuals involved in [[pro-c]] organizing (anywhere) or sharing of child erotica asked to migrate away from NNIA. Numerous servers, including those opposed to the sharing of erotica, were also to be defederated due to pro-c opinions. After facing criticism, it was decided that all federating parts of NNIA would be shut down, possibly with permanent effect, leaving the self-contained NNIA.cc server in operation.

::Users should be '''cautioned''' that prominent administrators and users of NNIA have been implicated in [[Special Article: Anti-c MAP Tumblr, Twitter and Fediverse - Material for Character Analysis|doxing]].

===Defunct===

*'''Nyaw.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Appeared for around a week or two after Cutiepaws disappeared.

*'''Cutiepaws.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Successor to Puppyspace.org, a previous and similar instance. This was a large instance by the time admin decided it was too much work to keep running. A grace period was given to allow account migration.

*'''RQD2.net (runs on Lemmy)'''

::[[Alternative Initialism|Radqueer/Inclusionist]] instance that had some restrictions against uncivil conduct, while being more serious about limiting trolls and malicious actors than other instances. It ran on Lemmy, at the time an untested front-end, and new frontier in fediverse. The creator of this instance had stated they would not carry out discriminatory actions against users regardless of whether they are [[pro-c]] or [[anti-contact]]. Maintaining it became too much of a chore, and it had problems with some unregulated content.

*'''Oddballs.online'''

::A famous instance run by Ezra, and the subject of doxxing and YouTube videos. It was home to anti, neutral and pro-c MAPs among others and contained a high proportion of ironic, fiction and art posting.

::Shut down after prolonged DDoS attack.

*'''Lolison (.network .top, various domains runs on Pleroma)'''

::A large and multi-faceted instance, said to have its own forum and other projects.

*'''Childlove - (runs on Mangane, all domains suspended)'''

::Created as a Soapbox instance by Yesmap server members in October 2023, but independent of Yesmap.net and [[PCMA]], this was an anti-censorship instance that did not disable members for political opinions of any kind, and grew to 1000+ members within 2 weeks of opening. This was after concerns emerged re. doxxing and malicious conduct on other instances, and shortly before Youjo's domain was suspended for unrelated reasons, leading to an influx of refugees. Rules similar to Youjo.love, but open application (no invite required).

::Has faced minor controversy concerning two openly-identified Nazi members - although they were eventually banned for harassment or disappeared/left the instance voluntarily for alternatives including one server notorious for hosting Nazi MAPs. Has sometimes been criticized and ridiculed because of its administrators' "absolutist" view of borderline images featuring minors as a freedom of speech issue. It is held that this instance has no responsibility toward users in jurisdictions other than host country, Luxembourg, which has rather lax laws. Following the suspension of the .space domain by Namesilo, an .su alternative launched in November 2023 but was suspended.

::Another reincarnation appeared briefly in 2024 and 2025. Other instances often defederate childlove's new domains because of its content.

*'''Freak.university (runs on Mastodon, social currently unavailable)'''

::Similar to NNIA (above), with less restrictions on discourse. According to them, their userbase ''"includes paraphiles, the mentally ill, queer folk, transX folk, and people with any other non-normative or heavily stigmatized identity."'' Was relatively easy to join, and was known as the place some NNIA users take advantage of the more relaxed rules.

::There was varied debate in the community relating to this instance's toleration/amplification of malicious conduct. In 2023, following a leadership crisis in the community, FU administration did after some time take definitive action against two leading NNIA personalities for malicious behavior against other MAPs.

::One concern within the community related to the administrator's personal situation, which some believed made her instance vulnerable to law enforcement infiltration. There has, however, been no known fallout from this situation thus far.

::Parts of the site are slowly returning in 2024.

==Real-time chat==

Numerous servers host [[Wikipedia:Matrix (protocol)|Matrix accounts]] and promote lists of rooms with varying degrees of openness to MAPs. '''Yesmap.net''' (funded by us) was one such example, promoting an activist workgroup called [[Help:Joining_PCMA_chat|PCMA]], which links up with various others. Since Yesmap left the Matrix scene, some of the remaining servers are '''midov.pl''', '''needsmo.re''' '''crypted.cafe'''. Some users opt for the standard Matrix.org account, although Matrix.org has sometimes arbitrarily blocked access to legally nonviolating MAP servers.

==See also==

*[[Minor attracted community]]
*[[MAP Starting Guide]]

==External links==

*[https://map-wiki.com/index.php/Map_fediverse MAP Fediverse] - Wiki article. We are not responsible for the content of instances this article refers to and advise reviewers to conduct the necessary research before visiting them.
*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA joining instructions]]
*[https://wowana.me/blog/toward-a-healthier-federation.xht Toward a healthier federation] - Details (e.g.) Nil's anime.website.
*[https://wedistribute.org/2023/08/child-safety-fediverse/ Digesting the “Child Safety on Federated Social Media” Report ]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Censorship]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

Essay:The Gruesome Consequences of a Hysterical Witch Hunt

2026-09-28T01:01:25Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__The following is a mirror of an article originally titled '''''[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/02/de-gruwelijke-gevolgen-van-een-hysterische-heksenjacht/ De gruwelijke gevolgen van een hysterische heksenjacht]''''', which appears on the website of Dutch writer [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Dautzenberg A.H.J. Dautzenberg]. We provide an English translation of it here, in the interest of maintaining a copy of this important journalism. The opinions reflected in this article are those of A.H.J. Dautzenberg who is unaffiliated with Newgon Organization.

For the latest updates from the [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2026/08/ecuador-update/ blog of Dautzenberg], see our translations at the [[#Latest update|bottom of the page]].
<hr>
'''February 5, 2023'''

In Ecuador, two Dutch men have been detained under appalling conditions for almost eight months, two men with a pedophile orientation. They still don't know exactly what they are suspected of and they haven't seen a judge yet. I think I know them well, consider them friends. My impression is that they are innocent.

In recent months I have tried several times in vain to interest the quality media in the case, also to encourage them to put an investigative journalist on it. In particular, the role of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and that of the [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] pedo hunter club (and its dubious American partner [[Operation Underground Railroad]]) should be critically examined; in my view they create a toxic climate that smothers any nuanced discussion in advance. The word "child pornography" is used far too lightly and just a little too eagerly by them – all shutters are immediately closed.

I believe I have followed the (long run-up to the) arrest relatively objectively, but perhaps my view is clouded by fear, anger, disappointment and friendship. That's why I hope for help.

One of the media I approached indicated that it was "not a newsworthy story". The editor-in-chief of an opinion weekly emphasized that a sensitive subject such as pedophilia cannot be treated from the perspective of two detained pedophiles – "Who says they are innocent?" Another reaction: "It would make me very uncomfortable to post this piece." The overall tone in a nutshell.

Below is the essay I wrote – it consists of two parts that alternate between a more or less journalistic report, and my personal thoughts, although the distinction is sometimes difficult to make. I have my personal thoughts.

Set aside your gut reaction that tries to take over your feelings, and don't judge too quickly; smoke does not always mean fire, after all, smoke machines do not need to be on fire. Take up the challenge, if you will. Vulnerable minorities deserve protection, not a witch hunt. That is good for everything and everyone.

[[File:Huis.jpg|thumb|Action outside of Marthijn's house]]

'''Ten years of Mart[h]ijn'''

The zeitgeist dictates which topics may or may not be discussed. For example, pedophilia. Nevertheless, it is still important not to shy away from an "unmentionable" subject; by exposing insensitive mechanisms, future victims can be spared. Moreover, freedom of expression is sacred in our country. Or so I thought.'''

At the moment, two Dutch men have been detained in Ecuador under appalling conditions for more than six months, and they have not yet seen a judge. It is still not entirely clear what crime in particular they are suspected of. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not interfere with the legal process and the Netherlands does not have an embassy in Ecuador. A hopeless situation, they fear for their lives.

The run-up to the arrest of the two men started in 2011, with an attempt by the Public Prosecution Service to ban the association [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn]], founded in 1982; The ball starts rolling then. After years of intensive investigation, no criminal offenses had been uncovered, so according to Minister of Justice Opstelten (VVD), only civil law could offer a solution.

In the early 1980s, the VVD regularly approached the Martijn association for advice on the subject of pedophilia. In 1986, then-VVD-minister Korthals Altes submitted a bill to lower the "age of consent" law from sixteen to twelve years. He referred, among other things, to scientific studies that indicate that sex with minors is not necessarily harmful.

The JOVD – (left-liberal) Mark Rutte, who was also a member at the time and would become chairman two years later – just like the Young Socialists in 1986, signed a petition for the change in the law. The law passed in a slimmed-down version, but it was then abolished at the beginning of the new millennium. In the early years, the roots of the Martijn Association therefore received political support, especially from the VVD.

By 2011 things had completely changed. In November of that year, in the run-up to the court case to ban the [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn association]], VVD minister Opstelten publicly expressed the hope that the court would issue a ban. Which was strange to say the least, because a minister is not allowed to give his opinion on a case that is still before the courts. The left and right both agreed with Minister Opstelten's statement that the association should be banned.

Tofik Dibi (of GroenLinks) said during the same parliamentary debate: ''"The Martijn association is an association of dirty little men, with dirty points of view, that arouse disgust and revulsion. My gut says: lock them up and throw away the key."'' And Madeleine van Toorenburg (CDA) stated: ''"How is such a disgusting association allowed to exist."'' At the time, Pieter Omtzigt regularly referred to "Martijn's victims" in his tweets. Mind you, ten years of investigation by the police and the Public Prosecution Service had not resulted in any criminal charges.

For more than ten years I have studied the subject of pedophilia, a distinction in sexual orientation that I believe should no longer be made, and should be eliminated. And let's not beat around the bush, I was terrified. The hatred that wins over the facts, the myths that are devoured like candy, the denial that follows any hint or suggestion, the opportunistic role of politics and especially that of the Public Prosecution Service. With regards to this topic, all good sense and logic seems to have disappeared, and the only reaction is a visceral one.

Even before the legal process began, I decided in 2011 to become a member of the Martijn association in order to start a dialogue and put an end to the escalating witch hunt; a pedophile is a human being, not an undesirable scourge – which unwelcome minority is next? A side effect was that not much later I could follow the court case in Assen both externally and internally. "''Your career is over''," tweeted some cynical fellow writers with apparently mocking pleasure.

For the record, I keep repeating it out of necessity: I am not in favor of sexual contact between adults and children. I do think that people with a pedophile orientation should be allowed to dream and fantasize about it, and that they should be allowed to speak and write about their desires – and that they (just like the VVD in 1986) should be allowed to argue for a liberalization of the legislation regarding sexuality.

In fact, I am convinced that openness and transparency will lead to greater understanding, and to a mutual understanding. An innate disposition does not disappear by publicly condemning it. Not in Iran, not in Russia, not in Hungary and not in the Netherlands. An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people with pedophilic feelings, men and women, live in our country. Get used to it. Talk to them, don't banish them to the dungeons of society. And understand that approximately eighty percent of child abuse actually takes place within the immediate family, by "opportunistic paedophiles".

So in 2011 I signed up as a member of the Martijn association, which was founded in 1982. I attended meetings, talked to members and advised the board. At the end of 2011, a child and adolescent psychiatrist e-mailed me the following: ''"Thank you for your contribution to the quest that we as a society must undertake. Not a nonsensical black-and-white opinion, but a nuanced story."'' Various statements of support from that quarter followed, but the senders added that they did not dare to express their opinions publicly.

In May 2012 I represented the association before the court in Assen. At the time, I tried repeatedly to talk to MPs, but I couldn't get any response. Other members of the Martijn association also tried this, and they were also ignored.

'''The "Yuck" Factor'''

The lawsuit would ultimately be heard in Assen, on May 16, 2012. The Public Prosecution Service had to make it plausible that (the activities of) the Martijn association are "contrary to public order". Both in the petition and in the closing requisition, the Public Prosecution Service claims that the Martijn association poses a serious danger to children in the Netherlands. "The ideas and the way in which these are expressed must be seen as a serious threat to the physical and sexual integrity of the child."

The Public Prosecution Service had formulated a criterion for testing texts and images that had appeared in the association's magazine and on the site since 1982: the "yucky content". Especially the texts from the early years of the association were judged with a high yuck content. The Public Prosecution Service included a review that former senator Edward Brongersma (PvdA) wrote in the magazine about Kees Verheul's novel A boy with four legs, published in 1982 by publisher Van Oorschot. "Apparently intended to be sexually arousing," suggested the District Attorney. (Apparently intended to be sexually arousing - just how does one measure that?)

The following poem on the site was also given a high yuck content by the Public Prosecution Service:
<blockquote>
''I would love to''

''Sail with you in a boat''

''Love you''

''Kiss you''

''Your body against me''

''I caress in my dreams''

''Everywhere I want to go''

''And you like it''

''Thoughts are free''

''It's a cliché''

''But what I just wrote''

''Is only one chance in a hundred''

''Reality''

''We live in a world''

''Where such things can't be''

''But luckily''

''How lucky''

''Fantasizing is cool''

''And it can't hurt anyone.''
</blockquote>
On June 27, 2012, the Martijn association was banned by the court. The press reacted to the verdict. NRC Ombudsman Sjoerd de Jong thought it too subdude: ''"On June 27, the court in Assen banned the association Martijn, which wants to represent the interests of pedophiles. That was remarkable news, but the newspaper did not comment on it. Now you don't have to do that with every news event, but you would expect it regarding this one. That seems entirely in line with the liberal principles of the newspaper: after all, it is [not about the words but] about the deeds."''

'''The Appeal'''

The Martijn Association appealed to the Court of Appeal in Leeuwarden. The Public Prosecution Service argued that the appeal should be declared inadmissible, because an association that has been banned no longer exists and can therefore not appeal. The court did not agree with this and ruled in April 2013 that there was no threat of social disruption and that the association could therefore not be banned. According to the court, society should also accept expressions that are widely abhorred. Moreover, the statements and behavior of Martijn are not punishable, the court emphasized.

The Public Prosecution Service then submitted this judgment to the Supreme Court for review. It decided on April 18, 2014 that the association should be banned immediately, because it goes contrary to public order. According to the Supreme Court, it is necessary as this is a very special case, in the interest of protecting the health and the rights and freedoms of children. ''"These social views are also widely supported outside the Netherlands, and the Netherlands has committed itself internationally to taking measures in that regard."'' So Brussels was watching.

The lawyers Gerard Spong and Sidney Smeets then approached the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Marthijn Uittenbogaard. At the beginning of 2015, it announced that it would not consider the appeal. The reaction of Spong and Smeets: ''"We see this decision as a case of evading the giving of a legal opinion on a socially sensitive legal question. And therefore a lack of courage. In a resilient democratic society it is precisely the unpopular opinions that should be protected. Freedom of expression is only meaningful if it also (or especially) protects unpopular opinions. Even opinions that not everyone agrees with and that some even find offensive."''

'''Seclusion'''

At this point, the Martijn Association is definitively banned, including the association's website, but former chairman Marthijn Uittenbogaard is told by the Public Prosecutor that he may continue the website privately. He decides to concentrate on his websites www.brongersma.info and www.marthijn.nl (with an h), which he started in 2001, renaming a site he started a quarter of a century ago.

As a private person, Marthijn Uittenbogaard continues to fight for discussion about and the seeking of approval for intergenerational relationships. He does this mainly by collecting information on pedophilia and paedosexuality on his websites, information in the broadest sense of the word, including studies that emphasize the potentially harmful effects of paedosexual activity.

His activism and the ruling of the Supreme Court have caused Marthijn Uittenbogaard many problems: there have been threats, rocks and paving stones have been thrown against and through his windows, lit fireworks have been left in his mail box, a fireworks bomb was left on his doorstep – the list fills dozens of pages. In addition, he says he is shadowed by the police and his phone is wire-tapped.

Over time he has decided not to leave his home in Hengelo; he spends his days playing video games for hours on end and maintaining his web sites. He has had plexiglass fitted to the windows of his house and he installed security cameras, which the police had refused to do, despite several requests from him.

Former Martijn figurehead Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner Lesley have become friends of mine over the years and I trust them. Not out of naivety or misplaced loyalty, but as a result of frank conversations and a thorough study of the facts – and the many lies that have been spread about them. I haven't seen any hard evidence to date that confirms that either has committed any crimes.

I kept in touch with the two men for the past ten years – two passionate, sweet, gentle people. When I stayed with them a few years ago, I saw what the isolation did to Marthijn. Like a shy little bird, he sat in an almost blinded house, glued to his almost life-size game screen. Lesley tried to remain anonymous and went to work in a warehouse every day. In his spare time, a convinced vegan, he devoted himself to the necessary charitable institutions. I saw two fellow sufferers who loved each other very much.

[[File:Megafoon.jpg|frame|Demo outside Marthijn's house]]

'''Onslaught'''

The day was coming for an attack to be made on Uittenbogaard. It would be in a morning in 2020. A 41-year-old man from Spakenburg entered the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley early in the morning, ran up the stairs, entered the bedroom and threatened to stab Marthijn to death with a fish-boning knife. A friend who is staying over heard the noise, intervened in time and knocked the knife out of the hands of the man, who was standing next to Marthijn's bed.

The man fled, but was arrested shortly afterwards. He was released the same day, but he was banned from the vicinity. A lawsuit followed. The man did not have to go to prison; the judge gave him 150 hours of community service.

The man, who had already been hospitalized eight times for bouts of manic-depression, claimed that he entered the house because of media reports he had heard, which stated that a children's room with dildos had been found in Marthijn's house and that Marthijn's partner had been arrested on suspicion of engaging in child abuse.

At the time of the attack on Marthijn I had been in touch with the people who had been in contact with Marthijn, and even more so around the time of the raid and the arrest of Lesley. Marthijn is still convinced that his partner was arrested at the time in order to intimidate him, and to silence him. He wrote to me: ''"I saw my partner being taken away on a completely fabricated charge. The extensions of the pretrial detention were outrageous. As his partner, I was also not allowed to attend the sessions allegedly due to measures taken due to the corona virus pandemic. But journalists were allowed to attend! The only thing they had against my partner was that he was "the-partner-of". On that, and on based on the lie that his parents did not want him to be released, his pretrial detention was repeatedly extended. That was outrageous!"''

'''Detention'''

In 2020, a house search took place at the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley. This was legally sanctioned by the authorities suspecting Marthijn of having committed "sedition"; the Public Prosecution Service referred to statements on its websites and in the media. Lesley was arrested during the house search, then confined in isolation for ten weeks and then only released after six months.

The OM revealed that Lesley was suspected of having "prepared to kidnap and rape a child." The OM also reports that a children's room was found within the house of Lesley and Marthijn and a studio in the garage to make child pornography. Sex paraphernalia, including dildos, were found in Lesley's bedroom. And according to the Public Prosecution Service, a Stanley knife, lubricant and anesthetic tablets were found in his backpack, which indicated he was preparing to commit that crime.

The OM kept Lesley hanging for two years. At the end of April 2022, the case finally went to court. The charge of "preparing to kidnap and rape a child" had disappeared from the indictment, as had charges concerning the possession of dozens of images of child pornography. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there were no indications of the existence of a "children's room," nor of a studio to make child pornography.

Lesley (like his colleagues) needs the Zip ties and the Stanley knife for his work – he is a warehouse worker. The "lube" was actually a jar of Working Hands cream - the skin of his hands is cracked because of his physical work. The so-called "anesthetics" were actually magnesium pills he used to numb the recurring pain in his leg muscles, a consequence of Lesley's veganism.

'''"Child Pornography"'''

The charge against Lesley has been reduced by the OM to "making and possessing child pornography". The petition from the prosecutor: one year in prison, four months of which were to be suspended. Lesley was sentenced to ten weeks in prison. (He was held in pre-trial detention for six months.) From the verdict: ''"The suspect is found guilty of making a film containing child pornography. The suspect filmed the bare buttocks of an underage boy with sexual intent."'' ("With sexual intent" – how does one measure that??)

Lesley had been making family films for a family of friends for years. During one of those filmings, one of the children mischievously dropped his pants for a moment. The Public Prosecution Service has cut that image from the video and submitted it to the court as "child pornography". A letter submitted by Lesley's lawyer, in which one of the parents wrote that Lesley was innocent and should be immediately released, is ignored by the judge.

Lesley attempted suicide twice after his release and still continues to struggle with depression. His employer, neighbours, the voluntary associations he had been involved in and many of his friends no longer want anything to do with him. He suddenly has to go through life with a criminal record stating that he has been convicted of producing child pornography. Lesley won't appeal because, mentally, he can't handle that stress.

Lesley sent me the notes that he had made while in detention. I read the poignant and above all disconcerting text with horror.

<blockquote>''I thought they mistook me for someone else and I could probably clear that up. I have never abused children and never will. Just the thought of hurting children makes me sad. I regularly burst into tears about the simplistic reporting made about me.''

''The mother of the child is also being seen as responsible by those around her for supposedly having made children available to a pedophile who, according to people, abuses children. I sometimes spontaneously bursts into tears. Both the investigation and how the people around her have reacted to it in response to news reports have deeply damaged her. I have not abused children and do not intend to. The Public Prosecution Service and the police have abused people in this case, including children, and the damage to them is immeasurable and lifelong.''</blockquote>

'''Continuing the Association'''

The raid on the house of Marthijn and Lesley appears to be a direct result of an investigation by RTL Nieuws ["Radio Television Luxembourg News," a popular Dutch television news service]. According to them, this went on undercover for several months within a private email list ''"in which the Martijn Association is still active"''. In that group, according to RTL, tips were also given on how abuse children. But for the record, the email group was not closed, and non-pedophiles and (even undercover) journalists could also join it.

RTL also placed an attention-grabbing statement on its web site: ''"A pedophile is a person with sexual feelings for children under the age of 13. Pedophilia is a sexual preference and is not punishable in the Netherlands. Sexual abuse of children, together with viewing and downloading child pornography, is punishable by law. That is not always done by pedophiles: a majority of child abusers do not have pedophilic feelings, but suffer from antisocial and sexual disorders."''

In 2021, partly on the basis of the RTL investigation and the house search, the Public Prosecution Service decided to prosecute three people for continuing the banned "pedo club Martijn": [[Nelson Maatman|Nelson]], [[Norbert de Jonge|Norbert]] and (the figurehead) [[Marthijn Uittenbogaard|Marthijn]] – all three without any previous criminal records. Nelson was acquitted, because he had never been a member of the Martijn association. The other two were sentenced to prison terms. Norbert was sentenced to four months because he helped Marthijn with the technical maintenance of the sites. Marthijn received a six-month prison sentence, without the possibility of parole, after which he appealed his sentence.

'''Ideologies'''

A quote from the judgment regarding Marthijn dated 8 March 2022. ''"Together with his co-defendant [Norbert], the suspect has continued the activities of the banned association Martijn by posting publications on various websites and making statements via a mailing list and Twitter."''

According to the court, the views expressed on the sites correspond to those of the banned association. The fact that the opinions expressed are largely quotes from politicians and scientists is not mentioned in the judgment. Moreover, it is reasonable that the views are in agreement; Marthijn (born in 1972) became a member at the time because he recognized his personal convictions in the ideas of the association founded in 1982.

The verdict continues with this striking passage: ''"It does note, however, that this ideology cannot be equated with child abuse or incitement to it. The fact that this was or would have been the case has not been evident in the proceedings that led to the prohibition of the Martijn association. The suspect has also never been convicted of sexual offenses (or any other offense)."'' And then a prison sentence of six months was imposed.

Because Marthijn and Norbert were convicted for continuing the Martijn association, I decided to take action together with former university lecturers in sexual citizenship [[Gert Hekma]] (deceased 2022) and his partner Mattias Duyves, emeritus professor [[Meindert Fennema]] and writer [[Delphine Lecompte]]. The last paragraphs of an op-ed that we offered to all respectable media:
<blockquote>
''A society that is genuinely concerned with the interests and safety of children is not content to create and then brutally destroy demonic symbols. It invests heavily in youth care and education, it ensures that the Supplement Scandal children removed from home are reunited with their parents as quickly as possible, it does not allow children to grow up in dire poverty, it does not allow reports of child abuse and abuse to be filed for months, sometimes even years on the shelf, and it does not leave children who have fled from war zones to fend for themselves.''

''Finally, last month, the majority of the House of Representatives approved the addition of 'sexual orientation' as a non-discrimination ground in Article 1 of the Constitution. The proposal is now before the Senate. A conscious choice was made for the term 'orientation' (gerichtheid) and not for 'sex' (geaardheid). The reason is that legally the term "orientation" (gerichtheid) only represents so-called consensual orientations. This excludes people with a pedophile orientation. The idea behind it: if they would give concrete expression to their focus, they would be guilty of criminal offences. The government also suffers from prejudice. [The law has now been passed, AHJD.]''

''To protest against the witch hunt for pedophiles, we are taking action: from now on we will take over the site www.brongersma.info from Marthijn Uittenbogaard. This is to prevent the rich archive he has built up over the past decades from being destroyed. If Uittenbogaard is acquitted on appeal, the site will be his again. (Norbert de Jonge will not appeal, he no longer trusts the judiciary.) If Uittenbogaard is convicted for expressing his opinion – which we cannot imagine, we expect an independent, careful approach from a judge – then we will look for a suitable host for the archive. Initially we are thinking of the COC or the IHLIA.''

''Stop criminalizing people with a pedophile orientation. Talk to them, protect them, help them, listen to them – everyone benefits from that. And above all, don't interfere with freedom of expression.''
</blockquote>

The piece was rejected by all the respected media we approached.

'''Ecuador'''

Because Marthijn and Lesley no longer have a (safe) future in the Netherlands, they decided to emigrate to a country where life is cheap. They eventually choose Ecuador because they could buy an old hotel there. The plan was to open a vegan restaurant on the ground floor, to make apartments in the rest of the building, and to rent them out.

They called in local construction workers for the renovation. Some (paid) villagers have also come to help. Meanwhile, their children played with Marthijn's PlayStation, a luxury they cannot afford. Nelson visited and rented a room, but Lesley turned him away; his alcohol and drug use and fatalistic attitude could put them in danger. Nelson left for Mexico.

Norbert, a friend of Marthijn for more than twenty-five years, comes along a few months later, as does a (straight) friend. They soon leave. They think it is unwise that village and construction worker children freely walk in and out of the house. In addition, ominous reports are beginning to appear in the local media.

The hotel, its new owners and their visitors have been on the radar of paedo hunter Tim Ballard of O.U.R. (Operation Underground Railroad) and the Dutch organization Free a Girl. The latter decided to track down the men after their emigration and called O.U.R. in.

'''QAnon'''

Tim Ballard is a conservative Mormon, a fanatical Trump and QAnon supporter, who, with his organization, hunts alleged pedophiles (supposed "networks") and pro-abortion activists worldwide. He also fulminates against the LGBTIQ + community; according to him, only straight relationships are godly. His organization raises many millions annually, without it being clear exactly where the money goes.

In addition, several investigations against him and his organization are ongoing; he is suspected of incitement, lying about actions of O.U.R. and spreading conspiracy theories about "pedo networks." He claims to have saved thousands of children from criminal (paedo) organizations, but there is no evidence. Nevertheless, his influence is growing. He is friends with several (populist) heads of state.

Algemeen Dagblad wriote about Marthijn's arrest on June 24, 2022: ''"The convicted and since-then fugitive paedosexual Marthijn U. from Hengelo was arrested in Ecuador on Thursday evening. The fugitive pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested."'' Het Parool wrote that same day:'Marthijn U. is said to have been arrested after a manhunt.' For the record, Marthijn Uittenbogaard is not a paedosexual and he was not a fugitive.

Continuation of the message from the AD: ''"In Ecuador, the well-known pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested that same Thursday. [Absent] Lesley L. was sentenced in Rotterdam on April 26, 2022 to 10 weeks in prison for producing child pornography. L. was now under arrest in the seaside resort of Canoa, for suspected abuse of three young children in his home. The organization Free a Girl had passed on incriminating information about the three men to its American partner Operation Underground Railroad and the authorities of Mexico and Ecuador."'' For the record, Lesley was not a fugitive either; he was working at the hotel at the time of the arrest.

''Het Parool'' further wrote: ''"According to Free a Girl, several children regularly stayed in the house of L. and U. They would have been lured to play video games with the story. In exchange for sweets and money, they would have had to provide sexual services. Parties are also said to have been organized with children at the swimming pool, where children were touched and sometimes raped under the influence of drugs. There would be abuse of dozens of children."''

I also kept in touch with Marthijn and Lesley when they tried to build a new life in Ecuador. Marthijn let me know in the beginning that he was terrified that someone would find out their identity; they avoided places that (Dutch) tourists visited.

A few minutes before Marthijn was arrested, I contacted him through a mobile phone app. He was on his way to the Netherlands to reconsider his situation there and to prepare for the appeal. His last message: '"'We haven't done anything, but there are lies everywhere on the internet. Norbert also had problems, I think I will, too, at customs here. Fascism. I'm listening to the song Wonderful World at the airport. It's not the Louis Armstrong version, but a cover."''

A few days after the arrest, the first ominous messages began to reach me. Marthijn and Lesley had been tortured and beaten with hammers in prison by the mafia. The videos of this were sent to acquaintances, along with ransom demands. If no payment was made, the men would be killed. That money for the ransom was put together by some friends, and then transferred to the mafia through on-line pay sites.

A few days later, Lesley emailed me:

<blockquote>''"Marth and I came to Ecuador with the goal of starting a new life. Without activism. A life where we could just walk down the street. And we could just make friends with people. Many people know that we are innocent and have said so themselves. However, those statements were not in writing. We still need a lawyer. So he can take down the statements and bring them in. The beatings stopped a few days back, but you never know if they will start again."''</blockquote>

I got some photos of the cell and of the courtyard. And of the men, too. The photos didn't make me happy. Marthijn in particular looked terrible: he was skinny and sad. Lesley, despite his bruises, seemed to be doing better. He wrote me that he wants to donate the hotel and restaurant to a vegan movement and then, with the proceeds, his friends and the poor people from the village can be helped.

''''Swimming pool''''

More is now becoming clear about the arrests. Several reports had appeared in the local media, each time with the name "Tim Ballard" appearing in them. The hotel had (according to him) housed an international network of pedophiles, of which Marthijn and Lesley were the leaders. Hundreds of children were (supposedly) drugged, abused and sold for sexual purposes. "Sex parties" with children were (supposedly) regularly held in the hotel's swimming pool, something Free a Girl claimed as well. For now, it is enough to note that Marthijn and Lesley's hotel does not have a swimming pool at all!

Ballard ramped up coverage of us in the months following our arrest. He claimed in films that he had tracked down and liberated more than four hundred victims in the home of Marthijn and Lesley. He emphasized the conviction of Lesley (production of child pornography) and the case against Marthijn (continuation of a prohibited association). The snowball is keeps increasing in size as it rolls along.

Due to the coverage in the Ecuadorian media, the two men were transferred for security reasons to a secluded part of the prison, and they have a room they have to share with seven drug addicts. A lawyer is now in the picture, who keeps in touch with a family member of Marthijn.

After a while, Marthijn and Lesley managed to arrange a lawyer. She asked for thirty thousand euros to bribe the judge and the police. A day later this amount was increased to one hundred and sixty thousand euros. Maybe she too was threatened. The fact that communication took place via Google Translate did not make it any easier: the lawyer barely speaks English.

Together with the family member with whom the men were and are in contact, I decided not to take up the family member's offer, perhaps it was a trap. Fortunately, the family member got in touch with Lesley via the prison telephone, and he and Marthijn also wanted no illegal "hanky-panky", but they wanted a fair trial. The lawyer gave in, but she had to have money to do research and prepare the case.

Martijn and Lesley were now back in contact with their fellow villagers. They heard from them that Tim Ballard was paying the media to write the menacing reports. Reports also reached Martijn and Lesley that Ballard had paid witnesses to give false statements; if they refused - these friends had pointed out that Lesley and Marthijn were innocent - he threatened them with trial and imprisonment. They also heard that Americans in contact with Ballard were offering money to have them killed.

According to the lawyer, the first session, without Marthijn and Lesley, was halted by the judge; he wanted more money for him and his secretary. He also threatened to transfer the men to another prison if payment was not made.

'''Corruption'''

The tone of reporting in the Ecuadorian media has become even grimmer. The newspapers and web sites claim that Ballard has exposed the largest international pedo ring ever known. Not much later, Lesley and Marthijn were suddenly transferred to the most notorious prison in the country, the Guayaquil Prison. According to the lawyer, there were plans to hang Marthijn and Lesley in their cell and call it suicide. That explains the move.

Dutch lawyer Sidney Smeets tried to bring the case before the Ministry again, but that was not successful. He did get the addresses of three law firms that are "probably" not corrupt. Both the men's relative and their lawyer tried to call them in, but the lawyers wouldn't take the case: there is too much negative coverage in the media.

The extortion (asking for bribes) started again, as Lesley and Marthijn had become a "lucrative business model". Whenever I saw the area code for Ecuador on my cell phone screen, I wouldn`t answer the phone. The family member also stopped responding. Finally, the attempts at extortion stopped.

An "influential" fellow prisoner informed Lesley that he had brought them to Guayaquil because he wanted to use them for a prisoner exchange with the Netherlands. Whether that is true, we do not know, but Marthijn and Lesley were "safe" again. The lawyer indicated that he needed more money for the investigation, so we transferred money again; always in small amounts, so as not to arouse suspicion - Ecuador is known as a "suspect country" and business transactions are therefore prohibited.

During that time, Lesley sent us the following email:

<blockquote>''"Our lawyer is very bad, and probably a fraud. She has cost us more than U.S. $20,000 and the trial hasn't even begun yet. People here say she's a con artist. She recently applied to transfer us to Bahia, even though she knows that it is not safe for us there. Again, she did not consult with us first. And she had already indicated that she was no longer our lawyer. Also, this recent filing supposedly costs a few thousand dollars more. This country is all about extorting money, stealing money, blackmailing, and cheating."''</blockquote>

Nevertheless, Marthijn and Lesley generally did not sound bitter in their messages. I received many touching messages and texts, and the name Gandhi regularly appeared in them. Marthijn and Lesley advocate for peaceful protest, not hatred towards their enemies. And in believing what you stand for.

Other messages, on the other hand, were pretty grim. ''"Two days ago 14 dead. Prisoners have machine guns, pistols, knives, etc. We hear the fighting, shots and loud explosions, but they are at a another location, not far away."''

And this one, about a fellow villager: ''"Then comes a statement from G. who says "the police keep harassing me, I want this to stop. The police insist that I make false statements about Lesley. They offered me money to do so, and also things like a TV and a refrigerator. I saw that they also tried to bribe my sister, too."''

Lesley also told me that the person who tortured him and demanded a ransom in the first prison they stayed in has recently been murdered. And this: ''"The lawyer who had claimed to be from the mafho had asked for absurd amounts of money to help us get out of prison was also assassinated two months ago."''

'''National Award'''

Meanwhile, Tim Ballard received a national award from the wife of the president of <s>Mexico</s>[Ecuador<ref>[https://www.ourrescue.org/reports/2022-annual.pdf OUR 2022 Impact Report]</ref> - Newgon] for dismantling "the network" of Marthijn, Lesley and Nelson. It's unclear what happened to Nelson. However, it is suspected that Ballard set a trap for him and was present at Nelson's arrest.

In any case, when Lesley was arrested, Ballard was conspicuously present, dressed in a police uniform and equipped with a machine gun. His team filmed the spectacular arrest; the footage will be featured in a documentary that Ballard plans to put online in March 2023, "The Hidden War". He claims online that he intends to visit the Netherlands, among other places, to promote it.

The men have not yet seen a judge; without their being involved in the process, their detention has been extended several times. They still don't know exactly what crime they are suspected of having committed. Marthijn emailed Amnesty International about their case, and also about the lawsuit that is still pending in the Netherlands. The Amnesty spokesperson replied: ''"We do not focus on individual cases, but on situations where criticism (from the media, political parties, activist groups, lawyers and investigative committees, etc. etc.) of the authorities are deliberately and systematically blocked (as in China for example)."''

I emailed Evelien Holsken, from Free a Girl, and their spokesman, Arjan Erkel, who was once an innocent prisoner himself. I explained to them the situation in Ecuador, including the information about their partner, Tim Ballard. I indicated that I wanted a constructive conversation with them, and not one full of accusations. I got no response from them. It is likely that Holsken and Erkel are not pleased with the legal case that Free a Girl has brought to the public's attention with such bravado, which has put the men in fear of their lives.

''De Telegraaf'' interviewed Tim Ballard at the time. In response to the text submitted to him via Sidney Smeets, Lesley wrote, as I mentioned, that he is in close contact with friendly villagers:

<blockquote>''I heard that the children were detained by the police for 24 hours when I was arrested. And that they were repeatedly threatened with being beaten with batons. When they were hungry, they were not given food. Police were eating in front of the children, and laughing at them. Their parents sat outside crying. And it is understood that the police here are known to be violent. Tim Ballard was always there. And he threatened the parents several times. The problem is that if you report these things publicly, it is very risky. Tim Ballard can operate with impunity in these countries. With the money he has, he can wrap the police and the OM around his finger. And people don't dare stand up for themselves.''</blockquote>

''De Telegraaf'' decided not to publish the interview with Ballard.''

'''Brongersma'''

Meanwhile, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is also making its presence known again. This time, not to Marthijn and Lesley, but through a registered letter to the people who host the websites www.marthijn.nl and www.brongersma.info. On November 17, 2022, the Public Prosecutor wrote:

<blockquote>''The court is of the opinion that the website www.brongersma.info can be regarded as a continuation of the activities of an organization that has been declared prohibited by an irrevocable court decision. Continuing that activity constitutes a criminal offense as referred to in Article 140 paragraph 2 of the Penal Code . Taking into account the above, I urge you to make the illegal content inaccessible within 7 days and to remove it as far as possible.''</blockquote>

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the site www.brongersma.info should be taken offline and removed. Our host complied with the request, fearing prosecution and the associated expensive attorney fees. We have now obtained legal advice and it appears that the content of the site is not criminal and that the verdict does not stipulate that the site must go offline. Moreover, the destruction of the site cannot be requested because Marthijn's appeal has yet to be filed. Meindert Fennema and I are now investigating how we can get the site back online as soon as possible. The other site co-owners have discontinued their participation.

'''PEN Netherlands'''

Finally, the personal consequences. Of course they are completely insignificant compared to what Lesley and Marthijn are going through, but they say a lot about the (intolerant) zeitgeist.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I have received the threats that were expected to come. It was no surprise to me, either. But I never realized that twenty years of work experience could evaporate in such a short time. My work experience as an economist, consultant, project leader, editor-in-chief, workshop leader, lecturer, etc. was suddenly worthless. The word "pedophilia" unleashes strange emotions.

When you type my name into any search engine, the word often appears, accompanied by unnuanced and highly biased reporting. (i.e."Pedophile Writer Supports Child Rapists.")

I was fired, clients said goodbye, my communication agency went bankrupt, performances and (literary) projects were (and are) cancelled, books were returned scratched, and social media did what they do best. The word "pedophilia" often appears in reviews of my books as well, showing that the public's opinions of the author are more important than the content of his books, and that is of course disastrous for book sales. My literary career continues to dwindle, to evaporate -- although that is not due to "Martijn" alone. The majority of my income is provided by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, for which I am very grateful, but of course this cannot continue indefinitely.

At the height of the threats and firings, I approached PEN Netherlands. Alexis de Roode said on behalf of the board that PEN did not want to help me. According to them, I had caused the consequences myself; with a subject like pedophilia one should know what to expect. I replied that a critical writer in Iran or China also knows what the consequences of his or her actions can be. Unfortunately, there is no help available, and even PEN is dominated by superficial activism. Kristien Hemmerechts experienced the same thing after she was threatened after the publication of her novel about Marc Dutroux's wife, The woman who fed the dogs. She knocked on the door of PEN Belgium and was told almost the same thing that I was.

Despite such large opposition, my motto remains unchanged: Always boldly forward! We are the zeitgeist!

We are now writing early February 2023. Marthijn and Lesley have been locked up in Ecuador for about eight months and they have still not appeared before a judge. The search for a non-corrupt lawyer there continues, as does the search for funds to finance the defense. According to the latest reports, the trial is scheduled for early March.

Marthijn's higher court appeal in the Netherlands is still pending, and no date has been set yet.

On February 3, Lesley emailed me:
<blockquote>
'''We only have 27 days left.''

''We don't have a (good) lawyer yet.''

''We don't have a dossier.''

''We don't have any witness statements.''
</blockquote>
'''Disclosure:'''

In writing this essay I have made use of some texts that I previously published, including Frayed Edges of Moral (Atlas Contact Publishers, 2013).

I've submitted the text to Marthijn and Lesley, to make sure I'm not putting them in any unnecessary danger; I removed some passages (referring to the Mafia). Lawyer Sidney Smeets has also read and commented on that earlier version. Norbert emailed the following: ''"This is a standardized reply. A portion of your email contains subject matter related to pedophilia, either explicitly or indirectly. Nowadays, certain Dutch nationals discuss such subjects in any way risk imprisonment. Therefore, unfortunately, it's too dangerous for me to respond to your email."''

==Rolling updates, beginning in 2023==

'''Update February 7th, 2023:'''

Lesley emailed me that OUR (Operation Underground Railroad) is back in Canoa and is offering parents big bucks to falsely testify:

<blockquote>''Because the police have nothing, they try to bribe the parents. They are offering large amounts of money. One of the parents told me: 'If I had said yes, I would never have to work again for the rest of my life. ''[...]'' OUR has promised family F., among other things, to buy them a house if they testify against me. C., who has been bribed, is said to have received, among other things, a piece of land in Jama. G. was promised large sums of money and a house yesterday. Tomorrow they will declare under oath.''</blockquote>

'''Update - February 9:'''

Arjan Erkel (ambassador of Free a Girl) sent me an concerned email after I sent him the essay. He indicated that he would inform Free a Girl about the case. A few hours later he emailed again. The contact person at Free a Girl had told him that I was not a neutral party, because I was a member of the Martijn association and was also a pedophile. Arjan asked me if it was true that I was a pedophile. My answer:
<blockquote>
''Hi Arjan, Free a Girl's response immediately indicates where things go wrong: prejudices and wrong assumptions – not good research. What are they basing their information on? And does it matter if someone is a pedophile?

''In addition, I wrote to you this morning:''

''"Arjan, thank you very much for your answer.''

''It is good to be informed about the activities of Free a Girl, because they go too far in their mission (which I sympathize with in principle).''

''Unfortunately, I know quite a few victims of abuse in my immediate vicinity, and I see that thirty or forty years later they are still struggling with the consequences. In all cases, however, it is not the work of a pedophile, but of a family member. Studies show that approximately eighty percent of child abuse takes place in the within the family, mainly by fathers. And that only is with regards to the reported cases – parents of victims within a family context are less likely to report. Because in such cases the domestic safety of the child is also at risk, given the overall lack of a sense of security, the impact is even greater than with 'strangers'. Moreover, 'situational paedosexuals' (heterosexuals) have penetration fantasies, while most pedophiles mainly want to give caresses, as they do not wish to harm the child.''

'''''My wife works in child welfare''' and she also sees this problem, but due to budget cuts they cannot do all that is necessary. Yet the government, the Public Prosecution Service in the lead, stubbornly continues to look the other way. Just like Free a Girl.''

''I think it would be better if Free a Girl focused its attentions on the main source of child abuse (and maltreatment!) in the Netherlands and not continue to pick the low-hanging fruit - and make a lot of noise about it. As I write in the essay, creating and then destroying evil symbols is detrimental to solving the problem and preventing future victims. Hubris and self-aggrandizing is also lurking in the background.''

''It is important to distance yourself from the Operation Underground Railroad, as they are deeply in the wrong - try searching Google, in particular Vice magazine has written a lot about Ballard and his associates.''

''Warm regards and good luck,''

''Anton."''
</blockquote>
'''Update - February 12:'''

''The site www.brongersma.info is online again.''

'''Update - February 14:'''

Arnon Grunberg published an article in ''[https://archive.is/zl1eT Het Parool]'' in which he draws attention to the bad practices of Tim Ballard / O.U.R.

Lesley told me that Ballard is absent in the process that starts on March 1st. A few fellow villagers are witnessed, however.

'''Update February 16:'''

The men have found a new (reliable) lawyer. According to Lesley, the file has recently changed (afterwards). Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have disappeared from the text as the reason for the arrest. Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that the arrest was based on lies, nonsense stories and prejudices of Ballard trying to keep his name out of the file.

'''Update February 20:'''

Marth & Lesley have told me that their lawyer has prevented parents from giving incriminating statements about O.U.R. and the police.

''"All lawyers here are liars who always claim something else."''

According to them, a false statement has been included from a woman who has received goods, a house and a piece of land from the police in exchange for fabrications about Lesley. There would be several witnesses that confirm this.

'''Update February 23:'''

I received an email from Nelson, from prison in Mexico:

<blockquote>''Nelson here.''

''The story about me is just as bizarre as Lesley and Marthijn. The police claimed that the head detective in my case was half a meter away and I was so nervous that I dropped a folder with child pornography on the street. Child porn from girls notable. Video images of Operation Underground Railroad shows that it is bullshit. I put the [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207031054/https://www.freespeechtube.org/user/Nelson whole story] on freesepeechtube.org including [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207015558mp_/https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19jF charge] (which is atm offline for maintenance)''
''
Sincerely,''

''Nelson.''</blockquote>

'''27 Feb: [https://twitter.com/looovetinkebell/status/1630319860256317440 Interview with Dautzenberg and Tinkebell]''' (In Dutch, Twitter.com).

'''Update March 1:'''

The process in Ecuador has been postponed to 14 and 15 March.

The criminal file contains a passage that can be interpreted as saying that the Dutch prosecutor's office has given information to Free a Girl and Tim Ballard, and participated in the arrest of Marthijn and Lesley. Lawyer Sidney Smeets asked both the OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 16 February for clarification. Because there was no answer to this, he sent a remover. He then received an answer that they had not received the mail. (I was in the BCC, so very debatable.) But well, now they can't get away from it anymore.

'''Update March 2:'''

A message from Lesley:

<blockquote>''I'm going to talk about corruption in court. By name and by everyone. I want to inform you that I and Marthijn are not going to commit suicide. Regardless of what comes out. If we are found dead, I want to be very clear here that it was not suicide. Regardless of what it would look like according to the authorities. ''[...]'' Police who gets money from someone to preach lies. A judge who asks me personal money to release me. ''[...]'' Police who promised parents money, goods and houses in exchange for false statements. ''[...]'' My strength lies in that foreign media is following it. And I am sending it my file right now. So we wait.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 10:'''

Marthijn's new lawyer was refused entry to the prison despite obtaining written permission. She wants to prepare the case with her client. According to her, the defense is very bad so far, probably deliberately so. The necessary opportunities for entering and requesting evidence are wasted. The OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have still not answered the letter from Sidney Smeets (March 1). The session will take place definitively on March 14 and 15.

'''Update March 14:'''

Lesley and Marthijn now have the same lawyer. She has now been partly paid, but she demands more money to "pay" the police and the judge. Lesley and Marthijn refuse; they do not want to participate in corruption.

<blockquote>''I am not going to give money to lawyers for whose entire strategy consists of corruption. I have told this lawyer several times that I do not want to spend 1 dollar on corruption. She asks for 22k in wages, but it appears that at least half of the 22k is intended for corruption. Therefore, lawyers have little interest in discussing the case, because their strategy is not making a strong plea, but simply giving all those present money. O.U.R. has already given the man far more than 20k. They are not going to support me if they would get 1 or 2 K from me. ''[...]'' If I knew everything in advance, I would not have taken a lawyer. And I could have given the children more in Canoa.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 16:'''

The process was extended by a day. The men get the impression that the lawyers are taking their own course, without consultation. The interpreter that is present during the process hardly speaks English, let alone Dutch. Lesley says that the parents who have to testify today are threatened by the police. They do not feel safe and do not want to testify without the presence of a reliable lawyer. Lesley asks for this today at the judge.

'''Update March 17:'''

The Dutch OM has finally responded to the letter from Sidney Smeets. However, they do not give a clear answer and beat around the bush. Moreover, the Public Prosecutor sends his answer (consciously) exactly one day after the hearing in Ecuador would have been officially completed. That hearing has been postponed to March 22. Lesley did not want to participate in corruption and fired the lawyer. The court now appoints its own lawyer. In addition, a Dutch translator will be arranged.

'''Update March 22:'''

The session with Marthijn and Lesley has been moved forward again.

Lesley said that documents have emerged on which the previous lawyer forged the signatures of Marthijn and Lesley. He sent a clear example. These were documents that gave her "permission" to act on their behalf.

An elderly Belarusian woman is now also involved in the process. She rented a room in the hotel from Marthijn and Lesley for a short period of time. According to Lesley, she too is a victim of Tim Ballard's lies. She is likely to be released due to health issues.

'''Update March 24:'''

The process will continue on March 31.

'''Update April 3:'''

Lesley informed me that the court-appointed attorney is very good. ''"Other lawyers could only talk about money and corruption. They were not aware of the matter. This one came up with a good defense against a statement from an agent."'' The agent has stated in court that his previous statements were incorrect. '''The case will continue on April 6.''' Three judges are now on the case; the chance of corruption is thus reduced.

'''Update April 12:'''

The men informed me that the process is well under way. Agents who lied earlier now tell the truth: children were not drugged and abused. The psychologist who spoke to the children reported that they were never touched. The neighborhood researcher indicated that the villagers are angry about the behavior of the police and that Lesley and Marthijn are good friendly people.

'''Update April 18:'''

The prosecutor is sick; the trial continues on May 3.

'''Update May 7:'''

The prosecutor is still sick, but he sends messages to the media. According to the men's lawyer, these are diversionary tactics, tricks, because he knows he is losing the case. The media reports also publish the [[Operation Underground Railroad|O.U.R.]] and [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] sourced information (which is demonstrably false). ''De Telegraaf'' has picked up those messages, spiced them up and provided them with even more suggestive (demonstrably false) information. Moreover, the 'journalists' of ''De Telegraaf'' do not refer to the adversity.

'''Update May 9:'''

OM man was absent again today. He now has until 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon to come up with a doctor's statement. He had to report whether he was still ill 24 hours before the hearing, but had not reported anything. And that OM man indicated last week, after being called why he was not there, that he was about to undergo surgery. Two hours later he was present at another court case as a public prosecutor… If he does not come with a doctor's statement, his department will be fined. But everything is fraud here… Another negative article about us in the media here by the same author but now on another news site.

'''Update May 10:'''

Today the NOS has taken over an article from RTV Oost. It was written by an anti-pedo activist, not a journalist. It is based solely on reports in the Ecuadorian media and on erroneous assumptions. The information is demonstrably false and suggestive. Lawyer Sidney Smeets is in consultation with both NOS and RTV Oost about a rectification on behalf of Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update May 11:'''

NOS has removed the message. ''"On closer inspection, the article turned out not to meet the journalistic standards of the NOS. We have not been able to sufficiently verify the facts so far and have decided to withdraw the article until further notice."'' RTV Oost has also removed the message. A gang war is currently raging again in Guayaquil prison. Lesley said that they are also being shot at. ''"Tim Ballard declares that I raped 400 children in 1 village. And would have smuggled 6000 children and women from Ukraine to Latin America. Such things are not possible at all. Certainly not without leaving evidence."''

'''Update May 13:'''

The judge has issued an ultimatum to the Public Prosecution Service, which has now been delaying the court case for more than three weeks by not showing up: a (new) public prosecutor must take office within 24 hours, otherwise he threatens to dismiss the case. According to the lawyer, the attitude is of the Public Prosecution Service most likely a deliberate strategy; when the judge dismisses the case, both they and the police can remain unaffected. It is time for a quality Dutch newspaper to finally delve into the process, a journalist who is not out to confirm prejudices – so far they systematically refuse to do so.

'''Update May 16:'''

According to the men's lawyer, the Public Prosecution Service has not yet made any statements. Lesley: ''“It is now 4×24 hours later (96 hours). I wonder when a decision will be made. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. ''[…]'' Letting us speak on the basis of system errors is the best outcome for them. They know they are losing the case. Hence the negative media reports. When we get out they are going to portray the judges and us as corrupt.”''

'''Update May 19:'''

The sessions have started again.

'''Update June 13:'''

The trial is nearing its end, and a verdict is expected at the end of this week. "Lawyer against us: there is no evidence against you, but I can't say that you will be declared innocent, this is Ecuador, you never know what is going on behind the scenes."

'''Update June 20:'''

Judgment is at 9 p.m.

Message at 7:48 p.m:

<blockquote>
Minutes crawl by. Kitten normally sleeps on my bed all day. And plays outside at night. Now she slept all night. And now she's playing outside. Hopefully we can still get her out. Life in prison is not fun for animals either. Not everyone is as sweet as us. While there is 0 evidence against us and parents stand up for us and tell us about police corruption, the chance of staying in jail because of corruption remains very high. All parents and children in Canoa are also tense. Many could not sleep. Hopefully I'll be on the mountain with all of them tonight. Looking at the sea. With some beers and cocktails. Now lunchtime. Hopefully the last time I have to eat meat.
</blockquote>

Message at 22.59: 'Conviction for possession of child pornography. Ten years.'

'''Update June 21:'''

Much is unclear, the verdict has not yet been made available. [https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/816563997/pedo-marthijn-u-samen-met-compagnon-veroordeeld-tot-10-jaar-cel-voor-kinderporno De Telegraaf] took over a message from an Ecuadorian site and blew it up, but did not translate it properly. The men were reportedly only convicted because 'child pornography', mainly TikTok videos, was allegedly found on Marthijn's computer and on Lesley's phone. All charges of O.U.R. and Free a Girl have been rejected, contrary to what De Telegraaf claims. More information will follow when the verdict becomes available.

'''Update June 28:'''

The written verdict has not yet been released. Marthijn is not doing well; he is depressed and cries all day. Lesley seems to remain fairly stable and constructive. The men are appealing.
Parents in Canoa, the village where Marthijn and Lesley lived, post messages on social media in which they call O.U.R. accusing them of misusing photos and videos of their children to illustrate alleged acts of heroism. O.U.R. claims to have saved the children after the parents allegedly sold the children.

'''Update July 3:'''

The written judgment has not yet been made available; therefore no appeal can be lodged yet, even though there are legal deadlines attached to this. The Dutch & Detained Foundation contacts the Ecuadorian lawyer to prevent the appeal from being declared inadmissible.

'''Note from Newgon Org, Jul 5''':

It is worth mentioning at this point, a large post made on the blog of Dautzenberg, which includes statements made by Marthijn. These will require translating and checking over, as they are in Dutch and Spanish.

But the gist of these messages is that the men have been set-up, and Dautzenberg does not doubt their innocence. The absurd claims made by O.U.R. and their state-funded Dutch partner were found to be without credit in court, and were dismissed with extreme prejudice. Thus, a charge had to be concocted to bring the prosecution to a credible conclusion for the well-funded and well-connected charities who had initiated the arrests, but whose lies could not pass in a court of law. And thus, a decision was made by the judge to aver on the balance of probabilities that material obtained from freely available and highly controlled websites such as [[Wikipedia:Pornhub|Pornhub]] and [[Wikipedia:TikTok|TikTok]] featured people marginally under the age of majority in "sexual" situations. It is against these claims that the men will appeal, and will seek to mobilize a liberal element in Dutch journalism, to shine a light on the injustice.

'''In two parts:'''

*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/persbericht-gevangen-in-ecuador-we-zijn-onschuldig/ PERSBERICHT – gevangen in Ecuador, ‘We zijn onschuldig’]
*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/teksten-van-marthijn-uittenbogaard/ Teksten van Marthijn Uittenbogaard]

'''Update July 5:'''

A press release [above] has been sent to about thirty media addresses. Added two texts by Marthijn.

'''Update July 7:'''

Marthijn responded to the message that an agent in the Netherlands has been sentenced to one day in prison, because he violated the duty of confidentiality (about rapper Lil Kleine) and because he sent sexually tinted messages to a twelve-year-old girl and tried to get her to commit fornication. “If Lesley or I committed those two sex offenses, I suspect we would get years. Plus possibly TBS.'

'''Update July 13:'''

The written verdict is still not available, so the appeal cannot yet be lodged. As far as is known, nothing has been done with the press release that was sent to thirty media outlets in the Netherlands on 5 July. Apparently there is no room for adversity, for the sound of Marthijn and Lesley. Perhaps the journalists are just too busy closely following the vicissitudes of the Hazes, De Mol and Op1 families. Lesley and Marthijn are now in contact with the American YouTube journalists who critically investigate Tim Ballard's crusades inspired by God.

'''Update July 16:'''

Tim Ballard has left O.U.R. He travels the world to promote Sound of Freedom, a feature film about his (alleged) exploits. His successor at O.U.R. is Matt Osborne, also reportedly a far-right Mormon and QAnon supporter. Lesley from prison: "You'd think O.U.R. very interesting for critical journalists. Apparently pedo hunters are untouchable, even if it is very clear that the people who are arrested are probably not pedos.”

'''Update July 24:'''

According to VICE, Tim Ballard has left not only O.U.R., but also the Nazarene Fund, a similar organization. He was fired for sexual misconduct on missions and financial malpractice. His documentary The Hidden War, with footage of the arrest of Lesley and children (‘victims’) from the village, is unlikely to be broadcast; O.U.R. deleted all information about it.

In the prison of Marthijn and Lesley, a fight broke out between two gangs and the police. "Bombs have exploded in our pavilion and a tank has driven in, the prison shop is completely broken."

'''Update July 27:'''

The death toll of the uprising has risen to 31. Lesley and Marthijn are unharmed and indicate that peace has returned and that they feel relatively safe.

They received the news about Thijs Römer from their cell. The actor has persuaded several underage girls to send him masturbation photos and videos. He himself sent dickpics. The Public Prosecution Service demands community service. Lesley and Marthijn would receive years of imprisonment for the same offense, because the Public Prosecution Service condemns their orientation, their inner world. Lesley on the case in Ecuador: 'We are political prisoners. Amnesty does nothing either. Here too, an Ecuadorian would not get a cell for what was found with us: adult pornography and a girl who dances like Beyoncé and who recorded it herself.

'''Update August 4:'''

Dutch & Detained has contacted Marthijn and Lesley's pro bono lawyer and informed him of the legal term for publishing the judgment and for the appeal. Both have been amply exceeded, but according to the lawyer, this is how it works in Ecuador and it could take months before the judge releases the written verdict.

Things are going well with the men. Peace has returned after the great uprising and they are learning Spanish. Fortunately, Marthijn is no longer depressed, but he is angry with those involved. He especially seeks solace in the songs of George Michael and Bruce Springsteen.

'''Update August 14:'''

In the wing of the Guayaquil prison where Lesley and Marthijn are detained, the Ecuadorian army removed and transferred the leader of one of Ecuador's largest gangs in a large-scale raid last Saturday. Adolfo Macias Villamar, aka Fito - sentenced to 34 years in prison for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder - is suspected of involvement in the deadly attack on presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during the raid. All cells in the wing were searched and telephones seized, including those of Marthijn and Lesley. So there is no longer any contact with them. Last Friday, Lesley announced that they are making progress in learning Spanish. ‘Marth practices for hours every day with Duolingo and reading books. His vocabulary is wide. But he can't understand people very well. I understand people. And can have conversations. But vocabulary is insufficient. I can read well. I use whatsapp and social media a lot in Spanish.' He also sent a photo of their fully healed pussy. As far as is known, the written judgment has still not been made public.
I have informed my contact persons at Dutch & Detained and Probation Service.

'''Update August 21:'''

A befriended fellow villager reported that Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe and that they will probably be able to communicate again soon. They have not eaten for days, but money has now been transferred to the prison so that they can buy water and food.

Dutch & Detained and Probation Service have not yet responded to the messages.

'''Update September 7:'''

There were riots in several prisons in Ecuador last week. Guards were taken hostage by prisoners, but have now been released. It is not clear whether this also happened at the location where Marthijn and Lesley are located. Contact with the men is not yet possible.

'''Update September 9:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going reasonably well and they feel relatively safe again. However, they were tortured by the army during the raids: they had to lie on their stomachs on the concrete floor for more than four hours, with their hands and feet tied. The soldiers also demolished a lot: doors, cupboards and television sets.

'''Update September 17:'''

Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are under heavy fire in Ecuador. They are accused of fabricating the liberation of alleged child abuse victims in Canoa, and threatening innocent people and children who claim otherwise. The allegations also relate to corruption; they allegedly bribed police and high-ranking officials to confirm their fake stories. The Ecuadorian minister says that not a single victim has been found, Ballard continues to cling to four hundred victims. Official charges are being prepared, including by the parents of children who have been wrongly portrayed as rape victims by Ballard and co. In the meantime, Marthijn and Lesley are still in custody and have still not received the written verdict.

'''Update September 28:'''

The allegations against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Reportedly, American Crime Journal will further investigate and report on 'Canoa'. They say they have evidence that O.U.R. bribes judges to get people convicted. Lesley and Martijn have still not received a written verdict and the lawyer assigned to them cannot tell them what exactly they have been convicted of. Dutch&Detained also receives no answer. We are diligently looking for money to arrange a good lawyer, so that he can provide clarity and prepare the appeal.

'''Update October 9:'''

We have managed to free up money. Dutch&Detained will try to arrange a reliable lawyer and will supervise the process contractually. The Unmasking of Tim Ballard and O.U.R. in the American media is progressing well.

'''Update October 21:'''

American Crime Journal journalists are working on a series of articles on the Canoa case. They interview children (and their parents) allegedly by Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have been kidnapped, abused and pressured to give false testimony about alleged abuse. VICE also prepares publications. We contacted the NRC correspondent in Ecuador, but he did not respond. Dutch journalists still do not want to delve into the case.

'''Update October 31:'''

The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances. The written judgment has still not been published. Dutch&Detained is trying to find a reliable lawyer. American Crime Journal is working on a series of articles about the case. The Dutch media still look the other way.

'''Update November 8:'''

Shots are fired again in Guayaquil prison. Explosions can also be heard again. The drug wars between different gangs are partly fought in prison. Marthijn and Lesley try to remain aloof as much as possible. They are holding up relatively well under the circumstances and are even trying to follow the Dutch elections. Marthijn in particular is concerned about the further rightward movement of our country. 'Asylum centers will soon become full or half prisons.' Yet there remains room for gentleness. 'Try to enjoy life and don't worry too much about all this nonsense. How's your book going?'

'''Update November 20:'''

Another person has been found dead in the men's pavilion, a murder or suicide.

ING still refuses to cooperate in a transfer of Lesley's savings; they make impossible demands and do not delve into the situation. We need the money to hire a reliable lawyer and pay off debts.

Good news: the men were able to buy fruit this week for the first time since the arrest. And Lesley celebrated his birthday this week. A fellow inmate cooked noodles for him in a pot heated with electric wires, in exchange for a bar of soap and a sachet of detergent – €1.35 in total.
We are still waiting for the written verdict.

'''Update November 30:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available.

The criticism and charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Several American journalists have become involved in the case.

After much insistence, ING has indicated that it is willing to cooperate in releasing Lesley's assets. We now have to wait for a reliable lawyer; Dutch&Detained is still working on that.

Marthijn and Lesley will regularly write a text from prison; the texts can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/11/berichten-uit-ecuador/ here].

'''Update December 10:'''

Lesley had an allergic reaction this week: swollen lips, little air. Fortunately, the complaints disappeared after a while. He is a vegan, but in prison he has to eat whatever is served to him. He has had several life-threatening allergic reactions in his life. According to him, there is no doctor in prison and there are no medicines either. He's worried. “God gave me a bad body.”

'''Update December 21:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available and made public.

Dutch & Detained has not yet managed to find an Ecuadorian lawyer willing to take on the case.

Lesley and Marthijn are doing quite well.

'''Update December 31:'''

Still no written judgment, still no lawyer, still no money from ING...

Let's hope that 2024 will go more smoothly and the truth will prevail.

===2024===

'''Update January 9, 2024:'''

A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador following the escape of Fito, the country's most dangerous criminal. He sat in the same pavilion as Lesley and Marthijn. The newsreels do not bode well: all the prisoners lie half-naked on the ground, their hands and feet tied with tie-wraps. To date it has not been possible to contact Lesley and/or Marthijn.

'''Update January 11:'''

The situation in Ecuador is rapidly deteriorating, a spiral of violence has gripped the country. Nothing has been heard from Marthijn and Lesley for days. It is unknown where they are and how they are doing. The Foreign Affairs diplomatic mission has made contact with the Ecuadorian prison system (SNAI).

'''Update January 13:'''

Lesley called me collect call from prison. I paraphrase: 'The police carried out raids with brute force for four days. Each time I was handcuffed and had to lie on the ground in an awkward position for six hours. I was kicked in the head at least twenty times and in the back several times. The police also stood on my arms and spat in my face. Even though I didn't resist and cooperated. Other prisoners were pepper-sprayed and beaten even harder; the skin had split open and blood was pouring from the head. Les Choneros gang members then wanted to take revenge and attack and kidnap the guards, just as those from Los Lobos had done in another prison, but several inmates convinced the mafia not to do this and to call for peace. It is now quiet again. Many prisoners here are innocent, while murderers and mafia leaders are acquitted. Everything is corrupt here, money gets you free. We refuse to participate in that, justice must prevail.'

'''Update January 21:'''

The army invades several times a week. Marthijn: 'Layed on the ground for nine o'clock today, my wrists tied. The army sprays pepper spray. We were kicked, hit and verbally abused several times. Also, someone had to wear a devil mask and hit everyone hard twice with a stick, while shouting with each blow. It was hell. I also lost my reading glasses. The army tears up my written texts, including my Spanish lessons. With army boots they stood on my shoulder blade, arms and fingers. They empty bottles of water over our mattress and throw sugar, coffee powder and all our belongings on the floor.' Lesley: 'The soldiers use extreme violence. I have been hit in the face many times and had pepper spray rubbed into my face. We were beaten with clubs, tortured for ten hours. Two prisoners died during the previous raid, today I also thought I would not survive. Report it to the Foreign Office, report it to the consulate, ask Arnon to pay attention to it together with Amnesty.'
Dutch&Detained, the Probation Service, the Foreign Affairs and Arnon Grunberg have been informed.

'''Update January 30:'''

Communication with the men is becoming increasingly difficult, the army is present in the prison with a heavy hand. Below is an illustrative photo; Lesley (dark brown underpants) and Marthijn (blue underpants) are in the back row, above the right of the soldiers. [Picture in original link - Newgon]

Dutch&Detained has not yet managed to find a reliable lawyer (via Amnesty and other contacts). The offices approached do not want to be exposed to the subject that has already been so emphatically framed in the media. Image formation is more important in Ecuador.

The written judgment has still not been made available. An appeal is therefore not yet possible.

Something else: today there is an article in the Volkskrant about child abuse within the family. It states that the environment is usually aware, but does not intervene. “We find child abuse so terrible that we prefer to pretend it doesn't exist.” I add: and that is why we look for scapegoats to alleviate the dissatisfaction and feelings of guilt. It was that pragmatic reflex that put Marthijn and Lesley in this situation. With thanks to the Public Prosecution Service, which also chooses the path of least resistance.

'''Update February 12:'''

Unfortunately, still no written judgment and no lawyer. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update February 26:'''

Still no verdict and no lawyer.

A fifth lawsuit is now underway against Tim Ballard and O.U.R.

Marthijn has written a letter to the Ombudsman following his investigation into the Dutch state's unlawful terrorist list. The letter can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2024/02/brief-van-marthijn-aan-de-ombudsman/ here].

'''Update Mar 11:'''

After six days of no contact, the men finally heard back, albeit indirectly. The reports are alarming. They are tortured every day by the army and have multiple wounds. All their belongings have been taken and they are barely fed. In addition, they should pray out loud every day to God and ask Jesus for forgiveness. If they do not do so, they are beaten with a wooden stick or iron bar.

The written judgment has now been delayed for eight months, while the legal period is ten days. Dutch & Detained has not yet been able to find a reliable lawyer.

'''Update Mar 17:'''

Still no contact with the men. The authorities involved have been informed.

'''Update March 21:'''

Lesley came forward through a fellow inmate. The violence by the soldiers continues, they are beaten with whips and clubs while they have to call on Jesus. Lesley is injured. The prisoners are forced to say in front of TV recordings that everything is okay; if not, they are hit with an electroshock weapon. They also get little food, Marthijn is emaciated. They are given one minute to eat, then their hands have to be raised and the remainder of the meal is taken away. The soldiers tell the prisoners that Marthijn and Lesley have abused and raped children, but most prisoners know the case and know that this is nonsense. 'But we are strong, we will make it. Sad that the international community is barely responding to the circumstances. Marth asks how your book and such are going.'

'''Update March 26:'''

Lesley and Marthijn, like their fellow prisoners, are still beaten by the military, but only when the prison authority SNAI is not nearby. They expect the soldiers to leave within two weeks and that it will then become relatively safe again. The story goes that in another pavilion prisoners died after being abused. The transfer of money via Foreign Affairs and the consulate to the prison shop was successful; Martijn and Lesley are allowed to place a small order once a week: cheese spread, slice of cake, some nuts and banana chips.

'''Update April 3:'''

There was another riot in the prison last weekend, making physical visits impossible. Volunteers from the consulate are trying to arrange a video connection to provide official information about how Lesley and Marthijn are doing.

At the request of the Foreign Affairs, the Honorary Consul has contacted several law firms, but none of them want to take on the case. The Honorary Consul in Quito also does not want to assist the men as a lawyer. Lesley and Marthijn still do not have a reliable lawyer. The written judgment is also omitted, so that no appeal can be filed. Image formation and bureaucracy rule, the law is subordinate to it.

'''Update April 16:'''

The soldiers are still present in the prison, but Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe. In the meantime, we continue to wait for the verdict and a lawyer.

'''Update April 27:'''

No contact for almost a week. According to media reports, things are wrong again in the prison; Food from outside is no longer allowed inside.

'''Update May 6:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going well considering the circumstances.

'''Update May 12:'''

The army is present 'only' three times a day, usually during meals. The soldiers hit less often, but they did take away all the belongings, including the mattresses. Lesley and Marthijn have been sleeping on concrete for a month. They have lost the Spanish textbooks, so they are bored. The pro bono lawyer remains silent. They want a reliable lawyer who can take action as quickly as possible. The head of security is (still) on their side, but there are guards who believe the media reports and accuse Marthijn and Lesley of kidnapping and raping hundreds of children. At the moment they are not very concerned about their safety, but that may be motivated by naivety and/or resignation. Their greatest need is a lawyer.

'''Update May 24:'''

Finally in touch again. Lesley had to be treated by a prison doctor because of the blows he received, but he says he is doing reasonably well again. He and Marthijn try to arrange a transfer to an LGBTQ department with the prison authorities. The authorities in the Netherlands initially have no influence on this. In the meantime, they continue to wait for the written verdict and a reliable lawyer.

'''Update June 11:'''

There has been no contact with the men for three weeks.

'''Update June 22:'''

There is still no contact with the men. The authorities involved also have no current information about the situation. Dutch&Detained has managed to find two Ecuadorian lawyers who want to take up the case. They try to contact the prison.

'''Update June 29:'''

Finally received another sign of life from the men. Things are going fairly well considering the circumstances, although they get little to eat and are only allowed to leave their cell briefly once a week. Lesley takes care of some stray cats. They are bored and hope that the consulate will deliver some books soon. He also indicates again that he wants to be transferred.

The Ecuadorian lawyers will try to visit the men this week. The consulate has also planned a video call.

'''Update July 3:'''

The lawyers visited Lesley and Marthijn and had a constructive discussion. They start working on the case. Initially, they concentrate on obtaining the written judgment.

'''Update 12 July:'''

The appointed lawyers are investigating the status of the legal case, because Marthijn and Lesley have been waiting for the written verdict for almost a year. The consulate made two video calls with the men last week. Marthijn and Lesley are still sleeping on the concrete, they are not allowed to leave their cell or are hardly allowed to leave it and they only get a meager meal once a day. They only have one pair of trousers and three T-shirts. They have explicitly stated that they want to be transferred to an LGBTI department, but that the military does not want to pass on their request to SNAI, the prison authority. Marthijn and Lesley are also regularly physically and verbally abused by the military. The consulate will now mediate and keep a finger on the pulse, so that the transfer request actually reaches the director of SNAI.

'''Update 15 July:'''

The verdict appears to have been made available to the public lawyer last May. He then filed an appeal and that was supposed to be heard this week. Marthijn and Lesley were not informed of any of this. The new lawyers are now taking over the case and have asked the judge for a postponement in order to be able to prepare properly for the appeal. As far as is known, Marthijn and Lesley were only convicted for ‘possession of child pornography’. So not for producing child pornography, kidnapping, rape, selling children, pool parties and all kinds of other nonsensical allegations as presented in the Ecuadorian (and Dutch!) media – with OUR and Free a girl as the main sources. Both Marthijn and Lesley and the lawyers strongly deny that the images found concern child pornography.

'''Update 24 July:'''

Nothing has been heard from Lesley and Marthijn in the past two weeks. Dutch&Detained is in close contact with the Ecuadorian lawyers. It is not yet known when the appeal will be heard. ABN-AMRO is being difficult about the management account with which we support the men and their legal case. It ‘poses risks for the bank that we cannot accept’, while there is legal and fully transparent cooperation with all the authorities involved. Distrust is the reagent that makes bureaucracy ferment.

'''Update July 28:'''

Alarming messages from Ecuador. Lesley and Marthijn are constantly being abused by the military. Lesley is seriously injured and has fainted several times; he has been electrocuted and beaten so badly that he cannot walk or lie on his back. Soldiers put pistols to their heads and say that they will soon be shot dead. Lesley indicates that they will not survive the continuous violence. I have informed all the organizations involved, because the men must be transferred to a safe department quickly. Code deep red/black.

A bizarre contrast: a beach volleyball player who was convicted a few years ago for abusing a minor is participating on behalf of the Netherlands at the Olympic Games. According to the NOC, everyone deserves a second chance. That is right, but it is cruel that the Netherlands hardly or not at all looks after two pedophile citizens who are being held in Ecuador under miserable conditions and who have never (not even in Ecuador) been convicted for abusing a minor.

'''Update July 31:'''

Tim Ballard is back in Ecuador, this time to promote his (heroic) film Sound of Freedom. And at the same time, the media is once again reporting on Indian stories about Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update August 11:'''

No contact or news from prison. The team of lawyers and the authorities involved are working on arranging a transfer to an LGBTQ department. The date of the appeal is not yet known.

'''Update August 12:'''

The appeal will be heard on August 23.

'''Update August 15:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been transferred to an LGBTQ-friendly department.

The appeal will be heard on August 23. The lawyers are hopeful; according to them, there is insufficient evidence to support the charges, but the media's image plays a major role in rulings.

'''Update August 19:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are doing reasonably well. They are given little to eat and the people in the new department are unpleasant, but they feel safer. For the first time in a long time, they have received books, although unfortunately they are in German. They are looking forward to the appeal.

'''Update August 24:'''

The appeal did not go ahead. The hearing has been postponed until September 11. The reason is not yet known.

'''Update September 6:'''

Yesterday, the prison in Guayaquil was bombed. How the men are doing is not known.

'''Update September 9:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are safe. The appeal is scheduled to be heard on September 11.

'''Update 13 September:'''

The judge's ruling has been upheld in the appeal. According to the lawyers, their defence was not listened to.

'''Update 17 September:'''

The honorary consul spoke to the men via video call. The situation in the LGBT pavilion is even worse than in the previous section. They share a cell with an aggressive transvestite whose behaviour ensures that they get little or no food. In addition, they are still being abused by the military, and the prison authority SNAI is aware of this. The men are called ‘child abusers’ and are constantly receiving threats from fellow prisoners. They are only allowed to leave their cell for fifteen minutes a week to walk around the courtyard. Marthijn (almost two metres tall) weighs less than sixty kilos and faints regularly. They want to be transferred back to the previous section as soon as possible, because they say they were still somewhat protected by the mafia there.

'''Update 23 September:'''

The Ecuadorian lawyers confirm that the regional court had already made the decision (confirmation of the verdict) before the hearing. They have now spoken to Marthijn and Lesley. They are opting for cassation, because they want to see their innocence proven. Transferring the sentence to the Netherlands is therefore off the table for the time being. According to the lawyers, the Court of Cassation is less sensitive to pressure from the media, although the process could take more than a year. The lawyers are trying to have the men transferred back to their old department, where they feel less unsafe.

'''Update October 4:'''

A message from Lesley. They no longer trust the lawyers, because they did not coordinate the defense with him and Marthijn. There was no substantive consultation and they were only told afterwards that the hearing had already taken place - without them. They want the sentence to be transferred to the Netherlands as soon as possible. The authorities involved have been informed about this. Dutch&Detained is planning a video call with the lawyers.

'''Update October 17:'''

A lawyer from Dutch&Detained has spoken to the men. They have been transferred to another cell and have been given nicer cellmates. They absolutely want to appeal because they want to continue fighting for their innocence. WOTS (serving a sentence in the Netherlands) is therefore not an option for the time being. The video call was again terminated prematurely.

'''Update October 23:'''

The charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Click [https://americancrimejournal.com/plaintiffs-file-lawsuit-against-tim-ballard-and-operation-underground-railroad-for-human-trafficking-violations/ here] for the latest news.

'''Update October 27:'''

I spoke to Marthijn, Lesley and lawyer V. via Zoom for an hour and a half last Thursday. The men have two new cellmates and that is going well. They have also not been beaten by the military for a while. Marthijn looked bad, he is much too thin. Lesley seems to be coping better with the detention. They are only given German books, but their German is improving. V. showed the images from the file that were labelled as child pornography by the judge. She took the time to discuss each image with the men. In Marthijn's case, it concerns about twenty images that were on his laptop. It was almost laughable: watercolours, paintings, a postcard from a Dutch bookshop (bought during one of my book presentations; I remember it well, in Livius De Zevensprong), covers of Dutch and American magazines (children in sports shorts etc.) and a few images that come from the internet, but no child pornography. Bizarre to see. In Lesley's case, it only concerns three videos on his mobile phone, originating from TikTok: a dancing girl (with clothes on), a showering boy (only upper body visible) and an official instructional video of a doctor examining a boy (with underwear on) with a stethoscope. Again, no child pornography. According to V., there is no burden of proof and the men were only convicted because of the media attention. Moreover, procedural errors were deliberately made and the appeal had already been settled in advance, the judge is corrupt. That is also the reason why the men were not heard; they were ready for the Zoom connection with the courtroom, but the judge refused to open the link. He was probably afraid that Marthijn and Lesley would start talking about corruption, Tim Ballard and O.U.R. and that this information would end up in the file. V. is hopeful about the cassation, because the court in Quito is known to be less corrupt, but it cannot give any guarantees in that regard. She expects that once the written verdict is available and they can officially appeal, it will take another year before the case is heard. Martijn and Lesley's hotel is safe for the time being; it can only be confiscated after completion of the entire process, and then only if the $20,000 fine imposed by the court is not paid on time. Marthijn said that he has not been able to speak to anyone in the Netherlands for a year and a half and that it is hard for him. When he started talking about his mother who recently turned eighty, he had to cry. V. will try to arrange a phone call with her. She is also open to speaking to the journalist from Nieuwsuur; according to her, it is important to create a counter-voice in the media. I encouraged the men and promised to continue helping them. It was nice to see and hear them, but also hard. What is happening to them is so unfair and I feel relatively powerless. The lawyer made a good impression: empathetic and professional.

'''Update 12 November:'''

The written verdict has not yet been made available, so there is still the possibility of appealing.

The journalist from Nieuwsuur has been put in touch with the Ecuadorian lawyers and with a Spanish colleague who is investigating corruption in Ecuador with the El Paccto project.

'''Update 13 November:'''

Revolts have broken out again in the Guayaquil prison. The media reports fifteen dead and dozens injured. I do not know how Marthijn and Lesley are doing; I have not heard from them since the Zoom conversation.

'''Update 14 November:'''

The men are safe, the uprising took place in Guayas 1 and they are in Guayas 4.

'''Update 27 November:'''

Nothing more heard from Lesley and Marthijn. The lawyers in Ecuador have not yet announced whether the written verdict has been received, so that the men can appeal in cassation.

'''Update December 10:'''

Dutch&Detained is trying to arrange a phone call between Marthijn and his mother before Christmas, together with the Ecuadorian lawyer. No further news. (Although, ABN-AMRO is again being difficult about the management account and is coming up with bizarre allegations.)

'''Update December 22:'''

No news. Unfortunately.

'''Update December 30:'''

Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to have Marthijn call his mother. According to the lawyers, filling in and assessing 'all kinds of paperwork' takes longer than hoped. In short, the bureaucracy is an obstacle. The written verdict has also not yet been made available.

===2025===

'''Update January 6, 2025:'''

The volunteers who were supposed to visit Marthijn and Lesley on December 27 unfortunately did not receive permission from the prison authorities. It is therefore still unclear how the men are doing.

'''Update January 8:'''

The phone call between Marthijn and his mother failed again, partly due to the 'bungling' of the prison authorities. D&D is trying to arrange a conversation again.

'''Update January 21:'''

The conversation with the mother has not yet worked out. The verdict has not yet been handed down in writing. No contact with the men yet. The relevant authorities are working on it.

'''Update January 26:'''

As far as known, no changes. We are trying to hire an additional lawyer to supervise the Cassation.

'''Update January 31:'''

Next Thursday, the phone call with the mother is scheduled.

'''Update 7 February:'''

Marthijn was finally able to video call his mother today. Unfortunately, she had no good news; last week, Marthijn's 55-year-old brother died suddenly.
Marthijn and Lesley are doing pretty well. They are in a cell together with a third prisoner with whom they fortunately get along. One problem is that they have to stay in their cells almost 24 hours a day; the military are still present in the complex. Thanks to the monthly deposit, they can regularly buy food in the prison shop. The much too thin Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Marthijn and Lesley speak pretty good Spanish by now.

'''Update 12 February:'''

The men managed to send some voice messages. They are doing reasonably well, although the military continue to harass. They sounded constructive.

'''Update 24 February:'''

Things are still going reasonably well with the men. We hope that soon the written verdict will be available so that they can finally go to Cassation.

ABN-AMRO threatens to cancel the management account; the ‘accusations’ are bizarre and mainly driven by bureaucracy and mistrust. The bill is used to pay the lawyers (in consultation with Dutch&Detained) in Ecuador and the monthly deposits (through the Ministry of foreign affairs) for the prison shop, so that Marthijn and Lesley can buy vitamins and fruit.

Attorney Sidney Smeets filed an objection on my behalf.

'''Update 10 March:'''

ABN-AMRO ignores the objection and eliminates the bill in mid-May. As this will lead to further problems, the organisations involved have been informed. So be prosecuted.

There are no major developments from Ecuador. Things are going pretty well with the men.

'''Update March 25:'''

The complications with ABN-AMRO have not yet been resolved, the process is proceeding slowly. Obstructive bureaucracy, in both countries.

A member of the embassy has visited the prison. The men are doing reasonably well. It could take another three years before a final verdict is issued, which is six years after the arrest.

'''Update April 7:'''

ABN-AMRO is threatening to proceed with the cancellation of the management account in mid-May. The Dutch Probation Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are trying to reverse this, but the bureaucracy fueled by distrust is stubborn.

'''Update April 17:'''

A lawyer from the Dutch Probation Service has delved into the case. He has found nothing that justifies the cancellation of the account 'other than arbitrariness and suspicions'. The bank probably does not want to be associated with the men and/or Ecuador. We are considering a judicial decision.

'''Update April 21:'''

Marthijn's birthday is today. The treat: a rusk with jam.

'''Update April 30:'''

The lawyers cannot get through the wall that ABN-AMRO is putting up. The account will be liquidated in two weeks. I am now working on plan B, so that the men can continue to be helped: legal assistance and food.

'''Update May 8:'''

The volunteers of Reclassering Nederland have spoken to the men via ZOOM. They are doing reasonably well, Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Less violence is used by the soldiers in the pavilion. The men are four in one cell and they are only allowed to air out for twenty minutes a week. The mattresses they lie on are very thin and need replacing. However, the latter is difficult to achieve.

'''Update May 15:'''

Plan B has been implemented. The men are assured of legal assistance and sufficient food. Fuck ABN-AMRO!

'''Update by Newgon, 15 May:'''

[[Norbert de Jonge]] has returned to the limelight, posting a [https://fstube.net/w/s5S9cYUow8FjGC3DTxP6c4 video] on multiple sharing platforms. We have reproduced it on FST.

'''Update May 27:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The main thing now is to wait for the appeal, but that could take a few years…

'''Update May 29:'''

Message from Lesley: ‘A lot of military violence again today. People revolted. Pistols were pointed at us. A warning shot was fired into the roof. The revolt did not stop there, but became more violent. It only became calmer when the prison management itself intervened.’

'''Update June 6:'''

Marthijn and Lesley announced that they have been transferred to another cell in the same pavilion.

'''Update June 9:'''

For the time being, no visits are possible due to the security situation in and around the prison. The appointment with the consul has therefore been postponed until further notice.

'''Update June 17:'''

The kitten that Lesley was caring for was bitten to death by malnourished dogs. Other cats were tortured by the military; live kittens were used as footballs. Marthijn wants to file a complaint via Konijnen in Nood.

'''Update June 23:'''

The (recently expanded) team of lawyers has managed to smooth out and accelerate the legal process. The cassation will be heard next Friday. We were able to keep it quiet for a long time, but unfortunately there was a leak to Tim Ballard – he has connections in the highest regions. Ballard is now in Canoa and is trying to influence the judges with videos, messages and interviews. In the name of God. Once again he speaks of large-scale abuse, kidnappings, rapes and sex parties. In his messages he shows photos of Marthijn, Lesley and their hotel. The media are eagerly diving on it again. Image formation is more important in Ecuador than the truth and the country is thoroughly corrupt. The outcome of the cassation can be guessed. A reaction from the men: 'A lot of tension. We sleep badly with only bad dreams. Little hope. The system is too corrupt. Bad people often seem to win and are described as heroes.' Lesley and Marthijn previously indicated that when they are released they will file an (international) lawsuit against Ballard, O.U.R. and Free a Girl.

'''July 18th Update:'''

There is still no verdict, the legal deadline (ten working days) has been significantly exceeded. The lawyers have no explanation for this. The prison shop has been closed for three weeks, leaving the men with insufficient food.

'''July 20th Update''':

The shop is open again, but the military only allows the purchase of cleaning supplies, not food. Marthijn and Lesley are starving and weakened. Furthermore, the number of tuberculosis infections in the cells is increasing. The relevant authorities have been notified.

'''Update August 3:'''

Marthijn and Lesley have been moved to a new cell. There is no food for sale in the prison store, but bread and bananas will likely be available for sale soon. Due to hunger and weakened immune systems, the tuberculosis epidemic has escalated (more than 500 infections in Guayaquil prison, dozens of deaths); several pavilions have been cleared for patients. The appeal: still no verdict.

'''Update August 14:'''

The appeal has been rejected. The lawyer's response: "It surprised us all. But we understood why the court took so long to give us a verdict. The judges were looking for a way to deny us the appeal. Each of the arguments was dismissed on silly and unfounded grounds, for reasons that were even alleged by us, although the court said that was not stated. All this time they were looking for reasons to deny us, and it became evident that the decision had already been made. We would understand that this is related to the arrival of Tim Ballard that week." We are increasingly disappointed with the corrupt justice system in this country.

'''Update August 17:'''

Food is still unavailable in the prison store; the president of Ecuador currently considers it an unnecessary luxury. The number of tuberculosis deaths is rising; a large proportion of the prisoners are malnourished and lack exercise, and there is also a shortage of medicine. The mafia controls the regular food distribution in the kitchen; for a fee, you can get twice the allowed portion. Any leftovers are divided among the other prisoners. Lesley and Marthijn do not participate in this out of solidarity with the prisoners without money. They have, however, exchanged cleaning supplies for six sandwiches a week. These come from outside the prison, so they do not disadvantage the other prisoners.

'''Update September 3:'''

The men have been moved to another cell. They feel safe there, as they were already friends with two of their three cellmates. They also finally have access to the prison shop again; their credit (for three months) has been replenished. They have also managed to transfer additional money so the men can purchase vitamins and nutritional supplements. Finally, the process for sentence transfer to the Netherlands has been initiated – WOTS, the Act on Transfer of Enforcement of Criminal Judgments.

'''Update September 24:'''

The men are doing relatively well. No news on the legal front.

'''Update October 20:'''

Things are still going relatively well. The regime has been relaxed somewhat; the men are allowed to leave their cells for 45 minutes every Saturday and Sunday. They are reading a lot, especially German and Spanish books. The shop is open again.

'''Update November 10:'''

Dozens of people have died in prison riots in Ecuador. Fortunately, the location where Lesley and Marthijn are being held has escaped unscathed this time.

'''Update December 8:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The sentence transfer process has been initiated, but this may take some time.

===2026===

'''Update January 16:'''

The situation remains unchanged. Marthijn and Lesley are reading, drawing, and writing extensively. They are still waiting for information about the sentence transfer. It is now up to the Dutch authorities to make an initial assessment.

'''Update February 15:'''

No news. They are still waiting for the sentence transfer to the Netherlands.

Marthijn is writing a diary in Spanish in prison. [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2026/02/dagboek-marthijn/ Click here] to read it.

'''Update March 1:'''

Military personnel have searched Marthijn and Lesley's cell and destroyed all drawings and writings. Furthermore, there is a tuberculosis epidemic in the prison, but there is a shortage of medication. The organizations involved have been notified. Nothing is known yet regarding the possible transfer of sentences. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update March 16:'''

The process surrounding the transfer of sentences is proceeding slowly; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects to establish contact with Ecuador soon. The men are not receiving the medication they need; the prison authority SNAI is blocking this. Lesley is trading food for medication for a skin infection. Money has been stolen again from the men's account at the prison shop. Despite everything, they report that they are doing well considering the circumstances.

'''Update April 16:'''

The situation is, factually speaking, unchanged. Unfortunately.

'''Update May 22:'''

The men are doing reasonably well. They are reading, drawing, and painting. Lesley sent a portrait he made of Greta Thunberg, a woman he admires. Unfortunately, there is no news to report yet regarding the transfer of sentences.

'''Update June 24:'''

No change in the situation.

'''Update July 24:'''

The situation is (unfortunately) unchanged.

'''Update August 2:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been moved to another pavilion due to a major tuberculosis outbreak.

===Latest update===

'''Update 20 August:'''

The men are doing relatively well in their new cell. Lesley has painted a large world map on the wall together with a fellow inmate. There is no news regarding the transfer of their sentence.

'''Update 6 September:'''

Police raided the cell again during the night. They dealt blows and stole food and medication.

'''Update 22 September:'''

For months, the men have been unable to buy food from the prison shop. The mafia is blocking this and also controls the prison kitchen. The prisoners are receiving less and less food, forcing them to turn to the mafia for sustenance. Marthijn and Lesley refuse to play along, resulting in starvation, stomach pain, and dizziness. I have informed the relevant authorities and urged them to expedite the transfer to the Netherlands.

'''Update 27 September:'''

The prison shop is once again accessible to Lesley and Marthijn.

<hr>

SEE ALSO:
[https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth ''(Vice)'']

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

<hr>

''All translation prior to the 2023 updates is courtesy of the user [https://www.boychat.org/ycdtobc/messages/119860.htm Manstuprator at BoyChat].''
[[Category:Essays]][[Category:A.H.J. Dautzenberg's Essays]]

Essay:The Gruesome Consequences of a Hysterical Witch Hunt

2026-09-28T01:00:58Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__The following is a mirror of an article originally titled '''''[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/02/de-gruwelijke-gevolgen-van-een-hysterische-heksenjacht/ De gruwelijke gevolgen van een hysterische heksenjacht]''''', which appears on the website of Dutch writer [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Dautzenberg A.H.J. Dautzenberg]. We provide an English translation of it here, in the interest of maintaining a copy of this important journalism. The opinions reflected in this article are those of A.H.J. Dautzenberg who is unaffiliated with Newgon Organization.

For the latest updates from the [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2026/08/ecuador-update/ blog of Dautzenberg], see our trnslations at the [[#Latest update|bottom of the page]].
<hr>
'''February 5, 2023'''

In Ecuador, two Dutch men have been detained under appalling conditions for almost eight months, two men with a pedophile orientation. They still don't know exactly what they are suspected of and they haven't seen a judge yet. I think I know them well, consider them friends. My impression is that they are innocent.

In recent months I have tried several times in vain to interest the quality media in the case, also to encourage them to put an investigative journalist on it. In particular, the role of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and that of the [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] pedo hunter club (and its dubious American partner [[Operation Underground Railroad]]) should be critically examined; in my view they create a toxic climate that smothers any nuanced discussion in advance. The word "child pornography" is used far too lightly and just a little too eagerly by them – all shutters are immediately closed.

I believe I have followed the (long run-up to the) arrest relatively objectively, but perhaps my view is clouded by fear, anger, disappointment and friendship. That's why I hope for help.

One of the media I approached indicated that it was "not a newsworthy story". The editor-in-chief of an opinion weekly emphasized that a sensitive subject such as pedophilia cannot be treated from the perspective of two detained pedophiles – "Who says they are innocent?" Another reaction: "It would make me very uncomfortable to post this piece." The overall tone in a nutshell.

Below is the essay I wrote – it consists of two parts that alternate between a more or less journalistic report, and my personal thoughts, although the distinction is sometimes difficult to make. I have my personal thoughts.

Set aside your gut reaction that tries to take over your feelings, and don't judge too quickly; smoke does not always mean fire, after all, smoke machines do not need to be on fire. Take up the challenge, if you will. Vulnerable minorities deserve protection, not a witch hunt. That is good for everything and everyone.

[[File:Huis.jpg|thumb|Action outside of Marthijn's house]]

'''Ten years of Mart[h]ijn'''

The zeitgeist dictates which topics may or may not be discussed. For example, pedophilia. Nevertheless, it is still important not to shy away from an "unmentionable" subject; by exposing insensitive mechanisms, future victims can be spared. Moreover, freedom of expression is sacred in our country. Or so I thought.'''

At the moment, two Dutch men have been detained in Ecuador under appalling conditions for more than six months, and they have not yet seen a judge. It is still not entirely clear what crime in particular they are suspected of. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not interfere with the legal process and the Netherlands does not have an embassy in Ecuador. A hopeless situation, they fear for their lives.

The run-up to the arrest of the two men started in 2011, with an attempt by the Public Prosecution Service to ban the association [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn]], founded in 1982; The ball starts rolling then. After years of intensive investigation, no criminal offenses had been uncovered, so according to Minister of Justice Opstelten (VVD), only civil law could offer a solution.

In the early 1980s, the VVD regularly approached the Martijn association for advice on the subject of pedophilia. In 1986, then-VVD-minister Korthals Altes submitted a bill to lower the "age of consent" law from sixteen to twelve years. He referred, among other things, to scientific studies that indicate that sex with minors is not necessarily harmful.

The JOVD – (left-liberal) Mark Rutte, who was also a member at the time and would become chairman two years later – just like the Young Socialists in 1986, signed a petition for the change in the law. The law passed in a slimmed-down version, but it was then abolished at the beginning of the new millennium. In the early years, the roots of the Martijn Association therefore received political support, especially from the VVD.

By 2011 things had completely changed. In November of that year, in the run-up to the court case to ban the [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn association]], VVD minister Opstelten publicly expressed the hope that the court would issue a ban. Which was strange to say the least, because a minister is not allowed to give his opinion on a case that is still before the courts. The left and right both agreed with Minister Opstelten's statement that the association should be banned.

Tofik Dibi (of GroenLinks) said during the same parliamentary debate: ''"The Martijn association is an association of dirty little men, with dirty points of view, that arouse disgust and revulsion. My gut says: lock them up and throw away the key."'' And Madeleine van Toorenburg (CDA) stated: ''"How is such a disgusting association allowed to exist."'' At the time, Pieter Omtzigt regularly referred to "Martijn's victims" in his tweets. Mind you, ten years of investigation by the police and the Public Prosecution Service had not resulted in any criminal charges.

For more than ten years I have studied the subject of pedophilia, a distinction in sexual orientation that I believe should no longer be made, and should be eliminated. And let's not beat around the bush, I was terrified. The hatred that wins over the facts, the myths that are devoured like candy, the denial that follows any hint or suggestion, the opportunistic role of politics and especially that of the Public Prosecution Service. With regards to this topic, all good sense and logic seems to have disappeared, and the only reaction is a visceral one.

Even before the legal process began, I decided in 2011 to become a member of the Martijn association in order to start a dialogue and put an end to the escalating witch hunt; a pedophile is a human being, not an undesirable scourge – which unwelcome minority is next? A side effect was that not much later I could follow the court case in Assen both externally and internally. "''Your career is over''," tweeted some cynical fellow writers with apparently mocking pleasure.

For the record, I keep repeating it out of necessity: I am not in favor of sexual contact between adults and children. I do think that people with a pedophile orientation should be allowed to dream and fantasize about it, and that they should be allowed to speak and write about their desires – and that they (just like the VVD in 1986) should be allowed to argue for a liberalization of the legislation regarding sexuality.

In fact, I am convinced that openness and transparency will lead to greater understanding, and to a mutual understanding. An innate disposition does not disappear by publicly condemning it. Not in Iran, not in Russia, not in Hungary and not in the Netherlands. An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people with pedophilic feelings, men and women, live in our country. Get used to it. Talk to them, don't banish them to the dungeons of society. And understand that approximately eighty percent of child abuse actually takes place within the immediate family, by "opportunistic paedophiles".

So in 2011 I signed up as a member of the Martijn association, which was founded in 1982. I attended meetings, talked to members and advised the board. At the end of 2011, a child and adolescent psychiatrist e-mailed me the following: ''"Thank you for your contribution to the quest that we as a society must undertake. Not a nonsensical black-and-white opinion, but a nuanced story."'' Various statements of support from that quarter followed, but the senders added that they did not dare to express their opinions publicly.

In May 2012 I represented the association before the court in Assen. At the time, I tried repeatedly to talk to MPs, but I couldn't get any response. Other members of the Martijn association also tried this, and they were also ignored.

'''The "Yuck" Factor'''

The lawsuit would ultimately be heard in Assen, on May 16, 2012. The Public Prosecution Service had to make it plausible that (the activities of) the Martijn association are "contrary to public order". Both in the petition and in the closing requisition, the Public Prosecution Service claims that the Martijn association poses a serious danger to children in the Netherlands. "The ideas and the way in which these are expressed must be seen as a serious threat to the physical and sexual integrity of the child."

The Public Prosecution Service had formulated a criterion for testing texts and images that had appeared in the association's magazine and on the site since 1982: the "yucky content". Especially the texts from the early years of the association were judged with a high yuck content. The Public Prosecution Service included a review that former senator Edward Brongersma (PvdA) wrote in the magazine about Kees Verheul's novel A boy with four legs, published in 1982 by publisher Van Oorschot. "Apparently intended to be sexually arousing," suggested the District Attorney. (Apparently intended to be sexually arousing - just how does one measure that?)

The following poem on the site was also given a high yuck content by the Public Prosecution Service:
<blockquote>
''I would love to''

''Sail with you in a boat''

''Love you''

''Kiss you''

''Your body against me''

''I caress in my dreams''

''Everywhere I want to go''

''And you like it''

''Thoughts are free''

''It's a cliché''

''But what I just wrote''

''Is only one chance in a hundred''

''Reality''

''We live in a world''

''Where such things can't be''

''But luckily''

''How lucky''

''Fantasizing is cool''

''And it can't hurt anyone.''
</blockquote>
On June 27, 2012, the Martijn association was banned by the court. The press reacted to the verdict. NRC Ombudsman Sjoerd de Jong thought it too subdude: ''"On June 27, the court in Assen banned the association Martijn, which wants to represent the interests of pedophiles. That was remarkable news, but the newspaper did not comment on it. Now you don't have to do that with every news event, but you would expect it regarding this one. That seems entirely in line with the liberal principles of the newspaper: after all, it is [not about the words but] about the deeds."''

'''The Appeal'''

The Martijn Association appealed to the Court of Appeal in Leeuwarden. The Public Prosecution Service argued that the appeal should be declared inadmissible, because an association that has been banned no longer exists and can therefore not appeal. The court did not agree with this and ruled in April 2013 that there was no threat of social disruption and that the association could therefore not be banned. According to the court, society should also accept expressions that are widely abhorred. Moreover, the statements and behavior of Martijn are not punishable, the court emphasized.

The Public Prosecution Service then submitted this judgment to the Supreme Court for review. It decided on April 18, 2014 that the association should be banned immediately, because it goes contrary to public order. According to the Supreme Court, it is necessary as this is a very special case, in the interest of protecting the health and the rights and freedoms of children. ''"These social views are also widely supported outside the Netherlands, and the Netherlands has committed itself internationally to taking measures in that regard."'' So Brussels was watching.

The lawyers Gerard Spong and Sidney Smeets then approached the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Marthijn Uittenbogaard. At the beginning of 2015, it announced that it would not consider the appeal. The reaction of Spong and Smeets: ''"We see this decision as a case of evading the giving of a legal opinion on a socially sensitive legal question. And therefore a lack of courage. In a resilient democratic society it is precisely the unpopular opinions that should be protected. Freedom of expression is only meaningful if it also (or especially) protects unpopular opinions. Even opinions that not everyone agrees with and that some even find offensive."''

'''Seclusion'''

At this point, the Martijn Association is definitively banned, including the association's website, but former chairman Marthijn Uittenbogaard is told by the Public Prosecutor that he may continue the website privately. He decides to concentrate on his websites www.brongersma.info and www.marthijn.nl (with an h), which he started in 2001, renaming a site he started a quarter of a century ago.

As a private person, Marthijn Uittenbogaard continues to fight for discussion about and the seeking of approval for intergenerational relationships. He does this mainly by collecting information on pedophilia and paedosexuality on his websites, information in the broadest sense of the word, including studies that emphasize the potentially harmful effects of paedosexual activity.

His activism and the ruling of the Supreme Court have caused Marthijn Uittenbogaard many problems: there have been threats, rocks and paving stones have been thrown against and through his windows, lit fireworks have been left in his mail box, a fireworks bomb was left on his doorstep – the list fills dozens of pages. In addition, he says he is shadowed by the police and his phone is wire-tapped.

Over time he has decided not to leave his home in Hengelo; he spends his days playing video games for hours on end and maintaining his web sites. He has had plexiglass fitted to the windows of his house and he installed security cameras, which the police had refused to do, despite several requests from him.

Former Martijn figurehead Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner Lesley have become friends of mine over the years and I trust them. Not out of naivety or misplaced loyalty, but as a result of frank conversations and a thorough study of the facts – and the many lies that have been spread about them. I haven't seen any hard evidence to date that confirms that either has committed any crimes.

I kept in touch with the two men for the past ten years – two passionate, sweet, gentle people. When I stayed with them a few years ago, I saw what the isolation did to Marthijn. Like a shy little bird, he sat in an almost blinded house, glued to his almost life-size game screen. Lesley tried to remain anonymous and went to work in a warehouse every day. In his spare time, a convinced vegan, he devoted himself to the necessary charitable institutions. I saw two fellow sufferers who loved each other very much.

[[File:Megafoon.jpg|frame|Demo outside Marthijn's house]]

'''Onslaught'''

The day was coming for an attack to be made on Uittenbogaard. It would be in a morning in 2020. A 41-year-old man from Spakenburg entered the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley early in the morning, ran up the stairs, entered the bedroom and threatened to stab Marthijn to death with a fish-boning knife. A friend who is staying over heard the noise, intervened in time and knocked the knife out of the hands of the man, who was standing next to Marthijn's bed.

The man fled, but was arrested shortly afterwards. He was released the same day, but he was banned from the vicinity. A lawsuit followed. The man did not have to go to prison; the judge gave him 150 hours of community service.

The man, who had already been hospitalized eight times for bouts of manic-depression, claimed that he entered the house because of media reports he had heard, which stated that a children's room with dildos had been found in Marthijn's house and that Marthijn's partner had been arrested on suspicion of engaging in child abuse.

At the time of the attack on Marthijn I had been in touch with the people who had been in contact with Marthijn, and even more so around the time of the raid and the arrest of Lesley. Marthijn is still convinced that his partner was arrested at the time in order to intimidate him, and to silence him. He wrote to me: ''"I saw my partner being taken away on a completely fabricated charge. The extensions of the pretrial detention were outrageous. As his partner, I was also not allowed to attend the sessions allegedly due to measures taken due to the corona virus pandemic. But journalists were allowed to attend! The only thing they had against my partner was that he was "the-partner-of". On that, and on based on the lie that his parents did not want him to be released, his pretrial detention was repeatedly extended. That was outrageous!"''

'''Detention'''

In 2020, a house search took place at the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley. This was legally sanctioned by the authorities suspecting Marthijn of having committed "sedition"; the Public Prosecution Service referred to statements on its websites and in the media. Lesley was arrested during the house search, then confined in isolation for ten weeks and then only released after six months.

The OM revealed that Lesley was suspected of having "prepared to kidnap and rape a child." The OM also reports that a children's room was found within the house of Lesley and Marthijn and a studio in the garage to make child pornography. Sex paraphernalia, including dildos, were found in Lesley's bedroom. And according to the Public Prosecution Service, a Stanley knife, lubricant and anesthetic tablets were found in his backpack, which indicated he was preparing to commit that crime.

The OM kept Lesley hanging for two years. At the end of April 2022, the case finally went to court. The charge of "preparing to kidnap and rape a child" had disappeared from the indictment, as had charges concerning the possession of dozens of images of child pornography. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there were no indications of the existence of a "children's room," nor of a studio to make child pornography.

Lesley (like his colleagues) needs the Zip ties and the Stanley knife for his work – he is a warehouse worker. The "lube" was actually a jar of Working Hands cream - the skin of his hands is cracked because of his physical work. The so-called "anesthetics" were actually magnesium pills he used to numb the recurring pain in his leg muscles, a consequence of Lesley's veganism.

'''"Child Pornography"'''

The charge against Lesley has been reduced by the OM to "making and possessing child pornography". The petition from the prosecutor: one year in prison, four months of which were to be suspended. Lesley was sentenced to ten weeks in prison. (He was held in pre-trial detention for six months.) From the verdict: ''"The suspect is found guilty of making a film containing child pornography. The suspect filmed the bare buttocks of an underage boy with sexual intent."'' ("With sexual intent" – how does one measure that??)

Lesley had been making family films for a family of friends for years. During one of those filmings, one of the children mischievously dropped his pants for a moment. The Public Prosecution Service has cut that image from the video and submitted it to the court as "child pornography". A letter submitted by Lesley's lawyer, in which one of the parents wrote that Lesley was innocent and should be immediately released, is ignored by the judge.

Lesley attempted suicide twice after his release and still continues to struggle with depression. His employer, neighbours, the voluntary associations he had been involved in and many of his friends no longer want anything to do with him. He suddenly has to go through life with a criminal record stating that he has been convicted of producing child pornography. Lesley won't appeal because, mentally, he can't handle that stress.

Lesley sent me the notes that he had made while in detention. I read the poignant and above all disconcerting text with horror.

<blockquote>''I thought they mistook me for someone else and I could probably clear that up. I have never abused children and never will. Just the thought of hurting children makes me sad. I regularly burst into tears about the simplistic reporting made about me.''

''The mother of the child is also being seen as responsible by those around her for supposedly having made children available to a pedophile who, according to people, abuses children. I sometimes spontaneously bursts into tears. Both the investigation and how the people around her have reacted to it in response to news reports have deeply damaged her. I have not abused children and do not intend to. The Public Prosecution Service and the police have abused people in this case, including children, and the damage to them is immeasurable and lifelong.''</blockquote>

'''Continuing the Association'''

The raid on the house of Marthijn and Lesley appears to be a direct result of an investigation by RTL Nieuws ["Radio Television Luxembourg News," a popular Dutch television news service]. According to them, this went on undercover for several months within a private email list ''"in which the Martijn Association is still active"''. In that group, according to RTL, tips were also given on how abuse children. But for the record, the email group was not closed, and non-pedophiles and (even undercover) journalists could also join it.

RTL also placed an attention-grabbing statement on its web site: ''"A pedophile is a person with sexual feelings for children under the age of 13. Pedophilia is a sexual preference and is not punishable in the Netherlands. Sexual abuse of children, together with viewing and downloading child pornography, is punishable by law. That is not always done by pedophiles: a majority of child abusers do not have pedophilic feelings, but suffer from antisocial and sexual disorders."''

In 2021, partly on the basis of the RTL investigation and the house search, the Public Prosecution Service decided to prosecute three people for continuing the banned "pedo club Martijn": [[Nelson Maatman|Nelson]], [[Norbert de Jonge|Norbert]] and (the figurehead) [[Marthijn Uittenbogaard|Marthijn]] – all three without any previous criminal records. Nelson was acquitted, because he had never been a member of the Martijn association. The other two were sentenced to prison terms. Norbert was sentenced to four months because he helped Marthijn with the technical maintenance of the sites. Marthijn received a six-month prison sentence, without the possibility of parole, after which he appealed his sentence.

'''Ideologies'''

A quote from the judgment regarding Marthijn dated 8 March 2022. ''"Together with his co-defendant [Norbert], the suspect has continued the activities of the banned association Martijn by posting publications on various websites and making statements via a mailing list and Twitter."''

According to the court, the views expressed on the sites correspond to those of the banned association. The fact that the opinions expressed are largely quotes from politicians and scientists is not mentioned in the judgment. Moreover, it is reasonable that the views are in agreement; Marthijn (born in 1972) became a member at the time because he recognized his personal convictions in the ideas of the association founded in 1982.

The verdict continues with this striking passage: ''"It does note, however, that this ideology cannot be equated with child abuse or incitement to it. The fact that this was or would have been the case has not been evident in the proceedings that led to the prohibition of the Martijn association. The suspect has also never been convicted of sexual offenses (or any other offense)."'' And then a prison sentence of six months was imposed.

Because Marthijn and Norbert were convicted for continuing the Martijn association, I decided to take action together with former university lecturers in sexual citizenship [[Gert Hekma]] (deceased 2022) and his partner Mattias Duyves, emeritus professor [[Meindert Fennema]] and writer [[Delphine Lecompte]]. The last paragraphs of an op-ed that we offered to all respectable media:
<blockquote>
''A society that is genuinely concerned with the interests and safety of children is not content to create and then brutally destroy demonic symbols. It invests heavily in youth care and education, it ensures that the Supplement Scandal children removed from home are reunited with their parents as quickly as possible, it does not allow children to grow up in dire poverty, it does not allow reports of child abuse and abuse to be filed for months, sometimes even years on the shelf, and it does not leave children who have fled from war zones to fend for themselves.''

''Finally, last month, the majority of the House of Representatives approved the addition of 'sexual orientation' as a non-discrimination ground in Article 1 of the Constitution. The proposal is now before the Senate. A conscious choice was made for the term 'orientation' (gerichtheid) and not for 'sex' (geaardheid). The reason is that legally the term "orientation" (gerichtheid) only represents so-called consensual orientations. This excludes people with a pedophile orientation. The idea behind it: if they would give concrete expression to their focus, they would be guilty of criminal offences. The government also suffers from prejudice. [The law has now been passed, AHJD.]''

''To protest against the witch hunt for pedophiles, we are taking action: from now on we will take over the site www.brongersma.info from Marthijn Uittenbogaard. This is to prevent the rich archive he has built up over the past decades from being destroyed. If Uittenbogaard is acquitted on appeal, the site will be his again. (Norbert de Jonge will not appeal, he no longer trusts the judiciary.) If Uittenbogaard is convicted for expressing his opinion – which we cannot imagine, we expect an independent, careful approach from a judge – then we will look for a suitable host for the archive. Initially we are thinking of the COC or the IHLIA.''

''Stop criminalizing people with a pedophile orientation. Talk to them, protect them, help them, listen to them – everyone benefits from that. And above all, don't interfere with freedom of expression.''
</blockquote>

The piece was rejected by all the respected media we approached.

'''Ecuador'''

Because Marthijn and Lesley no longer have a (safe) future in the Netherlands, they decided to emigrate to a country where life is cheap. They eventually choose Ecuador because they could buy an old hotel there. The plan was to open a vegan restaurant on the ground floor, to make apartments in the rest of the building, and to rent them out.

They called in local construction workers for the renovation. Some (paid) villagers have also come to help. Meanwhile, their children played with Marthijn's PlayStation, a luxury they cannot afford. Nelson visited and rented a room, but Lesley turned him away; his alcohol and drug use and fatalistic attitude could put them in danger. Nelson left for Mexico.

Norbert, a friend of Marthijn for more than twenty-five years, comes along a few months later, as does a (straight) friend. They soon leave. They think it is unwise that village and construction worker children freely walk in and out of the house. In addition, ominous reports are beginning to appear in the local media.

The hotel, its new owners and their visitors have been on the radar of paedo hunter Tim Ballard of O.U.R. (Operation Underground Railroad) and the Dutch organization Free a Girl. The latter decided to track down the men after their emigration and called O.U.R. in.

'''QAnon'''

Tim Ballard is a conservative Mormon, a fanatical Trump and QAnon supporter, who, with his organization, hunts alleged pedophiles (supposed "networks") and pro-abortion activists worldwide. He also fulminates against the LGBTIQ + community; according to him, only straight relationships are godly. His organization raises many millions annually, without it being clear exactly where the money goes.

In addition, several investigations against him and his organization are ongoing; he is suspected of incitement, lying about actions of O.U.R. and spreading conspiracy theories about "pedo networks." He claims to have saved thousands of children from criminal (paedo) organizations, but there is no evidence. Nevertheless, his influence is growing. He is friends with several (populist) heads of state.

Algemeen Dagblad wriote about Marthijn's arrest on June 24, 2022: ''"The convicted and since-then fugitive paedosexual Marthijn U. from Hengelo was arrested in Ecuador on Thursday evening. The fugitive pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested."'' Het Parool wrote that same day:'Marthijn U. is said to have been arrested after a manhunt.' For the record, Marthijn Uittenbogaard is not a paedosexual and he was not a fugitive.

Continuation of the message from the AD: ''"In Ecuador, the well-known pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested that same Thursday. [Absent] Lesley L. was sentenced in Rotterdam on April 26, 2022 to 10 weeks in prison for producing child pornography. L. was now under arrest in the seaside resort of Canoa, for suspected abuse of three young children in his home. The organization Free a Girl had passed on incriminating information about the three men to its American partner Operation Underground Railroad and the authorities of Mexico and Ecuador."'' For the record, Lesley was not a fugitive either; he was working at the hotel at the time of the arrest.

''Het Parool'' further wrote: ''"According to Free a Girl, several children regularly stayed in the house of L. and U. They would have been lured to play video games with the story. In exchange for sweets and money, they would have had to provide sexual services. Parties are also said to have been organized with children at the swimming pool, where children were touched and sometimes raped under the influence of drugs. There would be abuse of dozens of children."''

I also kept in touch with Marthijn and Lesley when they tried to build a new life in Ecuador. Marthijn let me know in the beginning that he was terrified that someone would find out their identity; they avoided places that (Dutch) tourists visited.

A few minutes before Marthijn was arrested, I contacted him through a mobile phone app. He was on his way to the Netherlands to reconsider his situation there and to prepare for the appeal. His last message: '"'We haven't done anything, but there are lies everywhere on the internet. Norbert also had problems, I think I will, too, at customs here. Fascism. I'm listening to the song Wonderful World at the airport. It's not the Louis Armstrong version, but a cover."''

A few days after the arrest, the first ominous messages began to reach me. Marthijn and Lesley had been tortured and beaten with hammers in prison by the mafia. The videos of this were sent to acquaintances, along with ransom demands. If no payment was made, the men would be killed. That money for the ransom was put together by some friends, and then transferred to the mafia through on-line pay sites.

A few days later, Lesley emailed me:

<blockquote>''"Marth and I came to Ecuador with the goal of starting a new life. Without activism. A life where we could just walk down the street. And we could just make friends with people. Many people know that we are innocent and have said so themselves. However, those statements were not in writing. We still need a lawyer. So he can take down the statements and bring them in. The beatings stopped a few days back, but you never know if they will start again."''</blockquote>

I got some photos of the cell and of the courtyard. And of the men, too. The photos didn't make me happy. Marthijn in particular looked terrible: he was skinny and sad. Lesley, despite his bruises, seemed to be doing better. He wrote me that he wants to donate the hotel and restaurant to a vegan movement and then, with the proceeds, his friends and the poor people from the village can be helped.

''''Swimming pool''''

More is now becoming clear about the arrests. Several reports had appeared in the local media, each time with the name "Tim Ballard" appearing in them. The hotel had (according to him) housed an international network of pedophiles, of which Marthijn and Lesley were the leaders. Hundreds of children were (supposedly) drugged, abused and sold for sexual purposes. "Sex parties" with children were (supposedly) regularly held in the hotel's swimming pool, something Free a Girl claimed as well. For now, it is enough to note that Marthijn and Lesley's hotel does not have a swimming pool at all!

Ballard ramped up coverage of us in the months following our arrest. He claimed in films that he had tracked down and liberated more than four hundred victims in the home of Marthijn and Lesley. He emphasized the conviction of Lesley (production of child pornography) and the case against Marthijn (continuation of a prohibited association). The snowball is keeps increasing in size as it rolls along.

Due to the coverage in the Ecuadorian media, the two men were transferred for security reasons to a secluded part of the prison, and they have a room they have to share with seven drug addicts. A lawyer is now in the picture, who keeps in touch with a family member of Marthijn.

After a while, Marthijn and Lesley managed to arrange a lawyer. She asked for thirty thousand euros to bribe the judge and the police. A day later this amount was increased to one hundred and sixty thousand euros. Maybe she too was threatened. The fact that communication took place via Google Translate did not make it any easier: the lawyer barely speaks English.

Together with the family member with whom the men were and are in contact, I decided not to take up the family member's offer, perhaps it was a trap. Fortunately, the family member got in touch with Lesley via the prison telephone, and he and Marthijn also wanted no illegal "hanky-panky", but they wanted a fair trial. The lawyer gave in, but she had to have money to do research and prepare the case.

Martijn and Lesley were now back in contact with their fellow villagers. They heard from them that Tim Ballard was paying the media to write the menacing reports. Reports also reached Martijn and Lesley that Ballard had paid witnesses to give false statements; if they refused - these friends had pointed out that Lesley and Marthijn were innocent - he threatened them with trial and imprisonment. They also heard that Americans in contact with Ballard were offering money to have them killed.

According to the lawyer, the first session, without Marthijn and Lesley, was halted by the judge; he wanted more money for him and his secretary. He also threatened to transfer the men to another prison if payment was not made.

'''Corruption'''

The tone of reporting in the Ecuadorian media has become even grimmer. The newspapers and web sites claim that Ballard has exposed the largest international pedo ring ever known. Not much later, Lesley and Marthijn were suddenly transferred to the most notorious prison in the country, the Guayaquil Prison. According to the lawyer, there were plans to hang Marthijn and Lesley in their cell and call it suicide. That explains the move.

Dutch lawyer Sidney Smeets tried to bring the case before the Ministry again, but that was not successful. He did get the addresses of three law firms that are "probably" not corrupt. Both the men's relative and their lawyer tried to call them in, but the lawyers wouldn't take the case: there is too much negative coverage in the media.

The extortion (asking for bribes) started again, as Lesley and Marthijn had become a "lucrative business model". Whenever I saw the area code for Ecuador on my cell phone screen, I wouldn`t answer the phone. The family member also stopped responding. Finally, the attempts at extortion stopped.

An "influential" fellow prisoner informed Lesley that he had brought them to Guayaquil because he wanted to use them for a prisoner exchange with the Netherlands. Whether that is true, we do not know, but Marthijn and Lesley were "safe" again. The lawyer indicated that he needed more money for the investigation, so we transferred money again; always in small amounts, so as not to arouse suspicion - Ecuador is known as a "suspect country" and business transactions are therefore prohibited.

During that time, Lesley sent us the following email:

<blockquote>''"Our lawyer is very bad, and probably a fraud. She has cost us more than U.S. $20,000 and the trial hasn't even begun yet. People here say she's a con artist. She recently applied to transfer us to Bahia, even though she knows that it is not safe for us there. Again, she did not consult with us first. And she had already indicated that she was no longer our lawyer. Also, this recent filing supposedly costs a few thousand dollars more. This country is all about extorting money, stealing money, blackmailing, and cheating."''</blockquote>

Nevertheless, Marthijn and Lesley generally did not sound bitter in their messages. I received many touching messages and texts, and the name Gandhi regularly appeared in them. Marthijn and Lesley advocate for peaceful protest, not hatred towards their enemies. And in believing what you stand for.

Other messages, on the other hand, were pretty grim. ''"Two days ago 14 dead. Prisoners have machine guns, pistols, knives, etc. We hear the fighting, shots and loud explosions, but they are at a another location, not far away."''

And this one, about a fellow villager: ''"Then comes a statement from G. who says "the police keep harassing me, I want this to stop. The police insist that I make false statements about Lesley. They offered me money to do so, and also things like a TV and a refrigerator. I saw that they also tried to bribe my sister, too."''

Lesley also told me that the person who tortured him and demanded a ransom in the first prison they stayed in has recently been murdered. And this: ''"The lawyer who had claimed to be from the mafho had asked for absurd amounts of money to help us get out of prison was also assassinated two months ago."''

'''National Award'''

Meanwhile, Tim Ballard received a national award from the wife of the president of <s>Mexico</s>[Ecuador<ref>[https://www.ourrescue.org/reports/2022-annual.pdf OUR 2022 Impact Report]</ref> - Newgon] for dismantling "the network" of Marthijn, Lesley and Nelson. It's unclear what happened to Nelson. However, it is suspected that Ballard set a trap for him and was present at Nelson's arrest.

In any case, when Lesley was arrested, Ballard was conspicuously present, dressed in a police uniform and equipped with a machine gun. His team filmed the spectacular arrest; the footage will be featured in a documentary that Ballard plans to put online in March 2023, "The Hidden War". He claims online that he intends to visit the Netherlands, among other places, to promote it.

The men have not yet seen a judge; without their being involved in the process, their detention has been extended several times. They still don't know exactly what crime they are suspected of having committed. Marthijn emailed Amnesty International about their case, and also about the lawsuit that is still pending in the Netherlands. The Amnesty spokesperson replied: ''"We do not focus on individual cases, but on situations where criticism (from the media, political parties, activist groups, lawyers and investigative committees, etc. etc.) of the authorities are deliberately and systematically blocked (as in China for example)."''

I emailed Evelien Holsken, from Free a Girl, and their spokesman, Arjan Erkel, who was once an innocent prisoner himself. I explained to them the situation in Ecuador, including the information about their partner, Tim Ballard. I indicated that I wanted a constructive conversation with them, and not one full of accusations. I got no response from them. It is likely that Holsken and Erkel are not pleased with the legal case that Free a Girl has brought to the public's attention with such bravado, which has put the men in fear of their lives.

''De Telegraaf'' interviewed Tim Ballard at the time. In response to the text submitted to him via Sidney Smeets, Lesley wrote, as I mentioned, that he is in close contact with friendly villagers:

<blockquote>''I heard that the children were detained by the police for 24 hours when I was arrested. And that they were repeatedly threatened with being beaten with batons. When they were hungry, they were not given food. Police were eating in front of the children, and laughing at them. Their parents sat outside crying. And it is understood that the police here are known to be violent. Tim Ballard was always there. And he threatened the parents several times. The problem is that if you report these things publicly, it is very risky. Tim Ballard can operate with impunity in these countries. With the money he has, he can wrap the police and the OM around his finger. And people don't dare stand up for themselves.''</blockquote>

''De Telegraaf'' decided not to publish the interview with Ballard.''

'''Brongersma'''

Meanwhile, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is also making its presence known again. This time, not to Marthijn and Lesley, but through a registered letter to the people who host the websites www.marthijn.nl and www.brongersma.info. On November 17, 2022, the Public Prosecutor wrote:

<blockquote>''The court is of the opinion that the website www.brongersma.info can be regarded as a continuation of the activities of an organization that has been declared prohibited by an irrevocable court decision. Continuing that activity constitutes a criminal offense as referred to in Article 140 paragraph 2 of the Penal Code . Taking into account the above, I urge you to make the illegal content inaccessible within 7 days and to remove it as far as possible.''</blockquote>

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the site www.brongersma.info should be taken offline and removed. Our host complied with the request, fearing prosecution and the associated expensive attorney fees. We have now obtained legal advice and it appears that the content of the site is not criminal and that the verdict does not stipulate that the site must go offline. Moreover, the destruction of the site cannot be requested because Marthijn's appeal has yet to be filed. Meindert Fennema and I are now investigating how we can get the site back online as soon as possible. The other site co-owners have discontinued their participation.

'''PEN Netherlands'''

Finally, the personal consequences. Of course they are completely insignificant compared to what Lesley and Marthijn are going through, but they say a lot about the (intolerant) zeitgeist.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I have received the threats that were expected to come. It was no surprise to me, either. But I never realized that twenty years of work experience could evaporate in such a short time. My work experience as an economist, consultant, project leader, editor-in-chief, workshop leader, lecturer, etc. was suddenly worthless. The word "pedophilia" unleashes strange emotions.

When you type my name into any search engine, the word often appears, accompanied by unnuanced and highly biased reporting. (i.e."Pedophile Writer Supports Child Rapists.")

I was fired, clients said goodbye, my communication agency went bankrupt, performances and (literary) projects were (and are) cancelled, books were returned scratched, and social media did what they do best. The word "pedophilia" often appears in reviews of my books as well, showing that the public's opinions of the author are more important than the content of his books, and that is of course disastrous for book sales. My literary career continues to dwindle, to evaporate -- although that is not due to "Martijn" alone. The majority of my income is provided by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, for which I am very grateful, but of course this cannot continue indefinitely.

At the height of the threats and firings, I approached PEN Netherlands. Alexis de Roode said on behalf of the board that PEN did not want to help me. According to them, I had caused the consequences myself; with a subject like pedophilia one should know what to expect. I replied that a critical writer in Iran or China also knows what the consequences of his or her actions can be. Unfortunately, there is no help available, and even PEN is dominated by superficial activism. Kristien Hemmerechts experienced the same thing after she was threatened after the publication of her novel about Marc Dutroux's wife, The woman who fed the dogs. She knocked on the door of PEN Belgium and was told almost the same thing that I was.

Despite such large opposition, my motto remains unchanged: Always boldly forward! We are the zeitgeist!

We are now writing early February 2023. Marthijn and Lesley have been locked up in Ecuador for about eight months and they have still not appeared before a judge. The search for a non-corrupt lawyer there continues, as does the search for funds to finance the defense. According to the latest reports, the trial is scheduled for early March.

Marthijn's higher court appeal in the Netherlands is still pending, and no date has been set yet.

On February 3, Lesley emailed me:
<blockquote>
'''We only have 27 days left.''

''We don't have a (good) lawyer yet.''

''We don't have a dossier.''

''We don't have any witness statements.''
</blockquote>
'''Disclosure:'''

In writing this essay I have made use of some texts that I previously published, including Frayed Edges of Moral (Atlas Contact Publishers, 2013).

I've submitted the text to Marthijn and Lesley, to make sure I'm not putting them in any unnecessary danger; I removed some passages (referring to the Mafia). Lawyer Sidney Smeets has also read and commented on that earlier version. Norbert emailed the following: ''"This is a standardized reply. A portion of your email contains subject matter related to pedophilia, either explicitly or indirectly. Nowadays, certain Dutch nationals discuss such subjects in any way risk imprisonment. Therefore, unfortunately, it's too dangerous for me to respond to your email."''

==Rolling updates, beginning in 2023==

'''Update February 7th, 2023:'''

Lesley emailed me that OUR (Operation Underground Railroad) is back in Canoa and is offering parents big bucks to falsely testify:

<blockquote>''Because the police have nothing, they try to bribe the parents. They are offering large amounts of money. One of the parents told me: 'If I had said yes, I would never have to work again for the rest of my life. ''[...]'' OUR has promised family F., among other things, to buy them a house if they testify against me. C., who has been bribed, is said to have received, among other things, a piece of land in Jama. G. was promised large sums of money and a house yesterday. Tomorrow they will declare under oath.''</blockquote>

'''Update - February 9:'''

Arjan Erkel (ambassador of Free a Girl) sent me an concerned email after I sent him the essay. He indicated that he would inform Free a Girl about the case. A few hours later he emailed again. The contact person at Free a Girl had told him that I was not a neutral party, because I was a member of the Martijn association and was also a pedophile. Arjan asked me if it was true that I was a pedophile. My answer:
<blockquote>
''Hi Arjan, Free a Girl's response immediately indicates where things go wrong: prejudices and wrong assumptions – not good research. What are they basing their information on? And does it matter if someone is a pedophile?

''In addition, I wrote to you this morning:''

''"Arjan, thank you very much for your answer.''

''It is good to be informed about the activities of Free a Girl, because they go too far in their mission (which I sympathize with in principle).''

''Unfortunately, I know quite a few victims of abuse in my immediate vicinity, and I see that thirty or forty years later they are still struggling with the consequences. In all cases, however, it is not the work of a pedophile, but of a family member. Studies show that approximately eighty percent of child abuse takes place in the within the family, mainly by fathers. And that only is with regards to the reported cases – parents of victims within a family context are less likely to report. Because in such cases the domestic safety of the child is also at risk, given the overall lack of a sense of security, the impact is even greater than with 'strangers'. Moreover, 'situational paedosexuals' (heterosexuals) have penetration fantasies, while most pedophiles mainly want to give caresses, as they do not wish to harm the child.''

'''''My wife works in child welfare''' and she also sees this problem, but due to budget cuts they cannot do all that is necessary. Yet the government, the Public Prosecution Service in the lead, stubbornly continues to look the other way. Just like Free a Girl.''

''I think it would be better if Free a Girl focused its attentions on the main source of child abuse (and maltreatment!) in the Netherlands and not continue to pick the low-hanging fruit - and make a lot of noise about it. As I write in the essay, creating and then destroying evil symbols is detrimental to solving the problem and preventing future victims. Hubris and self-aggrandizing is also lurking in the background.''

''It is important to distance yourself from the Operation Underground Railroad, as they are deeply in the wrong - try searching Google, in particular Vice magazine has written a lot about Ballard and his associates.''

''Warm regards and good luck,''

''Anton."''
</blockquote>
'''Update - February 12:'''

''The site www.brongersma.info is online again.''

'''Update - February 14:'''

Arnon Grunberg published an article in ''[https://archive.is/zl1eT Het Parool]'' in which he draws attention to the bad practices of Tim Ballard / O.U.R.

Lesley told me that Ballard is absent in the process that starts on March 1st. A few fellow villagers are witnessed, however.

'''Update February 16:'''

The men have found a new (reliable) lawyer. According to Lesley, the file has recently changed (afterwards). Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have disappeared from the text as the reason for the arrest. Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that the arrest was based on lies, nonsense stories and prejudices of Ballard trying to keep his name out of the file.

'''Update February 20:'''

Marth & Lesley have told me that their lawyer has prevented parents from giving incriminating statements about O.U.R. and the police.

''"All lawyers here are liars who always claim something else."''

According to them, a false statement has been included from a woman who has received goods, a house and a piece of land from the police in exchange for fabrications about Lesley. There would be several witnesses that confirm this.

'''Update February 23:'''

I received an email from Nelson, from prison in Mexico:

<blockquote>''Nelson here.''

''The story about me is just as bizarre as Lesley and Marthijn. The police claimed that the head detective in my case was half a meter away and I was so nervous that I dropped a folder with child pornography on the street. Child porn from girls notable. Video images of Operation Underground Railroad shows that it is bullshit. I put the [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207031054/https://www.freespeechtube.org/user/Nelson whole story] on freesepeechtube.org including [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207015558mp_/https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19jF charge] (which is atm offline for maintenance)''
''
Sincerely,''

''Nelson.''</blockquote>

'''27 Feb: [https://twitter.com/looovetinkebell/status/1630319860256317440 Interview with Dautzenberg and Tinkebell]''' (In Dutch, Twitter.com).

'''Update March 1:'''

The process in Ecuador has been postponed to 14 and 15 March.

The criminal file contains a passage that can be interpreted as saying that the Dutch prosecutor's office has given information to Free a Girl and Tim Ballard, and participated in the arrest of Marthijn and Lesley. Lawyer Sidney Smeets asked both the OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 16 February for clarification. Because there was no answer to this, he sent a remover. He then received an answer that they had not received the mail. (I was in the BCC, so very debatable.) But well, now they can't get away from it anymore.

'''Update March 2:'''

A message from Lesley:

<blockquote>''I'm going to talk about corruption in court. By name and by everyone. I want to inform you that I and Marthijn are not going to commit suicide. Regardless of what comes out. If we are found dead, I want to be very clear here that it was not suicide. Regardless of what it would look like according to the authorities. ''[...]'' Police who gets money from someone to preach lies. A judge who asks me personal money to release me. ''[...]'' Police who promised parents money, goods and houses in exchange for false statements. ''[...]'' My strength lies in that foreign media is following it. And I am sending it my file right now. So we wait.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 10:'''

Marthijn's new lawyer was refused entry to the prison despite obtaining written permission. She wants to prepare the case with her client. According to her, the defense is very bad so far, probably deliberately so. The necessary opportunities for entering and requesting evidence are wasted. The OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have still not answered the letter from Sidney Smeets (March 1). The session will take place definitively on March 14 and 15.

'''Update March 14:'''

Lesley and Marthijn now have the same lawyer. She has now been partly paid, but she demands more money to "pay" the police and the judge. Lesley and Marthijn refuse; they do not want to participate in corruption.

<blockquote>''I am not going to give money to lawyers for whose entire strategy consists of corruption. I have told this lawyer several times that I do not want to spend 1 dollar on corruption. She asks for 22k in wages, but it appears that at least half of the 22k is intended for corruption. Therefore, lawyers have little interest in discussing the case, because their strategy is not making a strong plea, but simply giving all those present money. O.U.R. has already given the man far more than 20k. They are not going to support me if they would get 1 or 2 K from me. ''[...]'' If I knew everything in advance, I would not have taken a lawyer. And I could have given the children more in Canoa.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 16:'''

The process was extended by a day. The men get the impression that the lawyers are taking their own course, without consultation. The interpreter that is present during the process hardly speaks English, let alone Dutch. Lesley says that the parents who have to testify today are threatened by the police. They do not feel safe and do not want to testify without the presence of a reliable lawyer. Lesley asks for this today at the judge.

'''Update March 17:'''

The Dutch OM has finally responded to the letter from Sidney Smeets. However, they do not give a clear answer and beat around the bush. Moreover, the Public Prosecutor sends his answer (consciously) exactly one day after the hearing in Ecuador would have been officially completed. That hearing has been postponed to March 22. Lesley did not want to participate in corruption and fired the lawyer. The court now appoints its own lawyer. In addition, a Dutch translator will be arranged.

'''Update March 22:'''

The session with Marthijn and Lesley has been moved forward again.

Lesley said that documents have emerged on which the previous lawyer forged the signatures of Marthijn and Lesley. He sent a clear example. These were documents that gave her "permission" to act on their behalf.

An elderly Belarusian woman is now also involved in the process. She rented a room in the hotel from Marthijn and Lesley for a short period of time. According to Lesley, she too is a victim of Tim Ballard's lies. She is likely to be released due to health issues.

'''Update March 24:'''

The process will continue on March 31.

'''Update April 3:'''

Lesley informed me that the court-appointed attorney is very good. ''"Other lawyers could only talk about money and corruption. They were not aware of the matter. This one came up with a good defense against a statement from an agent."'' The agent has stated in court that his previous statements were incorrect. '''The case will continue on April 6.''' Three judges are now on the case; the chance of corruption is thus reduced.

'''Update April 12:'''

The men informed me that the process is well under way. Agents who lied earlier now tell the truth: children were not drugged and abused. The psychologist who spoke to the children reported that they were never touched. The neighborhood researcher indicated that the villagers are angry about the behavior of the police and that Lesley and Marthijn are good friendly people.

'''Update April 18:'''

The prosecutor is sick; the trial continues on May 3.

'''Update May 7:'''

The prosecutor is still sick, but he sends messages to the media. According to the men's lawyer, these are diversionary tactics, tricks, because he knows he is losing the case. The media reports also publish the [[Operation Underground Railroad|O.U.R.]] and [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] sourced information (which is demonstrably false). ''De Telegraaf'' has picked up those messages, spiced them up and provided them with even more suggestive (demonstrably false) information. Moreover, the 'journalists' of ''De Telegraaf'' do not refer to the adversity.

'''Update May 9:'''

OM man was absent again today. He now has until 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon to come up with a doctor's statement. He had to report whether he was still ill 24 hours before the hearing, but had not reported anything. And that OM man indicated last week, after being called why he was not there, that he was about to undergo surgery. Two hours later he was present at another court case as a public prosecutor… If he does not come with a doctor's statement, his department will be fined. But everything is fraud here… Another negative article about us in the media here by the same author but now on another news site.

'''Update May 10:'''

Today the NOS has taken over an article from RTV Oost. It was written by an anti-pedo activist, not a journalist. It is based solely on reports in the Ecuadorian media and on erroneous assumptions. The information is demonstrably false and suggestive. Lawyer Sidney Smeets is in consultation with both NOS and RTV Oost about a rectification on behalf of Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update May 11:'''

NOS has removed the message. ''"On closer inspection, the article turned out not to meet the journalistic standards of the NOS. We have not been able to sufficiently verify the facts so far and have decided to withdraw the article until further notice."'' RTV Oost has also removed the message. A gang war is currently raging again in Guayaquil prison. Lesley said that they are also being shot at. ''"Tim Ballard declares that I raped 400 children in 1 village. And would have smuggled 6000 children and women from Ukraine to Latin America. Such things are not possible at all. Certainly not without leaving evidence."''

'''Update May 13:'''

The judge has issued an ultimatum to the Public Prosecution Service, which has now been delaying the court case for more than three weeks by not showing up: a (new) public prosecutor must take office within 24 hours, otherwise he threatens to dismiss the case. According to the lawyer, the attitude is of the Public Prosecution Service most likely a deliberate strategy; when the judge dismisses the case, both they and the police can remain unaffected. It is time for a quality Dutch newspaper to finally delve into the process, a journalist who is not out to confirm prejudices – so far they systematically refuse to do so.

'''Update May 16:'''

According to the men's lawyer, the Public Prosecution Service has not yet made any statements. Lesley: ''“It is now 4×24 hours later (96 hours). I wonder when a decision will be made. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. ''[…]'' Letting us speak on the basis of system errors is the best outcome for them. They know they are losing the case. Hence the negative media reports. When we get out they are going to portray the judges and us as corrupt.”''

'''Update May 19:'''

The sessions have started again.

'''Update June 13:'''

The trial is nearing its end, and a verdict is expected at the end of this week. "Lawyer against us: there is no evidence against you, but I can't say that you will be declared innocent, this is Ecuador, you never know what is going on behind the scenes."

'''Update June 20:'''

Judgment is at 9 p.m.

Message at 7:48 p.m:

<blockquote>
Minutes crawl by. Kitten normally sleeps on my bed all day. And plays outside at night. Now she slept all night. And now she's playing outside. Hopefully we can still get her out. Life in prison is not fun for animals either. Not everyone is as sweet as us. While there is 0 evidence against us and parents stand up for us and tell us about police corruption, the chance of staying in jail because of corruption remains very high. All parents and children in Canoa are also tense. Many could not sleep. Hopefully I'll be on the mountain with all of them tonight. Looking at the sea. With some beers and cocktails. Now lunchtime. Hopefully the last time I have to eat meat.
</blockquote>

Message at 22.59: 'Conviction for possession of child pornography. Ten years.'

'''Update June 21:'''

Much is unclear, the verdict has not yet been made available. [https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/816563997/pedo-marthijn-u-samen-met-compagnon-veroordeeld-tot-10-jaar-cel-voor-kinderporno De Telegraaf] took over a message from an Ecuadorian site and blew it up, but did not translate it properly. The men were reportedly only convicted because 'child pornography', mainly TikTok videos, was allegedly found on Marthijn's computer and on Lesley's phone. All charges of O.U.R. and Free a Girl have been rejected, contrary to what De Telegraaf claims. More information will follow when the verdict becomes available.

'''Update June 28:'''

The written verdict has not yet been released. Marthijn is not doing well; he is depressed and cries all day. Lesley seems to remain fairly stable and constructive. The men are appealing.
Parents in Canoa, the village where Marthijn and Lesley lived, post messages on social media in which they call O.U.R. accusing them of misusing photos and videos of their children to illustrate alleged acts of heroism. O.U.R. claims to have saved the children after the parents allegedly sold the children.

'''Update July 3:'''

The written judgment has not yet been made available; therefore no appeal can be lodged yet, even though there are legal deadlines attached to this. The Dutch & Detained Foundation contacts the Ecuadorian lawyer to prevent the appeal from being declared inadmissible.

'''Note from Newgon Org, Jul 5''':

It is worth mentioning at this point, a large post made on the blog of Dautzenberg, which includes statements made by Marthijn. These will require translating and checking over, as they are in Dutch and Spanish.

But the gist of these messages is that the men have been set-up, and Dautzenberg does not doubt their innocence. The absurd claims made by O.U.R. and their state-funded Dutch partner were found to be without credit in court, and were dismissed with extreme prejudice. Thus, a charge had to be concocted to bring the prosecution to a credible conclusion for the well-funded and well-connected charities who had initiated the arrests, but whose lies could not pass in a court of law. And thus, a decision was made by the judge to aver on the balance of probabilities that material obtained from freely available and highly controlled websites such as [[Wikipedia:Pornhub|Pornhub]] and [[Wikipedia:TikTok|TikTok]] featured people marginally under the age of majority in "sexual" situations. It is against these claims that the men will appeal, and will seek to mobilize a liberal element in Dutch journalism, to shine a light on the injustice.

'''In two parts:'''

*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/persbericht-gevangen-in-ecuador-we-zijn-onschuldig/ PERSBERICHT – gevangen in Ecuador, ‘We zijn onschuldig’]
*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/teksten-van-marthijn-uittenbogaard/ Teksten van Marthijn Uittenbogaard]

'''Update July 5:'''

A press release [above] has been sent to about thirty media addresses. Added two texts by Marthijn.

'''Update July 7:'''

Marthijn responded to the message that an agent in the Netherlands has been sentenced to one day in prison, because he violated the duty of confidentiality (about rapper Lil Kleine) and because he sent sexually tinted messages to a twelve-year-old girl and tried to get her to commit fornication. “If Lesley or I committed those two sex offenses, I suspect we would get years. Plus possibly TBS.'

'''Update July 13:'''

The written verdict is still not available, so the appeal cannot yet be lodged. As far as is known, nothing has been done with the press release that was sent to thirty media outlets in the Netherlands on 5 July. Apparently there is no room for adversity, for the sound of Marthijn and Lesley. Perhaps the journalists are just too busy closely following the vicissitudes of the Hazes, De Mol and Op1 families. Lesley and Marthijn are now in contact with the American YouTube journalists who critically investigate Tim Ballard's crusades inspired by God.

'''Update July 16:'''

Tim Ballard has left O.U.R. He travels the world to promote Sound of Freedom, a feature film about his (alleged) exploits. His successor at O.U.R. is Matt Osborne, also reportedly a far-right Mormon and QAnon supporter. Lesley from prison: "You'd think O.U.R. very interesting for critical journalists. Apparently pedo hunters are untouchable, even if it is very clear that the people who are arrested are probably not pedos.”

'''Update July 24:'''

According to VICE, Tim Ballard has left not only O.U.R., but also the Nazarene Fund, a similar organization. He was fired for sexual misconduct on missions and financial malpractice. His documentary The Hidden War, with footage of the arrest of Lesley and children (‘victims’) from the village, is unlikely to be broadcast; O.U.R. deleted all information about it.

In the prison of Marthijn and Lesley, a fight broke out between two gangs and the police. "Bombs have exploded in our pavilion and a tank has driven in, the prison shop is completely broken."

'''Update July 27:'''

The death toll of the uprising has risen to 31. Lesley and Marthijn are unharmed and indicate that peace has returned and that they feel relatively safe.

They received the news about Thijs Römer from their cell. The actor has persuaded several underage girls to send him masturbation photos and videos. He himself sent dickpics. The Public Prosecution Service demands community service. Lesley and Marthijn would receive years of imprisonment for the same offense, because the Public Prosecution Service condemns their orientation, their inner world. Lesley on the case in Ecuador: 'We are political prisoners. Amnesty does nothing either. Here too, an Ecuadorian would not get a cell for what was found with us: adult pornography and a girl who dances like Beyoncé and who recorded it herself.

'''Update August 4:'''

Dutch & Detained has contacted Marthijn and Lesley's pro bono lawyer and informed him of the legal term for publishing the judgment and for the appeal. Both have been amply exceeded, but according to the lawyer, this is how it works in Ecuador and it could take months before the judge releases the written verdict.

Things are going well with the men. Peace has returned after the great uprising and they are learning Spanish. Fortunately, Marthijn is no longer depressed, but he is angry with those involved. He especially seeks solace in the songs of George Michael and Bruce Springsteen.

'''Update August 14:'''

In the wing of the Guayaquil prison where Lesley and Marthijn are detained, the Ecuadorian army removed and transferred the leader of one of Ecuador's largest gangs in a large-scale raid last Saturday. Adolfo Macias Villamar, aka Fito - sentenced to 34 years in prison for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder - is suspected of involvement in the deadly attack on presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during the raid. All cells in the wing were searched and telephones seized, including those of Marthijn and Lesley. So there is no longer any contact with them. Last Friday, Lesley announced that they are making progress in learning Spanish. ‘Marth practices for hours every day with Duolingo and reading books. His vocabulary is wide. But he can't understand people very well. I understand people. And can have conversations. But vocabulary is insufficient. I can read well. I use whatsapp and social media a lot in Spanish.' He also sent a photo of their fully healed pussy. As far as is known, the written judgment has still not been made public.
I have informed my contact persons at Dutch & Detained and Probation Service.

'''Update August 21:'''

A befriended fellow villager reported that Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe and that they will probably be able to communicate again soon. They have not eaten for days, but money has now been transferred to the prison so that they can buy water and food.

Dutch & Detained and Probation Service have not yet responded to the messages.

'''Update September 7:'''

There were riots in several prisons in Ecuador last week. Guards were taken hostage by prisoners, but have now been released. It is not clear whether this also happened at the location where Marthijn and Lesley are located. Contact with the men is not yet possible.

'''Update September 9:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going reasonably well and they feel relatively safe again. However, they were tortured by the army during the raids: they had to lie on their stomachs on the concrete floor for more than four hours, with their hands and feet tied. The soldiers also demolished a lot: doors, cupboards and television sets.

'''Update September 17:'''

Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are under heavy fire in Ecuador. They are accused of fabricating the liberation of alleged child abuse victims in Canoa, and threatening innocent people and children who claim otherwise. The allegations also relate to corruption; they allegedly bribed police and high-ranking officials to confirm their fake stories. The Ecuadorian minister says that not a single victim has been found, Ballard continues to cling to four hundred victims. Official charges are being prepared, including by the parents of children who have been wrongly portrayed as rape victims by Ballard and co. In the meantime, Marthijn and Lesley are still in custody and have still not received the written verdict.

'''Update September 28:'''

The allegations against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Reportedly, American Crime Journal will further investigate and report on 'Canoa'. They say they have evidence that O.U.R. bribes judges to get people convicted. Lesley and Martijn have still not received a written verdict and the lawyer assigned to them cannot tell them what exactly they have been convicted of. Dutch&Detained also receives no answer. We are diligently looking for money to arrange a good lawyer, so that he can provide clarity and prepare the appeal.

'''Update October 9:'''

We have managed to free up money. Dutch&Detained will try to arrange a reliable lawyer and will supervise the process contractually. The Unmasking of Tim Ballard and O.U.R. in the American media is progressing well.

'''Update October 21:'''

American Crime Journal journalists are working on a series of articles on the Canoa case. They interview children (and their parents) allegedly by Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have been kidnapped, abused and pressured to give false testimony about alleged abuse. VICE also prepares publications. We contacted the NRC correspondent in Ecuador, but he did not respond. Dutch journalists still do not want to delve into the case.

'''Update October 31:'''

The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances. The written judgment has still not been published. Dutch&Detained is trying to find a reliable lawyer. American Crime Journal is working on a series of articles about the case. The Dutch media still look the other way.

'''Update November 8:'''

Shots are fired again in Guayaquil prison. Explosions can also be heard again. The drug wars between different gangs are partly fought in prison. Marthijn and Lesley try to remain aloof as much as possible. They are holding up relatively well under the circumstances and are even trying to follow the Dutch elections. Marthijn in particular is concerned about the further rightward movement of our country. 'Asylum centers will soon become full or half prisons.' Yet there remains room for gentleness. 'Try to enjoy life and don't worry too much about all this nonsense. How's your book going?'

'''Update November 20:'''

Another person has been found dead in the men's pavilion, a murder or suicide.

ING still refuses to cooperate in a transfer of Lesley's savings; they make impossible demands and do not delve into the situation. We need the money to hire a reliable lawyer and pay off debts.

Good news: the men were able to buy fruit this week for the first time since the arrest. And Lesley celebrated his birthday this week. A fellow inmate cooked noodles for him in a pot heated with electric wires, in exchange for a bar of soap and a sachet of detergent – €1.35 in total.
We are still waiting for the written verdict.

'''Update November 30:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available.

The criticism and charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Several American journalists have become involved in the case.

After much insistence, ING has indicated that it is willing to cooperate in releasing Lesley's assets. We now have to wait for a reliable lawyer; Dutch&Detained is still working on that.

Marthijn and Lesley will regularly write a text from prison; the texts can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/11/berichten-uit-ecuador/ here].

'''Update December 10:'''

Lesley had an allergic reaction this week: swollen lips, little air. Fortunately, the complaints disappeared after a while. He is a vegan, but in prison he has to eat whatever is served to him. He has had several life-threatening allergic reactions in his life. According to him, there is no doctor in prison and there are no medicines either. He's worried. “God gave me a bad body.”

'''Update December 21:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available and made public.

Dutch & Detained has not yet managed to find an Ecuadorian lawyer willing to take on the case.

Lesley and Marthijn are doing quite well.

'''Update December 31:'''

Still no written judgment, still no lawyer, still no money from ING...

Let's hope that 2024 will go more smoothly and the truth will prevail.

===2024===

'''Update January 9, 2024:'''

A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador following the escape of Fito, the country's most dangerous criminal. He sat in the same pavilion as Lesley and Marthijn. The newsreels do not bode well: all the prisoners lie half-naked on the ground, their hands and feet tied with tie-wraps. To date it has not been possible to contact Lesley and/or Marthijn.

'''Update January 11:'''

The situation in Ecuador is rapidly deteriorating, a spiral of violence has gripped the country. Nothing has been heard from Marthijn and Lesley for days. It is unknown where they are and how they are doing. The Foreign Affairs diplomatic mission has made contact with the Ecuadorian prison system (SNAI).

'''Update January 13:'''

Lesley called me collect call from prison. I paraphrase: 'The police carried out raids with brute force for four days. Each time I was handcuffed and had to lie on the ground in an awkward position for six hours. I was kicked in the head at least twenty times and in the back several times. The police also stood on my arms and spat in my face. Even though I didn't resist and cooperated. Other prisoners were pepper-sprayed and beaten even harder; the skin had split open and blood was pouring from the head. Les Choneros gang members then wanted to take revenge and attack and kidnap the guards, just as those from Los Lobos had done in another prison, but several inmates convinced the mafia not to do this and to call for peace. It is now quiet again. Many prisoners here are innocent, while murderers and mafia leaders are acquitted. Everything is corrupt here, money gets you free. We refuse to participate in that, justice must prevail.'

'''Update January 21:'''

The army invades several times a week. Marthijn: 'Layed on the ground for nine o'clock today, my wrists tied. The army sprays pepper spray. We were kicked, hit and verbally abused several times. Also, someone had to wear a devil mask and hit everyone hard twice with a stick, while shouting with each blow. It was hell. I also lost my reading glasses. The army tears up my written texts, including my Spanish lessons. With army boots they stood on my shoulder blade, arms and fingers. They empty bottles of water over our mattress and throw sugar, coffee powder and all our belongings on the floor.' Lesley: 'The soldiers use extreme violence. I have been hit in the face many times and had pepper spray rubbed into my face. We were beaten with clubs, tortured for ten hours. Two prisoners died during the previous raid, today I also thought I would not survive. Report it to the Foreign Office, report it to the consulate, ask Arnon to pay attention to it together with Amnesty.'
Dutch&Detained, the Probation Service, the Foreign Affairs and Arnon Grunberg have been informed.

'''Update January 30:'''

Communication with the men is becoming increasingly difficult, the army is present in the prison with a heavy hand. Below is an illustrative photo; Lesley (dark brown underpants) and Marthijn (blue underpants) are in the back row, above the right of the soldiers. [Picture in original link - Newgon]

Dutch&Detained has not yet managed to find a reliable lawyer (via Amnesty and other contacts). The offices approached do not want to be exposed to the subject that has already been so emphatically framed in the media. Image formation is more important in Ecuador.

The written judgment has still not been made available. An appeal is therefore not yet possible.

Something else: today there is an article in the Volkskrant about child abuse within the family. It states that the environment is usually aware, but does not intervene. “We find child abuse so terrible that we prefer to pretend it doesn't exist.” I add: and that is why we look for scapegoats to alleviate the dissatisfaction and feelings of guilt. It was that pragmatic reflex that put Marthijn and Lesley in this situation. With thanks to the Public Prosecution Service, which also chooses the path of least resistance.

'''Update February 12:'''

Unfortunately, still no written judgment and no lawyer. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update February 26:'''

Still no verdict and no lawyer.

A fifth lawsuit is now underway against Tim Ballard and O.U.R.

Marthijn has written a letter to the Ombudsman following his investigation into the Dutch state's unlawful terrorist list. The letter can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2024/02/brief-van-marthijn-aan-de-ombudsman/ here].

'''Update Mar 11:'''

After six days of no contact, the men finally heard back, albeit indirectly. The reports are alarming. They are tortured every day by the army and have multiple wounds. All their belongings have been taken and they are barely fed. In addition, they should pray out loud every day to God and ask Jesus for forgiveness. If they do not do so, they are beaten with a wooden stick or iron bar.

The written judgment has now been delayed for eight months, while the legal period is ten days. Dutch & Detained has not yet been able to find a reliable lawyer.

'''Update Mar 17:'''

Still no contact with the men. The authorities involved have been informed.

'''Update March 21:'''

Lesley came forward through a fellow inmate. The violence by the soldiers continues, they are beaten with whips and clubs while they have to call on Jesus. Lesley is injured. The prisoners are forced to say in front of TV recordings that everything is okay; if not, they are hit with an electroshock weapon. They also get little food, Marthijn is emaciated. They are given one minute to eat, then their hands have to be raised and the remainder of the meal is taken away. The soldiers tell the prisoners that Marthijn and Lesley have abused and raped children, but most prisoners know the case and know that this is nonsense. 'But we are strong, we will make it. Sad that the international community is barely responding to the circumstances. Marth asks how your book and such are going.'

'''Update March 26:'''

Lesley and Marthijn, like their fellow prisoners, are still beaten by the military, but only when the prison authority SNAI is not nearby. They expect the soldiers to leave within two weeks and that it will then become relatively safe again. The story goes that in another pavilion prisoners died after being abused. The transfer of money via Foreign Affairs and the consulate to the prison shop was successful; Martijn and Lesley are allowed to place a small order once a week: cheese spread, slice of cake, some nuts and banana chips.

'''Update April 3:'''

There was another riot in the prison last weekend, making physical visits impossible. Volunteers from the consulate are trying to arrange a video connection to provide official information about how Lesley and Marthijn are doing.

At the request of the Foreign Affairs, the Honorary Consul has contacted several law firms, but none of them want to take on the case. The Honorary Consul in Quito also does not want to assist the men as a lawyer. Lesley and Marthijn still do not have a reliable lawyer. The written judgment is also omitted, so that no appeal can be filed. Image formation and bureaucracy rule, the law is subordinate to it.

'''Update April 16:'''

The soldiers are still present in the prison, but Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe. In the meantime, we continue to wait for the verdict and a lawyer.

'''Update April 27:'''

No contact for almost a week. According to media reports, things are wrong again in the prison; Food from outside is no longer allowed inside.

'''Update May 6:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going well considering the circumstances.

'''Update May 12:'''

The army is present 'only' three times a day, usually during meals. The soldiers hit less often, but they did take away all the belongings, including the mattresses. Lesley and Marthijn have been sleeping on concrete for a month. They have lost the Spanish textbooks, so they are bored. The pro bono lawyer remains silent. They want a reliable lawyer who can take action as quickly as possible. The head of security is (still) on their side, but there are guards who believe the media reports and accuse Marthijn and Lesley of kidnapping and raping hundreds of children. At the moment they are not very concerned about their safety, but that may be motivated by naivety and/or resignation. Their greatest need is a lawyer.

'''Update May 24:'''

Finally in touch again. Lesley had to be treated by a prison doctor because of the blows he received, but he says he is doing reasonably well again. He and Marthijn try to arrange a transfer to an LGBTQ department with the prison authorities. The authorities in the Netherlands initially have no influence on this. In the meantime, they continue to wait for the written verdict and a reliable lawyer.

'''Update June 11:'''

There has been no contact with the men for three weeks.

'''Update June 22:'''

There is still no contact with the men. The authorities involved also have no current information about the situation. Dutch&Detained has managed to find two Ecuadorian lawyers who want to take up the case. They try to contact the prison.

'''Update June 29:'''

Finally received another sign of life from the men. Things are going fairly well considering the circumstances, although they get little to eat and are only allowed to leave their cell briefly once a week. Lesley takes care of some stray cats. They are bored and hope that the consulate will deliver some books soon. He also indicates again that he wants to be transferred.

The Ecuadorian lawyers will try to visit the men this week. The consulate has also planned a video call.

'''Update July 3:'''

The lawyers visited Lesley and Marthijn and had a constructive discussion. They start working on the case. Initially, they concentrate on obtaining the written judgment.

'''Update 12 July:'''

The appointed lawyers are investigating the status of the legal case, because Marthijn and Lesley have been waiting for the written verdict for almost a year. The consulate made two video calls with the men last week. Marthijn and Lesley are still sleeping on the concrete, they are not allowed to leave their cell or are hardly allowed to leave it and they only get a meager meal once a day. They only have one pair of trousers and three T-shirts. They have explicitly stated that they want to be transferred to an LGBTI department, but that the military does not want to pass on their request to SNAI, the prison authority. Marthijn and Lesley are also regularly physically and verbally abused by the military. The consulate will now mediate and keep a finger on the pulse, so that the transfer request actually reaches the director of SNAI.

'''Update 15 July:'''

The verdict appears to have been made available to the public lawyer last May. He then filed an appeal and that was supposed to be heard this week. Marthijn and Lesley were not informed of any of this. The new lawyers are now taking over the case and have asked the judge for a postponement in order to be able to prepare properly for the appeal. As far as is known, Marthijn and Lesley were only convicted for ‘possession of child pornography’. So not for producing child pornography, kidnapping, rape, selling children, pool parties and all kinds of other nonsensical allegations as presented in the Ecuadorian (and Dutch!) media – with OUR and Free a girl as the main sources. Both Marthijn and Lesley and the lawyers strongly deny that the images found concern child pornography.

'''Update 24 July:'''

Nothing has been heard from Lesley and Marthijn in the past two weeks. Dutch&Detained is in close contact with the Ecuadorian lawyers. It is not yet known when the appeal will be heard. ABN-AMRO is being difficult about the management account with which we support the men and their legal case. It ‘poses risks for the bank that we cannot accept’, while there is legal and fully transparent cooperation with all the authorities involved. Distrust is the reagent that makes bureaucracy ferment.

'''Update July 28:'''

Alarming messages from Ecuador. Lesley and Marthijn are constantly being abused by the military. Lesley is seriously injured and has fainted several times; he has been electrocuted and beaten so badly that he cannot walk or lie on his back. Soldiers put pistols to their heads and say that they will soon be shot dead. Lesley indicates that they will not survive the continuous violence. I have informed all the organizations involved, because the men must be transferred to a safe department quickly. Code deep red/black.

A bizarre contrast: a beach volleyball player who was convicted a few years ago for abusing a minor is participating on behalf of the Netherlands at the Olympic Games. According to the NOC, everyone deserves a second chance. That is right, but it is cruel that the Netherlands hardly or not at all looks after two pedophile citizens who are being held in Ecuador under miserable conditions and who have never (not even in Ecuador) been convicted for abusing a minor.

'''Update July 31:'''

Tim Ballard is back in Ecuador, this time to promote his (heroic) film Sound of Freedom. And at the same time, the media is once again reporting on Indian stories about Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update August 11:'''

No contact or news from prison. The team of lawyers and the authorities involved are working on arranging a transfer to an LGBTQ department. The date of the appeal is not yet known.

'''Update August 12:'''

The appeal will be heard on August 23.

'''Update August 15:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been transferred to an LGBTQ-friendly department.

The appeal will be heard on August 23. The lawyers are hopeful; according to them, there is insufficient evidence to support the charges, but the media's image plays a major role in rulings.

'''Update August 19:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are doing reasonably well. They are given little to eat and the people in the new department are unpleasant, but they feel safer. For the first time in a long time, they have received books, although unfortunately they are in German. They are looking forward to the appeal.

'''Update August 24:'''

The appeal did not go ahead. The hearing has been postponed until September 11. The reason is not yet known.

'''Update September 6:'''

Yesterday, the prison in Guayaquil was bombed. How the men are doing is not known.

'''Update September 9:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are safe. The appeal is scheduled to be heard on September 11.

'''Update 13 September:'''

The judge's ruling has been upheld in the appeal. According to the lawyers, their defence was not listened to.

'''Update 17 September:'''

The honorary consul spoke to the men via video call. The situation in the LGBT pavilion is even worse than in the previous section. They share a cell with an aggressive transvestite whose behaviour ensures that they get little or no food. In addition, they are still being abused by the military, and the prison authority SNAI is aware of this. The men are called ‘child abusers’ and are constantly receiving threats from fellow prisoners. They are only allowed to leave their cell for fifteen minutes a week to walk around the courtyard. Marthijn (almost two metres tall) weighs less than sixty kilos and faints regularly. They want to be transferred back to the previous section as soon as possible, because they say they were still somewhat protected by the mafia there.

'''Update 23 September:'''

The Ecuadorian lawyers confirm that the regional court had already made the decision (confirmation of the verdict) before the hearing. They have now spoken to Marthijn and Lesley. They are opting for cassation, because they want to see their innocence proven. Transferring the sentence to the Netherlands is therefore off the table for the time being. According to the lawyers, the Court of Cassation is less sensitive to pressure from the media, although the process could take more than a year. The lawyers are trying to have the men transferred back to their old department, where they feel less unsafe.

'''Update October 4:'''

A message from Lesley. They no longer trust the lawyers, because they did not coordinate the defense with him and Marthijn. There was no substantive consultation and they were only told afterwards that the hearing had already taken place - without them. They want the sentence to be transferred to the Netherlands as soon as possible. The authorities involved have been informed about this. Dutch&Detained is planning a video call with the lawyers.

'''Update October 17:'''

A lawyer from Dutch&Detained has spoken to the men. They have been transferred to another cell and have been given nicer cellmates. They absolutely want to appeal because they want to continue fighting for their innocence. WOTS (serving a sentence in the Netherlands) is therefore not an option for the time being. The video call was again terminated prematurely.

'''Update October 23:'''

The charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Click [https://americancrimejournal.com/plaintiffs-file-lawsuit-against-tim-ballard-and-operation-underground-railroad-for-human-trafficking-violations/ here] for the latest news.

'''Update October 27:'''

I spoke to Marthijn, Lesley and lawyer V. via Zoom for an hour and a half last Thursday. The men have two new cellmates and that is going well. They have also not been beaten by the military for a while. Marthijn looked bad, he is much too thin. Lesley seems to be coping better with the detention. They are only given German books, but their German is improving. V. showed the images from the file that were labelled as child pornography by the judge. She took the time to discuss each image with the men. In Marthijn's case, it concerns about twenty images that were on his laptop. It was almost laughable: watercolours, paintings, a postcard from a Dutch bookshop (bought during one of my book presentations; I remember it well, in Livius De Zevensprong), covers of Dutch and American magazines (children in sports shorts etc.) and a few images that come from the internet, but no child pornography. Bizarre to see. In Lesley's case, it only concerns three videos on his mobile phone, originating from TikTok: a dancing girl (with clothes on), a showering boy (only upper body visible) and an official instructional video of a doctor examining a boy (with underwear on) with a stethoscope. Again, no child pornography. According to V., there is no burden of proof and the men were only convicted because of the media attention. Moreover, procedural errors were deliberately made and the appeal had already been settled in advance, the judge is corrupt. That is also the reason why the men were not heard; they were ready for the Zoom connection with the courtroom, but the judge refused to open the link. He was probably afraid that Marthijn and Lesley would start talking about corruption, Tim Ballard and O.U.R. and that this information would end up in the file. V. is hopeful about the cassation, because the court in Quito is known to be less corrupt, but it cannot give any guarantees in that regard. She expects that once the written verdict is available and they can officially appeal, it will take another year before the case is heard. Martijn and Lesley's hotel is safe for the time being; it can only be confiscated after completion of the entire process, and then only if the $20,000 fine imposed by the court is not paid on time. Marthijn said that he has not been able to speak to anyone in the Netherlands for a year and a half and that it is hard for him. When he started talking about his mother who recently turned eighty, he had to cry. V. will try to arrange a phone call with her. She is also open to speaking to the journalist from Nieuwsuur; according to her, it is important to create a counter-voice in the media. I encouraged the men and promised to continue helping them. It was nice to see and hear them, but also hard. What is happening to them is so unfair and I feel relatively powerless. The lawyer made a good impression: empathetic and professional.

'''Update 12 November:'''

The written verdict has not yet been made available, so there is still the possibility of appealing.

The journalist from Nieuwsuur has been put in touch with the Ecuadorian lawyers and with a Spanish colleague who is investigating corruption in Ecuador with the El Paccto project.

'''Update 13 November:'''

Revolts have broken out again in the Guayaquil prison. The media reports fifteen dead and dozens injured. I do not know how Marthijn and Lesley are doing; I have not heard from them since the Zoom conversation.

'''Update 14 November:'''

The men are safe, the uprising took place in Guayas 1 and they are in Guayas 4.

'''Update 27 November:'''

Nothing more heard from Lesley and Marthijn. The lawyers in Ecuador have not yet announced whether the written verdict has been received, so that the men can appeal in cassation.

'''Update December 10:'''

Dutch&Detained is trying to arrange a phone call between Marthijn and his mother before Christmas, together with the Ecuadorian lawyer. No further news. (Although, ABN-AMRO is again being difficult about the management account and is coming up with bizarre allegations.)

'''Update December 22:'''

No news. Unfortunately.

'''Update December 30:'''

Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to have Marthijn call his mother. According to the lawyers, filling in and assessing 'all kinds of paperwork' takes longer than hoped. In short, the bureaucracy is an obstacle. The written verdict has also not yet been made available.

===2025===

'''Update January 6, 2025:'''

The volunteers who were supposed to visit Marthijn and Lesley on December 27 unfortunately did not receive permission from the prison authorities. It is therefore still unclear how the men are doing.

'''Update January 8:'''

The phone call between Marthijn and his mother failed again, partly due to the 'bungling' of the prison authorities. D&D is trying to arrange a conversation again.

'''Update January 21:'''

The conversation with the mother has not yet worked out. The verdict has not yet been handed down in writing. No contact with the men yet. The relevant authorities are working on it.

'''Update January 26:'''

As far as known, no changes. We are trying to hire an additional lawyer to supervise the Cassation.

'''Update January 31:'''

Next Thursday, the phone call with the mother is scheduled.

'''Update 7 February:'''

Marthijn was finally able to video call his mother today. Unfortunately, she had no good news; last week, Marthijn's 55-year-old brother died suddenly.
Marthijn and Lesley are doing pretty well. They are in a cell together with a third prisoner with whom they fortunately get along. One problem is that they have to stay in their cells almost 24 hours a day; the military are still present in the complex. Thanks to the monthly deposit, they can regularly buy food in the prison shop. The much too thin Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Marthijn and Lesley speak pretty good Spanish by now.

'''Update 12 February:'''

The men managed to send some voice messages. They are doing reasonably well, although the military continue to harass. They sounded constructive.

'''Update 24 February:'''

Things are still going reasonably well with the men. We hope that soon the written verdict will be available so that they can finally go to Cassation.

ABN-AMRO threatens to cancel the management account; the ‘accusations’ are bizarre and mainly driven by bureaucracy and mistrust. The bill is used to pay the lawyers (in consultation with Dutch&Detained) in Ecuador and the monthly deposits (through the Ministry of foreign affairs) for the prison shop, so that Marthijn and Lesley can buy vitamins and fruit.

Attorney Sidney Smeets filed an objection on my behalf.

'''Update 10 March:'''

ABN-AMRO ignores the objection and eliminates the bill in mid-May. As this will lead to further problems, the organisations involved have been informed. So be prosecuted.

There are no major developments from Ecuador. Things are going pretty well with the men.

'''Update March 25:'''

The complications with ABN-AMRO have not yet been resolved, the process is proceeding slowly. Obstructive bureaucracy, in both countries.

A member of the embassy has visited the prison. The men are doing reasonably well. It could take another three years before a final verdict is issued, which is six years after the arrest.

'''Update April 7:'''

ABN-AMRO is threatening to proceed with the cancellation of the management account in mid-May. The Dutch Probation Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are trying to reverse this, but the bureaucracy fueled by distrust is stubborn.

'''Update April 17:'''

A lawyer from the Dutch Probation Service has delved into the case. He has found nothing that justifies the cancellation of the account 'other than arbitrariness and suspicions'. The bank probably does not want to be associated with the men and/or Ecuador. We are considering a judicial decision.

'''Update April 21:'''

Marthijn's birthday is today. The treat: a rusk with jam.

'''Update April 30:'''

The lawyers cannot get through the wall that ABN-AMRO is putting up. The account will be liquidated in two weeks. I am now working on plan B, so that the men can continue to be helped: legal assistance and food.

'''Update May 8:'''

The volunteers of Reclassering Nederland have spoken to the men via ZOOM. They are doing reasonably well, Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Less violence is used by the soldiers in the pavilion. The men are four in one cell and they are only allowed to air out for twenty minutes a week. The mattresses they lie on are very thin and need replacing. However, the latter is difficult to achieve.

'''Update May 15:'''

Plan B has been implemented. The men are assured of legal assistance and sufficient food. Fuck ABN-AMRO!

'''Update by Newgon, 15 May:'''

[[Norbert de Jonge]] has returned to the limelight, posting a [https://fstube.net/w/s5S9cYUow8FjGC3DTxP6c4 video] on multiple sharing platforms. We have reproduced it on FST.

'''Update May 27:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The main thing now is to wait for the appeal, but that could take a few years…

'''Update May 29:'''

Message from Lesley: ‘A lot of military violence again today. People revolted. Pistols were pointed at us. A warning shot was fired into the roof. The revolt did not stop there, but became more violent. It only became calmer when the prison management itself intervened.’

'''Update June 6:'''

Marthijn and Lesley announced that they have been transferred to another cell in the same pavilion.

'''Update June 9:'''

For the time being, no visits are possible due to the security situation in and around the prison. The appointment with the consul has therefore been postponed until further notice.

'''Update June 17:'''

The kitten that Lesley was caring for was bitten to death by malnourished dogs. Other cats were tortured by the military; live kittens were used as footballs. Marthijn wants to file a complaint via Konijnen in Nood.

'''Update June 23:'''

The (recently expanded) team of lawyers has managed to smooth out and accelerate the legal process. The cassation will be heard next Friday. We were able to keep it quiet for a long time, but unfortunately there was a leak to Tim Ballard – he has connections in the highest regions. Ballard is now in Canoa and is trying to influence the judges with videos, messages and interviews. In the name of God. Once again he speaks of large-scale abuse, kidnappings, rapes and sex parties. In his messages he shows photos of Marthijn, Lesley and their hotel. The media are eagerly diving on it again. Image formation is more important in Ecuador than the truth and the country is thoroughly corrupt. The outcome of the cassation can be guessed. A reaction from the men: 'A lot of tension. We sleep badly with only bad dreams. Little hope. The system is too corrupt. Bad people often seem to win and are described as heroes.' Lesley and Marthijn previously indicated that when they are released they will file an (international) lawsuit against Ballard, O.U.R. and Free a Girl.

'''July 18th Update:'''

There is still no verdict, the legal deadline (ten working days) has been significantly exceeded. The lawyers have no explanation for this. The prison shop has been closed for three weeks, leaving the men with insufficient food.

'''July 20th Update''':

The shop is open again, but the military only allows the purchase of cleaning supplies, not food. Marthijn and Lesley are starving and weakened. Furthermore, the number of tuberculosis infections in the cells is increasing. The relevant authorities have been notified.

'''Update August 3:'''

Marthijn and Lesley have been moved to a new cell. There is no food for sale in the prison store, but bread and bananas will likely be available for sale soon. Due to hunger and weakened immune systems, the tuberculosis epidemic has escalated (more than 500 infections in Guayaquil prison, dozens of deaths); several pavilions have been cleared for patients. The appeal: still no verdict.

'''Update August 14:'''

The appeal has been rejected. The lawyer's response: "It surprised us all. But we understood why the court took so long to give us a verdict. The judges were looking for a way to deny us the appeal. Each of the arguments was dismissed on silly and unfounded grounds, for reasons that were even alleged by us, although the court said that was not stated. All this time they were looking for reasons to deny us, and it became evident that the decision had already been made. We would understand that this is related to the arrival of Tim Ballard that week." We are increasingly disappointed with the corrupt justice system in this country.

'''Update August 17:'''

Food is still unavailable in the prison store; the president of Ecuador currently considers it an unnecessary luxury. The number of tuberculosis deaths is rising; a large proportion of the prisoners are malnourished and lack exercise, and there is also a shortage of medicine. The mafia controls the regular food distribution in the kitchen; for a fee, you can get twice the allowed portion. Any leftovers are divided among the other prisoners. Lesley and Marthijn do not participate in this out of solidarity with the prisoners without money. They have, however, exchanged cleaning supplies for six sandwiches a week. These come from outside the prison, so they do not disadvantage the other prisoners.

'''Update September 3:'''

The men have been moved to another cell. They feel safe there, as they were already friends with two of their three cellmates. They also finally have access to the prison shop again; their credit (for three months) has been replenished. They have also managed to transfer additional money so the men can purchase vitamins and nutritional supplements. Finally, the process for sentence transfer to the Netherlands has been initiated – WOTS, the Act on Transfer of Enforcement of Criminal Judgments.

'''Update September 24:'''

The men are doing relatively well. No news on the legal front.

'''Update October 20:'''

Things are still going relatively well. The regime has been relaxed somewhat; the men are allowed to leave their cells for 45 minutes every Saturday and Sunday. They are reading a lot, especially German and Spanish books. The shop is open again.

'''Update November 10:'''

Dozens of people have died in prison riots in Ecuador. Fortunately, the location where Lesley and Marthijn are being held has escaped unscathed this time.

'''Update December 8:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The sentence transfer process has been initiated, but this may take some time.

===2026===

'''Update January 16:'''

The situation remains unchanged. Marthijn and Lesley are reading, drawing, and writing extensively. They are still waiting for information about the sentence transfer. It is now up to the Dutch authorities to make an initial assessment.

'''Update February 15:'''

No news. They are still waiting for the sentence transfer to the Netherlands.

Marthijn is writing a diary in Spanish in prison. [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2026/02/dagboek-marthijn/ Click here] to read it.

'''Update March 1:'''

Military personnel have searched Marthijn and Lesley's cell and destroyed all drawings and writings. Furthermore, there is a tuberculosis epidemic in the prison, but there is a shortage of medication. The organizations involved have been notified. Nothing is known yet regarding the possible transfer of sentences. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update March 16:'''

The process surrounding the transfer of sentences is proceeding slowly; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects to establish contact with Ecuador soon. The men are not receiving the medication they need; the prison authority SNAI is blocking this. Lesley is trading food for medication for a skin infection. Money has been stolen again from the men's account at the prison shop. Despite everything, they report that they are doing well considering the circumstances.

'''Update April 16:'''

The situation is, factually speaking, unchanged. Unfortunately.

'''Update May 22:'''

The men are doing reasonably well. They are reading, drawing, and painting. Lesley sent a portrait he made of Greta Thunberg, a woman he admires. Unfortunately, there is no news to report yet regarding the transfer of sentences.

'''Update June 24:'''

No change in the situation.

'''Update July 24:'''

The situation is (unfortunately) unchanged.

'''Update August 2:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been moved to another pavilion due to a major tuberculosis outbreak.

===Latest update===

'''Update 20 August:'''

The men are doing relatively well in their new cell. Lesley has painted a large world map on the wall together with a fellow inmate. There is no news regarding the transfer of their sentence.

'''Update 6 September:'''

Police raided the cell again during the night. They dealt blows and stole food and medication.

'''Update 22 September:'''

For months, the men have been unable to buy food from the prison shop. The mafia is blocking this and also controls the prison kitchen. The prisoners are receiving less and less food, forcing them to turn to the mafia for sustenance. Marthijn and Lesley refuse to play along, resulting in starvation, stomach pain, and dizziness. I have informed the relevant authorities and urged them to expedite the transfer to the Netherlands.

'''Update 27 September:'''

The prison shop is once again accessible to Lesley and Marthijn.

<hr>

SEE ALSO:
[https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth ''(Vice)'']

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

<hr>

''All translation prior to the 2023 updates is courtesy of the user [https://www.boychat.org/ycdtobc/messages/119860.htm Manstuprator at BoyChat].''
[[Category:Essays]][[Category:A.H.J. Dautzenberg's Essays]]

Essay:The Gruesome Consequences of a Hysterical Witch Hunt

2026-09-28T00:57:46Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__The following is a mirror of an article originally titled '''''[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/02/de-gruwelijke-gevolgen-van-een-hysterische-heksenjacht/ De gruwelijke gevolgen van een hysterische heksenjacht]''''', which appears on the website of Dutch writer [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Dautzenberg A.H.J. Dautzenberg]. We provide an English translation of it here, in the interest of maintaining a copy of this important journalism. The opinions reflected in this article are those of A.H.J. Dautzenberg who is unaffiliated with Newgon Organization. For the latest update, see at the [[#Latest update|bottom of the page]].
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'''February 5, 2023'''

In Ecuador, two Dutch men have been detained under appalling conditions for almost eight months, two men with a pedophile orientation. They still don't know exactly what they are suspected of and they haven't seen a judge yet. I think I know them well, consider them friends. My impression is that they are innocent.

In recent months I have tried several times in vain to interest the quality media in the case, also to encourage them to put an investigative journalist on it. In particular, the role of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and that of the [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] pedo hunter club (and its dubious American partner [[Operation Underground Railroad]]) should be critically examined; in my view they create a toxic climate that smothers any nuanced discussion in advance. The word "child pornography" is used far too lightly and just a little too eagerly by them – all shutters are immediately closed.

I believe I have followed the (long run-up to the) arrest relatively objectively, but perhaps my view is clouded by fear, anger, disappointment and friendship. That's why I hope for help.

One of the media I approached indicated that it was "not a newsworthy story". The editor-in-chief of an opinion weekly emphasized that a sensitive subject such as pedophilia cannot be treated from the perspective of two detained pedophiles – "Who says they are innocent?" Another reaction: "It would make me very uncomfortable to post this piece." The overall tone in a nutshell.

Below is the essay I wrote – it consists of two parts that alternate between a more or less journalistic report, and my personal thoughts, although the distinction is sometimes difficult to make. I have my personal thoughts.

Set aside your gut reaction that tries to take over your feelings, and don't judge too quickly; smoke does not always mean fire, after all, smoke machines do not need to be on fire. Take up the challenge, if you will. Vulnerable minorities deserve protection, not a witch hunt. That is good for everything and everyone.

[[File:Huis.jpg|thumb|Action outside of Marthijn's house]]

'''Ten years of Mart[h]ijn'''

The zeitgeist dictates which topics may or may not be discussed. For example, pedophilia. Nevertheless, it is still important not to shy away from an "unmentionable" subject; by exposing insensitive mechanisms, future victims can be spared. Moreover, freedom of expression is sacred in our country. Or so I thought.'''

At the moment, two Dutch men have been detained in Ecuador under appalling conditions for more than six months, and they have not yet seen a judge. It is still not entirely clear what crime in particular they are suspected of. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not interfere with the legal process and the Netherlands does not have an embassy in Ecuador. A hopeless situation, they fear for their lives.

The run-up to the arrest of the two men started in 2011, with an attempt by the Public Prosecution Service to ban the association [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn]], founded in 1982; The ball starts rolling then. After years of intensive investigation, no criminal offenses had been uncovered, so according to Minister of Justice Opstelten (VVD), only civil law could offer a solution.

In the early 1980s, the VVD regularly approached the Martijn association for advice on the subject of pedophilia. In 1986, then-VVD-minister Korthals Altes submitted a bill to lower the "age of consent" law from sixteen to twelve years. He referred, among other things, to scientific studies that indicate that sex with minors is not necessarily harmful.

The JOVD – (left-liberal) Mark Rutte, who was also a member at the time and would become chairman two years later – just like the Young Socialists in 1986, signed a petition for the change in the law. The law passed in a slimmed-down version, but it was then abolished at the beginning of the new millennium. In the early years, the roots of the Martijn Association therefore received political support, especially from the VVD.

By 2011 things had completely changed. In November of that year, in the run-up to the court case to ban the [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn association]], VVD minister Opstelten publicly expressed the hope that the court would issue a ban. Which was strange to say the least, because a minister is not allowed to give his opinion on a case that is still before the courts. The left and right both agreed with Minister Opstelten's statement that the association should be banned.

Tofik Dibi (of GroenLinks) said during the same parliamentary debate: ''"The Martijn association is an association of dirty little men, with dirty points of view, that arouse disgust and revulsion. My gut says: lock them up and throw away the key."'' And Madeleine van Toorenburg (CDA) stated: ''"How is such a disgusting association allowed to exist."'' At the time, Pieter Omtzigt regularly referred to "Martijn's victims" in his tweets. Mind you, ten years of investigation by the police and the Public Prosecution Service had not resulted in any criminal charges.

For more than ten years I have studied the subject of pedophilia, a distinction in sexual orientation that I believe should no longer be made, and should be eliminated. And let's not beat around the bush, I was terrified. The hatred that wins over the facts, the myths that are devoured like candy, the denial that follows any hint or suggestion, the opportunistic role of politics and especially that of the Public Prosecution Service. With regards to this topic, all good sense and logic seems to have disappeared, and the only reaction is a visceral one.

Even before the legal process began, I decided in 2011 to become a member of the Martijn association in order to start a dialogue and put an end to the escalating witch hunt; a pedophile is a human being, not an undesirable scourge – which unwelcome minority is next? A side effect was that not much later I could follow the court case in Assen both externally and internally. "''Your career is over''," tweeted some cynical fellow writers with apparently mocking pleasure.

For the record, I keep repeating it out of necessity: I am not in favor of sexual contact between adults and children. I do think that people with a pedophile orientation should be allowed to dream and fantasize about it, and that they should be allowed to speak and write about their desires – and that they (just like the VVD in 1986) should be allowed to argue for a liberalization of the legislation regarding sexuality.

In fact, I am convinced that openness and transparency will lead to greater understanding, and to a mutual understanding. An innate disposition does not disappear by publicly condemning it. Not in Iran, not in Russia, not in Hungary and not in the Netherlands. An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people with pedophilic feelings, men and women, live in our country. Get used to it. Talk to them, don't banish them to the dungeons of society. And understand that approximately eighty percent of child abuse actually takes place within the immediate family, by "opportunistic paedophiles".

So in 2011 I signed up as a member of the Martijn association, which was founded in 1982. I attended meetings, talked to members and advised the board. At the end of 2011, a child and adolescent psychiatrist e-mailed me the following: ''"Thank you for your contribution to the quest that we as a society must undertake. Not a nonsensical black-and-white opinion, but a nuanced story."'' Various statements of support from that quarter followed, but the senders added that they did not dare to express their opinions publicly.

In May 2012 I represented the association before the court in Assen. At the time, I tried repeatedly to talk to MPs, but I couldn't get any response. Other members of the Martijn association also tried this, and they were also ignored.

'''The "Yuck" Factor'''

The lawsuit would ultimately be heard in Assen, on May 16, 2012. The Public Prosecution Service had to make it plausible that (the activities of) the Martijn association are "contrary to public order". Both in the petition and in the closing requisition, the Public Prosecution Service claims that the Martijn association poses a serious danger to children in the Netherlands. "The ideas and the way in which these are expressed must be seen as a serious threat to the physical and sexual integrity of the child."

The Public Prosecution Service had formulated a criterion for testing texts and images that had appeared in the association's magazine and on the site since 1982: the "yucky content". Especially the texts from the early years of the association were judged with a high yuck content. The Public Prosecution Service included a review that former senator Edward Brongersma (PvdA) wrote in the magazine about Kees Verheul's novel A boy with four legs, published in 1982 by publisher Van Oorschot. "Apparently intended to be sexually arousing," suggested the District Attorney. (Apparently intended to be sexually arousing - just how does one measure that?)

The following poem on the site was also given a high yuck content by the Public Prosecution Service:
<blockquote>
''I would love to''

''Sail with you in a boat''

''Love you''

''Kiss you''

''Your body against me''

''I caress in my dreams''

''Everywhere I want to go''

''And you like it''

''Thoughts are free''

''It's a cliché''

''But what I just wrote''

''Is only one chance in a hundred''

''Reality''

''We live in a world''

''Where such things can't be''

''But luckily''

''How lucky''

''Fantasizing is cool''

''And it can't hurt anyone.''
</blockquote>
On June 27, 2012, the Martijn association was banned by the court. The press reacted to the verdict. NRC Ombudsman Sjoerd de Jong thought it too subdude: ''"On June 27, the court in Assen banned the association Martijn, which wants to represent the interests of pedophiles. That was remarkable news, but the newspaper did not comment on it. Now you don't have to do that with every news event, but you would expect it regarding this one. That seems entirely in line with the liberal principles of the newspaper: after all, it is [not about the words but] about the deeds."''

'''The Appeal'''

The Martijn Association appealed to the Court of Appeal in Leeuwarden. The Public Prosecution Service argued that the appeal should be declared inadmissible, because an association that has been banned no longer exists and can therefore not appeal. The court did not agree with this and ruled in April 2013 that there was no threat of social disruption and that the association could therefore not be banned. According to the court, society should also accept expressions that are widely abhorred. Moreover, the statements and behavior of Martijn are not punishable, the court emphasized.

The Public Prosecution Service then submitted this judgment to the Supreme Court for review. It decided on April 18, 2014 that the association should be banned immediately, because it goes contrary to public order. According to the Supreme Court, it is necessary as this is a very special case, in the interest of protecting the health and the rights and freedoms of children. ''"These social views are also widely supported outside the Netherlands, and the Netherlands has committed itself internationally to taking measures in that regard."'' So Brussels was watching.

The lawyers Gerard Spong and Sidney Smeets then approached the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Marthijn Uittenbogaard. At the beginning of 2015, it announced that it would not consider the appeal. The reaction of Spong and Smeets: ''"We see this decision as a case of evading the giving of a legal opinion on a socially sensitive legal question. And therefore a lack of courage. In a resilient democratic society it is precisely the unpopular opinions that should be protected. Freedom of expression is only meaningful if it also (or especially) protects unpopular opinions. Even opinions that not everyone agrees with and that some even find offensive."''

'''Seclusion'''

At this point, the Martijn Association is definitively banned, including the association's website, but former chairman Marthijn Uittenbogaard is told by the Public Prosecutor that he may continue the website privately. He decides to concentrate on his websites www.brongersma.info and www.marthijn.nl (with an h), which he started in 2001, renaming a site he started a quarter of a century ago.

As a private person, Marthijn Uittenbogaard continues to fight for discussion about and the seeking of approval for intergenerational relationships. He does this mainly by collecting information on pedophilia and paedosexuality on his websites, information in the broadest sense of the word, including studies that emphasize the potentially harmful effects of paedosexual activity.

His activism and the ruling of the Supreme Court have caused Marthijn Uittenbogaard many problems: there have been threats, rocks and paving stones have been thrown against and through his windows, lit fireworks have been left in his mail box, a fireworks bomb was left on his doorstep – the list fills dozens of pages. In addition, he says he is shadowed by the police and his phone is wire-tapped.

Over time he has decided not to leave his home in Hengelo; he spends his days playing video games for hours on end and maintaining his web sites. He has had plexiglass fitted to the windows of his house and he installed security cameras, which the police had refused to do, despite several requests from him.

Former Martijn figurehead Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner Lesley have become friends of mine over the years and I trust them. Not out of naivety or misplaced loyalty, but as a result of frank conversations and a thorough study of the facts – and the many lies that have been spread about them. I haven't seen any hard evidence to date that confirms that either has committed any crimes.

I kept in touch with the two men for the past ten years – two passionate, sweet, gentle people. When I stayed with them a few years ago, I saw what the isolation did to Marthijn. Like a shy little bird, he sat in an almost blinded house, glued to his almost life-size game screen. Lesley tried to remain anonymous and went to work in a warehouse every day. In his spare time, a convinced vegan, he devoted himself to the necessary charitable institutions. I saw two fellow sufferers who loved each other very much.

[[File:Megafoon.jpg|frame|Demo outside Marthijn's house]]

'''Onslaught'''

The day was coming for an attack to be made on Uittenbogaard. It would be in a morning in 2020. A 41-year-old man from Spakenburg entered the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley early in the morning, ran up the stairs, entered the bedroom and threatened to stab Marthijn to death with a fish-boning knife. A friend who is staying over heard the noise, intervened in time and knocked the knife out of the hands of the man, who was standing next to Marthijn's bed.

The man fled, but was arrested shortly afterwards. He was released the same day, but he was banned from the vicinity. A lawsuit followed. The man did not have to go to prison; the judge gave him 150 hours of community service.

The man, who had already been hospitalized eight times for bouts of manic-depression, claimed that he entered the house because of media reports he had heard, which stated that a children's room with dildos had been found in Marthijn's house and that Marthijn's partner had been arrested on suspicion of engaging in child abuse.

At the time of the attack on Marthijn I had been in touch with the people who had been in contact with Marthijn, and even more so around the time of the raid and the arrest of Lesley. Marthijn is still convinced that his partner was arrested at the time in order to intimidate him, and to silence him. He wrote to me: ''"I saw my partner being taken away on a completely fabricated charge. The extensions of the pretrial detention were outrageous. As his partner, I was also not allowed to attend the sessions allegedly due to measures taken due to the corona virus pandemic. But journalists were allowed to attend! The only thing they had against my partner was that he was "the-partner-of". On that, and on based on the lie that his parents did not want him to be released, his pretrial detention was repeatedly extended. That was outrageous!"''

'''Detention'''

In 2020, a house search took place at the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley. This was legally sanctioned by the authorities suspecting Marthijn of having committed "sedition"; the Public Prosecution Service referred to statements on its websites and in the media. Lesley was arrested during the house search, then confined in isolation for ten weeks and then only released after six months.

The OM revealed that Lesley was suspected of having "prepared to kidnap and rape a child." The OM also reports that a children's room was found within the house of Lesley and Marthijn and a studio in the garage to make child pornography. Sex paraphernalia, including dildos, were found in Lesley's bedroom. And according to the Public Prosecution Service, a Stanley knife, lubricant and anesthetic tablets were found in his backpack, which indicated he was preparing to commit that crime.

The OM kept Lesley hanging for two years. At the end of April 2022, the case finally went to court. The charge of "preparing to kidnap and rape a child" had disappeared from the indictment, as had charges concerning the possession of dozens of images of child pornography. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there were no indications of the existence of a "children's room," nor of a studio to make child pornography.

Lesley (like his colleagues) needs the Zip ties and the Stanley knife for his work – he is a warehouse worker. The "lube" was actually a jar of Working Hands cream - the skin of his hands is cracked because of his physical work. The so-called "anesthetics" were actually magnesium pills he used to numb the recurring pain in his leg muscles, a consequence of Lesley's veganism.

'''"Child Pornography"'''

The charge against Lesley has been reduced by the OM to "making and possessing child pornography". The petition from the prosecutor: one year in prison, four months of which were to be suspended. Lesley was sentenced to ten weeks in prison. (He was held in pre-trial detention for six months.) From the verdict: ''"The suspect is found guilty of making a film containing child pornography. The suspect filmed the bare buttocks of an underage boy with sexual intent."'' ("With sexual intent" – how does one measure that??)

Lesley had been making family films for a family of friends for years. During one of those filmings, one of the children mischievously dropped his pants for a moment. The Public Prosecution Service has cut that image from the video and submitted it to the court as "child pornography". A letter submitted by Lesley's lawyer, in which one of the parents wrote that Lesley was innocent and should be immediately released, is ignored by the judge.

Lesley attempted suicide twice after his release and still continues to struggle with depression. His employer, neighbours, the voluntary associations he had been involved in and many of his friends no longer want anything to do with him. He suddenly has to go through life with a criminal record stating that he has been convicted of producing child pornography. Lesley won't appeal because, mentally, he can't handle that stress.

Lesley sent me the notes that he had made while in detention. I read the poignant and above all disconcerting text with horror.

<blockquote>''I thought they mistook me for someone else and I could probably clear that up. I have never abused children and never will. Just the thought of hurting children makes me sad. I regularly burst into tears about the simplistic reporting made about me.''

''The mother of the child is also being seen as responsible by those around her for supposedly having made children available to a pedophile who, according to people, abuses children. I sometimes spontaneously bursts into tears. Both the investigation and how the people around her have reacted to it in response to news reports have deeply damaged her. I have not abused children and do not intend to. The Public Prosecution Service and the police have abused people in this case, including children, and the damage to them is immeasurable and lifelong.''</blockquote>

'''Continuing the Association'''

The raid on the house of Marthijn and Lesley appears to be a direct result of an investigation by RTL Nieuws ["Radio Television Luxembourg News," a popular Dutch television news service]. According to them, this went on undercover for several months within a private email list ''"in which the Martijn Association is still active"''. In that group, according to RTL, tips were also given on how abuse children. But for the record, the email group was not closed, and non-pedophiles and (even undercover) journalists could also join it.

RTL also placed an attention-grabbing statement on its web site: ''"A pedophile is a person with sexual feelings for children under the age of 13. Pedophilia is a sexual preference and is not punishable in the Netherlands. Sexual abuse of children, together with viewing and downloading child pornography, is punishable by law. That is not always done by pedophiles: a majority of child abusers do not have pedophilic feelings, but suffer from antisocial and sexual disorders."''

In 2021, partly on the basis of the RTL investigation and the house search, the Public Prosecution Service decided to prosecute three people for continuing the banned "pedo club Martijn": [[Nelson Maatman|Nelson]], [[Norbert de Jonge|Norbert]] and (the figurehead) [[Marthijn Uittenbogaard|Marthijn]] – all three without any previous criminal records. Nelson was acquitted, because he had never been a member of the Martijn association. The other two were sentenced to prison terms. Norbert was sentenced to four months because he helped Marthijn with the technical maintenance of the sites. Marthijn received a six-month prison sentence, without the possibility of parole, after which he appealed his sentence.

'''Ideologies'''

A quote from the judgment regarding Marthijn dated 8 March 2022. ''"Together with his co-defendant [Norbert], the suspect has continued the activities of the banned association Martijn by posting publications on various websites and making statements via a mailing list and Twitter."''

According to the court, the views expressed on the sites correspond to those of the banned association. The fact that the opinions expressed are largely quotes from politicians and scientists is not mentioned in the judgment. Moreover, it is reasonable that the views are in agreement; Marthijn (born in 1972) became a member at the time because he recognized his personal convictions in the ideas of the association founded in 1982.

The verdict continues with this striking passage: ''"It does note, however, that this ideology cannot be equated with child abuse or incitement to it. The fact that this was or would have been the case has not been evident in the proceedings that led to the prohibition of the Martijn association. The suspect has also never been convicted of sexual offenses (or any other offense)."'' And then a prison sentence of six months was imposed.

Because Marthijn and Norbert were convicted for continuing the Martijn association, I decided to take action together with former university lecturers in sexual citizenship [[Gert Hekma]] (deceased 2022) and his partner Mattias Duyves, emeritus professor [[Meindert Fennema]] and writer [[Delphine Lecompte]]. The last paragraphs of an op-ed that we offered to all respectable media:
<blockquote>
''A society that is genuinely concerned with the interests and safety of children is not content to create and then brutally destroy demonic symbols. It invests heavily in youth care and education, it ensures that the Supplement Scandal children removed from home are reunited with their parents as quickly as possible, it does not allow children to grow up in dire poverty, it does not allow reports of child abuse and abuse to be filed for months, sometimes even years on the shelf, and it does not leave children who have fled from war zones to fend for themselves.''

''Finally, last month, the majority of the House of Representatives approved the addition of 'sexual orientation' as a non-discrimination ground in Article 1 of the Constitution. The proposal is now before the Senate. A conscious choice was made for the term 'orientation' (gerichtheid) and not for 'sex' (geaardheid). The reason is that legally the term "orientation" (gerichtheid) only represents so-called consensual orientations. This excludes people with a pedophile orientation. The idea behind it: if they would give concrete expression to their focus, they would be guilty of criminal offences. The government also suffers from prejudice. [The law has now been passed, AHJD.]''

''To protest against the witch hunt for pedophiles, we are taking action: from now on we will take over the site www.brongersma.info from Marthijn Uittenbogaard. This is to prevent the rich archive he has built up over the past decades from being destroyed. If Uittenbogaard is acquitted on appeal, the site will be his again. (Norbert de Jonge will not appeal, he no longer trusts the judiciary.) If Uittenbogaard is convicted for expressing his opinion – which we cannot imagine, we expect an independent, careful approach from a judge – then we will look for a suitable host for the archive. Initially we are thinking of the COC or the IHLIA.''

''Stop criminalizing people with a pedophile orientation. Talk to them, protect them, help them, listen to them – everyone benefits from that. And above all, don't interfere with freedom of expression.''
</blockquote>

The piece was rejected by all the respected media we approached.

'''Ecuador'''

Because Marthijn and Lesley no longer have a (safe) future in the Netherlands, they decided to emigrate to a country where life is cheap. They eventually choose Ecuador because they could buy an old hotel there. The plan was to open a vegan restaurant on the ground floor, to make apartments in the rest of the building, and to rent them out.

They called in local construction workers for the renovation. Some (paid) villagers have also come to help. Meanwhile, their children played with Marthijn's PlayStation, a luxury they cannot afford. Nelson visited and rented a room, but Lesley turned him away; his alcohol and drug use and fatalistic attitude could put them in danger. Nelson left for Mexico.

Norbert, a friend of Marthijn for more than twenty-five years, comes along a few months later, as does a (straight) friend. They soon leave. They think it is unwise that village and construction worker children freely walk in and out of the house. In addition, ominous reports are beginning to appear in the local media.

The hotel, its new owners and their visitors have been on the radar of paedo hunter Tim Ballard of O.U.R. (Operation Underground Railroad) and the Dutch organization Free a Girl. The latter decided to track down the men after their emigration and called O.U.R. in.

'''QAnon'''

Tim Ballard is a conservative Mormon, a fanatical Trump and QAnon supporter, who, with his organization, hunts alleged pedophiles (supposed "networks") and pro-abortion activists worldwide. He also fulminates against the LGBTIQ + community; according to him, only straight relationships are godly. His organization raises many millions annually, without it being clear exactly where the money goes.

In addition, several investigations against him and his organization are ongoing; he is suspected of incitement, lying about actions of O.U.R. and spreading conspiracy theories about "pedo networks." He claims to have saved thousands of children from criminal (paedo) organizations, but there is no evidence. Nevertheless, his influence is growing. He is friends with several (populist) heads of state.

Algemeen Dagblad wriote about Marthijn's arrest on June 24, 2022: ''"The convicted and since-then fugitive paedosexual Marthijn U. from Hengelo was arrested in Ecuador on Thursday evening. The fugitive pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested."'' Het Parool wrote that same day:'Marthijn U. is said to have been arrested after a manhunt.' For the record, Marthijn Uittenbogaard is not a paedosexual and he was not a fugitive.

Continuation of the message from the AD: ''"In Ecuador, the well-known pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested that same Thursday. [Absent] Lesley L. was sentenced in Rotterdam on April 26, 2022 to 10 weeks in prison for producing child pornography. L. was now under arrest in the seaside resort of Canoa, for suspected abuse of three young children in his home. The organization Free a Girl had passed on incriminating information about the three men to its American partner Operation Underground Railroad and the authorities of Mexico and Ecuador."'' For the record, Lesley was not a fugitive either; he was working at the hotel at the time of the arrest.

''Het Parool'' further wrote: ''"According to Free a Girl, several children regularly stayed in the house of L. and U. They would have been lured to play video games with the story. In exchange for sweets and money, they would have had to provide sexual services. Parties are also said to have been organized with children at the swimming pool, where children were touched and sometimes raped under the influence of drugs. There would be abuse of dozens of children."''

I also kept in touch with Marthijn and Lesley when they tried to build a new life in Ecuador. Marthijn let me know in the beginning that he was terrified that someone would find out their identity; they avoided places that (Dutch) tourists visited.

A few minutes before Marthijn was arrested, I contacted him through a mobile phone app. He was on his way to the Netherlands to reconsider his situation there and to prepare for the appeal. His last message: '"'We haven't done anything, but there are lies everywhere on the internet. Norbert also had problems, I think I will, too, at customs here. Fascism. I'm listening to the song Wonderful World at the airport. It's not the Louis Armstrong version, but a cover."''

A few days after the arrest, the first ominous messages began to reach me. Marthijn and Lesley had been tortured and beaten with hammers in prison by the mafia. The videos of this were sent to acquaintances, along with ransom demands. If no payment was made, the men would be killed. That money for the ransom was put together by some friends, and then transferred to the mafia through on-line pay sites.

A few days later, Lesley emailed me:

<blockquote>''"Marth and I came to Ecuador with the goal of starting a new life. Without activism. A life where we could just walk down the street. And we could just make friends with people. Many people know that we are innocent and have said so themselves. However, those statements were not in writing. We still need a lawyer. So he can take down the statements and bring them in. The beatings stopped a few days back, but you never know if they will start again."''</blockquote>

I got some photos of the cell and of the courtyard. And of the men, too. The photos didn't make me happy. Marthijn in particular looked terrible: he was skinny and sad. Lesley, despite his bruises, seemed to be doing better. He wrote me that he wants to donate the hotel and restaurant to a vegan movement and then, with the proceeds, his friends and the poor people from the village can be helped.

''''Swimming pool''''

More is now becoming clear about the arrests. Several reports had appeared in the local media, each time with the name "Tim Ballard" appearing in them. The hotel had (according to him) housed an international network of pedophiles, of which Marthijn and Lesley were the leaders. Hundreds of children were (supposedly) drugged, abused and sold for sexual purposes. "Sex parties" with children were (supposedly) regularly held in the hotel's swimming pool, something Free a Girl claimed as well. For now, it is enough to note that Marthijn and Lesley's hotel does not have a swimming pool at all!

Ballard ramped up coverage of us in the months following our arrest. He claimed in films that he had tracked down and liberated more than four hundred victims in the home of Marthijn and Lesley. He emphasized the conviction of Lesley (production of child pornography) and the case against Marthijn (continuation of a prohibited association). The snowball is keeps increasing in size as it rolls along.

Due to the coverage in the Ecuadorian media, the two men were transferred for security reasons to a secluded part of the prison, and they have a room they have to share with seven drug addicts. A lawyer is now in the picture, who keeps in touch with a family member of Marthijn.

After a while, Marthijn and Lesley managed to arrange a lawyer. She asked for thirty thousand euros to bribe the judge and the police. A day later this amount was increased to one hundred and sixty thousand euros. Maybe she too was threatened. The fact that communication took place via Google Translate did not make it any easier: the lawyer barely speaks English.

Together with the family member with whom the men were and are in contact, I decided not to take up the family member's offer, perhaps it was a trap. Fortunately, the family member got in touch with Lesley via the prison telephone, and he and Marthijn also wanted no illegal "hanky-panky", but they wanted a fair trial. The lawyer gave in, but she had to have money to do research and prepare the case.

Martijn and Lesley were now back in contact with their fellow villagers. They heard from them that Tim Ballard was paying the media to write the menacing reports. Reports also reached Martijn and Lesley that Ballard had paid witnesses to give false statements; if they refused - these friends had pointed out that Lesley and Marthijn were innocent - he threatened them with trial and imprisonment. They also heard that Americans in contact with Ballard were offering money to have them killed.

According to the lawyer, the first session, without Marthijn and Lesley, was halted by the judge; he wanted more money for him and his secretary. He also threatened to transfer the men to another prison if payment was not made.

'''Corruption'''

The tone of reporting in the Ecuadorian media has become even grimmer. The newspapers and web sites claim that Ballard has exposed the largest international pedo ring ever known. Not much later, Lesley and Marthijn were suddenly transferred to the most notorious prison in the country, the Guayaquil Prison. According to the lawyer, there were plans to hang Marthijn and Lesley in their cell and call it suicide. That explains the move.

Dutch lawyer Sidney Smeets tried to bring the case before the Ministry again, but that was not successful. He did get the addresses of three law firms that are "probably" not corrupt. Both the men's relative and their lawyer tried to call them in, but the lawyers wouldn't take the case: there is too much negative coverage in the media.

The extortion (asking for bribes) started again, as Lesley and Marthijn had become a "lucrative business model". Whenever I saw the area code for Ecuador on my cell phone screen, I wouldn`t answer the phone. The family member also stopped responding. Finally, the attempts at extortion stopped.

An "influential" fellow prisoner informed Lesley that he had brought them to Guayaquil because he wanted to use them for a prisoner exchange with the Netherlands. Whether that is true, we do not know, but Marthijn and Lesley were "safe" again. The lawyer indicated that he needed more money for the investigation, so we transferred money again; always in small amounts, so as not to arouse suspicion - Ecuador is known as a "suspect country" and business transactions are therefore prohibited.

During that time, Lesley sent us the following email:

<blockquote>''"Our lawyer is very bad, and probably a fraud. She has cost us more than U.S. $20,000 and the trial hasn't even begun yet. People here say she's a con artist. She recently applied to transfer us to Bahia, even though she knows that it is not safe for us there. Again, she did not consult with us first. And she had already indicated that she was no longer our lawyer. Also, this recent filing supposedly costs a few thousand dollars more. This country is all about extorting money, stealing money, blackmailing, and cheating."''</blockquote>

Nevertheless, Marthijn and Lesley generally did not sound bitter in their messages. I received many touching messages and texts, and the name Gandhi regularly appeared in them. Marthijn and Lesley advocate for peaceful protest, not hatred towards their enemies. And in believing what you stand for.

Other messages, on the other hand, were pretty grim. ''"Two days ago 14 dead. Prisoners have machine guns, pistols, knives, etc. We hear the fighting, shots and loud explosions, but they are at a another location, not far away."''

And this one, about a fellow villager: ''"Then comes a statement from G. who says "the police keep harassing me, I want this to stop. The police insist that I make false statements about Lesley. They offered me money to do so, and also things like a TV and a refrigerator. I saw that they also tried to bribe my sister, too."''

Lesley also told me that the person who tortured him and demanded a ransom in the first prison they stayed in has recently been murdered. And this: ''"The lawyer who had claimed to be from the mafho had asked for absurd amounts of money to help us get out of prison was also assassinated two months ago."''

'''National Award'''

Meanwhile, Tim Ballard received a national award from the wife of the president of <s>Mexico</s>[Ecuador<ref>[https://www.ourrescue.org/reports/2022-annual.pdf OUR 2022 Impact Report]</ref> - Newgon] for dismantling "the network" of Marthijn, Lesley and Nelson. It's unclear what happened to Nelson. However, it is suspected that Ballard set a trap for him and was present at Nelson's arrest.

In any case, when Lesley was arrested, Ballard was conspicuously present, dressed in a police uniform and equipped with a machine gun. His team filmed the spectacular arrest; the footage will be featured in a documentary that Ballard plans to put online in March 2023, "The Hidden War". He claims online that he intends to visit the Netherlands, among other places, to promote it.

The men have not yet seen a judge; without their being involved in the process, their detention has been extended several times. They still don't know exactly what crime they are suspected of having committed. Marthijn emailed Amnesty International about their case, and also about the lawsuit that is still pending in the Netherlands. The Amnesty spokesperson replied: ''"We do not focus on individual cases, but on situations where criticism (from the media, political parties, activist groups, lawyers and investigative committees, etc. etc.) of the authorities are deliberately and systematically blocked (as in China for example)."''

I emailed Evelien Holsken, from Free a Girl, and their spokesman, Arjan Erkel, who was once an innocent prisoner himself. I explained to them the situation in Ecuador, including the information about their partner, Tim Ballard. I indicated that I wanted a constructive conversation with them, and not one full of accusations. I got no response from them. It is likely that Holsken and Erkel are not pleased with the legal case that Free a Girl has brought to the public's attention with such bravado, which has put the men in fear of their lives.

''De Telegraaf'' interviewed Tim Ballard at the time. In response to the text submitted to him via Sidney Smeets, Lesley wrote, as I mentioned, that he is in close contact with friendly villagers:

<blockquote>''I heard that the children were detained by the police for 24 hours when I was arrested. And that they were repeatedly threatened with being beaten with batons. When they were hungry, they were not given food. Police were eating in front of the children, and laughing at them. Their parents sat outside crying. And it is understood that the police here are known to be violent. Tim Ballard was always there. And he threatened the parents several times. The problem is that if you report these things publicly, it is very risky. Tim Ballard can operate with impunity in these countries. With the money he has, he can wrap the police and the OM around his finger. And people don't dare stand up for themselves.''</blockquote>

''De Telegraaf'' decided not to publish the interview with Ballard.''

'''Brongersma'''

Meanwhile, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is also making its presence known again. This time, not to Marthijn and Lesley, but through a registered letter to the people who host the websites www.marthijn.nl and www.brongersma.info. On November 17, 2022, the Public Prosecutor wrote:

<blockquote>''The court is of the opinion that the website www.brongersma.info can be regarded as a continuation of the activities of an organization that has been declared prohibited by an irrevocable court decision. Continuing that activity constitutes a criminal offense as referred to in Article 140 paragraph 2 of the Penal Code . Taking into account the above, I urge you to make the illegal content inaccessible within 7 days and to remove it as far as possible.''</blockquote>

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the site www.brongersma.info should be taken offline and removed. Our host complied with the request, fearing prosecution and the associated expensive attorney fees. We have now obtained legal advice and it appears that the content of the site is not criminal and that the verdict does not stipulate that the site must go offline. Moreover, the destruction of the site cannot be requested because Marthijn's appeal has yet to be filed. Meindert Fennema and I are now investigating how we can get the site back online as soon as possible. The other site co-owners have discontinued their participation.

'''PEN Netherlands'''

Finally, the personal consequences. Of course they are completely insignificant compared to what Lesley and Marthijn are going through, but they say a lot about the (intolerant) zeitgeist.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I have received the threats that were expected to come. It was no surprise to me, either. But I never realized that twenty years of work experience could evaporate in such a short time. My work experience as an economist, consultant, project leader, editor-in-chief, workshop leader, lecturer, etc. was suddenly worthless. The word "pedophilia" unleashes strange emotions.

When you type my name into any search engine, the word often appears, accompanied by unnuanced and highly biased reporting. (i.e."Pedophile Writer Supports Child Rapists.")

I was fired, clients said goodbye, my communication agency went bankrupt, performances and (literary) projects were (and are) cancelled, books were returned scratched, and social media did what they do best. The word "pedophilia" often appears in reviews of my books as well, showing that the public's opinions of the author are more important than the content of his books, and that is of course disastrous for book sales. My literary career continues to dwindle, to evaporate -- although that is not due to "Martijn" alone. The majority of my income is provided by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, for which I am very grateful, but of course this cannot continue indefinitely.

At the height of the threats and firings, I approached PEN Netherlands. Alexis de Roode said on behalf of the board that PEN did not want to help me. According to them, I had caused the consequences myself; with a subject like pedophilia one should know what to expect. I replied that a critical writer in Iran or China also knows what the consequences of his or her actions can be. Unfortunately, there is no help available, and even PEN is dominated by superficial activism. Kristien Hemmerechts experienced the same thing after she was threatened after the publication of her novel about Marc Dutroux's wife, The woman who fed the dogs. She knocked on the door of PEN Belgium and was told almost the same thing that I was.

Despite such large opposition, my motto remains unchanged: Always boldly forward! We are the zeitgeist!

We are now writing early February 2023. Marthijn and Lesley have been locked up in Ecuador for about eight months and they have still not appeared before a judge. The search for a non-corrupt lawyer there continues, as does the search for funds to finance the defense. According to the latest reports, the trial is scheduled for early March.

Marthijn's higher court appeal in the Netherlands is still pending, and no date has been set yet.

On February 3, Lesley emailed me:
<blockquote>
'''We only have 27 days left.''

''We don't have a (good) lawyer yet.''

''We don't have a dossier.''

''We don't have any witness statements.''
</blockquote>
'''Disclosure:'''

In writing this essay I have made use of some texts that I previously published, including Frayed Edges of Moral (Atlas Contact Publishers, 2013).

I've submitted the text to Marthijn and Lesley, to make sure I'm not putting them in any unnecessary danger; I removed some passages (referring to the Mafia). Lawyer Sidney Smeets has also read and commented on that earlier version. Norbert emailed the following: ''"This is a standardized reply. A portion of your email contains subject matter related to pedophilia, either explicitly or indirectly. Nowadays, certain Dutch nationals discuss such subjects in any way risk imprisonment. Therefore, unfortunately, it's too dangerous for me to respond to your email."''

==Rolling updates, beginning in 2023==

'''Update February 7th, 2023:'''

Lesley emailed me that OUR (Operation Underground Railroad) is back in Canoa and is offering parents big bucks to falsely testify:

<blockquote>''Because the police have nothing, they try to bribe the parents. They are offering large amounts of money. One of the parents told me: 'If I had said yes, I would never have to work again for the rest of my life. ''[...]'' OUR has promised family F., among other things, to buy them a house if they testify against me. C., who has been bribed, is said to have received, among other things, a piece of land in Jama. G. was promised large sums of money and a house yesterday. Tomorrow they will declare under oath.''</blockquote>

'''Update - February 9:'''

Arjan Erkel (ambassador of Free a Girl) sent me an concerned email after I sent him the essay. He indicated that he would inform Free a Girl about the case. A few hours later he emailed again. The contact person at Free a Girl had told him that I was not a neutral party, because I was a member of the Martijn association and was also a pedophile. Arjan asked me if it was true that I was a pedophile. My answer:
<blockquote>
''Hi Arjan, Free a Girl's response immediately indicates where things go wrong: prejudices and wrong assumptions – not good research. What are they basing their information on? And does it matter if someone is a pedophile?

''In addition, I wrote to you this morning:''

''"Arjan, thank you very much for your answer.''

''It is good to be informed about the activities of Free a Girl, because they go too far in their mission (which I sympathize with in principle).''

''Unfortunately, I know quite a few victims of abuse in my immediate vicinity, and I see that thirty or forty years later they are still struggling with the consequences. In all cases, however, it is not the work of a pedophile, but of a family member. Studies show that approximately eighty percent of child abuse takes place in the within the family, mainly by fathers. And that only is with regards to the reported cases – parents of victims within a family context are less likely to report. Because in such cases the domestic safety of the child is also at risk, given the overall lack of a sense of security, the impact is even greater than with 'strangers'. Moreover, 'situational paedosexuals' (heterosexuals) have penetration fantasies, while most pedophiles mainly want to give caresses, as they do not wish to harm the child.''

'''''My wife works in child welfare''' and she also sees this problem, but due to budget cuts they cannot do all that is necessary. Yet the government, the Public Prosecution Service in the lead, stubbornly continues to look the other way. Just like Free a Girl.''

''I think it would be better if Free a Girl focused its attentions on the main source of child abuse (and maltreatment!) in the Netherlands and not continue to pick the low-hanging fruit - and make a lot of noise about it. As I write in the essay, creating and then destroying evil symbols is detrimental to solving the problem and preventing future victims. Hubris and self-aggrandizing is also lurking in the background.''

''It is important to distance yourself from the Operation Underground Railroad, as they are deeply in the wrong - try searching Google, in particular Vice magazine has written a lot about Ballard and his associates.''

''Warm regards and good luck,''

''Anton."''
</blockquote>
'''Update - February 12:'''

''The site www.brongersma.info is online again.''

'''Update - February 14:'''

Arnon Grunberg published an article in ''[https://archive.is/zl1eT Het Parool]'' in which he draws attention to the bad practices of Tim Ballard / O.U.R.

Lesley told me that Ballard is absent in the process that starts on March 1st. A few fellow villagers are witnessed, however.

'''Update February 16:'''

The men have found a new (reliable) lawyer. According to Lesley, the file has recently changed (afterwards). Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have disappeared from the text as the reason for the arrest. Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that the arrest was based on lies, nonsense stories and prejudices of Ballard trying to keep his name out of the file.

'''Update February 20:'''

Marth & Lesley have told me that their lawyer has prevented parents from giving incriminating statements about O.U.R. and the police.

''"All lawyers here are liars who always claim something else."''

According to them, a false statement has been included from a woman who has received goods, a house and a piece of land from the police in exchange for fabrications about Lesley. There would be several witnesses that confirm this.

'''Update February 23:'''

I received an email from Nelson, from prison in Mexico:

<blockquote>''Nelson here.''

''The story about me is just as bizarre as Lesley and Marthijn. The police claimed that the head detective in my case was half a meter away and I was so nervous that I dropped a folder with child pornography on the street. Child porn from girls notable. Video images of Operation Underground Railroad shows that it is bullshit. I put the [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207031054/https://www.freespeechtube.org/user/Nelson whole story] on freesepeechtube.org including [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207015558mp_/https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19jF charge] (which is atm offline for maintenance)''
''
Sincerely,''

''Nelson.''</blockquote>

'''27 Feb: [https://twitter.com/looovetinkebell/status/1630319860256317440 Interview with Dautzenberg and Tinkebell]''' (In Dutch, Twitter.com).

'''Update March 1:'''

The process in Ecuador has been postponed to 14 and 15 March.

The criminal file contains a passage that can be interpreted as saying that the Dutch prosecutor's office has given information to Free a Girl and Tim Ballard, and participated in the arrest of Marthijn and Lesley. Lawyer Sidney Smeets asked both the OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 16 February for clarification. Because there was no answer to this, he sent a remover. He then received an answer that they had not received the mail. (I was in the BCC, so very debatable.) But well, now they can't get away from it anymore.

'''Update March 2:'''

A message from Lesley:

<blockquote>''I'm going to talk about corruption in court. By name and by everyone. I want to inform you that I and Marthijn are not going to commit suicide. Regardless of what comes out. If we are found dead, I want to be very clear here that it was not suicide. Regardless of what it would look like according to the authorities. ''[...]'' Police who gets money from someone to preach lies. A judge who asks me personal money to release me. ''[...]'' Police who promised parents money, goods and houses in exchange for false statements. ''[...]'' My strength lies in that foreign media is following it. And I am sending it my file right now. So we wait.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 10:'''

Marthijn's new lawyer was refused entry to the prison despite obtaining written permission. She wants to prepare the case with her client. According to her, the defense is very bad so far, probably deliberately so. The necessary opportunities for entering and requesting evidence are wasted. The OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have still not answered the letter from Sidney Smeets (March 1). The session will take place definitively on March 14 and 15.

'''Update March 14:'''

Lesley and Marthijn now have the same lawyer. She has now been partly paid, but she demands more money to "pay" the police and the judge. Lesley and Marthijn refuse; they do not want to participate in corruption.

<blockquote>''I am not going to give money to lawyers for whose entire strategy consists of corruption. I have told this lawyer several times that I do not want to spend 1 dollar on corruption. She asks for 22k in wages, but it appears that at least half of the 22k is intended for corruption. Therefore, lawyers have little interest in discussing the case, because their strategy is not making a strong plea, but simply giving all those present money. O.U.R. has already given the man far more than 20k. They are not going to support me if they would get 1 or 2 K from me. ''[...]'' If I knew everything in advance, I would not have taken a lawyer. And I could have given the children more in Canoa.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 16:'''

The process was extended by a day. The men get the impression that the lawyers are taking their own course, without consultation. The interpreter that is present during the process hardly speaks English, let alone Dutch. Lesley says that the parents who have to testify today are threatened by the police. They do not feel safe and do not want to testify without the presence of a reliable lawyer. Lesley asks for this today at the judge.

'''Update March 17:'''

The Dutch OM has finally responded to the letter from Sidney Smeets. However, they do not give a clear answer and beat around the bush. Moreover, the Public Prosecutor sends his answer (consciously) exactly one day after the hearing in Ecuador would have been officially completed. That hearing has been postponed to March 22. Lesley did not want to participate in corruption and fired the lawyer. The court now appoints its own lawyer. In addition, a Dutch translator will be arranged.

'''Update March 22:'''

The session with Marthijn and Lesley has been moved forward again.

Lesley said that documents have emerged on which the previous lawyer forged the signatures of Marthijn and Lesley. He sent a clear example. These were documents that gave her "permission" to act on their behalf.

An elderly Belarusian woman is now also involved in the process. She rented a room in the hotel from Marthijn and Lesley for a short period of time. According to Lesley, she too is a victim of Tim Ballard's lies. She is likely to be released due to health issues.

'''Update March 24:'''

The process will continue on March 31.

'''Update April 3:'''

Lesley informed me that the court-appointed attorney is very good. ''"Other lawyers could only talk about money and corruption. They were not aware of the matter. This one came up with a good defense against a statement from an agent."'' The agent has stated in court that his previous statements were incorrect. '''The case will continue on April 6.''' Three judges are now on the case; the chance of corruption is thus reduced.

'''Update April 12:'''

The men informed me that the process is well under way. Agents who lied earlier now tell the truth: children were not drugged and abused. The psychologist who spoke to the children reported that they were never touched. The neighborhood researcher indicated that the villagers are angry about the behavior of the police and that Lesley and Marthijn are good friendly people.

'''Update April 18:'''

The prosecutor is sick; the trial continues on May 3.

'''Update May 7:'''

The prosecutor is still sick, but he sends messages to the media. According to the men's lawyer, these are diversionary tactics, tricks, because he knows he is losing the case. The media reports also publish the [[Operation Underground Railroad|O.U.R.]] and [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] sourced information (which is demonstrably false). ''De Telegraaf'' has picked up those messages, spiced them up and provided them with even more suggestive (demonstrably false) information. Moreover, the 'journalists' of ''De Telegraaf'' do not refer to the adversity.

'''Update May 9:'''

OM man was absent again today. He now has until 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon to come up with a doctor's statement. He had to report whether he was still ill 24 hours before the hearing, but had not reported anything. And that OM man indicated last week, after being called why he was not there, that he was about to undergo surgery. Two hours later he was present at another court case as a public prosecutor… If he does not come with a doctor's statement, his department will be fined. But everything is fraud here… Another negative article about us in the media here by the same author but now on another news site.

'''Update May 10:'''

Today the NOS has taken over an article from RTV Oost. It was written by an anti-pedo activist, not a journalist. It is based solely on reports in the Ecuadorian media and on erroneous assumptions. The information is demonstrably false and suggestive. Lawyer Sidney Smeets is in consultation with both NOS and RTV Oost about a rectification on behalf of Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update May 11:'''

NOS has removed the message. ''"On closer inspection, the article turned out not to meet the journalistic standards of the NOS. We have not been able to sufficiently verify the facts so far and have decided to withdraw the article until further notice."'' RTV Oost has also removed the message. A gang war is currently raging again in Guayaquil prison. Lesley said that they are also being shot at. ''"Tim Ballard declares that I raped 400 children in 1 village. And would have smuggled 6000 children and women from Ukraine to Latin America. Such things are not possible at all. Certainly not without leaving evidence."''

'''Update May 13:'''

The judge has issued an ultimatum to the Public Prosecution Service, which has now been delaying the court case for more than three weeks by not showing up: a (new) public prosecutor must take office within 24 hours, otherwise he threatens to dismiss the case. According to the lawyer, the attitude is of the Public Prosecution Service most likely a deliberate strategy; when the judge dismisses the case, both they and the police can remain unaffected. It is time for a quality Dutch newspaper to finally delve into the process, a journalist who is not out to confirm prejudices – so far they systematically refuse to do so.

'''Update May 16:'''

According to the men's lawyer, the Public Prosecution Service has not yet made any statements. Lesley: ''“It is now 4×24 hours later (96 hours). I wonder when a decision will be made. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. ''[…]'' Letting us speak on the basis of system errors is the best outcome for them. They know they are losing the case. Hence the negative media reports. When we get out they are going to portray the judges and us as corrupt.”''

'''Update May 19:'''

The sessions have started again.

'''Update June 13:'''

The trial is nearing its end, and a verdict is expected at the end of this week. "Lawyer against us: there is no evidence against you, but I can't say that you will be declared innocent, this is Ecuador, you never know what is going on behind the scenes."

'''Update June 20:'''

Judgment is at 9 p.m.

Message at 7:48 p.m:

<blockquote>
Minutes crawl by. Kitten normally sleeps on my bed all day. And plays outside at night. Now she slept all night. And now she's playing outside. Hopefully we can still get her out. Life in prison is not fun for animals either. Not everyone is as sweet as us. While there is 0 evidence against us and parents stand up for us and tell us about police corruption, the chance of staying in jail because of corruption remains very high. All parents and children in Canoa are also tense. Many could not sleep. Hopefully I'll be on the mountain with all of them tonight. Looking at the sea. With some beers and cocktails. Now lunchtime. Hopefully the last time I have to eat meat.
</blockquote>

Message at 22.59: 'Conviction for possession of child pornography. Ten years.'

'''Update June 21:'''

Much is unclear, the verdict has not yet been made available. [https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/816563997/pedo-marthijn-u-samen-met-compagnon-veroordeeld-tot-10-jaar-cel-voor-kinderporno De Telegraaf] took over a message from an Ecuadorian site and blew it up, but did not translate it properly. The men were reportedly only convicted because 'child pornography', mainly TikTok videos, was allegedly found on Marthijn's computer and on Lesley's phone. All charges of O.U.R. and Free a Girl have been rejected, contrary to what De Telegraaf claims. More information will follow when the verdict becomes available.

'''Update June 28:'''

The written verdict has not yet been released. Marthijn is not doing well; he is depressed and cries all day. Lesley seems to remain fairly stable and constructive. The men are appealing.
Parents in Canoa, the village where Marthijn and Lesley lived, post messages on social media in which they call O.U.R. accusing them of misusing photos and videos of their children to illustrate alleged acts of heroism. O.U.R. claims to have saved the children after the parents allegedly sold the children.

'''Update July 3:'''

The written judgment has not yet been made available; therefore no appeal can be lodged yet, even though there are legal deadlines attached to this. The Dutch & Detained Foundation contacts the Ecuadorian lawyer to prevent the appeal from being declared inadmissible.

'''Note from Newgon Org, Jul 5''':

It is worth mentioning at this point, a large post made on the blog of Dautzenberg, which includes statements made by Marthijn. These will require translating and checking over, as they are in Dutch and Spanish.

But the gist of these messages is that the men have been set-up, and Dautzenberg does not doubt their innocence. The absurd claims made by O.U.R. and their state-funded Dutch partner were found to be without credit in court, and were dismissed with extreme prejudice. Thus, a charge had to be concocted to bring the prosecution to a credible conclusion for the well-funded and well-connected charities who had initiated the arrests, but whose lies could not pass in a court of law. And thus, a decision was made by the judge to aver on the balance of probabilities that material obtained from freely available and highly controlled websites such as [[Wikipedia:Pornhub|Pornhub]] and [[Wikipedia:TikTok|TikTok]] featured people marginally under the age of majority in "sexual" situations. It is against these claims that the men will appeal, and will seek to mobilize a liberal element in Dutch journalism, to shine a light on the injustice.

'''In two parts:'''

*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/persbericht-gevangen-in-ecuador-we-zijn-onschuldig/ PERSBERICHT – gevangen in Ecuador, ‘We zijn onschuldig’]
*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/teksten-van-marthijn-uittenbogaard/ Teksten van Marthijn Uittenbogaard]

'''Update July 5:'''

A press release [above] has been sent to about thirty media addresses. Added two texts by Marthijn.

'''Update July 7:'''

Marthijn responded to the message that an agent in the Netherlands has been sentenced to one day in prison, because he violated the duty of confidentiality (about rapper Lil Kleine) and because he sent sexually tinted messages to a twelve-year-old girl and tried to get her to commit fornication. “If Lesley or I committed those two sex offenses, I suspect we would get years. Plus possibly TBS.'

'''Update July 13:'''

The written verdict is still not available, so the appeal cannot yet be lodged. As far as is known, nothing has been done with the press release that was sent to thirty media outlets in the Netherlands on 5 July. Apparently there is no room for adversity, for the sound of Marthijn and Lesley. Perhaps the journalists are just too busy closely following the vicissitudes of the Hazes, De Mol and Op1 families. Lesley and Marthijn are now in contact with the American YouTube journalists who critically investigate Tim Ballard's crusades inspired by God.

'''Update July 16:'''

Tim Ballard has left O.U.R. He travels the world to promote Sound of Freedom, a feature film about his (alleged) exploits. His successor at O.U.R. is Matt Osborne, also reportedly a far-right Mormon and QAnon supporter. Lesley from prison: "You'd think O.U.R. very interesting for critical journalists. Apparently pedo hunters are untouchable, even if it is very clear that the people who are arrested are probably not pedos.”

'''Update July 24:'''

According to VICE, Tim Ballard has left not only O.U.R., but also the Nazarene Fund, a similar organization. He was fired for sexual misconduct on missions and financial malpractice. His documentary The Hidden War, with footage of the arrest of Lesley and children (‘victims’) from the village, is unlikely to be broadcast; O.U.R. deleted all information about it.

In the prison of Marthijn and Lesley, a fight broke out between two gangs and the police. "Bombs have exploded in our pavilion and a tank has driven in, the prison shop is completely broken."

'''Update July 27:'''

The death toll of the uprising has risen to 31. Lesley and Marthijn are unharmed and indicate that peace has returned and that they feel relatively safe.

They received the news about Thijs Römer from their cell. The actor has persuaded several underage girls to send him masturbation photos and videos. He himself sent dickpics. The Public Prosecution Service demands community service. Lesley and Marthijn would receive years of imprisonment for the same offense, because the Public Prosecution Service condemns their orientation, their inner world. Lesley on the case in Ecuador: 'We are political prisoners. Amnesty does nothing either. Here too, an Ecuadorian would not get a cell for what was found with us: adult pornography and a girl who dances like Beyoncé and who recorded it herself.

'''Update August 4:'''

Dutch & Detained has contacted Marthijn and Lesley's pro bono lawyer and informed him of the legal term for publishing the judgment and for the appeal. Both have been amply exceeded, but according to the lawyer, this is how it works in Ecuador and it could take months before the judge releases the written verdict.

Things are going well with the men. Peace has returned after the great uprising and they are learning Spanish. Fortunately, Marthijn is no longer depressed, but he is angry with those involved. He especially seeks solace in the songs of George Michael and Bruce Springsteen.

'''Update August 14:'''

In the wing of the Guayaquil prison where Lesley and Marthijn are detained, the Ecuadorian army removed and transferred the leader of one of Ecuador's largest gangs in a large-scale raid last Saturday. Adolfo Macias Villamar, aka Fito - sentenced to 34 years in prison for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder - is suspected of involvement in the deadly attack on presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during the raid. All cells in the wing were searched and telephones seized, including those of Marthijn and Lesley. So there is no longer any contact with them. Last Friday, Lesley announced that they are making progress in learning Spanish. ‘Marth practices for hours every day with Duolingo and reading books. His vocabulary is wide. But he can't understand people very well. I understand people. And can have conversations. But vocabulary is insufficient. I can read well. I use whatsapp and social media a lot in Spanish.' He also sent a photo of their fully healed pussy. As far as is known, the written judgment has still not been made public.
I have informed my contact persons at Dutch & Detained and Probation Service.

'''Update August 21:'''

A befriended fellow villager reported that Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe and that they will probably be able to communicate again soon. They have not eaten for days, but money has now been transferred to the prison so that they can buy water and food.

Dutch & Detained and Probation Service have not yet responded to the messages.

'''Update September 7:'''

There were riots in several prisons in Ecuador last week. Guards were taken hostage by prisoners, but have now been released. It is not clear whether this also happened at the location where Marthijn and Lesley are located. Contact with the men is not yet possible.

'''Update September 9:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going reasonably well and they feel relatively safe again. However, they were tortured by the army during the raids: they had to lie on their stomachs on the concrete floor for more than four hours, with their hands and feet tied. The soldiers also demolished a lot: doors, cupboards and television sets.

'''Update September 17:'''

Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are under heavy fire in Ecuador. They are accused of fabricating the liberation of alleged child abuse victims in Canoa, and threatening innocent people and children who claim otherwise. The allegations also relate to corruption; they allegedly bribed police and high-ranking officials to confirm their fake stories. The Ecuadorian minister says that not a single victim has been found, Ballard continues to cling to four hundred victims. Official charges are being prepared, including by the parents of children who have been wrongly portrayed as rape victims by Ballard and co. In the meantime, Marthijn and Lesley are still in custody and have still not received the written verdict.

'''Update September 28:'''

The allegations against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Reportedly, American Crime Journal will further investigate and report on 'Canoa'. They say they have evidence that O.U.R. bribes judges to get people convicted. Lesley and Martijn have still not received a written verdict and the lawyer assigned to them cannot tell them what exactly they have been convicted of. Dutch&Detained also receives no answer. We are diligently looking for money to arrange a good lawyer, so that he can provide clarity and prepare the appeal.

'''Update October 9:'''

We have managed to free up money. Dutch&Detained will try to arrange a reliable lawyer and will supervise the process contractually. The Unmasking of Tim Ballard and O.U.R. in the American media is progressing well.

'''Update October 21:'''

American Crime Journal journalists are working on a series of articles on the Canoa case. They interview children (and their parents) allegedly by Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have been kidnapped, abused and pressured to give false testimony about alleged abuse. VICE also prepares publications. We contacted the NRC correspondent in Ecuador, but he did not respond. Dutch journalists still do not want to delve into the case.

'''Update October 31:'''

The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances. The written judgment has still not been published. Dutch&Detained is trying to find a reliable lawyer. American Crime Journal is working on a series of articles about the case. The Dutch media still look the other way.

'''Update November 8:'''

Shots are fired again in Guayaquil prison. Explosions can also be heard again. The drug wars between different gangs are partly fought in prison. Marthijn and Lesley try to remain aloof as much as possible. They are holding up relatively well under the circumstances and are even trying to follow the Dutch elections. Marthijn in particular is concerned about the further rightward movement of our country. 'Asylum centers will soon become full or half prisons.' Yet there remains room for gentleness. 'Try to enjoy life and don't worry too much about all this nonsense. How's your book going?'

'''Update November 20:'''

Another person has been found dead in the men's pavilion, a murder or suicide.

ING still refuses to cooperate in a transfer of Lesley's savings; they make impossible demands and do not delve into the situation. We need the money to hire a reliable lawyer and pay off debts.

Good news: the men were able to buy fruit this week for the first time since the arrest. And Lesley celebrated his birthday this week. A fellow inmate cooked noodles for him in a pot heated with electric wires, in exchange for a bar of soap and a sachet of detergent – €1.35 in total.
We are still waiting for the written verdict.

'''Update November 30:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available.

The criticism and charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Several American journalists have become involved in the case.

After much insistence, ING has indicated that it is willing to cooperate in releasing Lesley's assets. We now have to wait for a reliable lawyer; Dutch&Detained is still working on that.

Marthijn and Lesley will regularly write a text from prison; the texts can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/11/berichten-uit-ecuador/ here].

'''Update December 10:'''

Lesley had an allergic reaction this week: swollen lips, little air. Fortunately, the complaints disappeared after a while. He is a vegan, but in prison he has to eat whatever is served to him. He has had several life-threatening allergic reactions in his life. According to him, there is no doctor in prison and there are no medicines either. He's worried. “God gave me a bad body.”

'''Update December 21:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available and made public.

Dutch & Detained has not yet managed to find an Ecuadorian lawyer willing to take on the case.

Lesley and Marthijn are doing quite well.

'''Update December 31:'''

Still no written judgment, still no lawyer, still no money from ING...

Let's hope that 2024 will go more smoothly and the truth will prevail.

===2024===

'''Update January 9, 2024:'''

A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador following the escape of Fito, the country's most dangerous criminal. He sat in the same pavilion as Lesley and Marthijn. The newsreels do not bode well: all the prisoners lie half-naked on the ground, their hands and feet tied with tie-wraps. To date it has not been possible to contact Lesley and/or Marthijn.

'''Update January 11:'''

The situation in Ecuador is rapidly deteriorating, a spiral of violence has gripped the country. Nothing has been heard from Marthijn and Lesley for days. It is unknown where they are and how they are doing. The Foreign Affairs diplomatic mission has made contact with the Ecuadorian prison system (SNAI).

'''Update January 13:'''

Lesley called me collect call from prison. I paraphrase: 'The police carried out raids with brute force for four days. Each time I was handcuffed and had to lie on the ground in an awkward position for six hours. I was kicked in the head at least twenty times and in the back several times. The police also stood on my arms and spat in my face. Even though I didn't resist and cooperated. Other prisoners were pepper-sprayed and beaten even harder; the skin had split open and blood was pouring from the head. Les Choneros gang members then wanted to take revenge and attack and kidnap the guards, just as those from Los Lobos had done in another prison, but several inmates convinced the mafia not to do this and to call for peace. It is now quiet again. Many prisoners here are innocent, while murderers and mafia leaders are acquitted. Everything is corrupt here, money gets you free. We refuse to participate in that, justice must prevail.'

'''Update January 21:'''

The army invades several times a week. Marthijn: 'Layed on the ground for nine o'clock today, my wrists tied. The army sprays pepper spray. We were kicked, hit and verbally abused several times. Also, someone had to wear a devil mask and hit everyone hard twice with a stick, while shouting with each blow. It was hell. I also lost my reading glasses. The army tears up my written texts, including my Spanish lessons. With army boots they stood on my shoulder blade, arms and fingers. They empty bottles of water over our mattress and throw sugar, coffee powder and all our belongings on the floor.' Lesley: 'The soldiers use extreme violence. I have been hit in the face many times and had pepper spray rubbed into my face. We were beaten with clubs, tortured for ten hours. Two prisoners died during the previous raid, today I also thought I would not survive. Report it to the Foreign Office, report it to the consulate, ask Arnon to pay attention to it together with Amnesty.'
Dutch&Detained, the Probation Service, the Foreign Affairs and Arnon Grunberg have been informed.

'''Update January 30:'''

Communication with the men is becoming increasingly difficult, the army is present in the prison with a heavy hand. Below is an illustrative photo; Lesley (dark brown underpants) and Marthijn (blue underpants) are in the back row, above the right of the soldiers. [Picture in original link - Newgon]

Dutch&Detained has not yet managed to find a reliable lawyer (via Amnesty and other contacts). The offices approached do not want to be exposed to the subject that has already been so emphatically framed in the media. Image formation is more important in Ecuador.

The written judgment has still not been made available. An appeal is therefore not yet possible.

Something else: today there is an article in the Volkskrant about child abuse within the family. It states that the environment is usually aware, but does not intervene. “We find child abuse so terrible that we prefer to pretend it doesn't exist.” I add: and that is why we look for scapegoats to alleviate the dissatisfaction and feelings of guilt. It was that pragmatic reflex that put Marthijn and Lesley in this situation. With thanks to the Public Prosecution Service, which also chooses the path of least resistance.

'''Update February 12:'''

Unfortunately, still no written judgment and no lawyer. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update February 26:'''

Still no verdict and no lawyer.

A fifth lawsuit is now underway against Tim Ballard and O.U.R.

Marthijn has written a letter to the Ombudsman following his investigation into the Dutch state's unlawful terrorist list. The letter can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2024/02/brief-van-marthijn-aan-de-ombudsman/ here].

'''Update Mar 11:'''

After six days of no contact, the men finally heard back, albeit indirectly. The reports are alarming. They are tortured every day by the army and have multiple wounds. All their belongings have been taken and they are barely fed. In addition, they should pray out loud every day to God and ask Jesus for forgiveness. If they do not do so, they are beaten with a wooden stick or iron bar.

The written judgment has now been delayed for eight months, while the legal period is ten days. Dutch & Detained has not yet been able to find a reliable lawyer.

'''Update Mar 17:'''

Still no contact with the men. The authorities involved have been informed.

'''Update March 21:'''

Lesley came forward through a fellow inmate. The violence by the soldiers continues, they are beaten with whips and clubs while they have to call on Jesus. Lesley is injured. The prisoners are forced to say in front of TV recordings that everything is okay; if not, they are hit with an electroshock weapon. They also get little food, Marthijn is emaciated. They are given one minute to eat, then their hands have to be raised and the remainder of the meal is taken away. The soldiers tell the prisoners that Marthijn and Lesley have abused and raped children, but most prisoners know the case and know that this is nonsense. 'But we are strong, we will make it. Sad that the international community is barely responding to the circumstances. Marth asks how your book and such are going.'

'''Update March 26:'''

Lesley and Marthijn, like their fellow prisoners, are still beaten by the military, but only when the prison authority SNAI is not nearby. They expect the soldiers to leave within two weeks and that it will then become relatively safe again. The story goes that in another pavilion prisoners died after being abused. The transfer of money via Foreign Affairs and the consulate to the prison shop was successful; Martijn and Lesley are allowed to place a small order once a week: cheese spread, slice of cake, some nuts and banana chips.

'''Update April 3:'''

There was another riot in the prison last weekend, making physical visits impossible. Volunteers from the consulate are trying to arrange a video connection to provide official information about how Lesley and Marthijn are doing.

At the request of the Foreign Affairs, the Honorary Consul has contacted several law firms, but none of them want to take on the case. The Honorary Consul in Quito also does not want to assist the men as a lawyer. Lesley and Marthijn still do not have a reliable lawyer. The written judgment is also omitted, so that no appeal can be filed. Image formation and bureaucracy rule, the law is subordinate to it.

'''Update April 16:'''

The soldiers are still present in the prison, but Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe. In the meantime, we continue to wait for the verdict and a lawyer.

'''Update April 27:'''

No contact for almost a week. According to media reports, things are wrong again in the prison; Food from outside is no longer allowed inside.

'''Update May 6:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going well considering the circumstances.

'''Update May 12:'''

The army is present 'only' three times a day, usually during meals. The soldiers hit less often, but they did take away all the belongings, including the mattresses. Lesley and Marthijn have been sleeping on concrete for a month. They have lost the Spanish textbooks, so they are bored. The pro bono lawyer remains silent. They want a reliable lawyer who can take action as quickly as possible. The head of security is (still) on their side, but there are guards who believe the media reports and accuse Marthijn and Lesley of kidnapping and raping hundreds of children. At the moment they are not very concerned about their safety, but that may be motivated by naivety and/or resignation. Their greatest need is a lawyer.

'''Update May 24:'''

Finally in touch again. Lesley had to be treated by a prison doctor because of the blows he received, but he says he is doing reasonably well again. He and Marthijn try to arrange a transfer to an LGBTQ department with the prison authorities. The authorities in the Netherlands initially have no influence on this. In the meantime, they continue to wait for the written verdict and a reliable lawyer.

'''Update June 11:'''

There has been no contact with the men for three weeks.

'''Update June 22:'''

There is still no contact with the men. The authorities involved also have no current information about the situation. Dutch&Detained has managed to find two Ecuadorian lawyers who want to take up the case. They try to contact the prison.

'''Update June 29:'''

Finally received another sign of life from the men. Things are going fairly well considering the circumstances, although they get little to eat and are only allowed to leave their cell briefly once a week. Lesley takes care of some stray cats. They are bored and hope that the consulate will deliver some books soon. He also indicates again that he wants to be transferred.

The Ecuadorian lawyers will try to visit the men this week. The consulate has also planned a video call.

'''Update July 3:'''

The lawyers visited Lesley and Marthijn and had a constructive discussion. They start working on the case. Initially, they concentrate on obtaining the written judgment.

'''Update 12 July:'''

The appointed lawyers are investigating the status of the legal case, because Marthijn and Lesley have been waiting for the written verdict for almost a year. The consulate made two video calls with the men last week. Marthijn and Lesley are still sleeping on the concrete, they are not allowed to leave their cell or are hardly allowed to leave it and they only get a meager meal once a day. They only have one pair of trousers and three T-shirts. They have explicitly stated that they want to be transferred to an LGBTI department, but that the military does not want to pass on their request to SNAI, the prison authority. Marthijn and Lesley are also regularly physically and verbally abused by the military. The consulate will now mediate and keep a finger on the pulse, so that the transfer request actually reaches the director of SNAI.

'''Update 15 July:'''

The verdict appears to have been made available to the public lawyer last May. He then filed an appeal and that was supposed to be heard this week. Marthijn and Lesley were not informed of any of this. The new lawyers are now taking over the case and have asked the judge for a postponement in order to be able to prepare properly for the appeal. As far as is known, Marthijn and Lesley were only convicted for ‘possession of child pornography’. So not for producing child pornography, kidnapping, rape, selling children, pool parties and all kinds of other nonsensical allegations as presented in the Ecuadorian (and Dutch!) media – with OUR and Free a girl as the main sources. Both Marthijn and Lesley and the lawyers strongly deny that the images found concern child pornography.

'''Update 24 July:'''

Nothing has been heard from Lesley and Marthijn in the past two weeks. Dutch&Detained is in close contact with the Ecuadorian lawyers. It is not yet known when the appeal will be heard. ABN-AMRO is being difficult about the management account with which we support the men and their legal case. It ‘poses risks for the bank that we cannot accept’, while there is legal and fully transparent cooperation with all the authorities involved. Distrust is the reagent that makes bureaucracy ferment.

'''Update July 28:'''

Alarming messages from Ecuador. Lesley and Marthijn are constantly being abused by the military. Lesley is seriously injured and has fainted several times; he has been electrocuted and beaten so badly that he cannot walk or lie on his back. Soldiers put pistols to their heads and say that they will soon be shot dead. Lesley indicates that they will not survive the continuous violence. I have informed all the organizations involved, because the men must be transferred to a safe department quickly. Code deep red/black.

A bizarre contrast: a beach volleyball player who was convicted a few years ago for abusing a minor is participating on behalf of the Netherlands at the Olympic Games. According to the NOC, everyone deserves a second chance. That is right, but it is cruel that the Netherlands hardly or not at all looks after two pedophile citizens who are being held in Ecuador under miserable conditions and who have never (not even in Ecuador) been convicted for abusing a minor.

'''Update July 31:'''

Tim Ballard is back in Ecuador, this time to promote his (heroic) film Sound of Freedom. And at the same time, the media is once again reporting on Indian stories about Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update August 11:'''

No contact or news from prison. The team of lawyers and the authorities involved are working on arranging a transfer to an LGBTQ department. The date of the appeal is not yet known.

'''Update August 12:'''

The appeal will be heard on August 23.

'''Update August 15:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been transferred to an LGBTQ-friendly department.

The appeal will be heard on August 23. The lawyers are hopeful; according to them, there is insufficient evidence to support the charges, but the media's image plays a major role in rulings.

'''Update August 19:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are doing reasonably well. They are given little to eat and the people in the new department are unpleasant, but they feel safer. For the first time in a long time, they have received books, although unfortunately they are in German. They are looking forward to the appeal.

'''Update August 24:'''

The appeal did not go ahead. The hearing has been postponed until September 11. The reason is not yet known.

'''Update September 6:'''

Yesterday, the prison in Guayaquil was bombed. How the men are doing is not known.

'''Update September 9:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are safe. The appeal is scheduled to be heard on September 11.

'''Update 13 September:'''

The judge's ruling has been upheld in the appeal. According to the lawyers, their defence was not listened to.

'''Update 17 September:'''

The honorary consul spoke to the men via video call. The situation in the LGBT pavilion is even worse than in the previous section. They share a cell with an aggressive transvestite whose behaviour ensures that they get little or no food. In addition, they are still being abused by the military, and the prison authority SNAI is aware of this. The men are called ‘child abusers’ and are constantly receiving threats from fellow prisoners. They are only allowed to leave their cell for fifteen minutes a week to walk around the courtyard. Marthijn (almost two metres tall) weighs less than sixty kilos and faints regularly. They want to be transferred back to the previous section as soon as possible, because they say they were still somewhat protected by the mafia there.

'''Update 23 September:'''

The Ecuadorian lawyers confirm that the regional court had already made the decision (confirmation of the verdict) before the hearing. They have now spoken to Marthijn and Lesley. They are opting for cassation, because they want to see their innocence proven. Transferring the sentence to the Netherlands is therefore off the table for the time being. According to the lawyers, the Court of Cassation is less sensitive to pressure from the media, although the process could take more than a year. The lawyers are trying to have the men transferred back to their old department, where they feel less unsafe.

'''Update October 4:'''

A message from Lesley. They no longer trust the lawyers, because they did not coordinate the defense with him and Marthijn. There was no substantive consultation and they were only told afterwards that the hearing had already taken place - without them. They want the sentence to be transferred to the Netherlands as soon as possible. The authorities involved have been informed about this. Dutch&Detained is planning a video call with the lawyers.

'''Update October 17:'''

A lawyer from Dutch&Detained has spoken to the men. They have been transferred to another cell and have been given nicer cellmates. They absolutely want to appeal because they want to continue fighting for their innocence. WOTS (serving a sentence in the Netherlands) is therefore not an option for the time being. The video call was again terminated prematurely.

'''Update October 23:'''

The charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Click [https://americancrimejournal.com/plaintiffs-file-lawsuit-against-tim-ballard-and-operation-underground-railroad-for-human-trafficking-violations/ here] for the latest news.

'''Update October 27:'''

I spoke to Marthijn, Lesley and lawyer V. via Zoom for an hour and a half last Thursday. The men have two new cellmates and that is going well. They have also not been beaten by the military for a while. Marthijn looked bad, he is much too thin. Lesley seems to be coping better with the detention. They are only given German books, but their German is improving. V. showed the images from the file that were labelled as child pornography by the judge. She took the time to discuss each image with the men. In Marthijn's case, it concerns about twenty images that were on his laptop. It was almost laughable: watercolours, paintings, a postcard from a Dutch bookshop (bought during one of my book presentations; I remember it well, in Livius De Zevensprong), covers of Dutch and American magazines (children in sports shorts etc.) and a few images that come from the internet, but no child pornography. Bizarre to see. In Lesley's case, it only concerns three videos on his mobile phone, originating from TikTok: a dancing girl (with clothes on), a showering boy (only upper body visible) and an official instructional video of a doctor examining a boy (with underwear on) with a stethoscope. Again, no child pornography. According to V., there is no burden of proof and the men were only convicted because of the media attention. Moreover, procedural errors were deliberately made and the appeal had already been settled in advance, the judge is corrupt. That is also the reason why the men were not heard; they were ready for the Zoom connection with the courtroom, but the judge refused to open the link. He was probably afraid that Marthijn and Lesley would start talking about corruption, Tim Ballard and O.U.R. and that this information would end up in the file. V. is hopeful about the cassation, because the court in Quito is known to be less corrupt, but it cannot give any guarantees in that regard. She expects that once the written verdict is available and they can officially appeal, it will take another year before the case is heard. Martijn and Lesley's hotel is safe for the time being; it can only be confiscated after completion of the entire process, and then only if the $20,000 fine imposed by the court is not paid on time. Marthijn said that he has not been able to speak to anyone in the Netherlands for a year and a half and that it is hard for him. When he started talking about his mother who recently turned eighty, he had to cry. V. will try to arrange a phone call with her. She is also open to speaking to the journalist from Nieuwsuur; according to her, it is important to create a counter-voice in the media. I encouraged the men and promised to continue helping them. It was nice to see and hear them, but also hard. What is happening to them is so unfair and I feel relatively powerless. The lawyer made a good impression: empathetic and professional.

'''Update 12 November:'''

The written verdict has not yet been made available, so there is still the possibility of appealing.

The journalist from Nieuwsuur has been put in touch with the Ecuadorian lawyers and with a Spanish colleague who is investigating corruption in Ecuador with the El Paccto project.

'''Update 13 November:'''

Revolts have broken out again in the Guayaquil prison. The media reports fifteen dead and dozens injured. I do not know how Marthijn and Lesley are doing; I have not heard from them since the Zoom conversation.

'''Update 14 November:'''

The men are safe, the uprising took place in Guayas 1 and they are in Guayas 4.

'''Update 27 November:'''

Nothing more heard from Lesley and Marthijn. The lawyers in Ecuador have not yet announced whether the written verdict has been received, so that the men can appeal in cassation.

'''Update December 10:'''

Dutch&Detained is trying to arrange a phone call between Marthijn and his mother before Christmas, together with the Ecuadorian lawyer. No further news. (Although, ABN-AMRO is again being difficult about the management account and is coming up with bizarre allegations.)

'''Update December 22:'''

No news. Unfortunately.

'''Update December 30:'''

Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to have Marthijn call his mother. According to the lawyers, filling in and assessing 'all kinds of paperwork' takes longer than hoped. In short, the bureaucracy is an obstacle. The written verdict has also not yet been made available.

===2025===

'''Update January 6, 2025:'''

The volunteers who were supposed to visit Marthijn and Lesley on December 27 unfortunately did not receive permission from the prison authorities. It is therefore still unclear how the men are doing.

'''Update January 8:'''

The phone call between Marthijn and his mother failed again, partly due to the 'bungling' of the prison authorities. D&D is trying to arrange a conversation again.

'''Update January 21:'''

The conversation with the mother has not yet worked out. The verdict has not yet been handed down in writing. No contact with the men yet. The relevant authorities are working on it.

'''Update January 26:'''

As far as known, no changes. We are trying to hire an additional lawyer to supervise the Cassation.

'''Update January 31:'''

Next Thursday, the phone call with the mother is scheduled.

'''Update 7 February:'''

Marthijn was finally able to video call his mother today. Unfortunately, she had no good news; last week, Marthijn's 55-year-old brother died suddenly.
Marthijn and Lesley are doing pretty well. They are in a cell together with a third prisoner with whom they fortunately get along. One problem is that they have to stay in their cells almost 24 hours a day; the military are still present in the complex. Thanks to the monthly deposit, they can regularly buy food in the prison shop. The much too thin Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Marthijn and Lesley speak pretty good Spanish by now.

'''Update 12 February:'''

The men managed to send some voice messages. They are doing reasonably well, although the military continue to harass. They sounded constructive.

'''Update 24 February:'''

Things are still going reasonably well with the men. We hope that soon the written verdict will be available so that they can finally go to Cassation.

ABN-AMRO threatens to cancel the management account; the ‘accusations’ are bizarre and mainly driven by bureaucracy and mistrust. The bill is used to pay the lawyers (in consultation with Dutch&Detained) in Ecuador and the monthly deposits (through the Ministry of foreign affairs) for the prison shop, so that Marthijn and Lesley can buy vitamins and fruit.

Attorney Sidney Smeets filed an objection on my behalf.

'''Update 10 March:'''

ABN-AMRO ignores the objection and eliminates the bill in mid-May. As this will lead to further problems, the organisations involved have been informed. So be prosecuted.

There are no major developments from Ecuador. Things are going pretty well with the men.

'''Update March 25:'''

The complications with ABN-AMRO have not yet been resolved, the process is proceeding slowly. Obstructive bureaucracy, in both countries.

A member of the embassy has visited the prison. The men are doing reasonably well. It could take another three years before a final verdict is issued, which is six years after the arrest.

'''Update April 7:'''

ABN-AMRO is threatening to proceed with the cancellation of the management account in mid-May. The Dutch Probation Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are trying to reverse this, but the bureaucracy fueled by distrust is stubborn.

'''Update April 17:'''

A lawyer from the Dutch Probation Service has delved into the case. He has found nothing that justifies the cancellation of the account 'other than arbitrariness and suspicions'. The bank probably does not want to be associated with the men and/or Ecuador. We are considering a judicial decision.

'''Update April 21:'''

Marthijn's birthday is today. The treat: a rusk with jam.

'''Update April 30:'''

The lawyers cannot get through the wall that ABN-AMRO is putting up. The account will be liquidated in two weeks. I am now working on plan B, so that the men can continue to be helped: legal assistance and food.

'''Update May 8:'''

The volunteers of Reclassering Nederland have spoken to the men via ZOOM. They are doing reasonably well, Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Less violence is used by the soldiers in the pavilion. The men are four in one cell and they are only allowed to air out for twenty minutes a week. The mattresses they lie on are very thin and need replacing. However, the latter is difficult to achieve.

'''Update May 15:'''

Plan B has been implemented. The men are assured of legal assistance and sufficient food. Fuck ABN-AMRO!

'''Update by Newgon, 15 May:'''

[[Norbert de Jonge]] has returned to the limelight, posting a [https://fstube.net/w/s5S9cYUow8FjGC3DTxP6c4 video] on multiple sharing platforms. We have reproduced it on FST.

'''Update May 27:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The main thing now is to wait for the appeal, but that could take a few years…

'''Update May 29:'''

Message from Lesley: ‘A lot of military violence again today. People revolted. Pistols were pointed at us. A warning shot was fired into the roof. The revolt did not stop there, but became more violent. It only became calmer when the prison management itself intervened.’

'''Update June 6:'''

Marthijn and Lesley announced that they have been transferred to another cell in the same pavilion.

'''Update June 9:'''

For the time being, no visits are possible due to the security situation in and around the prison. The appointment with the consul has therefore been postponed until further notice.

'''Update June 17:'''

The kitten that Lesley was caring for was bitten to death by malnourished dogs. Other cats were tortured by the military; live kittens were used as footballs. Marthijn wants to file a complaint via Konijnen in Nood.

'''Update June 23:'''

The (recently expanded) team of lawyers has managed to smooth out and accelerate the legal process. The cassation will be heard next Friday. We were able to keep it quiet for a long time, but unfortunately there was a leak to Tim Ballard – he has connections in the highest regions. Ballard is now in Canoa and is trying to influence the judges with videos, messages and interviews. In the name of God. Once again he speaks of large-scale abuse, kidnappings, rapes and sex parties. In his messages he shows photos of Marthijn, Lesley and their hotel. The media are eagerly diving on it again. Image formation is more important in Ecuador than the truth and the country is thoroughly corrupt. The outcome of the cassation can be guessed. A reaction from the men: 'A lot of tension. We sleep badly with only bad dreams. Little hope. The system is too corrupt. Bad people often seem to win and are described as heroes.' Lesley and Marthijn previously indicated that when they are released they will file an (international) lawsuit against Ballard, O.U.R. and Free a Girl.

'''July 18th Update:'''

There is still no verdict, the legal deadline (ten working days) has been significantly exceeded. The lawyers have no explanation for this. The prison shop has been closed for three weeks, leaving the men with insufficient food.

'''July 20th Update''':

The shop is open again, but the military only allows the purchase of cleaning supplies, not food. Marthijn and Lesley are starving and weakened. Furthermore, the number of tuberculosis infections in the cells is increasing. The relevant authorities have been notified.

'''Update August 3:'''

Marthijn and Lesley have been moved to a new cell. There is no food for sale in the prison store, but bread and bananas will likely be available for sale soon. Due to hunger and weakened immune systems, the tuberculosis epidemic has escalated (more than 500 infections in Guayaquil prison, dozens of deaths); several pavilions have been cleared for patients. The appeal: still no verdict.

'''Update August 14:'''

The appeal has been rejected. The lawyer's response: "It surprised us all. But we understood why the court took so long to give us a verdict. The judges were looking for a way to deny us the appeal. Each of the arguments was dismissed on silly and unfounded grounds, for reasons that were even alleged by us, although the court said that was not stated. All this time they were looking for reasons to deny us, and it became evident that the decision had already been made. We would understand that this is related to the arrival of Tim Ballard that week." We are increasingly disappointed with the corrupt justice system in this country.

'''Update August 17:'''

Food is still unavailable in the prison store; the president of Ecuador currently considers it an unnecessary luxury. The number of tuberculosis deaths is rising; a large proportion of the prisoners are malnourished and lack exercise, and there is also a shortage of medicine. The mafia controls the regular food distribution in the kitchen; for a fee, you can get twice the allowed portion. Any leftovers are divided among the other prisoners. Lesley and Marthijn do not participate in this out of solidarity with the prisoners without money. They have, however, exchanged cleaning supplies for six sandwiches a week. These come from outside the prison, so they do not disadvantage the other prisoners.

'''Update September 3:'''

The men have been moved to another cell. They feel safe there, as they were already friends with two of their three cellmates. They also finally have access to the prison shop again; their credit (for three months) has been replenished. They have also managed to transfer additional money so the men can purchase vitamins and nutritional supplements. Finally, the process for sentence transfer to the Netherlands has been initiated – WOTS, the Act on Transfer of Enforcement of Criminal Judgments.

'''Update September 24:'''

The men are doing relatively well. No news on the legal front.

'''Update October 20:'''

Things are still going relatively well. The regime has been relaxed somewhat; the men are allowed to leave their cells for 45 minutes every Saturday and Sunday. They are reading a lot, especially German and Spanish books. The shop is open again.

'''Update November 10:'''

Dozens of people have died in prison riots in Ecuador. Fortunately, the location where Lesley and Marthijn are being held has escaped unscathed this time.

'''Update December 8:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The sentence transfer process has been initiated, but this may take some time.

===2026===

'''Update January 16:'''

The situation remains unchanged. Marthijn and Lesley are reading, drawing, and writing extensively. They are still waiting for information about the sentence transfer. It is now up to the Dutch authorities to make an initial assessment.

'''Update February 15:'''

No news. They are still waiting for the sentence transfer to the Netherlands.

Marthijn is writing a diary in Spanish in prison. [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2026/02/dagboek-marthijn/ Click here] to read it.

'''Update March 1:'''

Military personnel have searched Marthijn and Lesley's cell and destroyed all drawings and writings. Furthermore, there is a tuberculosis epidemic in the prison, but there is a shortage of medication. The organizations involved have been notified. Nothing is known yet regarding the possible transfer of sentences. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update March 16:'''

The process surrounding the transfer of sentences is proceeding slowly; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects to establish contact with Ecuador soon. The men are not receiving the medication they need; the prison authority SNAI is blocking this. Lesley is trading food for medication for a skin infection. Money has been stolen again from the men's account at the prison shop. Despite everything, they report that they are doing well considering the circumstances.

'''Update April 16:'''

The situation is, factually speaking, unchanged. Unfortunately.

'''Update May 22:'''

The men are doing reasonably well. They are reading, drawing, and painting. Lesley sent a portrait he made of Greta Thunberg, a woman he admires. Unfortunately, there is no news to report yet regarding the transfer of sentences.

'''Update June 24:'''

No change in the situation.

'''Update July 24:'''

The situation is (unfortunately) unchanged.

'''Update August 2:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been moved to another pavilion due to a major tuberculosis outbreak.

===Latest update===

'''Update 20 August:'''

The men are doing relatively well in their new cell. Lesley has painted a large world map on the wall together with a fellow inmate. There is no news regarding the transfer of their sentence.

'''Update 6 September:'''

Police raided the cell again during the night. They dealt blows and stole food and medication.

'''Update 22 September:'''

For months, the men have been unable to buy food from the prison shop. The mafia is blocking this and also controls the prison kitchen. The prisoners are receiving less and less food, forcing them to turn to the mafia for sustenance. Marthijn and Lesley refuse to play along, resulting in starvation, stomach pain, and dizziness. I have informed the relevant authorities and urged them to expedite the transfer to the Netherlands.

'''Update 27 September:'''

The prison shop is once again accessible to Lesley and Marthijn.

<hr>

SEE ALSO:
[https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth ''(Vice)'']

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

<hr>

''All translation prior to the 2023 updates is courtesy of the user [https://www.boychat.org/ycdtobc/messages/119860.htm Manstuprator at BoyChat].''
[[Category:Essays]][[Category:A.H.J. Dautzenberg's Essays]]

Essay:The Gruesome Consequences of a Hysterical Witch Hunt

2026-09-28T00:56:17Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__The following is a mirror of an article originally titled '''''[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/02/de-gruwelijke-gevolgen-van-een-hysterische-heksenjacht/ De gruwelijke gevolgen van een hysterische heksenjacht]''''', which appears on the website of Dutch writer [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Dautzenberg A.H.J. Dautzenberg]. We provide an English translation of it here, in the interest of maintaining a copy of this important journalism. The opinions reflected in this article are those of A.H.J. Dautzenberg who is unaffiliated with Newgon Organization. For the latest update, see at the [[#Latest update|bottom of the page]].
<hr>
'''February 5, 2023'''

In Ecuador, two Dutch men have been detained under appalling conditions for almost eight months, two men with a pedophile orientation. They still don't know exactly what they are suspected of and they haven't seen a judge yet. I think I know them well, consider them friends. My impression is that they are innocent.

In recent months I have tried several times in vain to interest the quality media in the case, also to encourage them to put an investigative journalist on it. In particular, the role of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and that of the [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] pedo hunter club (and its dubious American partner [[Operation Underground Railroad]]) should be critically examined; in my view they create a toxic climate that smothers any nuanced discussion in advance. The word "child pornography" is used far too lightly and just a little too eagerly by them – all shutters are immediately closed.

I believe I have followed the (long run-up to the) arrest relatively objectively, but perhaps my view is clouded by fear, anger, disappointment and friendship. That's why I hope for help.

One of the media I approached indicated that it was "not a newsworthy story". The editor-in-chief of an opinion weekly emphasized that a sensitive subject such as pedophilia cannot be treated from the perspective of two detained pedophiles – "Who says they are innocent?" Another reaction: "It would make me very uncomfortable to post this piece." The overall tone in a nutshell.

Below is the essay I wrote – it consists of two parts that alternate between a more or less journalistic report, and my personal thoughts, although the distinction is sometimes difficult to make. I have my personal thoughts.

Set aside your gut reaction that tries to take over your feelings, and don't judge too quickly; smoke does not always mean fire, after all, smoke machines do not need to be on fire. Take up the challenge, if you will. Vulnerable minorities deserve protection, not a witch hunt. That is good for everything and everyone.

[[File:Huis.jpg|thumb|Action outside of Marthijn's house]]

'''Ten years of Mart[h]ijn'''

The zeitgeist dictates which topics may or may not be discussed. For example, pedophilia. Nevertheless, it is still important not to shy away from an "unmentionable" subject; by exposing insensitive mechanisms, future victims can be spared. Moreover, freedom of expression is sacred in our country. Or so I thought.'''

At the moment, two Dutch men have been detained in Ecuador under appalling conditions for more than six months, and they have not yet seen a judge. It is still not entirely clear what crime in particular they are suspected of. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not interfere with the legal process and the Netherlands does not have an embassy in Ecuador. A hopeless situation, they fear for their lives.

The run-up to the arrest of the two men started in 2011, with an attempt by the Public Prosecution Service to ban the association [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn]], founded in 1982; The ball starts rolling then. After years of intensive investigation, no criminal offenses had been uncovered, so according to Minister of Justice Opstelten (VVD), only civil law could offer a solution.

In the early 1980s, the VVD regularly approached the Martijn association for advice on the subject of pedophilia. In 1986, then-VVD-minister Korthals Altes submitted a bill to lower the "age of consent" law from sixteen to twelve years. He referred, among other things, to scientific studies that indicate that sex with minors is not necessarily harmful.

The JOVD – (left-liberal) Mark Rutte, who was also a member at the time and would become chairman two years later – just like the Young Socialists in 1986, signed a petition for the change in the law. The law passed in a slimmed-down version, but it was then abolished at the beginning of the new millennium. In the early years, the roots of the Martijn Association therefore received political support, especially from the VVD.

By 2011 things had completely changed. In November of that year, in the run-up to the court case to ban the [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn association]], VVD minister Opstelten publicly expressed the hope that the court would issue a ban. Which was strange to say the least, because a minister is not allowed to give his opinion on a case that is still before the courts. The left and right both agreed with Minister Opstelten's statement that the association should be banned.

Tofik Dibi (of GroenLinks) said during the same parliamentary debate: ''"The Martijn association is an association of dirty little men, with dirty points of view, that arouse disgust and revulsion. My gut says: lock them up and throw away the key."'' And Madeleine van Toorenburg (CDA) stated: ''"How is such a disgusting association allowed to exist."'' At the time, Pieter Omtzigt regularly referred to "Martijn's victims" in his tweets. Mind you, ten years of investigation by the police and the Public Prosecution Service had not resulted in any criminal charges.

For more than ten years I have studied the subject of pedophilia, a distinction in sexual orientation that I believe should no longer be made, and should be eliminated. And let's not beat around the bush, I was terrified. The hatred that wins over the facts, the myths that are devoured like candy, the denial that follows any hint or suggestion, the opportunistic role of politics and especially that of the Public Prosecution Service. With regards to this topic, all good sense and logic seems to have disappeared, and the only reaction is a visceral one.

Even before the legal process began, I decided in 2011 to become a member of the Martijn association in order to start a dialogue and put an end to the escalating witch hunt; a pedophile is a human being, not an undesirable scourge – which unwelcome minority is next? A side effect was that not much later I could follow the court case in Assen both externally and internally. "''Your career is over''," tweeted some cynical fellow writers with apparently mocking pleasure.

For the record, I keep repeating it out of necessity: I am not in favor of sexual contact between adults and children. I do think that people with a pedophile orientation should be allowed to dream and fantasize about it, and that they should be allowed to speak and write about their desires – and that they (just like the VVD in 1986) should be allowed to argue for a liberalization of the legislation regarding sexuality.

In fact, I am convinced that openness and transparency will lead to greater understanding, and to a mutual understanding. An innate disposition does not disappear by publicly condemning it. Not in Iran, not in Russia, not in Hungary and not in the Netherlands. An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people with pedophilic feelings, men and women, live in our country. Get used to it. Talk to them, don't banish them to the dungeons of society. And understand that approximately eighty percent of child abuse actually takes place within the immediate family, by "opportunistic paedophiles".

So in 2011 I signed up as a member of the Martijn association, which was founded in 1982. I attended meetings, talked to members and advised the board. At the end of 2011, a child and adolescent psychiatrist e-mailed me the following: ''"Thank you for your contribution to the quest that we as a society must undertake. Not a nonsensical black-and-white opinion, but a nuanced story."'' Various statements of support from that quarter followed, but the senders added that they did not dare to express their opinions publicly.

In May 2012 I represented the association before the court in Assen. At the time, I tried repeatedly to talk to MPs, but I couldn't get any response. Other members of the Martijn association also tried this, and they were also ignored.

'''The "Yuck" Factor'''

The lawsuit would ultimately be heard in Assen, on May 16, 2012. The Public Prosecution Service had to make it plausible that (the activities of) the Martijn association are "contrary to public order". Both in the petition and in the closing requisition, the Public Prosecution Service claims that the Martijn association poses a serious danger to children in the Netherlands. "The ideas and the way in which these are expressed must be seen as a serious threat to the physical and sexual integrity of the child."

The Public Prosecution Service had formulated a criterion for testing texts and images that had appeared in the association's magazine and on the site since 1982: the "yucky content". Especially the texts from the early years of the association were judged with a high yuck content. The Public Prosecution Service included a review that former senator Edward Brongersma (PvdA) wrote in the magazine about Kees Verheul's novel A boy with four legs, published in 1982 by publisher Van Oorschot. "Apparently intended to be sexually arousing," suggested the District Attorney. (Apparently intended to be sexually arousing - just how does one measure that?)

The following poem on the site was also given a high yuck content by the Public Prosecution Service:
<blockquote>
''I would love to''

''Sail with you in a boat''

''Love you''

''Kiss you''

''Your body against me''

''I caress in my dreams''

''Everywhere I want to go''

''And you like it''

''Thoughts are free''

''It's a cliché''

''But what I just wrote''

''Is only one chance in a hundred''

''Reality''

''We live in a world''

''Where such things can't be''

''But luckily''

''How lucky''

''Fantasizing is cool''

''And it can't hurt anyone.''
</blockquote>
On June 27, 2012, the Martijn association was banned by the court. The press reacted to the verdict. NRC Ombudsman Sjoerd de Jong thought it too subdude: ''"On June 27, the court in Assen banned the association Martijn, which wants to represent the interests of pedophiles. That was remarkable news, but the newspaper did not comment on it. Now you don't have to do that with every news event, but you would expect it regarding this one. That seems entirely in line with the liberal principles of the newspaper: after all, it is [not about the words but] about the deeds."''

'''The Appeal'''

The Martijn Association appealed to the Court of Appeal in Leeuwarden. The Public Prosecution Service argued that the appeal should be declared inadmissible, because an association that has been banned no longer exists and can therefore not appeal. The court did not agree with this and ruled in April 2013 that there was no threat of social disruption and that the association could therefore not be banned. According to the court, society should also accept expressions that are widely abhorred. Moreover, the statements and behavior of Martijn are not punishable, the court emphasized.

The Public Prosecution Service then submitted this judgment to the Supreme Court for review. It decided on April 18, 2014 that the association should be banned immediately, because it goes contrary to public order. According to the Supreme Court, it is necessary as this is a very special case, in the interest of protecting the health and the rights and freedoms of children. ''"These social views are also widely supported outside the Netherlands, and the Netherlands has committed itself internationally to taking measures in that regard."'' So Brussels was watching.

The lawyers Gerard Spong and Sidney Smeets then approached the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Marthijn Uittenbogaard. At the beginning of 2015, it announced that it would not consider the appeal. The reaction of Spong and Smeets: ''"We see this decision as a case of evading the giving of a legal opinion on a socially sensitive legal question. And therefore a lack of courage. In a resilient democratic society it is precisely the unpopular opinions that should be protected. Freedom of expression is only meaningful if it also (or especially) protects unpopular opinions. Even opinions that not everyone agrees with and that some even find offensive."''

'''Seclusion'''

At this point, the Martijn Association is definitively banned, including the association's website, but former chairman Marthijn Uittenbogaard is told by the Public Prosecutor that he may continue the website privately. He decides to concentrate on his websites www.brongersma.info and www.marthijn.nl (with an h), which he started in 2001, renaming a site he started a quarter of a century ago.

As a private person, Marthijn Uittenbogaard continues to fight for discussion about and the seeking of approval for intergenerational relationships. He does this mainly by collecting information on pedophilia and paedosexuality on his websites, information in the broadest sense of the word, including studies that emphasize the potentially harmful effects of paedosexual activity.

His activism and the ruling of the Supreme Court have caused Marthijn Uittenbogaard many problems: there have been threats, rocks and paving stones have been thrown against and through his windows, lit fireworks have been left in his mail box, a fireworks bomb was left on his doorstep – the list fills dozens of pages. In addition, he says he is shadowed by the police and his phone is wire-tapped.

Over time he has decided not to leave his home in Hengelo; he spends his days playing video games for hours on end and maintaining his web sites. He has had plexiglass fitted to the windows of his house and he installed security cameras, which the police had refused to do, despite several requests from him.

Former Martijn figurehead Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner Lesley have become friends of mine over the years and I trust them. Not out of naivety or misplaced loyalty, but as a result of frank conversations and a thorough study of the facts – and the many lies that have been spread about them. I haven't seen any hard evidence to date that confirms that either has committed any crimes.

I kept in touch with the two men for the past ten years – two passionate, sweet, gentle people. When I stayed with them a few years ago, I saw what the isolation did to Marthijn. Like a shy little bird, he sat in an almost blinded house, glued to his almost life-size game screen. Lesley tried to remain anonymous and went to work in a warehouse every day. In his spare time, a convinced vegan, he devoted himself to the necessary charitable institutions. I saw two fellow sufferers who loved each other very much.

[[File:Megafoon.jpg|frame|Demo outside Marthijn's house]]

'''Onslaught'''

The day was coming for an attack to be made on Uittenbogaard. It would be in a morning in 2020. A 41-year-old man from Spakenburg entered the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley early in the morning, ran up the stairs, entered the bedroom and threatened to stab Marthijn to death with a fish-boning knife. A friend who is staying over heard the noise, intervened in time and knocked the knife out of the hands of the man, who was standing next to Marthijn's bed.

The man fled, but was arrested shortly afterwards. He was released the same day, but he was banned from the vicinity. A lawsuit followed. The man did not have to go to prison; the judge gave him 150 hours of community service.

The man, who had already been hospitalized eight times for bouts of manic-depression, claimed that he entered the house because of media reports he had heard, which stated that a children's room with dildos had been found in Marthijn's house and that Marthijn's partner had been arrested on suspicion of engaging in child abuse.

At the time of the attack on Marthijn I had been in touch with the people who had been in contact with Marthijn, and even more so around the time of the raid and the arrest of Lesley. Marthijn is still convinced that his partner was arrested at the time in order to intimidate him, and to silence him. He wrote to me: ''"I saw my partner being taken away on a completely fabricated charge. The extensions of the pretrial detention were outrageous. As his partner, I was also not allowed to attend the sessions allegedly due to measures taken due to the corona virus pandemic. But journalists were allowed to attend! The only thing they had against my partner was that he was "the-partner-of". On that, and on based on the lie that his parents did not want him to be released, his pretrial detention was repeatedly extended. That was outrageous!"''

'''Detention'''

In 2020, a house search took place at the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley. This was legally sanctioned by the authorities suspecting Marthijn of having committed "sedition"; the Public Prosecution Service referred to statements on its websites and in the media. Lesley was arrested during the house search, then confined in isolation for ten weeks and then only released after six months.

The OM revealed that Lesley was suspected of having "prepared to kidnap and rape a child." The OM also reports that a children's room was found within the house of Lesley and Marthijn and a studio in the garage to make child pornography. Sex paraphernalia, including dildos, were found in Lesley's bedroom. And according to the Public Prosecution Service, a Stanley knife, lubricant and anesthetic tablets were found in his backpack, which indicated he was preparing to commit that crime.

The OM kept Lesley hanging for two years. At the end of April 2022, the case finally went to court. The charge of "preparing to kidnap and rape a child" had disappeared from the indictment, as had charges concerning the possession of dozens of images of child pornography. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there were no indications of the existence of a "children's room," nor of a studio to make child pornography.

Lesley (like his colleagues) needs the Zip ties and the Stanley knife for his work – he is a warehouse worker. The "lube" was actually a jar of Working Hands cream - the skin of his hands is cracked because of his physical work. The so-called "anesthetics" were actually magnesium pills he used to numb the recurring pain in his leg muscles, a consequence of Lesley's veganism.

'''"Child Pornography"'''

The charge against Lesley has been reduced by the OM to "making and possessing child pornography". The petition from the prosecutor: one year in prison, four months of which were to be suspended. Lesley was sentenced to ten weeks in prison. (He was held in pre-trial detention for six months.) From the verdict: ''"The suspect is found guilty of making a film containing child pornography. The suspect filmed the bare buttocks of an underage boy with sexual intent."'' ("With sexual intent" – how does one measure that??)

Lesley had been making family films for a family of friends for years. During one of those filmings, one of the children mischievously dropped his pants for a moment. The Public Prosecution Service has cut that image from the video and submitted it to the court as "child pornography". A letter submitted by Lesley's lawyer, in which one of the parents wrote that Lesley was innocent and should be immediately released, is ignored by the judge.

Lesley attempted suicide twice after his release and still continues to struggle with depression. His employer, neighbours, the voluntary associations he had been involved in and many of his friends no longer want anything to do with him. He suddenly has to go through life with a criminal record stating that he has been convicted of producing child pornography. Lesley won't appeal because, mentally, he can't handle that stress.

Lesley sent me the notes that he had made while in detention. I read the poignant and above all disconcerting text with horror.

<blockquote>''I thought they mistook me for someone else and I could probably clear that up. I have never abused children and never will. Just the thought of hurting children makes me sad. I regularly burst into tears about the simplistic reporting made about me.''

''The mother of the child is also being seen as responsible by those around her for supposedly having made children available to a pedophile who, according to people, abuses children. I sometimes spontaneously bursts into tears. Both the investigation and how the people around her have reacted to it in response to news reports have deeply damaged her. I have not abused children and do not intend to. The Public Prosecution Service and the police have abused people in this case, including children, and the damage to them is immeasurable and lifelong.''</blockquote>

'''Continuing the Association'''

The raid on the house of Marthijn and Lesley appears to be a direct result of an investigation by RTL Nieuws ["Radio Television Luxembourg News," a popular Dutch television news service]. According to them, this went on undercover for several months within a private email list ''"in which the Martijn Association is still active"''. In that group, according to RTL, tips were also given on how abuse children. But for the record, the email group was not closed, and non-pedophiles and (even undercover) journalists could also join it.

RTL also placed an attention-grabbing statement on its web site: ''"A pedophile is a person with sexual feelings for children under the age of 13. Pedophilia is a sexual preference and is not punishable in the Netherlands. Sexual abuse of children, together with viewing and downloading child pornography, is punishable by law. That is not always done by pedophiles: a majority of child abusers do not have pedophilic feelings, but suffer from antisocial and sexual disorders."''

In 2021, partly on the basis of the RTL investigation and the house search, the Public Prosecution Service decided to prosecute three people for continuing the banned "pedo club Martijn": [[Nelson Maatman|Nelson]], [[Norbert de Jonge|Norbert]] and (the figurehead) [[Marthijn Uittenbogaard|Marthijn]] – all three without any previous criminal records. Nelson was acquitted, because he had never been a member of the Martijn association. The other two were sentenced to prison terms. Norbert was sentenced to four months because he helped Marthijn with the technical maintenance of the sites. Marthijn received a six-month prison sentence, without the possibility of parole, after which he appealed his sentence.

'''Ideologies'''

A quote from the judgment regarding Marthijn dated 8 March 2022. ''"Together with his co-defendant [Norbert], the suspect has continued the activities of the banned association Martijn by posting publications on various websites and making statements via a mailing list and Twitter."''

According to the court, the views expressed on the sites correspond to those of the banned association. The fact that the opinions expressed are largely quotes from politicians and scientists is not mentioned in the judgment. Moreover, it is reasonable that the views are in agreement; Marthijn (born in 1972) became a member at the time because he recognized his personal convictions in the ideas of the association founded in 1982.

The verdict continues with this striking passage: ''"It does note, however, that this ideology cannot be equated with child abuse or incitement to it. The fact that this was or would have been the case has not been evident in the proceedings that led to the prohibition of the Martijn association. The suspect has also never been convicted of sexual offenses (or any other offense)."'' And then a prison sentence of six months was imposed.

Because Marthijn and Norbert were convicted for continuing the Martijn association, I decided to take action together with former university lecturers in sexual citizenship [[Gert Hekma]] (deceased 2022) and his partner Mattias Duyves, emeritus professor [[Meindert Fennema]] and writer [[Delphine Lecompte]]. The last paragraphs of an op-ed that we offered to all respectable media:
<blockquote>
''A society that is genuinely concerned with the interests and safety of children is not content to create and then brutally destroy demonic symbols. It invests heavily in youth care and education, it ensures that the Supplement Scandal children removed from home are reunited with their parents as quickly as possible, it does not allow children to grow up in dire poverty, it does not allow reports of child abuse and abuse to be filed for months, sometimes even years on the shelf, and it does not leave children who have fled from war zones to fend for themselves.''

''Finally, last month, the majority of the House of Representatives approved the addition of 'sexual orientation' as a non-discrimination ground in Article 1 of the Constitution. The proposal is now before the Senate. A conscious choice was made for the term 'orientation' (gerichtheid) and not for 'sex' (geaardheid). The reason is that legally the term "orientation" (gerichtheid) only represents so-called consensual orientations. This excludes people with a pedophile orientation. The idea behind it: if they would give concrete expression to their focus, they would be guilty of criminal offences. The government also suffers from prejudice. [The law has now been passed, AHJD.]''

''To protest against the witch hunt for pedophiles, we are taking action: from now on we will take over the site www.brongersma.info from Marthijn Uittenbogaard. This is to prevent the rich archive he has built up over the past decades from being destroyed. If Uittenbogaard is acquitted on appeal, the site will be his again. (Norbert de Jonge will not appeal, he no longer trusts the judiciary.) If Uittenbogaard is convicted for expressing his opinion – which we cannot imagine, we expect an independent, careful approach from a judge – then we will look for a suitable host for the archive. Initially we are thinking of the COC or the IHLIA.''

''Stop criminalizing people with a pedophile orientation. Talk to them, protect them, help them, listen to them – everyone benefits from that. And above all, don't interfere with freedom of expression.''
</blockquote>

The piece was rejected by all the respected media we approached.

'''Ecuador'''

Because Marthijn and Lesley no longer have a (safe) future in the Netherlands, they decided to emigrate to a country where life is cheap. They eventually choose Ecuador because they could buy an old hotel there. The plan was to open a vegan restaurant on the ground floor, to make apartments in the rest of the building, and to rent them out.

They called in local construction workers for the renovation. Some (paid) villagers have also come to help. Meanwhile, their children played with Marthijn's PlayStation, a luxury they cannot afford. Nelson visited and rented a room, but Lesley turned him away; his alcohol and drug use and fatalistic attitude could put them in danger. Nelson left for Mexico.

Norbert, a friend of Marthijn for more than twenty-five years, comes along a few months later, as does a (straight) friend. They soon leave. They think it is unwise that village and construction worker children freely walk in and out of the house. In addition, ominous reports are beginning to appear in the local media.

The hotel, its new owners and their visitors have been on the radar of paedo hunter Tim Ballard of O.U.R. (Operation Underground Railroad) and the Dutch organization Free a Girl. The latter decided to track down the men after their emigration and called O.U.R. in.

'''QAnon'''

Tim Ballard is a conservative Mormon, a fanatical Trump and QAnon supporter, who, with his organization, hunts alleged pedophiles (supposed "networks") and pro-abortion activists worldwide. He also fulminates against the LGBTIQ + community; according to him, only straight relationships are godly. His organization raises many millions annually, without it being clear exactly where the money goes.

In addition, several investigations against him and his organization are ongoing; he is suspected of incitement, lying about actions of O.U.R. and spreading conspiracy theories about "pedo networks." He claims to have saved thousands of children from criminal (paedo) organizations, but there is no evidence. Nevertheless, his influence is growing. He is friends with several (populist) heads of state.

Algemeen Dagblad wriote about Marthijn's arrest on June 24, 2022: ''"The convicted and since-then fugitive paedosexual Marthijn U. from Hengelo was arrested in Ecuador on Thursday evening. The fugitive pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested."'' Het Parool wrote that same day:'Marthijn U. is said to have been arrested after a manhunt.' For the record, Marthijn Uittenbogaard is not a paedosexual and he was not a fugitive.

Continuation of the message from the AD: ''"In Ecuador, the well-known pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested that same Thursday. [Absent] Lesley L. was sentenced in Rotterdam on April 26, 2022 to 10 weeks in prison for producing child pornography. L. was now under arrest in the seaside resort of Canoa, for suspected abuse of three young children in his home. The organization Free a Girl had passed on incriminating information about the three men to its American partner Operation Underground Railroad and the authorities of Mexico and Ecuador."'' For the record, Lesley was not a fugitive either; he was working at the hotel at the time of the arrest.

''Het Parool'' further wrote: ''"According to Free a Girl, several children regularly stayed in the house of L. and U. They would have been lured to play video games with the story. In exchange for sweets and money, they would have had to provide sexual services. Parties are also said to have been organized with children at the swimming pool, where children were touched and sometimes raped under the influence of drugs. There would be abuse of dozens of children."''

I also kept in touch with Marthijn and Lesley when they tried to build a new life in Ecuador. Marthijn let me know in the beginning that he was terrified that someone would find out their identity; they avoided places that (Dutch) tourists visited.

A few minutes before Marthijn was arrested, I contacted him through a mobile phone app. He was on his way to the Netherlands to reconsider his situation there and to prepare for the appeal. His last message: '"'We haven't done anything, but there are lies everywhere on the internet. Norbert also had problems, I think I will, too, at customs here. Fascism. I'm listening to the song Wonderful World at the airport. It's not the Louis Armstrong version, but a cover."''

A few days after the arrest, the first ominous messages began to reach me. Marthijn and Lesley had been tortured and beaten with hammers in prison by the mafia. The videos of this were sent to acquaintances, along with ransom demands. If no payment was made, the men would be killed. That money for the ransom was put together by some friends, and then transferred to the mafia through on-line pay sites.

A few days later, Lesley emailed me:

<blockquote>''"Marth and I came to Ecuador with the goal of starting a new life. Without activism. A life where we could just walk down the street. And we could just make friends with people. Many people know that we are innocent and have said so themselves. However, those statements were not in writing. We still need a lawyer. So he can take down the statements and bring them in. The beatings stopped a few days back, but you never know if they will start again."''</blockquote>

I got some photos of the cell and of the courtyard. And of the men, too. The photos didn't make me happy. Marthijn in particular looked terrible: he was skinny and sad. Lesley, despite his bruises, seemed to be doing better. He wrote me that he wants to donate the hotel and restaurant to a vegan movement and then, with the proceeds, his friends and the poor people from the village can be helped.

''''Swimming pool''''

More is now becoming clear about the arrests. Several reports had appeared in the local media, each time with the name "Tim Ballard" appearing in them. The hotel had (according to him) housed an international network of pedophiles, of which Marthijn and Lesley were the leaders. Hundreds of children were (supposedly) drugged, abused and sold for sexual purposes. "Sex parties" with children were (supposedly) regularly held in the hotel's swimming pool, something Free a Girl claimed as well. For now, it is enough to note that Marthijn and Lesley's hotel does not have a swimming pool at all!

Ballard ramped up coverage of us in the months following our arrest. He claimed in films that he had tracked down and liberated more than four hundred victims in the home of Marthijn and Lesley. He emphasized the conviction of Lesley (production of child pornography) and the case against Marthijn (continuation of a prohibited association). The snowball is keeps increasing in size as it rolls along.

Due to the coverage in the Ecuadorian media, the two men were transferred for security reasons to a secluded part of the prison, and they have a room they have to share with seven drug addicts. A lawyer is now in the picture, who keeps in touch with a family member of Marthijn.

After a while, Marthijn and Lesley managed to arrange a lawyer. She asked for thirty thousand euros to bribe the judge and the police. A day later this amount was increased to one hundred and sixty thousand euros. Maybe she too was threatened. The fact that communication took place via Google Translate did not make it any easier: the lawyer barely speaks English.

Together with the family member with whom the men were and are in contact, I decided not to take up the family member's offer, perhaps it was a trap. Fortunately, the family member got in touch with Lesley via the prison telephone, and he and Marthijn also wanted no illegal "hanky-panky", but they wanted a fair trial. The lawyer gave in, but she had to have money to do research and prepare the case.

Martijn and Lesley were now back in contact with their fellow villagers. They heard from them that Tim Ballard was paying the media to write the menacing reports. Reports also reached Martijn and Lesley that Ballard had paid witnesses to give false statements; if they refused - these friends had pointed out that Lesley and Marthijn were innocent - he threatened them with trial and imprisonment. They also heard that Americans in contact with Ballard were offering money to have them killed.

According to the lawyer, the first session, without Marthijn and Lesley, was halted by the judge; he wanted more money for him and his secretary. He also threatened to transfer the men to another prison if payment was not made.

'''Corruption'''

The tone of reporting in the Ecuadorian media has become even grimmer. The newspapers and web sites claim that Ballard has exposed the largest international pedo ring ever known. Not much later, Lesley and Marthijn were suddenly transferred to the most notorious prison in the country, the Guayaquil Prison. According to the lawyer, there were plans to hang Marthijn and Lesley in their cell and call it suicide. That explains the move.

Dutch lawyer Sidney Smeets tried to bring the case before the Ministry again, but that was not successful. He did get the addresses of three law firms that are "probably" not corrupt. Both the men's relative and their lawyer tried to call them in, but the lawyers wouldn't take the case: there is too much negative coverage in the media.

The extortion (asking for bribes) started again, as Lesley and Marthijn had become a "lucrative business model". Whenever I saw the area code for Ecuador on my cell phone screen, I wouldn`t answer the phone. The family member also stopped responding. Finally, the attempts at extortion stopped.

An "influential" fellow prisoner informed Lesley that he had brought them to Guayaquil because he wanted to use them for a prisoner exchange with the Netherlands. Whether that is true, we do not know, but Marthijn and Lesley were "safe" again. The lawyer indicated that he needed more money for the investigation, so we transferred money again; always in small amounts, so as not to arouse suspicion - Ecuador is known as a "suspect country" and business transactions are therefore prohibited.

During that time, Lesley sent us the following email:

<blockquote>''"Our lawyer is very bad, and probably a fraud. She has cost us more than U.S. $20,000 and the trial hasn't even begun yet. People here say she's a con artist. She recently applied to transfer us to Bahia, even though she knows that it is not safe for us there. Again, she did not consult with us first. And she had already indicated that she was no longer our lawyer. Also, this recent filing supposedly costs a few thousand dollars more. This country is all about extorting money, stealing money, blackmailing, and cheating."''</blockquote>

Nevertheless, Marthijn and Lesley generally did not sound bitter in their messages. I received many touching messages and texts, and the name Gandhi regularly appeared in them. Marthijn and Lesley advocate for peaceful protest, not hatred towards their enemies. And in believing what you stand for.

Other messages, on the other hand, were pretty grim. ''"Two days ago 14 dead. Prisoners have machine guns, pistols, knives, etc. We hear the fighting, shots and loud explosions, but they are at a another location, not far away."''

And this one, about a fellow villager: ''"Then comes a statement from G. who says "the police keep harassing me, I want this to stop. The police insist that I make false statements about Lesley. They offered me money to do so, and also things like a TV and a refrigerator. I saw that they also tried to bribe my sister, too."''

Lesley also told me that the person who tortured him and demanded a ransom in the first prison they stayed in has recently been murdered. And this: ''"The lawyer who had claimed to be from the mafho had asked for absurd amounts of money to help us get out of prison was also assassinated two months ago."''

'''National Award'''

Meanwhile, Tim Ballard received a national award from the wife of the president of <s>Mexico</s>[Ecuador<ref>[https://www.ourrescue.org/reports/2022-annual.pdf OUR 2022 Impact Report]</ref> - Newgon] for dismantling "the network" of Marthijn, Lesley and Nelson. It's unclear what happened to Nelson. However, it is suspected that Ballard set a trap for him and was present at Nelson's arrest.

In any case, when Lesley was arrested, Ballard was conspicuously present, dressed in a police uniform and equipped with a machine gun. His team filmed the spectacular arrest; the footage will be featured in a documentary that Ballard plans to put online in March 2023, "The Hidden War". He claims online that he intends to visit the Netherlands, among other places, to promote it.

The men have not yet seen a judge; without their being involved in the process, their detention has been extended several times. They still don't know exactly what crime they are suspected of having committed. Marthijn emailed Amnesty International about their case, and also about the lawsuit that is still pending in the Netherlands. The Amnesty spokesperson replied: ''"We do not focus on individual cases, but on situations where criticism (from the media, political parties, activist groups, lawyers and investigative committees, etc. etc.) of the authorities are deliberately and systematically blocked (as in China for example)."''

I emailed Evelien Holsken, from Free a Girl, and their spokesman, Arjan Erkel, who was once an innocent prisoner himself. I explained to them the situation in Ecuador, including the information about their partner, Tim Ballard. I indicated that I wanted a constructive conversation with them, and not one full of accusations. I got no response from them. It is likely that Holsken and Erkel are not pleased with the legal case that Free a Girl has brought to the public's attention with such bravado, which has put the men in fear of their lives.

''De Telegraaf'' interviewed Tim Ballard at the time. In response to the text submitted to him via Sidney Smeets, Lesley wrote, as I mentioned, that he is in close contact with friendly villagers:

<blockquote>''I heard that the children were detained by the police for 24 hours when I was arrested. And that they were repeatedly threatened with being beaten with batons. When they were hungry, they were not given food. Police were eating in front of the children, and laughing at them. Their parents sat outside crying. And it is understood that the police here are known to be violent. Tim Ballard was always there. And he threatened the parents several times. The problem is that if you report these things publicly, it is very risky. Tim Ballard can operate with impunity in these countries. With the money he has, he can wrap the police and the OM around his finger. And people don't dare stand up for themselves.''</blockquote>

''De Telegraaf'' decided not to publish the interview with Ballard.''

'''Brongersma'''

Meanwhile, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is also making its presence known again. This time, not to Marthijn and Lesley, but through a registered letter to the people who host the websites www.marthijn.nl and www.brongersma.info. On November 17, 2022, the Public Prosecutor wrote:

<blockquote>''The court is of the opinion that the website www.brongersma.info can be regarded as a continuation of the activities of an organization that has been declared prohibited by an irrevocable court decision. Continuing that activity constitutes a criminal offense as referred to in Article 140 paragraph 2 of the Penal Code . Taking into account the above, I urge you to make the illegal content inaccessible within 7 days and to remove it as far as possible.''</blockquote>

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the site www.brongersma.info should be taken offline and removed. Our host complied with the request, fearing prosecution and the associated expensive attorney fees. We have now obtained legal advice and it appears that the content of the site is not criminal and that the verdict does not stipulate that the site must go offline. Moreover, the destruction of the site cannot be requested because Marthijn's appeal has yet to be filed. Meindert Fennema and I are now investigating how we can get the site back online as soon as possible. The other site co-owners have discontinued their participation.

'''PEN Netherlands'''

Finally, the personal consequences. Of course they are completely insignificant compared to what Lesley and Marthijn are going through, but they say a lot about the (intolerant) zeitgeist.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I have received the threats that were expected to come. It was no surprise to me, either. But I never realized that twenty years of work experience could evaporate in such a short time. My work experience as an economist, consultant, project leader, editor-in-chief, workshop leader, lecturer, etc. was suddenly worthless. The word "pedophilia" unleashes strange emotions.

When you type my name into any search engine, the word often appears, accompanied by unnuanced and highly biased reporting. (i.e."Pedophile Writer Supports Child Rapists.")

I was fired, clients said goodbye, my communication agency went bankrupt, performances and (literary) projects were (and are) cancelled, books were returned scratched, and social media did what they do best. The word "pedophilia" often appears in reviews of my books as well, showing that the public's opinions of the author are more important than the content of his books, and that is of course disastrous for book sales. My literary career continues to dwindle, to evaporate -- although that is not due to "Martijn" alone. The majority of my income is provided by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, for which I am very grateful, but of course this cannot continue indefinitely.

At the height of the threats and firings, I approached PEN Netherlands. Alexis de Roode said on behalf of the board that PEN did not want to help me. According to them, I had caused the consequences myself; with a subject like pedophilia one should know what to expect. I replied that a critical writer in Iran or China also knows what the consequences of his or her actions can be. Unfortunately, there is no help available, and even PEN is dominated by superficial activism. Kristien Hemmerechts experienced the same thing after she was threatened after the publication of her novel about Marc Dutroux's wife, The woman who fed the dogs. She knocked on the door of PEN Belgium and was told almost the same thing that I was.

Despite such large opposition, my motto remains unchanged: Always boldly forward! We are the zeitgeist!

We are now writing early February 2023. Marthijn and Lesley have been locked up in Ecuador for about eight months and they have still not appeared before a judge. The search for a non-corrupt lawyer there continues, as does the search for funds to finance the defense. According to the latest reports, the trial is scheduled for early March.

Marthijn's higher court appeal in the Netherlands is still pending, and no date has been set yet.

On February 3, Lesley emailed me:
<blockquote>
'''We only have 27 days left.''

''We don't have a (good) lawyer yet.''

''We don't have a dossier.''

''We don't have any witness statements.''
</blockquote>
'''Disclosure:'''

In writing this essay I have made use of some texts that I previously published, including Frayed Edges of Moral (Atlas Contact Publishers, 2013).

I've submitted the text to Marthijn and Lesley, to make sure I'm not putting them in any unnecessary danger; I removed some passages (referring to the Mafia). Lawyer Sidney Smeets has also read and commented on that earlier version. Norbert emailed the following: ''"This is a standardized reply. A portion of your email contains subject matter related to pedophilia, either explicitly or indirectly. Nowadays, certain Dutch nationals discuss such subjects in any way risk imprisonment. Therefore, unfortunately, it's too dangerous for me to respond to your email."''

==Rolling updates, beginning in 2023==

'''Update February 7th, 2023:'''

Lesley emailed me that OUR (Operation Underground Railroad) is back in Canoa and is offering parents big bucks to falsely testify:

<blockquote>''Because the police have nothing, they try to bribe the parents. They are offering large amounts of money. One of the parents told me: 'If I had said yes, I would never have to work again for the rest of my life. ''[...]'' OUR has promised family F., among other things, to buy them a house if they testify against me. C., who has been bribed, is said to have received, among other things, a piece of land in Jama. G. was promised large sums of money and a house yesterday. Tomorrow they will declare under oath.''</blockquote>

'''Update - February 9:'''

Arjan Erkel (ambassador of Free a Girl) sent me an concerned email after I sent him the essay. He indicated that he would inform Free a Girl about the case. A few hours later he emailed again. The contact person at Free a Girl had told him that I was not a neutral party, because I was a member of the Martijn association and was also a pedophile. Arjan asked me if it was true that I was a pedophile. My answer:
<blockquote>
''Hi Arjan, Free a Girl's response immediately indicates where things go wrong: prejudices and wrong assumptions – not good research. What are they basing their information on? And does it matter if someone is a pedophile?

''In addition, I wrote to you this morning:''

''"Arjan, thank you very much for your answer.''

''It is good to be informed about the activities of Free a Girl, because they go too far in their mission (which I sympathize with in principle).''

''Unfortunately, I know quite a few victims of abuse in my immediate vicinity, and I see that thirty or forty years later they are still struggling with the consequences. In all cases, however, it is not the work of a pedophile, but of a family member. Studies show that approximately eighty percent of child abuse takes place in the within the family, mainly by fathers. And that only is with regards to the reported cases – parents of victims within a family context are less likely to report. Because in such cases the domestic safety of the child is also at risk, given the overall lack of a sense of security, the impact is even greater than with 'strangers'. Moreover, 'situational paedosexuals' (heterosexuals) have penetration fantasies, while most pedophiles mainly want to give caresses, as they do not wish to harm the child.''

'''''My wife works in child welfare''' and she also sees this problem, but due to budget cuts they cannot do all that is necessary. Yet the government, the Public Prosecution Service in the lead, stubbornly continues to look the other way. Just like Free a Girl.''

''I think it would be better if Free a Girl focused its attentions on the main source of child abuse (and maltreatment!) in the Netherlands and not continue to pick the low-hanging fruit - and make a lot of noise about it. As I write in the essay, creating and then destroying evil symbols is detrimental to solving the problem and preventing future victims. Hubris and self-aggrandizing is also lurking in the background.''

''It is important to distance yourself from the Operation Underground Railroad, as they are deeply in the wrong - try searching Google, in particular Vice magazine has written a lot about Ballard and his associates.''

''Warm regards and good luck,''

''Anton."''
</blockquote>
'''Update - February 12:'''

''The site www.brongersma.info is online again.''

'''Update - February 14:'''

Arnon Grunberg published an article in ''[https://archive.is/zl1eT Het Parool]'' in which he draws attention to the bad practices of Tim Ballard / O.U.R.

Lesley told me that Ballard is absent in the process that starts on March 1st. A few fellow villagers are witnessed, however.

'''Update February 16:'''

The men have found a new (reliable) lawyer. According to Lesley, the file has recently changed (afterwards). Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have disappeared from the text as the reason for the arrest. Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that the arrest was based on lies, nonsense stories and prejudices of Ballard trying to keep his name out of the file.

'''Update February 20:'''

Marth & Lesley have told me that their lawyer has prevented parents from giving incriminating statements about O.U.R. and the police.

''"All lawyers here are liars who always claim something else."''

According to them, a false statement has been included from a woman who has received goods, a house and a piece of land from the police in exchange for fabrications about Lesley. There would be several witnesses that confirm this.

'''Update February 23:'''

I received an email from Nelson, from prison in Mexico:

<blockquote>''Nelson here.''

''The story about me is just as bizarre as Lesley and Marthijn. The police claimed that the head detective in my case was half a meter away and I was so nervous that I dropped a folder with child pornography on the street. Child porn from girls notable. Video images of Operation Underground Railroad shows that it is bullshit. I put the [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207031054/https://www.freespeechtube.org/user/Nelson whole story] on freesepeechtube.org including [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207015558mp_/https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19jF charge] (which is atm offline for maintenance)''
''
Sincerely,''

''Nelson.''</blockquote>

'''27 Feb: [https://twitter.com/looovetinkebell/status/1630319860256317440 Interview with Dautzenberg and Tinkebell]''' (In Dutch, Twitter.com).

'''Update March 1:'''

The process in Ecuador has been postponed to 14 and 15 March.

The criminal file contains a passage that can be interpreted as saying that the Dutch prosecutor's office has given information to Free a Girl and Tim Ballard, and participated in the arrest of Marthijn and Lesley. Lawyer Sidney Smeets asked both the OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 16 February for clarification. Because there was no answer to this, he sent a remover. He then received an answer that they had not received the mail. (I was in the BCC, so very debatable.) But well, now they can't get away from it anymore.

'''Update March 2:'''

A message from Lesley:

<blockquote>''I'm going to talk about corruption in court. By name and by everyone. I want to inform you that I and Marthijn are not going to commit suicide. Regardless of what comes out. If we are found dead, I want to be very clear here that it was not suicide. Regardless of what it would look like according to the authorities. ''[...]'' Police who gets money from someone to preach lies. A judge who asks me personal money to release me. ''[...]'' Police who promised parents money, goods and houses in exchange for false statements. ''[...]'' My strength lies in that foreign media is following it. And I am sending it my file right now. So we wait.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 10:'''

Marthijn's new lawyer was refused entry to the prison despite obtaining written permission. She wants to prepare the case with her client. According to her, the defense is very bad so far, probably deliberately so. The necessary opportunities for entering and requesting evidence are wasted. The OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have still not answered the letter from Sidney Smeets (March 1). The session will take place definitively on March 14 and 15.

'''Update March 14:'''

Lesley and Marthijn now have the same lawyer. She has now been partly paid, but she demands more money to "pay" the police and the judge. Lesley and Marthijn refuse; they do not want to participate in corruption.

<blockquote>''I am not going to give money to lawyers for whose entire strategy consists of corruption. I have told this lawyer several times that I do not want to spend 1 dollar on corruption. She asks for 22k in wages, but it appears that at least half of the 22k is intended for corruption. Therefore, lawyers have little interest in discussing the case, because their strategy is not making a strong plea, but simply giving all those present money. O.U.R. has already given the man far more than 20k. They are not going to support me if they would get 1 or 2 K from me. ''[...]'' If I knew everything in advance, I would not have taken a lawyer. And I could have given the children more in Canoa.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 16:'''

The process was extended by a day. The men get the impression that the lawyers are taking their own course, without consultation. The interpreter that is present during the process hardly speaks English, let alone Dutch. Lesley says that the parents who have to testify today are threatened by the police. They do not feel safe and do not want to testify without the presence of a reliable lawyer. Lesley asks for this today at the judge.

'''Update March 17:'''

The Dutch OM has finally responded to the letter from Sidney Smeets. However, they do not give a clear answer and beat around the bush. Moreover, the Public Prosecutor sends his answer (consciously) exactly one day after the hearing in Ecuador would have been officially completed. That hearing has been postponed to March 22. Lesley did not want to participate in corruption and fired the lawyer. The court now appoints its own lawyer. In addition, a Dutch translator will be arranged.

'''Update March 22:'''

The session with Marthijn and Lesley has been moved forward again.

Lesley said that documents have emerged on which the previous lawyer forged the signatures of Marthijn and Lesley. He sent a clear example. These were documents that gave her "permission" to act on their behalf.

An elderly Belarusian woman is now also involved in the process. She rented a room in the hotel from Marthijn and Lesley for a short period of time. According to Lesley, she too is a victim of Tim Ballard's lies. She is likely to be released due to health issues.

'''Update March 24:'''

The process will continue on March 31.

'''Update April 3:'''

Lesley informed me that the court-appointed attorney is very good. ''"Other lawyers could only talk about money and corruption. They were not aware of the matter. This one came up with a good defense against a statement from an agent."'' The agent has stated in court that his previous statements were incorrect. '''The case will continue on April 6.''' Three judges are now on the case; the chance of corruption is thus reduced.

'''Update April 12:'''

The men informed me that the process is well under way. Agents who lied earlier now tell the truth: children were not drugged and abused. The psychologist who spoke to the children reported that they were never touched. The neighborhood researcher indicated that the villagers are angry about the behavior of the police and that Lesley and Marthijn are good friendly people.

'''Update April 18:'''

The prosecutor is sick; the trial continues on May 3.

'''Update May 7:'''

The prosecutor is still sick, but he sends messages to the media. According to the men's lawyer, these are diversionary tactics, tricks, because he knows he is losing the case. The media reports also publish the [[Operation Underground Railroad|O.U.R.]] and [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] sourced information (which is demonstrably false). ''De Telegraaf'' has picked up those messages, spiced them up and provided them with even more suggestive (demonstrably false) information. Moreover, the 'journalists' of ''De Telegraaf'' do not refer to the adversity.

'''Update May 9:'''

OM man was absent again today. He now has until 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon to come up with a doctor's statement. He had to report whether he was still ill 24 hours before the hearing, but had not reported anything. And that OM man indicated last week, after being called why he was not there, that he was about to undergo surgery. Two hours later he was present at another court case as a public prosecutor… If he does not come with a doctor's statement, his department will be fined. But everything is fraud here… Another negative article about us in the media here by the same author but now on another news site.

'''Update May 10:'''

Today the NOS has taken over an article from RTV Oost. It was written by an anti-pedo activist, not a journalist. It is based solely on reports in the Ecuadorian media and on erroneous assumptions. The information is demonstrably false and suggestive. Lawyer Sidney Smeets is in consultation with both NOS and RTV Oost about a rectification on behalf of Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update May 11:'''

NOS has removed the message. ''"On closer inspection, the article turned out not to meet the journalistic standards of the NOS. We have not been able to sufficiently verify the facts so far and have decided to withdraw the article until further notice."'' RTV Oost has also removed the message. A gang war is currently raging again in Guayaquil prison. Lesley said that they are also being shot at. ''"Tim Ballard declares that I raped 400 children in 1 village. And would have smuggled 6000 children and women from Ukraine to Latin America. Such things are not possible at all. Certainly not without leaving evidence."''

'''Update May 13:'''

The judge has issued an ultimatum to the Public Prosecution Service, which has now been delaying the court case for more than three weeks by not showing up: a (new) public prosecutor must take office within 24 hours, otherwise he threatens to dismiss the case. According to the lawyer, the attitude is of the Public Prosecution Service most likely a deliberate strategy; when the judge dismisses the case, both they and the police can remain unaffected. It is time for a quality Dutch newspaper to finally delve into the process, a journalist who is not out to confirm prejudices – so far they systematically refuse to do so.

'''Update May 16:'''

According to the men's lawyer, the Public Prosecution Service has not yet made any statements. Lesley: ''“It is now 4×24 hours later (96 hours). I wonder when a decision will be made. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. ''[…]'' Letting us speak on the basis of system errors is the best outcome for them. They know they are losing the case. Hence the negative media reports. When we get out they are going to portray the judges and us as corrupt.”''

'''Update May 19:'''

The sessions have started again.

'''Update June 13:'''

The trial is nearing its end, and a verdict is expected at the end of this week. "Lawyer against us: there is no evidence against you, but I can't say that you will be declared innocent, this is Ecuador, you never know what is going on behind the scenes."

'''Update June 20:'''

Judgment is at 9 p.m.

Message at 7:48 p.m:

<blockquote>
Minutes crawl by. Kitten normally sleeps on my bed all day. And plays outside at night. Now she slept all night. And now she's playing outside. Hopefully we can still get her out. Life in prison is not fun for animals either. Not everyone is as sweet as us. While there is 0 evidence against us and parents stand up for us and tell us about police corruption, the chance of staying in jail because of corruption remains very high. All parents and children in Canoa are also tense. Many could not sleep. Hopefully I'll be on the mountain with all of them tonight. Looking at the sea. With some beers and cocktails. Now lunchtime. Hopefully the last time I have to eat meat.
</blockquote>

Message at 22.59: 'Conviction for possession of child pornography. Ten years.'

'''Update June 21:'''

Much is unclear, the verdict has not yet been made available. [https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/816563997/pedo-marthijn-u-samen-met-compagnon-veroordeeld-tot-10-jaar-cel-voor-kinderporno De Telegraaf] took over a message from an Ecuadorian site and blew it up, but did not translate it properly. The men were reportedly only convicted because 'child pornography', mainly TikTok videos, was allegedly found on Marthijn's computer and on Lesley's phone. All charges of O.U.R. and Free a Girl have been rejected, contrary to what De Telegraaf claims. More information will follow when the verdict becomes available.

'''Update June 28:'''

The written verdict has not yet been released. Marthijn is not doing well; he is depressed and cries all day. Lesley seems to remain fairly stable and constructive. The men are appealing.
Parents in Canoa, the village where Marthijn and Lesley lived, post messages on social media in which they call O.U.R. accusing them of misusing photos and videos of their children to illustrate alleged acts of heroism. O.U.R. claims to have saved the children after the parents allegedly sold the children.

'''Update July 3:'''

The written judgment has not yet been made available; therefore no appeal can be lodged yet, even though there are legal deadlines attached to this. The Dutch & Detained Foundation contacts the Ecuadorian lawyer to prevent the appeal from being declared inadmissible.

'''Note from Newgon Org, Jul 5''':

It is worth mentioning at this point, a large post made on the blog of Dautzenberg, which includes statements made by Marthijn. These will require translating and checking over, as they are in Dutch and Spanish.

But the gist of these messages is that the men have been set-up, and Dautzenberg does not doubt their innocence. The absurd claims made by O.U.R. and their state-funded Dutch partner were found to be without credit in court, and were dismissed with extreme prejudice. Thus, a charge had to be concocted to bring the prosecution to a credible conclusion for the well-funded and well-connected charities who had initiated the arrests, but whose lies could not pass in a court of law. And thus, a decision was made by the judge to aver on the balance of probabilities that material obtained from freely available and highly controlled websites such as [[Wikipedia:Pornhub|Pornhub]] and [[Wikipedia:TikTok|TikTok]] featured people marginally under the age of majority in "sexual" situations. It is against these claims that the men will appeal, and will seek to mobilize a liberal element in Dutch journalism, to shine a light on the injustice.

'''In two parts:'''

*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/persbericht-gevangen-in-ecuador-we-zijn-onschuldig/ PERSBERICHT – gevangen in Ecuador, ‘We zijn onschuldig’]
*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/teksten-van-marthijn-uittenbogaard/ Teksten van Marthijn Uittenbogaard]

'''Update July 5:'''

A press release [above] has been sent to about thirty media addresses. Added two texts by Marthijn.

'''Update July 7:'''

Marthijn responded to the message that an agent in the Netherlands has been sentenced to one day in prison, because he violated the duty of confidentiality (about rapper Lil Kleine) and because he sent sexually tinted messages to a twelve-year-old girl and tried to get her to commit fornication. “If Lesley or I committed those two sex offenses, I suspect we would get years. Plus possibly TBS.'

'''Update July 13:'''

The written verdict is still not available, so the appeal cannot yet be lodged. As far as is known, nothing has been done with the press release that was sent to thirty media outlets in the Netherlands on 5 July. Apparently there is no room for adversity, for the sound of Marthijn and Lesley. Perhaps the journalists are just too busy closely following the vicissitudes of the Hazes, De Mol and Op1 families. Lesley and Marthijn are now in contact with the American YouTube journalists who critically investigate Tim Ballard's crusades inspired by God.

'''Update July 16:'''

Tim Ballard has left O.U.R. He travels the world to promote Sound of Freedom, a feature film about his (alleged) exploits. His successor at O.U.R. is Matt Osborne, also reportedly a far-right Mormon and QAnon supporter. Lesley from prison: "You'd think O.U.R. very interesting for critical journalists. Apparently pedo hunters are untouchable, even if it is very clear that the people who are arrested are probably not pedos.”

'''Update July 24:'''

According to VICE, Tim Ballard has left not only O.U.R., but also the Nazarene Fund, a similar organization. He was fired for sexual misconduct on missions and financial malpractice. His documentary The Hidden War, with footage of the arrest of Lesley and children (‘victims’) from the village, is unlikely to be broadcast; O.U.R. deleted all information about it.

In the prison of Marthijn and Lesley, a fight broke out between two gangs and the police. "Bombs have exploded in our pavilion and a tank has driven in, the prison shop is completely broken."

'''Update July 27:'''

The death toll of the uprising has risen to 31. Lesley and Marthijn are unharmed and indicate that peace has returned and that they feel relatively safe.

They received the news about Thijs Römer from their cell. The actor has persuaded several underage girls to send him masturbation photos and videos. He himself sent dickpics. The Public Prosecution Service demands community service. Lesley and Marthijn would receive years of imprisonment for the same offense, because the Public Prosecution Service condemns their orientation, their inner world. Lesley on the case in Ecuador: 'We are political prisoners. Amnesty does nothing either. Here too, an Ecuadorian would not get a cell for what was found with us: adult pornography and a girl who dances like Beyoncé and who recorded it herself.

'''Update August 4:'''

Dutch & Detained has contacted Marthijn and Lesley's pro bono lawyer and informed him of the legal term for publishing the judgment and for the appeal. Both have been amply exceeded, but according to the lawyer, this is how it works in Ecuador and it could take months before the judge releases the written verdict.

Things are going well with the men. Peace has returned after the great uprising and they are learning Spanish. Fortunately, Marthijn is no longer depressed, but he is angry with those involved. He especially seeks solace in the songs of George Michael and Bruce Springsteen.

'''Update August 14:'''

In the wing of the Guayaquil prison where Lesley and Marthijn are detained, the Ecuadorian army removed and transferred the leader of one of Ecuador's largest gangs in a large-scale raid last Saturday. Adolfo Macias Villamar, aka Fito - sentenced to 34 years in prison for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder - is suspected of involvement in the deadly attack on presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during the raid. All cells in the wing were searched and telephones seized, including those of Marthijn and Lesley. So there is no longer any contact with them. Last Friday, Lesley announced that they are making progress in learning Spanish. ‘Marth practices for hours every day with Duolingo and reading books. His vocabulary is wide. But he can't understand people very well. I understand people. And can have conversations. But vocabulary is insufficient. I can read well. I use whatsapp and social media a lot in Spanish.' He also sent a photo of their fully healed pussy. As far as is known, the written judgment has still not been made public.
I have informed my contact persons at Dutch & Detained and Probation Service.

'''Update August 21:'''

A befriended fellow villager reported that Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe and that they will probably be able to communicate again soon. They have not eaten for days, but money has now been transferred to the prison so that they can buy water and food.

Dutch & Detained and Probation Service have not yet responded to the messages.

'''Update September 7:'''

There were riots in several prisons in Ecuador last week. Guards were taken hostage by prisoners, but have now been released. It is not clear whether this also happened at the location where Marthijn and Lesley are located. Contact with the men is not yet possible.

'''Update September 9:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going reasonably well and they feel relatively safe again. However, they were tortured by the army during the raids: they had to lie on their stomachs on the concrete floor for more than four hours, with their hands and feet tied. The soldiers also demolished a lot: doors, cupboards and television sets.

'''Update September 17:'''

Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are under heavy fire in Ecuador. They are accused of fabricating the liberation of alleged child abuse victims in Canoa, and threatening innocent people and children who claim otherwise. The allegations also relate to corruption; they allegedly bribed police and high-ranking officials to confirm their fake stories. The Ecuadorian minister says that not a single victim has been found, Ballard continues to cling to four hundred victims. Official charges are being prepared, including by the parents of children who have been wrongly portrayed as rape victims by Ballard and co. In the meantime, Marthijn and Lesley are still in custody and have still not received the written verdict.

'''Update September 28:'''

The allegations against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Reportedly, American Crime Journal will further investigate and report on 'Canoa'. They say they have evidence that O.U.R. bribes judges to get people convicted. Lesley and Martijn have still not received a written verdict and the lawyer assigned to them cannot tell them what exactly they have been convicted of. Dutch&Detained also receives no answer. We are diligently looking for money to arrange a good lawyer, so that he can provide clarity and prepare the appeal.

'''Update October 9:'''

We have managed to free up money. Dutch&Detained will try to arrange a reliable lawyer and will supervise the process contractually. The Unmasking of Tim Ballard and O.U.R. in the American media is progressing well.

'''Update October 21:'''

American Crime Journal journalists are working on a series of articles on the Canoa case. They interview children (and their parents) allegedly by Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have been kidnapped, abused and pressured to give false testimony about alleged abuse. VICE also prepares publications. We contacted the NRC correspondent in Ecuador, but he did not respond. Dutch journalists still do not want to delve into the case.

'''Update October 31:'''

The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances. The written judgment has still not been published. Dutch&Detained is trying to find a reliable lawyer. American Crime Journal is working on a series of articles about the case. The Dutch media still look the other way.

'''Update November 8:'''

Shots are fired again in Guayaquil prison. Explosions can also be heard again. The drug wars between different gangs are partly fought in prison. Marthijn and Lesley try to remain aloof as much as possible. They are holding up relatively well under the circumstances and are even trying to follow the Dutch elections. Marthijn in particular is concerned about the further rightward movement of our country. 'Asylum centers will soon become full or half prisons.' Yet there remains room for gentleness. 'Try to enjoy life and don't worry too much about all this nonsense. How's your book going?'

'''Update November 20:'''

Another person has been found dead in the men's pavilion, a murder or suicide.

ING still refuses to cooperate in a transfer of Lesley's savings; they make impossible demands and do not delve into the situation. We need the money to hire a reliable lawyer and pay off debts.

Good news: the men were able to buy fruit this week for the first time since the arrest. And Lesley celebrated his birthday this week. A fellow inmate cooked noodles for him in a pot heated with electric wires, in exchange for a bar of soap and a sachet of detergent – €1.35 in total.
We are still waiting for the written verdict.

'''Update November 30:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available.

The criticism and charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Several American journalists have become involved in the case.

After much insistence, ING has indicated that it is willing to cooperate in releasing Lesley's assets. We now have to wait for a reliable lawyer; Dutch&Detained is still working on that.

Marthijn and Lesley will regularly write a text from prison; the texts can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/11/berichten-uit-ecuador/ here].

'''Update December 10:'''

Lesley had an allergic reaction this week: swollen lips, little air. Fortunately, the complaints disappeared after a while. He is a vegan, but in prison he has to eat whatever is served to him. He has had several life-threatening allergic reactions in his life. According to him, there is no doctor in prison and there are no medicines either. He's worried. “God gave me a bad body.”

'''Update December 21:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available and made public.

Dutch & Detained has not yet managed to find an Ecuadorian lawyer willing to take on the case.

Lesley and Marthijn are doing quite well.

'''Update December 31:'''

Still no written judgment, still no lawyer, still no money from ING...

Let's hope that 2024 will go more smoothly and the truth will prevail.

===2024===

'''Update January 9, 2024:'''

A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador following the escape of Fito, the country's most dangerous criminal. He sat in the same pavilion as Lesley and Marthijn. The newsreels do not bode well: all the prisoners lie half-naked on the ground, their hands and feet tied with tie-wraps. To date it has not been possible to contact Lesley and/or Marthijn.

'''Update January 11:'''

The situation in Ecuador is rapidly deteriorating, a spiral of violence has gripped the country. Nothing has been heard from Marthijn and Lesley for days. It is unknown where they are and how they are doing. The Foreign Affairs diplomatic mission has made contact with the Ecuadorian prison system (SNAI).

'''Update January 13:'''

Lesley called me collect call from prison. I paraphrase: 'The police carried out raids with brute force for four days. Each time I was handcuffed and had to lie on the ground in an awkward position for six hours. I was kicked in the head at least twenty times and in the back several times. The police also stood on my arms and spat in my face. Even though I didn't resist and cooperated. Other prisoners were pepper-sprayed and beaten even harder; the skin had split open and blood was pouring from the head. Les Choneros gang members then wanted to take revenge and attack and kidnap the guards, just as those from Los Lobos had done in another prison, but several inmates convinced the mafia not to do this and to call for peace. It is now quiet again. Many prisoners here are innocent, while murderers and mafia leaders are acquitted. Everything is corrupt here, money gets you free. We refuse to participate in that, justice must prevail.'

'''Update January 21:'''

The army invades several times a week. Marthijn: 'Layed on the ground for nine o'clock today, my wrists tied. The army sprays pepper spray. We were kicked, hit and verbally abused several times. Also, someone had to wear a devil mask and hit everyone hard twice with a stick, while shouting with each blow. It was hell. I also lost my reading glasses. The army tears up my written texts, including my Spanish lessons. With army boots they stood on my shoulder blade, arms and fingers. They empty bottles of water over our mattress and throw sugar, coffee powder and all our belongings on the floor.' Lesley: 'The soldiers use extreme violence. I have been hit in the face many times and had pepper spray rubbed into my face. We were beaten with clubs, tortured for ten hours. Two prisoners died during the previous raid, today I also thought I would not survive. Report it to the Foreign Office, report it to the consulate, ask Arnon to pay attention to it together with Amnesty.'
Dutch&Detained, the Probation Service, the Foreign Affairs and Arnon Grunberg have been informed.

'''Update January 30:'''

Communication with the men is becoming increasingly difficult, the army is present in the prison with a heavy hand. Below is an illustrative photo; Lesley (dark brown underpants) and Marthijn (blue underpants) are in the back row, above the right of the soldiers. [Picture in original link - Newgon]

Dutch&Detained has not yet managed to find a reliable lawyer (via Amnesty and other contacts). The offices approached do not want to be exposed to the subject that has already been so emphatically framed in the media. Image formation is more important in Ecuador.

The written judgment has still not been made available. An appeal is therefore not yet possible.

Something else: today there is an article in the Volkskrant about child abuse within the family. It states that the environment is usually aware, but does not intervene. “We find child abuse so terrible that we prefer to pretend it doesn't exist.” I add: and that is why we look for scapegoats to alleviate the dissatisfaction and feelings of guilt. It was that pragmatic reflex that put Marthijn and Lesley in this situation. With thanks to the Public Prosecution Service, which also chooses the path of least resistance.

'''Update February 12:'''

Unfortunately, still no written judgment and no lawyer. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update February 26:'''

Still no verdict and no lawyer.

A fifth lawsuit is now underway against Tim Ballard and O.U.R.

Marthijn has written a letter to the Ombudsman following his investigation into the Dutch state's unlawful terrorist list. The letter can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2024/02/brief-van-marthijn-aan-de-ombudsman/ here].

'''Update Mar 11:'''

After six days of no contact, the men finally heard back, albeit indirectly. The reports are alarming. They are tortured every day by the army and have multiple wounds. All their belongings have been taken and they are barely fed. In addition, they should pray out loud every day to God and ask Jesus for forgiveness. If they do not do so, they are beaten with a wooden stick or iron bar.

The written judgment has now been delayed for eight months, while the legal period is ten days. Dutch & Detained has not yet been able to find a reliable lawyer.

'''Update Mar 17:'''

Still no contact with the men. The authorities involved have been informed.

'''Update March 21:'''

Lesley came forward through a fellow inmate. The violence by the soldiers continues, they are beaten with whips and clubs while they have to call on Jesus. Lesley is injured. The prisoners are forced to say in front of TV recordings that everything is okay; if not, they are hit with an electroshock weapon. They also get little food, Marthijn is emaciated. They are given one minute to eat, then their hands have to be raised and the remainder of the meal is taken away. The soldiers tell the prisoners that Marthijn and Lesley have abused and raped children, but most prisoners know the case and know that this is nonsense. 'But we are strong, we will make it. Sad that the international community is barely responding to the circumstances. Marth asks how your book and such are going.'

'''Update March 26:'''

Lesley and Marthijn, like their fellow prisoners, are still beaten by the military, but only when the prison authority SNAI is not nearby. They expect the soldiers to leave within two weeks and that it will then become relatively safe again. The story goes that in another pavilion prisoners died after being abused. The transfer of money via Foreign Affairs and the consulate to the prison shop was successful; Martijn and Lesley are allowed to place a small order once a week: cheese spread, slice of cake, some nuts and banana chips.

'''Update April 3:'''

There was another riot in the prison last weekend, making physical visits impossible. Volunteers from the consulate are trying to arrange a video connection to provide official information about how Lesley and Marthijn are doing.

At the request of the Foreign Affairs, the Honorary Consul has contacted several law firms, but none of them want to take on the case. The Honorary Consul in Quito also does not want to assist the men as a lawyer. Lesley and Marthijn still do not have a reliable lawyer. The written judgment is also omitted, so that no appeal can be filed. Image formation and bureaucracy rule, the law is subordinate to it.

'''Update April 16:'''

The soldiers are still present in the prison, but Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe. In the meantime, we continue to wait for the verdict and a lawyer.

'''Update April 27:'''

No contact for almost a week. According to media reports, things are wrong again in the prison; Food from outside is no longer allowed inside.

'''Update May 6:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going well considering the circumstances.

'''Update May 12:'''

The army is present 'only' three times a day, usually during meals. The soldiers hit less often, but they did take away all the belongings, including the mattresses. Lesley and Marthijn have been sleeping on concrete for a month. They have lost the Spanish textbooks, so they are bored. The pro bono lawyer remains silent. They want a reliable lawyer who can take action as quickly as possible. The head of security is (still) on their side, but there are guards who believe the media reports and accuse Marthijn and Lesley of kidnapping and raping hundreds of children. At the moment they are not very concerned about their safety, but that may be motivated by naivety and/or resignation. Their greatest need is a lawyer.

'''Update May 24:'''

Finally in touch again. Lesley had to be treated by a prison doctor because of the blows he received, but he says he is doing reasonably well again. He and Marthijn try to arrange a transfer to an LGBTQ department with the prison authorities. The authorities in the Netherlands initially have no influence on this. In the meantime, they continue to wait for the written verdict and a reliable lawyer.

'''Update June 11:'''

There has been no contact with the men for three weeks.

'''Update June 22:'''

There is still no contact with the men. The authorities involved also have no current information about the situation. Dutch&Detained has managed to find two Ecuadorian lawyers who want to take up the case. They try to contact the prison.

'''Update June 29:'''

Finally received another sign of life from the men. Things are going fairly well considering the circumstances, although they get little to eat and are only allowed to leave their cell briefly once a week. Lesley takes care of some stray cats. They are bored and hope that the consulate will deliver some books soon. He also indicates again that he wants to be transferred.

The Ecuadorian lawyers will try to visit the men this week. The consulate has also planned a video call.

'''Update July 3:'''

The lawyers visited Lesley and Marthijn and had a constructive discussion. They start working on the case. Initially, they concentrate on obtaining the written judgment.

'''Update 12 July:'''

The appointed lawyers are investigating the status of the legal case, because Marthijn and Lesley have been waiting for the written verdict for almost a year. The consulate made two video calls with the men last week. Marthijn and Lesley are still sleeping on the concrete, they are not allowed to leave their cell or are hardly allowed to leave it and they only get a meager meal once a day. They only have one pair of trousers and three T-shirts. They have explicitly stated that they want to be transferred to an LGBTI department, but that the military does not want to pass on their request to SNAI, the prison authority. Marthijn and Lesley are also regularly physically and verbally abused by the military. The consulate will now mediate and keep a finger on the pulse, so that the transfer request actually reaches the director of SNAI.

'''Update 15 July:'''

The verdict appears to have been made available to the public lawyer last May. He then filed an appeal and that was supposed to be heard this week. Marthijn and Lesley were not informed of any of this. The new lawyers are now taking over the case and have asked the judge for a postponement in order to be able to prepare properly for the appeal. As far as is known, Marthijn and Lesley were only convicted for ‘possession of child pornography’. So not for producing child pornography, kidnapping, rape, selling children, pool parties and all kinds of other nonsensical allegations as presented in the Ecuadorian (and Dutch!) media – with OUR and Free a girl as the main sources. Both Marthijn and Lesley and the lawyers strongly deny that the images found concern child pornography.

'''Update 24 July:'''

Nothing has been heard from Lesley and Marthijn in the past two weeks. Dutch&Detained is in close contact with the Ecuadorian lawyers. It is not yet known when the appeal will be heard. ABN-AMRO is being difficult about the management account with which we support the men and their legal case. It ‘poses risks for the bank that we cannot accept’, while there is legal and fully transparent cooperation with all the authorities involved. Distrust is the reagent that makes bureaucracy ferment.

'''Update July 28:'''

Alarming messages from Ecuador. Lesley and Marthijn are constantly being abused by the military. Lesley is seriously injured and has fainted several times; he has been electrocuted and beaten so badly that he cannot walk or lie on his back. Soldiers put pistols to their heads and say that they will soon be shot dead. Lesley indicates that they will not survive the continuous violence. I have informed all the organizations involved, because the men must be transferred to a safe department quickly. Code deep red/black.

A bizarre contrast: a beach volleyball player who was convicted a few years ago for abusing a minor is participating on behalf of the Netherlands at the Olympic Games. According to the NOC, everyone deserves a second chance. That is right, but it is cruel that the Netherlands hardly or not at all looks after two pedophile citizens who are being held in Ecuador under miserable conditions and who have never (not even in Ecuador) been convicted for abusing a minor.

'''Update July 31:'''

Tim Ballard is back in Ecuador, this time to promote his (heroic) film Sound of Freedom. And at the same time, the media is once again reporting on Indian stories about Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update August 11:'''

No contact or news from prison. The team of lawyers and the authorities involved are working on arranging a transfer to an LGBTQ department. The date of the appeal is not yet known.

'''Update August 12:'''

The appeal will be heard on August 23.

'''Update August 15:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been transferred to an LGBTQ-friendly department.

The appeal will be heard on August 23. The lawyers are hopeful; according to them, there is insufficient evidence to support the charges, but the media's image plays a major role in rulings.

'''Update August 19:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are doing reasonably well. They are given little to eat and the people in the new department are unpleasant, but they feel safer. For the first time in a long time, they have received books, although unfortunately they are in German. They are looking forward to the appeal.

'''Update August 24:'''

The appeal did not go ahead. The hearing has been postponed until September 11. The reason is not yet known.

'''Update September 6:'''

Yesterday, the prison in Guayaquil was bombed. How the men are doing is not known.

'''Update September 9:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are safe. The appeal is scheduled to be heard on September 11.

'''Update 13 September:'''

The judge's ruling has been upheld in the appeal. According to the lawyers, their defence was not listened to.

'''Update 17 September:'''

The honorary consul spoke to the men via video call. The situation in the LGBT pavilion is even worse than in the previous section. They share a cell with an aggressive transvestite whose behaviour ensures that they get little or no food. In addition, they are still being abused by the military, and the prison authority SNAI is aware of this. The men are called ‘child abusers’ and are constantly receiving threats from fellow prisoners. They are only allowed to leave their cell for fifteen minutes a week to walk around the courtyard. Marthijn (almost two metres tall) weighs less than sixty kilos and faints regularly. They want to be transferred back to the previous section as soon as possible, because they say they were still somewhat protected by the mafia there.

'''Update 23 September:'''

The Ecuadorian lawyers confirm that the regional court had already made the decision (confirmation of the verdict) before the hearing. They have now spoken to Marthijn and Lesley. They are opting for cassation, because they want to see their innocence proven. Transferring the sentence to the Netherlands is therefore off the table for the time being. According to the lawyers, the Court of Cassation is less sensitive to pressure from the media, although the process could take more than a year. The lawyers are trying to have the men transferred back to their old department, where they feel less unsafe.

'''Update October 4:'''

A message from Lesley. They no longer trust the lawyers, because they did not coordinate the defense with him and Marthijn. There was no substantive consultation and they were only told afterwards that the hearing had already taken place - without them. They want the sentence to be transferred to the Netherlands as soon as possible. The authorities involved have been informed about this. Dutch&Detained is planning a video call with the lawyers.

'''Update October 17:'''

A lawyer from Dutch&Detained has spoken to the men. They have been transferred to another cell and have been given nicer cellmates. They absolutely want to appeal because they want to continue fighting for their innocence. WOTS (serving a sentence in the Netherlands) is therefore not an option for the time being. The video call was again terminated prematurely.

'''Update October 23:'''

The charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Click [https://americancrimejournal.com/plaintiffs-file-lawsuit-against-tim-ballard-and-operation-underground-railroad-for-human-trafficking-violations/ here] for the latest news.

'''Update October 27:'''

I spoke to Marthijn, Lesley and lawyer V. via Zoom for an hour and a half last Thursday. The men have two new cellmates and that is going well. They have also not been beaten by the military for a while. Marthijn looked bad, he is much too thin. Lesley seems to be coping better with the detention. They are only given German books, but their German is improving. V. showed the images from the file that were labelled as child pornography by the judge. She took the time to discuss each image with the men. In Marthijn's case, it concerns about twenty images that were on his laptop. It was almost laughable: watercolours, paintings, a postcard from a Dutch bookshop (bought during one of my book presentations; I remember it well, in Livius De Zevensprong), covers of Dutch and American magazines (children in sports shorts etc.) and a few images that come from the internet, but no child pornography. Bizarre to see. In Lesley's case, it only concerns three videos on his mobile phone, originating from TikTok: a dancing girl (with clothes on), a showering boy (only upper body visible) and an official instructional video of a doctor examining a boy (with underwear on) with a stethoscope. Again, no child pornography. According to V., there is no burden of proof and the men were only convicted because of the media attention. Moreover, procedural errors were deliberately made and the appeal had already been settled in advance, the judge is corrupt. That is also the reason why the men were not heard; they were ready for the Zoom connection with the courtroom, but the judge refused to open the link. He was probably afraid that Marthijn and Lesley would start talking about corruption, Tim Ballard and O.U.R. and that this information would end up in the file. V. is hopeful about the cassation, because the court in Quito is known to be less corrupt, but it cannot give any guarantees in that regard. She expects that once the written verdict is available and they can officially appeal, it will take another year before the case is heard. Martijn and Lesley's hotel is safe for the time being; it can only be confiscated after completion of the entire process, and then only if the $20,000 fine imposed by the court is not paid on time. Marthijn said that he has not been able to speak to anyone in the Netherlands for a year and a half and that it is hard for him. When he started talking about his mother who recently turned eighty, he had to cry. V. will try to arrange a phone call with her. She is also open to speaking to the journalist from Nieuwsuur; according to her, it is important to create a counter-voice in the media. I encouraged the men and promised to continue helping them. It was nice to see and hear them, but also hard. What is happening to them is so unfair and I feel relatively powerless. The lawyer made a good impression: empathetic and professional.

'''Update 12 November:'''

The written verdict has not yet been made available, so there is still the possibility of appealing.

The journalist from Nieuwsuur has been put in touch with the Ecuadorian lawyers and with a Spanish colleague who is investigating corruption in Ecuador with the El Paccto project.

'''Update 13 November:'''

Revolts have broken out again in the Guayaquil prison. The media reports fifteen dead and dozens injured. I do not know how Marthijn and Lesley are doing; I have not heard from them since the Zoom conversation.

'''Update 14 November:'''

The men are safe, the uprising took place in Guayas 1 and they are in Guayas 4.

'''Update 27 November:'''

Nothing more heard from Lesley and Marthijn. The lawyers in Ecuador have not yet announced whether the written verdict has been received, so that the men can appeal in cassation.

'''Update December 10:'''

Dutch&Detained is trying to arrange a phone call between Marthijn and his mother before Christmas, together with the Ecuadorian lawyer. No further news. (Although, ABN-AMRO is again being difficult about the management account and is coming up with bizarre allegations.)

'''Update December 22:'''

No news. Unfortunately.

'''Update December 30:'''

Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to have Marthijn call his mother. According to the lawyers, filling in and assessing 'all kinds of paperwork' takes longer than hoped. In short, the bureaucracy is an obstacle. The written verdict has also not yet been made available.

===2025===

'''Update January 6, 2025:'''

The volunteers who were supposed to visit Marthijn and Lesley on December 27 unfortunately did not receive permission from the prison authorities. It is therefore still unclear how the men are doing.

'''Update January 8:'''

The phone call between Marthijn and his mother failed again, partly due to the 'bungling' of the prison authorities. D&D is trying to arrange a conversation again.

'''Update January 21:'''

The conversation with the mother has not yet worked out. The verdict has not yet been handed down in writing. No contact with the men yet. The relevant authorities are working on it.

'''Update January 26:'''

As far as known, no changes. We are trying to hire an additional lawyer to supervise the Cassation.

'''Update January 31:'''

Next Thursday, the phone call with the mother is scheduled.

'''Update 7 February:'''

Marthijn was finally able to video call his mother today. Unfortunately, she had no good news; last week, Marthijn's 55-year-old brother died suddenly.
Marthijn and Lesley are doing pretty well. They are in a cell together with a third prisoner with whom they fortunately get along. One problem is that they have to stay in their cells almost 24 hours a day; the military are still present in the complex. Thanks to the monthly deposit, they can regularly buy food in the prison shop. The much too thin Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Marthijn and Lesley speak pretty good Spanish by now.

'''Update 12 February:'''

The men managed to send some voice messages. They are doing reasonably well, although the military continue to harass. They sounded constructive.

'''Update 24 February:'''

Things are still going reasonably well with the men. We hope that soon the written verdict will be available so that they can finally go to Cassation.

ABN-AMRO threatens to cancel the management account; the ‘accusations’ are bizarre and mainly driven by bureaucracy and mistrust. The bill is used to pay the lawyers (in consultation with Dutch&Detained) in Ecuador and the monthly deposits (through the Ministry of foreign affairs) for the prison shop, so that Marthijn and Lesley can buy vitamins and fruit.

Attorney Sidney Smeets filed an objection on my behalf.

'''Update 10 March:'''

ABN-AMRO ignores the objection and eliminates the bill in mid-May. As this will lead to further problems, the organisations involved have been informed. So be prosecuted.

There are no major developments from Ecuador. Things are going pretty well with the men.

'''Update March 25:'''

The complications with ABN-AMRO have not yet been resolved, the process is proceeding slowly. Obstructive bureaucracy, in both countries.

A member of the embassy has visited the prison. The men are doing reasonably well. It could take another three years before a final verdict is issued, which is six years after the arrest.

'''Update April 7:'''

ABN-AMRO is threatening to proceed with the cancellation of the management account in mid-May. The Dutch Probation Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are trying to reverse this, but the bureaucracy fueled by distrust is stubborn.

'''Update April 17:'''

A lawyer from the Dutch Probation Service has delved into the case. He has found nothing that justifies the cancellation of the account 'other than arbitrariness and suspicions'. The bank probably does not want to be associated with the men and/or Ecuador. We are considering a judicial decision.

'''Update April 21:'''

Marthijn's birthday is today. The treat: a rusk with jam.

'''Update April 30:'''

The lawyers cannot get through the wall that ABN-AMRO is putting up. The account will be liquidated in two weeks. I am now working on plan B, so that the men can continue to be helped: legal assistance and food.

'''Update May 8:'''

The volunteers of Reclassering Nederland have spoken to the men via ZOOM. They are doing reasonably well, Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Less violence is used by the soldiers in the pavilion. The men are four in one cell and they are only allowed to air out for twenty minutes a week. The mattresses they lie on are very thin and need replacing. However, the latter is difficult to achieve.

'''Update May 15:'''

Plan B has been implemented. The men are assured of legal assistance and sufficient food. Fuck ABN-AMRO!

'''Update by Newgon, 15 May:'''

[[Norbert de Jonge]] has returned to the limelight, posting a [https://fstube.net/w/s5S9cYUow8FjGC3DTxP6c4 video] on multiple sharing platforms. We have reproduced it on FST.

'''Update May 27:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The main thing now is to wait for the appeal, but that could take a few years…

'''Update May 29:'''

Message from Lesley: ‘A lot of military violence again today. People revolted. Pistols were pointed at us. A warning shot was fired into the roof. The revolt did not stop there, but became more violent. It only became calmer when the prison management itself intervened.’

'''Update June 6:'''

Marthijn and Lesley announced that they have been transferred to another cell in the same pavilion.

'''Update June 9:'''

For the time being, no visits are possible due to the security situation in and around the prison. The appointment with the consul has therefore been postponed until further notice.

'''Update June 17:'''

The kitten that Lesley was caring for was bitten to death by malnourished dogs. Other cats were tortured by the military; live kittens were used as footballs. Marthijn wants to file a complaint via Konijnen in Nood.

'''Update June 23:'''

The (recently expanded) team of lawyers has managed to smooth out and accelerate the legal process. The cassation will be heard next Friday. We were able to keep it quiet for a long time, but unfortunately there was a leak to Tim Ballard – he has connections in the highest regions. Ballard is now in Canoa and is trying to influence the judges with videos, messages and interviews. In the name of God. Once again he speaks of large-scale abuse, kidnappings, rapes and sex parties. In his messages he shows photos of Marthijn, Lesley and their hotel. The media are eagerly diving on it again. Image formation is more important in Ecuador than the truth and the country is thoroughly corrupt. The outcome of the cassation can be guessed. A reaction from the men: 'A lot of tension. We sleep badly with only bad dreams. Little hope. The system is too corrupt. Bad people often seem to win and are described as heroes.' Lesley and Marthijn previously indicated that when they are released they will file an (international) lawsuit against Ballard, O.U.R. and Free a Girl.

'''July 18th Update:'''

There is still no verdict, the legal deadline (ten working days) has been significantly exceeded. The lawyers have no explanation for this. The prison shop has been closed for three weeks, leaving the men with insufficient food.

'''July 20th Update''':

The shop is open again, but the military only allows the purchase of cleaning supplies, not food. Marthijn and Lesley are starving and weakened. Furthermore, the number of tuberculosis infections in the cells is increasing. The relevant authorities have been notified.

'''Update August 3:'''

Marthijn and Lesley have been moved to a new cell. There is no food for sale in the prison store, but bread and bananas will likely be available for sale soon. Due to hunger and weakened immune systems, the tuberculosis epidemic has escalated (more than 500 infections in Guayaquil prison, dozens of deaths); several pavilions have been cleared for patients. The appeal: still no verdict.

'''Update August 14:'''

The appeal has been rejected. The lawyer's response: "It surprised us all. But we understood why the court took so long to give us a verdict. The judges were looking for a way to deny us the appeal. Each of the arguments was dismissed on silly and unfounded grounds, for reasons that were even alleged by us, although the court said that was not stated. All this time they were looking for reasons to deny us, and it became evident that the decision had already been made. We would understand that this is related to the arrival of Tim Ballard that week." We are increasingly disappointed with the corrupt justice system in this country.

'''Update August 17:'''

Food is still unavailable in the prison store; the president of Ecuador currently considers it an unnecessary luxury. The number of tuberculosis deaths is rising; a large proportion of the prisoners are malnourished and lack exercise, and there is also a shortage of medicine. The mafia controls the regular food distribution in the kitchen; for a fee, you can get twice the allowed portion. Any leftovers are divided among the other prisoners. Lesley and Marthijn do not participate in this out of solidarity with the prisoners without money. They have, however, exchanged cleaning supplies for six sandwiches a week. These come from outside the prison, so they do not disadvantage the other prisoners.

'''Update September 3:'''

The men have been moved to another cell. They feel safe there, as they were already friends with two of their three cellmates. They also finally have access to the prison shop again; their credit (for three months) has been replenished. They have also managed to transfer additional money so the men can purchase vitamins and nutritional supplements. Finally, the process for sentence transfer to the Netherlands has been initiated – WOTS, the Act on Transfer of Enforcement of Criminal Judgments.

'''Update September 24:'''

The men are doing relatively well. No news on the legal front.

'''Update October 20:'''

Things are still going relatively well. The regime has been relaxed somewhat; the men are allowed to leave their cells for 45 minutes every Saturday and Sunday. They are reading a lot, especially German and Spanish books. The shop is open again.

'''Update November 10:'''

Dozens of people have died in prison riots in Ecuador. Fortunately, the location where Lesley and Marthijn are being held has escaped unscathed this time.

'''Update December 8:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The sentence transfer process has been initiated, but this may take some time.

===2026===

'''Update January 16:'''

The situation remains unchanged. Marthijn and Lesley are reading, drawing, and writing extensively. They are still waiting for information about the sentence transfer. It is now up to the Dutch authorities to make an initial assessment.

'''Update February 15:'''

No news. They are still waiting for the sentence transfer to the Netherlands.

Marthijn is writing a diary in Spanish in prison. [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2026/02/dagboek-marthijn/ Click here] to read it.

'''Update March 1:'''

Military personnel have searched Marthijn and Lesley's cell and destroyed all drawings and writings. Furthermore, there is a tuberculosis epidemic in the prison, but there is a shortage of medication. The organizations involved have been notified. Nothing is known yet regarding the possible transfer of sentences. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update March 16:'''

The process surrounding the transfer of sentences is proceeding slowly; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects to establish contact with Ecuador soon. The men are not receiving the medication they need; the prison authority SNAI is blocking this. Lesley is trading food for medication for a skin infection. Money has been stolen again from the men's account at the prison shop. Despite everything, they report that they are doing well considering the circumstances.

'''Update April 16:'''

The situation is, factually speaking, unchanged. Unfortunately.

'''Update May 22:'''

The men are doing reasonably well. They are reading, drawing, and painting. Lesley sent a portrait he made of Greta Thunberg, a woman he admires. Unfortunately, there is no news to report yet regarding the transfer of sentences.

'''Update June 24:'''

No change in the situation.

'''Update July 24:'''

The situation is (unfortunately) unchanged.

'''Update August 2:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been moved to another pavilion due to a major tuberculosis outbreak.

===Latest update===

'''Update 20 August:'''

The men are doing relatively well in their new cell. Lesley has painted a large world map on the wall together with a fellow inmate. There is no news regarding the transfer of their sentence.

'''Update 6 September:'''

Police raided the cell again during the night. They dealt blows and stole food and medication.

'''Update 22 September:'''

For months, the men have been unable to buy food from the prison shop. The mafia is blocking this and also controls the prison kitchen. The prisoners are receiving less and less food, forcing them to turn to the mafia for sustenance. Marthijn and Lesley refuse to play along, resulting in starvation, stomach pain, and dizziness. I have informed the relevant authorities and urged them to expedite the transfer to the Netherlands.

'''Update 27 September:'''

The prison shop is once again accessible to Lesley and Marthijn.

<hr>

SEE ALSO:
[https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth ''(Vice)'']

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

<hr>

''This translation is courtesy of the user [https://www.boychat.org/ycdtobc/messages/119860.htm Manstuprator at BoyChat].''
[[Category:Essays]][[Category:A.H.J. Dautzenberg's Essays]]

Essay:The Gruesome Consequences of a Hysterical Witch Hunt

2026-09-28T00:55:42Z

Jim Burton: 2024

The following is a mirror of an article originally titled '''''[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/02/de-gruwelijke-gevolgen-van-een-hysterische-heksenjacht/ De gruwelijke gevolgen van een hysterische heksenjacht]''''', which appears on the website of Dutch writer [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Dautzenberg A.H.J. Dautzenberg]. We provide an English translation of it here, in the interest of maintaining a copy of this important journalism. The opinions reflected in this article are those of A.H.J. Dautzenberg who is unaffiliated with Newgon Organization. For the latest update, see at the [[#Latest update|bottom of the page]].
<hr>
'''February 5, 2023'''

In Ecuador, two Dutch men have been detained under appalling conditions for almost eight months, two men with a pedophile orientation. They still don't know exactly what they are suspected of and they haven't seen a judge yet. I think I know them well, consider them friends. My impression is that they are innocent.

In recent months I have tried several times in vain to interest the quality media in the case, also to encourage them to put an investigative journalist on it. In particular, the role of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and that of the [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] pedo hunter club (and its dubious American partner [[Operation Underground Railroad]]) should be critically examined; in my view they create a toxic climate that smothers any nuanced discussion in advance. The word "child pornography" is used far too lightly and just a little too eagerly by them – all shutters are immediately closed.

I believe I have followed the (long run-up to the) arrest relatively objectively, but perhaps my view is clouded by fear, anger, disappointment and friendship. That's why I hope for help.

One of the media I approached indicated that it was "not a newsworthy story". The editor-in-chief of an opinion weekly emphasized that a sensitive subject such as pedophilia cannot be treated from the perspective of two detained pedophiles – "Who says they are innocent?" Another reaction: "It would make me very uncomfortable to post this piece." The overall tone in a nutshell.

Below is the essay I wrote – it consists of two parts that alternate between a more or less journalistic report, and my personal thoughts, although the distinction is sometimes difficult to make. I have my personal thoughts.

Set aside your gut reaction that tries to take over your feelings, and don't judge too quickly; smoke does not always mean fire, after all, smoke machines do not need to be on fire. Take up the challenge, if you will. Vulnerable minorities deserve protection, not a witch hunt. That is good for everything and everyone.

[[File:Huis.jpg|thumb|Action outside of Marthijn's house]]

'''Ten years of Mart[h]ijn'''

The zeitgeist dictates which topics may or may not be discussed. For example, pedophilia. Nevertheless, it is still important not to shy away from an "unmentionable" subject; by exposing insensitive mechanisms, future victims can be spared. Moreover, freedom of expression is sacred in our country. Or so I thought.'''

At the moment, two Dutch men have been detained in Ecuador under appalling conditions for more than six months, and they have not yet seen a judge. It is still not entirely clear what crime in particular they are suspected of. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not interfere with the legal process and the Netherlands does not have an embassy in Ecuador. A hopeless situation, they fear for their lives.

The run-up to the arrest of the two men started in 2011, with an attempt by the Public Prosecution Service to ban the association [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn]], founded in 1982; The ball starts rolling then. After years of intensive investigation, no criminal offenses had been uncovered, so according to Minister of Justice Opstelten (VVD), only civil law could offer a solution.

In the early 1980s, the VVD regularly approached the Martijn association for advice on the subject of pedophilia. In 1986, then-VVD-minister Korthals Altes submitted a bill to lower the "age of consent" law from sixteen to twelve years. He referred, among other things, to scientific studies that indicate that sex with minors is not necessarily harmful.

The JOVD – (left-liberal) Mark Rutte, who was also a member at the time and would become chairman two years later – just like the Young Socialists in 1986, signed a petition for the change in the law. The law passed in a slimmed-down version, but it was then abolished at the beginning of the new millennium. In the early years, the roots of the Martijn Association therefore received political support, especially from the VVD.

By 2011 things had completely changed. In November of that year, in the run-up to the court case to ban the [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn association]], VVD minister Opstelten publicly expressed the hope that the court would issue a ban. Which was strange to say the least, because a minister is not allowed to give his opinion on a case that is still before the courts. The left and right both agreed with Minister Opstelten's statement that the association should be banned.

Tofik Dibi (of GroenLinks) said during the same parliamentary debate: ''"The Martijn association is an association of dirty little men, with dirty points of view, that arouse disgust and revulsion. My gut says: lock them up and throw away the key."'' And Madeleine van Toorenburg (CDA) stated: ''"How is such a disgusting association allowed to exist."'' At the time, Pieter Omtzigt regularly referred to "Martijn's victims" in his tweets. Mind you, ten years of investigation by the police and the Public Prosecution Service had not resulted in any criminal charges.

For more than ten years I have studied the subject of pedophilia, a distinction in sexual orientation that I believe should no longer be made, and should be eliminated. And let's not beat around the bush, I was terrified. The hatred that wins over the facts, the myths that are devoured like candy, the denial that follows any hint or suggestion, the opportunistic role of politics and especially that of the Public Prosecution Service. With regards to this topic, all good sense and logic seems to have disappeared, and the only reaction is a visceral one.

Even before the legal process began, I decided in 2011 to become a member of the Martijn association in order to start a dialogue and put an end to the escalating witch hunt; a pedophile is a human being, not an undesirable scourge – which unwelcome minority is next? A side effect was that not much later I could follow the court case in Assen both externally and internally. "''Your career is over''," tweeted some cynical fellow writers with apparently mocking pleasure.

For the record, I keep repeating it out of necessity: I am not in favor of sexual contact between adults and children. I do think that people with a pedophile orientation should be allowed to dream and fantasize about it, and that they should be allowed to speak and write about their desires – and that they (just like the VVD in 1986) should be allowed to argue for a liberalization of the legislation regarding sexuality.

In fact, I am convinced that openness and transparency will lead to greater understanding, and to a mutual understanding. An innate disposition does not disappear by publicly condemning it. Not in Iran, not in Russia, not in Hungary and not in the Netherlands. An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people with pedophilic feelings, men and women, live in our country. Get used to it. Talk to them, don't banish them to the dungeons of society. And understand that approximately eighty percent of child abuse actually takes place within the immediate family, by "opportunistic paedophiles".

So in 2011 I signed up as a member of the Martijn association, which was founded in 1982. I attended meetings, talked to members and advised the board. At the end of 2011, a child and adolescent psychiatrist e-mailed me the following: ''"Thank you for your contribution to the quest that we as a society must undertake. Not a nonsensical black-and-white opinion, but a nuanced story."'' Various statements of support from that quarter followed, but the senders added that they did not dare to express their opinions publicly.

In May 2012 I represented the association before the court in Assen. At the time, I tried repeatedly to talk to MPs, but I couldn't get any response. Other members of the Martijn association also tried this, and they were also ignored.

'''The "Yuck" Factor'''

The lawsuit would ultimately be heard in Assen, on May 16, 2012. The Public Prosecution Service had to make it plausible that (the activities of) the Martijn association are "contrary to public order". Both in the petition and in the closing requisition, the Public Prosecution Service claims that the Martijn association poses a serious danger to children in the Netherlands. "The ideas and the way in which these are expressed must be seen as a serious threat to the physical and sexual integrity of the child."

The Public Prosecution Service had formulated a criterion for testing texts and images that had appeared in the association's magazine and on the site since 1982: the "yucky content". Especially the texts from the early years of the association were judged with a high yuck content. The Public Prosecution Service included a review that former senator Edward Brongersma (PvdA) wrote in the magazine about Kees Verheul's novel A boy with four legs, published in 1982 by publisher Van Oorschot. "Apparently intended to be sexually arousing," suggested the District Attorney. (Apparently intended to be sexually arousing - just how does one measure that?)

The following poem on the site was also given a high yuck content by the Public Prosecution Service:
<blockquote>
''I would love to''

''Sail with you in a boat''

''Love you''

''Kiss you''

''Your body against me''

''I caress in my dreams''

''Everywhere I want to go''

''And you like it''

''Thoughts are free''

''It's a cliché''

''But what I just wrote''

''Is only one chance in a hundred''

''Reality''

''We live in a world''

''Where such things can't be''

''But luckily''

''How lucky''

''Fantasizing is cool''

''And it can't hurt anyone.''
</blockquote>
On June 27, 2012, the Martijn association was banned by the court. The press reacted to the verdict. NRC Ombudsman Sjoerd de Jong thought it too subdude: ''"On June 27, the court in Assen banned the association Martijn, which wants to represent the interests of pedophiles. That was remarkable news, but the newspaper did not comment on it. Now you don't have to do that with every news event, but you would expect it regarding this one. That seems entirely in line with the liberal principles of the newspaper: after all, it is [not about the words but] about the deeds."''

'''The Appeal'''

The Martijn Association appealed to the Court of Appeal in Leeuwarden. The Public Prosecution Service argued that the appeal should be declared inadmissible, because an association that has been banned no longer exists and can therefore not appeal. The court did not agree with this and ruled in April 2013 that there was no threat of social disruption and that the association could therefore not be banned. According to the court, society should also accept expressions that are widely abhorred. Moreover, the statements and behavior of Martijn are not punishable, the court emphasized.

The Public Prosecution Service then submitted this judgment to the Supreme Court for review. It decided on April 18, 2014 that the association should be banned immediately, because it goes contrary to public order. According to the Supreme Court, it is necessary as this is a very special case, in the interest of protecting the health and the rights and freedoms of children. ''"These social views are also widely supported outside the Netherlands, and the Netherlands has committed itself internationally to taking measures in that regard."'' So Brussels was watching.

The lawyers Gerard Spong and Sidney Smeets then approached the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Marthijn Uittenbogaard. At the beginning of 2015, it announced that it would not consider the appeal. The reaction of Spong and Smeets: ''"We see this decision as a case of evading the giving of a legal opinion on a socially sensitive legal question. And therefore a lack of courage. In a resilient democratic society it is precisely the unpopular opinions that should be protected. Freedom of expression is only meaningful if it also (or especially) protects unpopular opinions. Even opinions that not everyone agrees with and that some even find offensive."''

'''Seclusion'''

At this point, the Martijn Association is definitively banned, including the association's website, but former chairman Marthijn Uittenbogaard is told by the Public Prosecutor that he may continue the website privately. He decides to concentrate on his websites www.brongersma.info and www.marthijn.nl (with an h), which he started in 2001, renaming a site he started a quarter of a century ago.

As a private person, Marthijn Uittenbogaard continues to fight for discussion about and the seeking of approval for intergenerational relationships. He does this mainly by collecting information on pedophilia and paedosexuality on his websites, information in the broadest sense of the word, including studies that emphasize the potentially harmful effects of paedosexual activity.

His activism and the ruling of the Supreme Court have caused Marthijn Uittenbogaard many problems: there have been threats, rocks and paving stones have been thrown against and through his windows, lit fireworks have been left in his mail box, a fireworks bomb was left on his doorstep – the list fills dozens of pages. In addition, he says he is shadowed by the police and his phone is wire-tapped.

Over time he has decided not to leave his home in Hengelo; he spends his days playing video games for hours on end and maintaining his web sites. He has had plexiglass fitted to the windows of his house and he installed security cameras, which the police had refused to do, despite several requests from him.

Former Martijn figurehead Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner Lesley have become friends of mine over the years and I trust them. Not out of naivety or misplaced loyalty, but as a result of frank conversations and a thorough study of the facts – and the many lies that have been spread about them. I haven't seen any hard evidence to date that confirms that either has committed any crimes.

I kept in touch with the two men for the past ten years – two passionate, sweet, gentle people. When I stayed with them a few years ago, I saw what the isolation did to Marthijn. Like a shy little bird, he sat in an almost blinded house, glued to his almost life-size game screen. Lesley tried to remain anonymous and went to work in a warehouse every day. In his spare time, a convinced vegan, he devoted himself to the necessary charitable institutions. I saw two fellow sufferers who loved each other very much.

[[File:Megafoon.jpg|frame|Demo outside Marthijn's house]]

'''Onslaught'''

The day was coming for an attack to be made on Uittenbogaard. It would be in a morning in 2020. A 41-year-old man from Spakenburg entered the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley early in the morning, ran up the stairs, entered the bedroom and threatened to stab Marthijn to death with a fish-boning knife. A friend who is staying over heard the noise, intervened in time and knocked the knife out of the hands of the man, who was standing next to Marthijn's bed.

The man fled, but was arrested shortly afterwards. He was released the same day, but he was banned from the vicinity. A lawsuit followed. The man did not have to go to prison; the judge gave him 150 hours of community service.

The man, who had already been hospitalized eight times for bouts of manic-depression, claimed that he entered the house because of media reports he had heard, which stated that a children's room with dildos had been found in Marthijn's house and that Marthijn's partner had been arrested on suspicion of engaging in child abuse.

At the time of the attack on Marthijn I had been in touch with the people who had been in contact with Marthijn, and even more so around the time of the raid and the arrest of Lesley. Marthijn is still convinced that his partner was arrested at the time in order to intimidate him, and to silence him. He wrote to me: ''"I saw my partner being taken away on a completely fabricated charge. The extensions of the pretrial detention were outrageous. As his partner, I was also not allowed to attend the sessions allegedly due to measures taken due to the corona virus pandemic. But journalists were allowed to attend! The only thing they had against my partner was that he was "the-partner-of". On that, and on based on the lie that his parents did not want him to be released, his pretrial detention was repeatedly extended. That was outrageous!"''

'''Detention'''

In 2020, a house search took place at the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley. This was legally sanctioned by the authorities suspecting Marthijn of having committed "sedition"; the Public Prosecution Service referred to statements on its websites and in the media. Lesley was arrested during the house search, then confined in isolation for ten weeks and then only released after six months.

The OM revealed that Lesley was suspected of having "prepared to kidnap and rape a child." The OM also reports that a children's room was found within the house of Lesley and Marthijn and a studio in the garage to make child pornography. Sex paraphernalia, including dildos, were found in Lesley's bedroom. And according to the Public Prosecution Service, a Stanley knife, lubricant and anesthetic tablets were found in his backpack, which indicated he was preparing to commit that crime.

The OM kept Lesley hanging for two years. At the end of April 2022, the case finally went to court. The charge of "preparing to kidnap and rape a child" had disappeared from the indictment, as had charges concerning the possession of dozens of images of child pornography. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there were no indications of the existence of a "children's room," nor of a studio to make child pornography.

Lesley (like his colleagues) needs the Zip ties and the Stanley knife for his work – he is a warehouse worker. The "lube" was actually a jar of Working Hands cream - the skin of his hands is cracked because of his physical work. The so-called "anesthetics" were actually magnesium pills he used to numb the recurring pain in his leg muscles, a consequence of Lesley's veganism.

'''"Child Pornography"'''

The charge against Lesley has been reduced by the OM to "making and possessing child pornography". The petition from the prosecutor: one year in prison, four months of which were to be suspended. Lesley was sentenced to ten weeks in prison. (He was held in pre-trial detention for six months.) From the verdict: ''"The suspect is found guilty of making a film containing child pornography. The suspect filmed the bare buttocks of an underage boy with sexual intent."'' ("With sexual intent" – how does one measure that??)

Lesley had been making family films for a family of friends for years. During one of those filmings, one of the children mischievously dropped his pants for a moment. The Public Prosecution Service has cut that image from the video and submitted it to the court as "child pornography". A letter submitted by Lesley's lawyer, in which one of the parents wrote that Lesley was innocent and should be immediately released, is ignored by the judge.

Lesley attempted suicide twice after his release and still continues to struggle with depression. His employer, neighbours, the voluntary associations he had been involved in and many of his friends no longer want anything to do with him. He suddenly has to go through life with a criminal record stating that he has been convicted of producing child pornography. Lesley won't appeal because, mentally, he can't handle that stress.

Lesley sent me the notes that he had made while in detention. I read the poignant and above all disconcerting text with horror.

<blockquote>''I thought they mistook me for someone else and I could probably clear that up. I have never abused children and never will. Just the thought of hurting children makes me sad. I regularly burst into tears about the simplistic reporting made about me.''

''The mother of the child is also being seen as responsible by those around her for supposedly having made children available to a pedophile who, according to people, abuses children. I sometimes spontaneously bursts into tears. Both the investigation and how the people around her have reacted to it in response to news reports have deeply damaged her. I have not abused children and do not intend to. The Public Prosecution Service and the police have abused people in this case, including children, and the damage to them is immeasurable and lifelong.''</blockquote>

'''Continuing the Association'''

The raid on the house of Marthijn and Lesley appears to be a direct result of an investigation by RTL Nieuws ["Radio Television Luxembourg News," a popular Dutch television news service]. According to them, this went on undercover for several months within a private email list ''"in which the Martijn Association is still active"''. In that group, according to RTL, tips were also given on how abuse children. But for the record, the email group was not closed, and non-pedophiles and (even undercover) journalists could also join it.

RTL also placed an attention-grabbing statement on its web site: ''"A pedophile is a person with sexual feelings for children under the age of 13. Pedophilia is a sexual preference and is not punishable in the Netherlands. Sexual abuse of children, together with viewing and downloading child pornography, is punishable by law. That is not always done by pedophiles: a majority of child abusers do not have pedophilic feelings, but suffer from antisocial and sexual disorders."''

In 2021, partly on the basis of the RTL investigation and the house search, the Public Prosecution Service decided to prosecute three people for continuing the banned "pedo club Martijn": [[Nelson Maatman|Nelson]], [[Norbert de Jonge|Norbert]] and (the figurehead) [[Marthijn Uittenbogaard|Marthijn]] – all three without any previous criminal records. Nelson was acquitted, because he had never been a member of the Martijn association. The other two were sentenced to prison terms. Norbert was sentenced to four months because he helped Marthijn with the technical maintenance of the sites. Marthijn received a six-month prison sentence, without the possibility of parole, after which he appealed his sentence.

'''Ideologies'''

A quote from the judgment regarding Marthijn dated 8 March 2022. ''"Together with his co-defendant [Norbert], the suspect has continued the activities of the banned association Martijn by posting publications on various websites and making statements via a mailing list and Twitter."''

According to the court, the views expressed on the sites correspond to those of the banned association. The fact that the opinions expressed are largely quotes from politicians and scientists is not mentioned in the judgment. Moreover, it is reasonable that the views are in agreement; Marthijn (born in 1972) became a member at the time because he recognized his personal convictions in the ideas of the association founded in 1982.

The verdict continues with this striking passage: ''"It does note, however, that this ideology cannot be equated with child abuse or incitement to it. The fact that this was or would have been the case has not been evident in the proceedings that led to the prohibition of the Martijn association. The suspect has also never been convicted of sexual offenses (or any other offense)."'' And then a prison sentence of six months was imposed.

Because Marthijn and Norbert were convicted for continuing the Martijn association, I decided to take action together with former university lecturers in sexual citizenship [[Gert Hekma]] (deceased 2022) and his partner Mattias Duyves, emeritus professor [[Meindert Fennema]] and writer [[Delphine Lecompte]]. The last paragraphs of an op-ed that we offered to all respectable media:
<blockquote>
''A society that is genuinely concerned with the interests and safety of children is not content to create and then brutally destroy demonic symbols. It invests heavily in youth care and education, it ensures that the Supplement Scandal children removed from home are reunited with their parents as quickly as possible, it does not allow children to grow up in dire poverty, it does not allow reports of child abuse and abuse to be filed for months, sometimes even years on the shelf, and it does not leave children who have fled from war zones to fend for themselves.''

''Finally, last month, the majority of the House of Representatives approved the addition of 'sexual orientation' as a non-discrimination ground in Article 1 of the Constitution. The proposal is now before the Senate. A conscious choice was made for the term 'orientation' (gerichtheid) and not for 'sex' (geaardheid). The reason is that legally the term "orientation" (gerichtheid) only represents so-called consensual orientations. This excludes people with a pedophile orientation. The idea behind it: if they would give concrete expression to their focus, they would be guilty of criminal offences. The government also suffers from prejudice. [The law has now been passed, AHJD.]''

''To protest against the witch hunt for pedophiles, we are taking action: from now on we will take over the site www.brongersma.info from Marthijn Uittenbogaard. This is to prevent the rich archive he has built up over the past decades from being destroyed. If Uittenbogaard is acquitted on appeal, the site will be his again. (Norbert de Jonge will not appeal, he no longer trusts the judiciary.) If Uittenbogaard is convicted for expressing his opinion – which we cannot imagine, we expect an independent, careful approach from a judge – then we will look for a suitable host for the archive. Initially we are thinking of the COC or the IHLIA.''

''Stop criminalizing people with a pedophile orientation. Talk to them, protect them, help them, listen to them – everyone benefits from that. And above all, don't interfere with freedom of expression.''
</blockquote>

The piece was rejected by all the respected media we approached.

'''Ecuador'''

Because Marthijn and Lesley no longer have a (safe) future in the Netherlands, they decided to emigrate to a country where life is cheap. They eventually choose Ecuador because they could buy an old hotel there. The plan was to open a vegan restaurant on the ground floor, to make apartments in the rest of the building, and to rent them out.

They called in local construction workers for the renovation. Some (paid) villagers have also come to help. Meanwhile, their children played with Marthijn's PlayStation, a luxury they cannot afford. Nelson visited and rented a room, but Lesley turned him away; his alcohol and drug use and fatalistic attitude could put them in danger. Nelson left for Mexico.

Norbert, a friend of Marthijn for more than twenty-five years, comes along a few months later, as does a (straight) friend. They soon leave. They think it is unwise that village and construction worker children freely walk in and out of the house. In addition, ominous reports are beginning to appear in the local media.

The hotel, its new owners and their visitors have been on the radar of paedo hunter Tim Ballard of O.U.R. (Operation Underground Railroad) and the Dutch organization Free a Girl. The latter decided to track down the men after their emigration and called O.U.R. in.

'''QAnon'''

Tim Ballard is a conservative Mormon, a fanatical Trump and QAnon supporter, who, with his organization, hunts alleged pedophiles (supposed "networks") and pro-abortion activists worldwide. He also fulminates against the LGBTIQ + community; according to him, only straight relationships are godly. His organization raises many millions annually, without it being clear exactly where the money goes.

In addition, several investigations against him and his organization are ongoing; he is suspected of incitement, lying about actions of O.U.R. and spreading conspiracy theories about "pedo networks." He claims to have saved thousands of children from criminal (paedo) organizations, but there is no evidence. Nevertheless, his influence is growing. He is friends with several (populist) heads of state.

Algemeen Dagblad wriote about Marthijn's arrest on June 24, 2022: ''"The convicted and since-then fugitive paedosexual Marthijn U. from Hengelo was arrested in Ecuador on Thursday evening. The fugitive pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested."'' Het Parool wrote that same day:'Marthijn U. is said to have been arrested after a manhunt.' For the record, Marthijn Uittenbogaard is not a paedosexual and he was not a fugitive.

Continuation of the message from the AD: ''"In Ecuador, the well-known pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested that same Thursday. [Absent] Lesley L. was sentenced in Rotterdam on April 26, 2022 to 10 weeks in prison for producing child pornography. L. was now under arrest in the seaside resort of Canoa, for suspected abuse of three young children in his home. The organization Free a Girl had passed on incriminating information about the three men to its American partner Operation Underground Railroad and the authorities of Mexico and Ecuador."'' For the record, Lesley was not a fugitive either; he was working at the hotel at the time of the arrest.

''Het Parool'' further wrote: ''"According to Free a Girl, several children regularly stayed in the house of L. and U. They would have been lured to play video games with the story. In exchange for sweets and money, they would have had to provide sexual services. Parties are also said to have been organized with children at the swimming pool, where children were touched and sometimes raped under the influence of drugs. There would be abuse of dozens of children."''

I also kept in touch with Marthijn and Lesley when they tried to build a new life in Ecuador. Marthijn let me know in the beginning that he was terrified that someone would find out their identity; they avoided places that (Dutch) tourists visited.

A few minutes before Marthijn was arrested, I contacted him through a mobile phone app. He was on his way to the Netherlands to reconsider his situation there and to prepare for the appeal. His last message: '"'We haven't done anything, but there are lies everywhere on the internet. Norbert also had problems, I think I will, too, at customs here. Fascism. I'm listening to the song Wonderful World at the airport. It's not the Louis Armstrong version, but a cover."''

A few days after the arrest, the first ominous messages began to reach me. Marthijn and Lesley had been tortured and beaten with hammers in prison by the mafia. The videos of this were sent to acquaintances, along with ransom demands. If no payment was made, the men would be killed. That money for the ransom was put together by some friends, and then transferred to the mafia through on-line pay sites.

A few days later, Lesley emailed me:

<blockquote>''"Marth and I came to Ecuador with the goal of starting a new life. Without activism. A life where we could just walk down the street. And we could just make friends with people. Many people know that we are innocent and have said so themselves. However, those statements were not in writing. We still need a lawyer. So he can take down the statements and bring them in. The beatings stopped a few days back, but you never know if they will start again."''</blockquote>

I got some photos of the cell and of the courtyard. And of the men, too. The photos didn't make me happy. Marthijn in particular looked terrible: he was skinny and sad. Lesley, despite his bruises, seemed to be doing better. He wrote me that he wants to donate the hotel and restaurant to a vegan movement and then, with the proceeds, his friends and the poor people from the village can be helped.

''''Swimming pool''''

More is now becoming clear about the arrests. Several reports had appeared in the local media, each time with the name "Tim Ballard" appearing in them. The hotel had (according to him) housed an international network of pedophiles, of which Marthijn and Lesley were the leaders. Hundreds of children were (supposedly) drugged, abused and sold for sexual purposes. "Sex parties" with children were (supposedly) regularly held in the hotel's swimming pool, something Free a Girl claimed as well. For now, it is enough to note that Marthijn and Lesley's hotel does not have a swimming pool at all!

Ballard ramped up coverage of us in the months following our arrest. He claimed in films that he had tracked down and liberated more than four hundred victims in the home of Marthijn and Lesley. He emphasized the conviction of Lesley (production of child pornography) and the case against Marthijn (continuation of a prohibited association). The snowball is keeps increasing in size as it rolls along.

Due to the coverage in the Ecuadorian media, the two men were transferred for security reasons to a secluded part of the prison, and they have a room they have to share with seven drug addicts. A lawyer is now in the picture, who keeps in touch with a family member of Marthijn.

After a while, Marthijn and Lesley managed to arrange a lawyer. She asked for thirty thousand euros to bribe the judge and the police. A day later this amount was increased to one hundred and sixty thousand euros. Maybe she too was threatened. The fact that communication took place via Google Translate did not make it any easier: the lawyer barely speaks English.

Together with the family member with whom the men were and are in contact, I decided not to take up the family member's offer, perhaps it was a trap. Fortunately, the family member got in touch with Lesley via the prison telephone, and he and Marthijn also wanted no illegal "hanky-panky", but they wanted a fair trial. The lawyer gave in, but she had to have money to do research and prepare the case.

Martijn and Lesley were now back in contact with their fellow villagers. They heard from them that Tim Ballard was paying the media to write the menacing reports. Reports also reached Martijn and Lesley that Ballard had paid witnesses to give false statements; if they refused - these friends had pointed out that Lesley and Marthijn were innocent - he threatened them with trial and imprisonment. They also heard that Americans in contact with Ballard were offering money to have them killed.

According to the lawyer, the first session, without Marthijn and Lesley, was halted by the judge; he wanted more money for him and his secretary. He also threatened to transfer the men to another prison if payment was not made.

'''Corruption'''

The tone of reporting in the Ecuadorian media has become even grimmer. The newspapers and web sites claim that Ballard has exposed the largest international pedo ring ever known. Not much later, Lesley and Marthijn were suddenly transferred to the most notorious prison in the country, the Guayaquil Prison. According to the lawyer, there were plans to hang Marthijn and Lesley in their cell and call it suicide. That explains the move.

Dutch lawyer Sidney Smeets tried to bring the case before the Ministry again, but that was not successful. He did get the addresses of three law firms that are "probably" not corrupt. Both the men's relative and their lawyer tried to call them in, but the lawyers wouldn't take the case: there is too much negative coverage in the media.

The extortion (asking for bribes) started again, as Lesley and Marthijn had become a "lucrative business model". Whenever I saw the area code for Ecuador on my cell phone screen, I wouldn`t answer the phone. The family member also stopped responding. Finally, the attempts at extortion stopped.

An "influential" fellow prisoner informed Lesley that he had brought them to Guayaquil because he wanted to use them for a prisoner exchange with the Netherlands. Whether that is true, we do not know, but Marthijn and Lesley were "safe" again. The lawyer indicated that he needed more money for the investigation, so we transferred money again; always in small amounts, so as not to arouse suspicion - Ecuador is known as a "suspect country" and business transactions are therefore prohibited.

During that time, Lesley sent us the following email:

<blockquote>''"Our lawyer is very bad, and probably a fraud. She has cost us more than U.S. $20,000 and the trial hasn't even begun yet. People here say she's a con artist. She recently applied to transfer us to Bahia, even though she knows that it is not safe for us there. Again, she did not consult with us first. And she had already indicated that she was no longer our lawyer. Also, this recent filing supposedly costs a few thousand dollars more. This country is all about extorting money, stealing money, blackmailing, and cheating."''</blockquote>

Nevertheless, Marthijn and Lesley generally did not sound bitter in their messages. I received many touching messages and texts, and the name Gandhi regularly appeared in them. Marthijn and Lesley advocate for peaceful protest, not hatred towards their enemies. And in believing what you stand for.

Other messages, on the other hand, were pretty grim. ''"Two days ago 14 dead. Prisoners have machine guns, pistols, knives, etc. We hear the fighting, shots and loud explosions, but they are at a another location, not far away."''

And this one, about a fellow villager: ''"Then comes a statement from G. who says "the police keep harassing me, I want this to stop. The police insist that I make false statements about Lesley. They offered me money to do so, and also things like a TV and a refrigerator. I saw that they also tried to bribe my sister, too."''

Lesley also told me that the person who tortured him and demanded a ransom in the first prison they stayed in has recently been murdered. And this: ''"The lawyer who had claimed to be from the mafho had asked for absurd amounts of money to help us get out of prison was also assassinated two months ago."''

'''National Award'''

Meanwhile, Tim Ballard received a national award from the wife of the president of <s>Mexico</s>[Ecuador<ref>[https://www.ourrescue.org/reports/2022-annual.pdf OUR 2022 Impact Report]</ref> - Newgon] for dismantling "the network" of Marthijn, Lesley and Nelson. It's unclear what happened to Nelson. However, it is suspected that Ballard set a trap for him and was present at Nelson's arrest.

In any case, when Lesley was arrested, Ballard was conspicuously present, dressed in a police uniform and equipped with a machine gun. His team filmed the spectacular arrest; the footage will be featured in a documentary that Ballard plans to put online in March 2023, "The Hidden War". He claims online that he intends to visit the Netherlands, among other places, to promote it.

The men have not yet seen a judge; without their being involved in the process, their detention has been extended several times. They still don't know exactly what crime they are suspected of having committed. Marthijn emailed Amnesty International about their case, and also about the lawsuit that is still pending in the Netherlands. The Amnesty spokesperson replied: ''"We do not focus on individual cases, but on situations where criticism (from the media, political parties, activist groups, lawyers and investigative committees, etc. etc.) of the authorities are deliberately and systematically blocked (as in China for example)."''

I emailed Evelien Holsken, from Free a Girl, and their spokesman, Arjan Erkel, who was once an innocent prisoner himself. I explained to them the situation in Ecuador, including the information about their partner, Tim Ballard. I indicated that I wanted a constructive conversation with them, and not one full of accusations. I got no response from them. It is likely that Holsken and Erkel are not pleased with the legal case that Free a Girl has brought to the public's attention with such bravado, which has put the men in fear of their lives.

''De Telegraaf'' interviewed Tim Ballard at the time. In response to the text submitted to him via Sidney Smeets, Lesley wrote, as I mentioned, that he is in close contact with friendly villagers:

<blockquote>''I heard that the children were detained by the police for 24 hours when I was arrested. And that they were repeatedly threatened with being beaten with batons. When they were hungry, they were not given food. Police were eating in front of the children, and laughing at them. Their parents sat outside crying. And it is understood that the police here are known to be violent. Tim Ballard was always there. And he threatened the parents several times. The problem is that if you report these things publicly, it is very risky. Tim Ballard can operate with impunity in these countries. With the money he has, he can wrap the police and the OM around his finger. And people don't dare stand up for themselves.''</blockquote>

''De Telegraaf'' decided not to publish the interview with Ballard.''

'''Brongersma'''

Meanwhile, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is also making its presence known again. This time, not to Marthijn and Lesley, but through a registered letter to the people who host the websites www.marthijn.nl and www.brongersma.info. On November 17, 2022, the Public Prosecutor wrote:

<blockquote>''The court is of the opinion that the website www.brongersma.info can be regarded as a continuation of the activities of an organization that has been declared prohibited by an irrevocable court decision. Continuing that activity constitutes a criminal offense as referred to in Article 140 paragraph 2 of the Penal Code . Taking into account the above, I urge you to make the illegal content inaccessible within 7 days and to remove it as far as possible.''</blockquote>

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the site www.brongersma.info should be taken offline and removed. Our host complied with the request, fearing prosecution and the associated expensive attorney fees. We have now obtained legal advice and it appears that the content of the site is not criminal and that the verdict does not stipulate that the site must go offline. Moreover, the destruction of the site cannot be requested because Marthijn's appeal has yet to be filed. Meindert Fennema and I are now investigating how we can get the site back online as soon as possible. The other site co-owners have discontinued their participation.

'''PEN Netherlands'''

Finally, the personal consequences. Of course they are completely insignificant compared to what Lesley and Marthijn are going through, but they say a lot about the (intolerant) zeitgeist.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I have received the threats that were expected to come. It was no surprise to me, either. But I never realized that twenty years of work experience could evaporate in such a short time. My work experience as an economist, consultant, project leader, editor-in-chief, workshop leader, lecturer, etc. was suddenly worthless. The word "pedophilia" unleashes strange emotions.

When you type my name into any search engine, the word often appears, accompanied by unnuanced and highly biased reporting. (i.e."Pedophile Writer Supports Child Rapists.")

I was fired, clients said goodbye, my communication agency went bankrupt, performances and (literary) projects were (and are) cancelled, books were returned scratched, and social media did what they do best. The word "pedophilia" often appears in reviews of my books as well, showing that the public's opinions of the author are more important than the content of his books, and that is of course disastrous for book sales. My literary career continues to dwindle, to evaporate -- although that is not due to "Martijn" alone. The majority of my income is provided by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, for which I am very grateful, but of course this cannot continue indefinitely.

At the height of the threats and firings, I approached PEN Netherlands. Alexis de Roode said on behalf of the board that PEN did not want to help me. According to them, I had caused the consequences myself; with a subject like pedophilia one should know what to expect. I replied that a critical writer in Iran or China also knows what the consequences of his or her actions can be. Unfortunately, there is no help available, and even PEN is dominated by superficial activism. Kristien Hemmerechts experienced the same thing after she was threatened after the publication of her novel about Marc Dutroux's wife, The woman who fed the dogs. She knocked on the door of PEN Belgium and was told almost the same thing that I was.

Despite such large opposition, my motto remains unchanged: Always boldly forward! We are the zeitgeist!

We are now writing early February 2023. Marthijn and Lesley have been locked up in Ecuador for about eight months and they have still not appeared before a judge. The search for a non-corrupt lawyer there continues, as does the search for funds to finance the defense. According to the latest reports, the trial is scheduled for early March.

Marthijn's higher court appeal in the Netherlands is still pending, and no date has been set yet.

On February 3, Lesley emailed me:
<blockquote>
'''We only have 27 days left.''

''We don't have a (good) lawyer yet.''

''We don't have a dossier.''

''We don't have any witness statements.''
</blockquote>
'''Disclosure:'''

In writing this essay I have made use of some texts that I previously published, including Frayed Edges of Moral (Atlas Contact Publishers, 2013).

I've submitted the text to Marthijn and Lesley, to make sure I'm not putting them in any unnecessary danger; I removed some passages (referring to the Mafia). Lawyer Sidney Smeets has also read and commented on that earlier version. Norbert emailed the following: ''"This is a standardized reply. A portion of your email contains subject matter related to pedophilia, either explicitly or indirectly. Nowadays, certain Dutch nationals discuss such subjects in any way risk imprisonment. Therefore, unfortunately, it's too dangerous for me to respond to your email."''

==Rolling updates, beginning in 2023==

'''Update February 7th, 2023:'''

Lesley emailed me that OUR (Operation Underground Railroad) is back in Canoa and is offering parents big bucks to falsely testify:

<blockquote>''Because the police have nothing, they try to bribe the parents. They are offering large amounts of money. One of the parents told me: 'If I had said yes, I would never have to work again for the rest of my life. ''[...]'' OUR has promised family F., among other things, to buy them a house if they testify against me. C., who has been bribed, is said to have received, among other things, a piece of land in Jama. G. was promised large sums of money and a house yesterday. Tomorrow they will declare under oath.''</blockquote>

'''Update - February 9:'''

Arjan Erkel (ambassador of Free a Girl) sent me an concerned email after I sent him the essay. He indicated that he would inform Free a Girl about the case. A few hours later he emailed again. The contact person at Free a Girl had told him that I was not a neutral party, because I was a member of the Martijn association and was also a pedophile. Arjan asked me if it was true that I was a pedophile. My answer:
<blockquote>
''Hi Arjan, Free a Girl's response immediately indicates where things go wrong: prejudices and wrong assumptions – not good research. What are they basing their information on? And does it matter if someone is a pedophile?

''In addition, I wrote to you this morning:''

''"Arjan, thank you very much for your answer.''

''It is good to be informed about the activities of Free a Girl, because they go too far in their mission (which I sympathize with in principle).''

''Unfortunately, I know quite a few victims of abuse in my immediate vicinity, and I see that thirty or forty years later they are still struggling with the consequences. In all cases, however, it is not the work of a pedophile, but of a family member. Studies show that approximately eighty percent of child abuse takes place in the within the family, mainly by fathers. And that only is with regards to the reported cases – parents of victims within a family context are less likely to report. Because in such cases the domestic safety of the child is also at risk, given the overall lack of a sense of security, the impact is even greater than with 'strangers'. Moreover, 'situational paedosexuals' (heterosexuals) have penetration fantasies, while most pedophiles mainly want to give caresses, as they do not wish to harm the child.''

'''''My wife works in child welfare''' and she also sees this problem, but due to budget cuts they cannot do all that is necessary. Yet the government, the Public Prosecution Service in the lead, stubbornly continues to look the other way. Just like Free a Girl.''

''I think it would be better if Free a Girl focused its attentions on the main source of child abuse (and maltreatment!) in the Netherlands and not continue to pick the low-hanging fruit - and make a lot of noise about it. As I write in the essay, creating and then destroying evil symbols is detrimental to solving the problem and preventing future victims. Hubris and self-aggrandizing is also lurking in the background.''

''It is important to distance yourself from the Operation Underground Railroad, as they are deeply in the wrong - try searching Google, in particular Vice magazine has written a lot about Ballard and his associates.''

''Warm regards and good luck,''

''Anton."''
</blockquote>
'''Update - February 12:'''

''The site www.brongersma.info is online again.''

'''Update - February 14:'''

Arnon Grunberg published an article in ''[https://archive.is/zl1eT Het Parool]'' in which he draws attention to the bad practices of Tim Ballard / O.U.R.

Lesley told me that Ballard is absent in the process that starts on March 1st. A few fellow villagers are witnessed, however.

'''Update February 16:'''

The men have found a new (reliable) lawyer. According to Lesley, the file has recently changed (afterwards). Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have disappeared from the text as the reason for the arrest. Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that the arrest was based on lies, nonsense stories and prejudices of Ballard trying to keep his name out of the file.

'''Update February 20:'''

Marth & Lesley have told me that their lawyer has prevented parents from giving incriminating statements about O.U.R. and the police.

''"All lawyers here are liars who always claim something else."''

According to them, a false statement has been included from a woman who has received goods, a house and a piece of land from the police in exchange for fabrications about Lesley. There would be several witnesses that confirm this.

'''Update February 23:'''

I received an email from Nelson, from prison in Mexico:

<blockquote>''Nelson here.''

''The story about me is just as bizarre as Lesley and Marthijn. The police claimed that the head detective in my case was half a meter away and I was so nervous that I dropped a folder with child pornography on the street. Child porn from girls notable. Video images of Operation Underground Railroad shows that it is bullshit. I put the [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207031054/https://www.freespeechtube.org/user/Nelson whole story] on freesepeechtube.org including [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207015558mp_/https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19jF charge] (which is atm offline for maintenance)''
''
Sincerely,''

''Nelson.''</blockquote>

'''27 Feb: [https://twitter.com/looovetinkebell/status/1630319860256317440 Interview with Dautzenberg and Tinkebell]''' (In Dutch, Twitter.com).

'''Update March 1:'''

The process in Ecuador has been postponed to 14 and 15 March.

The criminal file contains a passage that can be interpreted as saying that the Dutch prosecutor's office has given information to Free a Girl and Tim Ballard, and participated in the arrest of Marthijn and Lesley. Lawyer Sidney Smeets asked both the OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 16 February for clarification. Because there was no answer to this, he sent a remover. He then received an answer that they had not received the mail. (I was in the BCC, so very debatable.) But well, now they can't get away from it anymore.

'''Update March 2:'''

A message from Lesley:

<blockquote>''I'm going to talk about corruption in court. By name and by everyone. I want to inform you that I and Marthijn are not going to commit suicide. Regardless of what comes out. If we are found dead, I want to be very clear here that it was not suicide. Regardless of what it would look like according to the authorities. ''[...]'' Police who gets money from someone to preach lies. A judge who asks me personal money to release me. ''[...]'' Police who promised parents money, goods and houses in exchange for false statements. ''[...]'' My strength lies in that foreign media is following it. And I am sending it my file right now. So we wait.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 10:'''

Marthijn's new lawyer was refused entry to the prison despite obtaining written permission. She wants to prepare the case with her client. According to her, the defense is very bad so far, probably deliberately so. The necessary opportunities for entering and requesting evidence are wasted. The OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have still not answered the letter from Sidney Smeets (March 1). The session will take place definitively on March 14 and 15.

'''Update March 14:'''

Lesley and Marthijn now have the same lawyer. She has now been partly paid, but she demands more money to "pay" the police and the judge. Lesley and Marthijn refuse; they do not want to participate in corruption.

<blockquote>''I am not going to give money to lawyers for whose entire strategy consists of corruption. I have told this lawyer several times that I do not want to spend 1 dollar on corruption. She asks for 22k in wages, but it appears that at least half of the 22k is intended for corruption. Therefore, lawyers have little interest in discussing the case, because their strategy is not making a strong plea, but simply giving all those present money. O.U.R. has already given the man far more than 20k. They are not going to support me if they would get 1 or 2 K from me. ''[...]'' If I knew everything in advance, I would not have taken a lawyer. And I could have given the children more in Canoa.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 16:'''

The process was extended by a day. The men get the impression that the lawyers are taking their own course, without consultation. The interpreter that is present during the process hardly speaks English, let alone Dutch. Lesley says that the parents who have to testify today are threatened by the police. They do not feel safe and do not want to testify without the presence of a reliable lawyer. Lesley asks for this today at the judge.

'''Update March 17:'''

The Dutch OM has finally responded to the letter from Sidney Smeets. However, they do not give a clear answer and beat around the bush. Moreover, the Public Prosecutor sends his answer (consciously) exactly one day after the hearing in Ecuador would have been officially completed. That hearing has been postponed to March 22. Lesley did not want to participate in corruption and fired the lawyer. The court now appoints its own lawyer. In addition, a Dutch translator will be arranged.

'''Update March 22:'''

The session with Marthijn and Lesley has been moved forward again.

Lesley said that documents have emerged on which the previous lawyer forged the signatures of Marthijn and Lesley. He sent a clear example. These were documents that gave her "permission" to act on their behalf.

An elderly Belarusian woman is now also involved in the process. She rented a room in the hotel from Marthijn and Lesley for a short period of time. According to Lesley, she too is a victim of Tim Ballard's lies. She is likely to be released due to health issues.

'''Update March 24:'''

The process will continue on March 31.

'''Update April 3:'''

Lesley informed me that the court-appointed attorney is very good. ''"Other lawyers could only talk about money and corruption. They were not aware of the matter. This one came up with a good defense against a statement from an agent."'' The agent has stated in court that his previous statements were incorrect. '''The case will continue on April 6.''' Three judges are now on the case; the chance of corruption is thus reduced.

'''Update April 12:'''

The men informed me that the process is well under way. Agents who lied earlier now tell the truth: children were not drugged and abused. The psychologist who spoke to the children reported that they were never touched. The neighborhood researcher indicated that the villagers are angry about the behavior of the police and that Lesley and Marthijn are good friendly people.

'''Update April 18:'''

The prosecutor is sick; the trial continues on May 3.

'''Update May 7:'''

The prosecutor is still sick, but he sends messages to the media. According to the men's lawyer, these are diversionary tactics, tricks, because he knows he is losing the case. The media reports also publish the [[Operation Underground Railroad|O.U.R.]] and [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] sourced information (which is demonstrably false). ''De Telegraaf'' has picked up those messages, spiced them up and provided them with even more suggestive (demonstrably false) information. Moreover, the 'journalists' of ''De Telegraaf'' do not refer to the adversity.

'''Update May 9:'''

OM man was absent again today. He now has until 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon to come up with a doctor's statement. He had to report whether he was still ill 24 hours before the hearing, but had not reported anything. And that OM man indicated last week, after being called why he was not there, that he was about to undergo surgery. Two hours later he was present at another court case as a public prosecutor… If he does not come with a doctor's statement, his department will be fined. But everything is fraud here… Another negative article about us in the media here by the same author but now on another news site.

'''Update May 10:'''

Today the NOS has taken over an article from RTV Oost. It was written by an anti-pedo activist, not a journalist. It is based solely on reports in the Ecuadorian media and on erroneous assumptions. The information is demonstrably false and suggestive. Lawyer Sidney Smeets is in consultation with both NOS and RTV Oost about a rectification on behalf of Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update May 11:'''

NOS has removed the message. ''"On closer inspection, the article turned out not to meet the journalistic standards of the NOS. We have not been able to sufficiently verify the facts so far and have decided to withdraw the article until further notice."'' RTV Oost has also removed the message. A gang war is currently raging again in Guayaquil prison. Lesley said that they are also being shot at. ''"Tim Ballard declares that I raped 400 children in 1 village. And would have smuggled 6000 children and women from Ukraine to Latin America. Such things are not possible at all. Certainly not without leaving evidence."''

'''Update May 13:'''

The judge has issued an ultimatum to the Public Prosecution Service, which has now been delaying the court case for more than three weeks by not showing up: a (new) public prosecutor must take office within 24 hours, otherwise he threatens to dismiss the case. According to the lawyer, the attitude is of the Public Prosecution Service most likely a deliberate strategy; when the judge dismisses the case, both they and the police can remain unaffected. It is time for a quality Dutch newspaper to finally delve into the process, a journalist who is not out to confirm prejudices – so far they systematically refuse to do so.

'''Update May 16:'''

According to the men's lawyer, the Public Prosecution Service has not yet made any statements. Lesley: ''“It is now 4×24 hours later (96 hours). I wonder when a decision will be made. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. ''[…]'' Letting us speak on the basis of system errors is the best outcome for them. They know they are losing the case. Hence the negative media reports. When we get out they are going to portray the judges and us as corrupt.”''

'''Update May 19:'''

The sessions have started again.

'''Update June 13:'''

The trial is nearing its end, and a verdict is expected at the end of this week. "Lawyer against us: there is no evidence against you, but I can't say that you will be declared innocent, this is Ecuador, you never know what is going on behind the scenes."

'''Update June 20:'''

Judgment is at 9 p.m.

Message at 7:48 p.m:

<blockquote>
Minutes crawl by. Kitten normally sleeps on my bed all day. And plays outside at night. Now she slept all night. And now she's playing outside. Hopefully we can still get her out. Life in prison is not fun for animals either. Not everyone is as sweet as us. While there is 0 evidence against us and parents stand up for us and tell us about police corruption, the chance of staying in jail because of corruption remains very high. All parents and children in Canoa are also tense. Many could not sleep. Hopefully I'll be on the mountain with all of them tonight. Looking at the sea. With some beers and cocktails. Now lunchtime. Hopefully the last time I have to eat meat.
</blockquote>

Message at 22.59: 'Conviction for possession of child pornography. Ten years.'

'''Update June 21:'''

Much is unclear, the verdict has not yet been made available. [https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/816563997/pedo-marthijn-u-samen-met-compagnon-veroordeeld-tot-10-jaar-cel-voor-kinderporno De Telegraaf] took over a message from an Ecuadorian site and blew it up, but did not translate it properly. The men were reportedly only convicted because 'child pornography', mainly TikTok videos, was allegedly found on Marthijn's computer and on Lesley's phone. All charges of O.U.R. and Free a Girl have been rejected, contrary to what De Telegraaf claims. More information will follow when the verdict becomes available.

'''Update June 28:'''

The written verdict has not yet been released. Marthijn is not doing well; he is depressed and cries all day. Lesley seems to remain fairly stable and constructive. The men are appealing.
Parents in Canoa, the village where Marthijn and Lesley lived, post messages on social media in which they call O.U.R. accusing them of misusing photos and videos of their children to illustrate alleged acts of heroism. O.U.R. claims to have saved the children after the parents allegedly sold the children.

'''Update July 3:'''

The written judgment has not yet been made available; therefore no appeal can be lodged yet, even though there are legal deadlines attached to this. The Dutch & Detained Foundation contacts the Ecuadorian lawyer to prevent the appeal from being declared inadmissible.

'''Note from Newgon Org, Jul 5''':

It is worth mentioning at this point, a large post made on the blog of Dautzenberg, which includes statements made by Marthijn. These will require translating and checking over, as they are in Dutch and Spanish.

But the gist of these messages is that the men have been set-up, and Dautzenberg does not doubt their innocence. The absurd claims made by O.U.R. and their state-funded Dutch partner were found to be without credit in court, and were dismissed with extreme prejudice. Thus, a charge had to be concocted to bring the prosecution to a credible conclusion for the well-funded and well-connected charities who had initiated the arrests, but whose lies could not pass in a court of law. And thus, a decision was made by the judge to aver on the balance of probabilities that material obtained from freely available and highly controlled websites such as [[Wikipedia:Pornhub|Pornhub]] and [[Wikipedia:TikTok|TikTok]] featured people marginally under the age of majority in "sexual" situations. It is against these claims that the men will appeal, and will seek to mobilize a liberal element in Dutch journalism, to shine a light on the injustice.

'''In two parts:'''

*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/persbericht-gevangen-in-ecuador-we-zijn-onschuldig/ PERSBERICHT – gevangen in Ecuador, ‘We zijn onschuldig’]
*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/teksten-van-marthijn-uittenbogaard/ Teksten van Marthijn Uittenbogaard]

'''Update July 5:'''

A press release [above] has been sent to about thirty media addresses. Added two texts by Marthijn.

'''Update July 7:'''

Marthijn responded to the message that an agent in the Netherlands has been sentenced to one day in prison, because he violated the duty of confidentiality (about rapper Lil Kleine) and because he sent sexually tinted messages to a twelve-year-old girl and tried to get her to commit fornication. “If Lesley or I committed those two sex offenses, I suspect we would get years. Plus possibly TBS.'

'''Update July 13:'''

The written verdict is still not available, so the appeal cannot yet be lodged. As far as is known, nothing has been done with the press release that was sent to thirty media outlets in the Netherlands on 5 July. Apparently there is no room for adversity, for the sound of Marthijn and Lesley. Perhaps the journalists are just too busy closely following the vicissitudes of the Hazes, De Mol and Op1 families. Lesley and Marthijn are now in contact with the American YouTube journalists who critically investigate Tim Ballard's crusades inspired by God.

'''Update July 16:'''

Tim Ballard has left O.U.R. He travels the world to promote Sound of Freedom, a feature film about his (alleged) exploits. His successor at O.U.R. is Matt Osborne, also reportedly a far-right Mormon and QAnon supporter. Lesley from prison: "You'd think O.U.R. very interesting for critical journalists. Apparently pedo hunters are untouchable, even if it is very clear that the people who are arrested are probably not pedos.”

'''Update July 24:'''

According to VICE, Tim Ballard has left not only O.U.R., but also the Nazarene Fund, a similar organization. He was fired for sexual misconduct on missions and financial malpractice. His documentary The Hidden War, with footage of the arrest of Lesley and children (‘victims’) from the village, is unlikely to be broadcast; O.U.R. deleted all information about it.

In the prison of Marthijn and Lesley, a fight broke out between two gangs and the police. "Bombs have exploded in our pavilion and a tank has driven in, the prison shop is completely broken."

'''Update July 27:'''

The death toll of the uprising has risen to 31. Lesley and Marthijn are unharmed and indicate that peace has returned and that they feel relatively safe.

They received the news about Thijs Römer from their cell. The actor has persuaded several underage girls to send him masturbation photos and videos. He himself sent dickpics. The Public Prosecution Service demands community service. Lesley and Marthijn would receive years of imprisonment for the same offense, because the Public Prosecution Service condemns their orientation, their inner world. Lesley on the case in Ecuador: 'We are political prisoners. Amnesty does nothing either. Here too, an Ecuadorian would not get a cell for what was found with us: adult pornography and a girl who dances like Beyoncé and who recorded it herself.

'''Update August 4:'''

Dutch & Detained has contacted Marthijn and Lesley's pro bono lawyer and informed him of the legal term for publishing the judgment and for the appeal. Both have been amply exceeded, but according to the lawyer, this is how it works in Ecuador and it could take months before the judge releases the written verdict.

Things are going well with the men. Peace has returned after the great uprising and they are learning Spanish. Fortunately, Marthijn is no longer depressed, but he is angry with those involved. He especially seeks solace in the songs of George Michael and Bruce Springsteen.

'''Update August 14:'''

In the wing of the Guayaquil prison where Lesley and Marthijn are detained, the Ecuadorian army removed and transferred the leader of one of Ecuador's largest gangs in a large-scale raid last Saturday. Adolfo Macias Villamar, aka Fito - sentenced to 34 years in prison for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder - is suspected of involvement in the deadly attack on presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during the raid. All cells in the wing were searched and telephones seized, including those of Marthijn and Lesley. So there is no longer any contact with them. Last Friday, Lesley announced that they are making progress in learning Spanish. ‘Marth practices for hours every day with Duolingo and reading books. His vocabulary is wide. But he can't understand people very well. I understand people. And can have conversations. But vocabulary is insufficient. I can read well. I use whatsapp and social media a lot in Spanish.' He also sent a photo of their fully healed pussy. As far as is known, the written judgment has still not been made public.
I have informed my contact persons at Dutch & Detained and Probation Service.

'''Update August 21:'''

A befriended fellow villager reported that Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe and that they will probably be able to communicate again soon. They have not eaten for days, but money has now been transferred to the prison so that they can buy water and food.

Dutch & Detained and Probation Service have not yet responded to the messages.

'''Update September 7:'''

There were riots in several prisons in Ecuador last week. Guards were taken hostage by prisoners, but have now been released. It is not clear whether this also happened at the location where Marthijn and Lesley are located. Contact with the men is not yet possible.

'''Update September 9:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going reasonably well and they feel relatively safe again. However, they were tortured by the army during the raids: they had to lie on their stomachs on the concrete floor for more than four hours, with their hands and feet tied. The soldiers also demolished a lot: doors, cupboards and television sets.

'''Update September 17:'''

Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are under heavy fire in Ecuador. They are accused of fabricating the liberation of alleged child abuse victims in Canoa, and threatening innocent people and children who claim otherwise. The allegations also relate to corruption; they allegedly bribed police and high-ranking officials to confirm their fake stories. The Ecuadorian minister says that not a single victim has been found, Ballard continues to cling to four hundred victims. Official charges are being prepared, including by the parents of children who have been wrongly portrayed as rape victims by Ballard and co. In the meantime, Marthijn and Lesley are still in custody and have still not received the written verdict.

'''Update September 28:'''

The allegations against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Reportedly, American Crime Journal will further investigate and report on 'Canoa'. They say they have evidence that O.U.R. bribes judges to get people convicted. Lesley and Martijn have still not received a written verdict and the lawyer assigned to them cannot tell them what exactly they have been convicted of. Dutch&Detained also receives no answer. We are diligently looking for money to arrange a good lawyer, so that he can provide clarity and prepare the appeal.

'''Update October 9:'''

We have managed to free up money. Dutch&Detained will try to arrange a reliable lawyer and will supervise the process contractually. The Unmasking of Tim Ballard and O.U.R. in the American media is progressing well.

'''Update October 21:'''

American Crime Journal journalists are working on a series of articles on the Canoa case. They interview children (and their parents) allegedly by Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have been kidnapped, abused and pressured to give false testimony about alleged abuse. VICE also prepares publications. We contacted the NRC correspondent in Ecuador, but he did not respond. Dutch journalists still do not want to delve into the case.

'''Update October 31:'''

The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances. The written judgment has still not been published. Dutch&Detained is trying to find a reliable lawyer. American Crime Journal is working on a series of articles about the case. The Dutch media still look the other way.

'''Update November 8:'''

Shots are fired again in Guayaquil prison. Explosions can also be heard again. The drug wars between different gangs are partly fought in prison. Marthijn and Lesley try to remain aloof as much as possible. They are holding up relatively well under the circumstances and are even trying to follow the Dutch elections. Marthijn in particular is concerned about the further rightward movement of our country. 'Asylum centers will soon become full or half prisons.' Yet there remains room for gentleness. 'Try to enjoy life and don't worry too much about all this nonsense. How's your book going?'

'''Update November 20:'''

Another person has been found dead in the men's pavilion, a murder or suicide.

ING still refuses to cooperate in a transfer of Lesley's savings; they make impossible demands and do not delve into the situation. We need the money to hire a reliable lawyer and pay off debts.

Good news: the men were able to buy fruit this week for the first time since the arrest. And Lesley celebrated his birthday this week. A fellow inmate cooked noodles for him in a pot heated with electric wires, in exchange for a bar of soap and a sachet of detergent – €1.35 in total.
We are still waiting for the written verdict.

'''Update November 30:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available.

The criticism and charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Several American journalists have become involved in the case.

After much insistence, ING has indicated that it is willing to cooperate in releasing Lesley's assets. We now have to wait for a reliable lawyer; Dutch&Detained is still working on that.

Marthijn and Lesley will regularly write a text from prison; the texts can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/11/berichten-uit-ecuador/ here].

'''Update December 10:'''

Lesley had an allergic reaction this week: swollen lips, little air. Fortunately, the complaints disappeared after a while. He is a vegan, but in prison he has to eat whatever is served to him. He has had several life-threatening allergic reactions in his life. According to him, there is no doctor in prison and there are no medicines either. He's worried. “God gave me a bad body.”

'''Update December 21:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available and made public.

Dutch & Detained has not yet managed to find an Ecuadorian lawyer willing to take on the case.

Lesley and Marthijn are doing quite well.

'''Update December 31:'''

Still no written judgment, still no lawyer, still no money from ING...

Let's hope that 2024 will go more smoothly and the truth will prevail.

===2024===

'''Update January 9, 2024:'''

A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador following the escape of Fito, the country's most dangerous criminal. He sat in the same pavilion as Lesley and Marthijn. The newsreels do not bode well: all the prisoners lie half-naked on the ground, their hands and feet tied with tie-wraps. To date it has not been possible to contact Lesley and/or Marthijn.

'''Update January 11:'''

The situation in Ecuador is rapidly deteriorating, a spiral of violence has gripped the country. Nothing has been heard from Marthijn and Lesley for days. It is unknown where they are and how they are doing. The Foreign Affairs diplomatic mission has made contact with the Ecuadorian prison system (SNAI).

'''Update January 13:'''

Lesley called me collect call from prison. I paraphrase: 'The police carried out raids with brute force for four days. Each time I was handcuffed and had to lie on the ground in an awkward position for six hours. I was kicked in the head at least twenty times and in the back several times. The police also stood on my arms and spat in my face. Even though I didn't resist and cooperated. Other prisoners were pepper-sprayed and beaten even harder; the skin had split open and blood was pouring from the head. Les Choneros gang members then wanted to take revenge and attack and kidnap the guards, just as those from Los Lobos had done in another prison, but several inmates convinced the mafia not to do this and to call for peace. It is now quiet again. Many prisoners here are innocent, while murderers and mafia leaders are acquitted. Everything is corrupt here, money gets you free. We refuse to participate in that, justice must prevail.'

'''Update January 21:'''

The army invades several times a week. Marthijn: 'Layed on the ground for nine o'clock today, my wrists tied. The army sprays pepper spray. We were kicked, hit and verbally abused several times. Also, someone had to wear a devil mask and hit everyone hard twice with a stick, while shouting with each blow. It was hell. I also lost my reading glasses. The army tears up my written texts, including my Spanish lessons. With army boots they stood on my shoulder blade, arms and fingers. They empty bottles of water over our mattress and throw sugar, coffee powder and all our belongings on the floor.' Lesley: 'The soldiers use extreme violence. I have been hit in the face many times and had pepper spray rubbed into my face. We were beaten with clubs, tortured for ten hours. Two prisoners died during the previous raid, today I also thought I would not survive. Report it to the Foreign Office, report it to the consulate, ask Arnon to pay attention to it together with Amnesty.'
Dutch&Detained, the Probation Service, the Foreign Affairs and Arnon Grunberg have been informed.

'''Update January 30:'''

Communication with the men is becoming increasingly difficult, the army is present in the prison with a heavy hand. Below is an illustrative photo; Lesley (dark brown underpants) and Marthijn (blue underpants) are in the back row, above the right of the soldiers. [Picture in original link - Newgon]

Dutch&Detained has not yet managed to find a reliable lawyer (via Amnesty and other contacts). The offices approached do not want to be exposed to the subject that has already been so emphatically framed in the media. Image formation is more important in Ecuador.

The written judgment has still not been made available. An appeal is therefore not yet possible.

Something else: today there is an article in the Volkskrant about child abuse within the family. It states that the environment is usually aware, but does not intervene. “We find child abuse so terrible that we prefer to pretend it doesn't exist.” I add: and that is why we look for scapegoats to alleviate the dissatisfaction and feelings of guilt. It was that pragmatic reflex that put Marthijn and Lesley in this situation. With thanks to the Public Prosecution Service, which also chooses the path of least resistance.

'''Update February 12:'''

Unfortunately, still no written judgment and no lawyer. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update February 26:'''

Still no verdict and no lawyer.

A fifth lawsuit is now underway against Tim Ballard and O.U.R.

Marthijn has written a letter to the Ombudsman following his investigation into the Dutch state's unlawful terrorist list. The letter can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2024/02/brief-van-marthijn-aan-de-ombudsman/ here].

'''Update Mar 11:'''

After six days of no contact, the men finally heard back, albeit indirectly. The reports are alarming. They are tortured every day by the army and have multiple wounds. All their belongings have been taken and they are barely fed. In addition, they should pray out loud every day to God and ask Jesus for forgiveness. If they do not do so, they are beaten with a wooden stick or iron bar.

The written judgment has now been delayed for eight months, while the legal period is ten days. Dutch & Detained has not yet been able to find a reliable lawyer.

'''Update Mar 17:'''

Still no contact with the men. The authorities involved have been informed.

'''Update March 21:'''

Lesley came forward through a fellow inmate. The violence by the soldiers continues, they are beaten with whips and clubs while they have to call on Jesus. Lesley is injured. The prisoners are forced to say in front of TV recordings that everything is okay; if not, they are hit with an electroshock weapon. They also get little food, Marthijn is emaciated. They are given one minute to eat, then their hands have to be raised and the remainder of the meal is taken away. The soldiers tell the prisoners that Marthijn and Lesley have abused and raped children, but most prisoners know the case and know that this is nonsense. 'But we are strong, we will make it. Sad that the international community is barely responding to the circumstances. Marth asks how your book and such are going.'

'''Update March 26:'''

Lesley and Marthijn, like their fellow prisoners, are still beaten by the military, but only when the prison authority SNAI is not nearby. They expect the soldiers to leave within two weeks and that it will then become relatively safe again. The story goes that in another pavilion prisoners died after being abused. The transfer of money via Foreign Affairs and the consulate to the prison shop was successful; Martijn and Lesley are allowed to place a small order once a week: cheese spread, slice of cake, some nuts and banana chips.

'''Update April 3:'''

There was another riot in the prison last weekend, making physical visits impossible. Volunteers from the consulate are trying to arrange a video connection to provide official information about how Lesley and Marthijn are doing.

At the request of the Foreign Affairs, the Honorary Consul has contacted several law firms, but none of them want to take on the case. The Honorary Consul in Quito also does not want to assist the men as a lawyer. Lesley and Marthijn still do not have a reliable lawyer. The written judgment is also omitted, so that no appeal can be filed. Image formation and bureaucracy rule, the law is subordinate to it.

'''Update April 16:'''

The soldiers are still present in the prison, but Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe. In the meantime, we continue to wait for the verdict and a lawyer.

'''Update April 27:'''

No contact for almost a week. According to media reports, things are wrong again in the prison; Food from outside is no longer allowed inside.

'''Update May 6:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going well considering the circumstances.

'''Update May 12:'''

The army is present 'only' three times a day, usually during meals. The soldiers hit less often, but they did take away all the belongings, including the mattresses. Lesley and Marthijn have been sleeping on concrete for a month. They have lost the Spanish textbooks, so they are bored. The pro bono lawyer remains silent. They want a reliable lawyer who can take action as quickly as possible. The head of security is (still) on their side, but there are guards who believe the media reports and accuse Marthijn and Lesley of kidnapping and raping hundreds of children. At the moment they are not very concerned about their safety, but that may be motivated by naivety and/or resignation. Their greatest need is a lawyer.

'''Update May 24:'''

Finally in touch again. Lesley had to be treated by a prison doctor because of the blows he received, but he says he is doing reasonably well again. He and Marthijn try to arrange a transfer to an LGBTQ department with the prison authorities. The authorities in the Netherlands initially have no influence on this. In the meantime, they continue to wait for the written verdict and a reliable lawyer.

'''Update June 11:'''

There has been no contact with the men for three weeks.

'''Update June 22:'''

There is still no contact with the men. The authorities involved also have no current information about the situation. Dutch&Detained has managed to find two Ecuadorian lawyers who want to take up the case. They try to contact the prison.

'''Update June 29:'''

Finally received another sign of life from the men. Things are going fairly well considering the circumstances, although they get little to eat and are only allowed to leave their cell briefly once a week. Lesley takes care of some stray cats. They are bored and hope that the consulate will deliver some books soon. He also indicates again that he wants to be transferred.

The Ecuadorian lawyers will try to visit the men this week. The consulate has also planned a video call.

'''Update July 3:'''

The lawyers visited Lesley and Marthijn and had a constructive discussion. They start working on the case. Initially, they concentrate on obtaining the written judgment.

'''Update 12 July:'''

The appointed lawyers are investigating the status of the legal case, because Marthijn and Lesley have been waiting for the written verdict for almost a year. The consulate made two video calls with the men last week. Marthijn and Lesley are still sleeping on the concrete, they are not allowed to leave their cell or are hardly allowed to leave it and they only get a meager meal once a day. They only have one pair of trousers and three T-shirts. They have explicitly stated that they want to be transferred to an LGBTI department, but that the military does not want to pass on their request to SNAI, the prison authority. Marthijn and Lesley are also regularly physically and verbally abused by the military. The consulate will now mediate and keep a finger on the pulse, so that the transfer request actually reaches the director of SNAI.

'''Update 15 July:'''

The verdict appears to have been made available to the public lawyer last May. He then filed an appeal and that was supposed to be heard this week. Marthijn and Lesley were not informed of any of this. The new lawyers are now taking over the case and have asked the judge for a postponement in order to be able to prepare properly for the appeal. As far as is known, Marthijn and Lesley were only convicted for ‘possession of child pornography’. So not for producing child pornography, kidnapping, rape, selling children, pool parties and all kinds of other nonsensical allegations as presented in the Ecuadorian (and Dutch!) media – with OUR and Free a girl as the main sources. Both Marthijn and Lesley and the lawyers strongly deny that the images found concern child pornography.

'''Update 24 July:'''

Nothing has been heard from Lesley and Marthijn in the past two weeks. Dutch&Detained is in close contact with the Ecuadorian lawyers. It is not yet known when the appeal will be heard. ABN-AMRO is being difficult about the management account with which we support the men and their legal case. It ‘poses risks for the bank that we cannot accept’, while there is legal and fully transparent cooperation with all the authorities involved. Distrust is the reagent that makes bureaucracy ferment.

'''Update July 28:'''

Alarming messages from Ecuador. Lesley and Marthijn are constantly being abused by the military. Lesley is seriously injured and has fainted several times; he has been electrocuted and beaten so badly that he cannot walk or lie on his back. Soldiers put pistols to their heads and say that they will soon be shot dead. Lesley indicates that they will not survive the continuous violence. I have informed all the organizations involved, because the men must be transferred to a safe department quickly. Code deep red/black.

A bizarre contrast: a beach volleyball player who was convicted a few years ago for abusing a minor is participating on behalf of the Netherlands at the Olympic Games. According to the NOC, everyone deserves a second chance. That is right, but it is cruel that the Netherlands hardly or not at all looks after two pedophile citizens who are being held in Ecuador under miserable conditions and who have never (not even in Ecuador) been convicted for abusing a minor.

'''Update July 31:'''

Tim Ballard is back in Ecuador, this time to promote his (heroic) film Sound of Freedom. And at the same time, the media is once again reporting on Indian stories about Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update August 11:'''

No contact or news from prison. The team of lawyers and the authorities involved are working on arranging a transfer to an LGBTQ department. The date of the appeal is not yet known.

'''Update August 12:'''

The appeal will be heard on August 23.

'''Update August 15:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been transferred to an LGBTQ-friendly department.

The appeal will be heard on August 23. The lawyers are hopeful; according to them, there is insufficient evidence to support the charges, but the media's image plays a major role in rulings.

'''Update August 19:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are doing reasonably well. They are given little to eat and the people in the new department are unpleasant, but they feel safer. For the first time in a long time, they have received books, although unfortunately they are in German. They are looking forward to the appeal.

'''Update August 24:'''

The appeal did not go ahead. The hearing has been postponed until September 11. The reason is not yet known.

'''Update September 6:'''

Yesterday, the prison in Guayaquil was bombed. How the men are doing is not known.

'''Update September 9:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are safe. The appeal is scheduled to be heard on September 11.

'''Update 13 September:'''

The judge's ruling has been upheld in the appeal. According to the lawyers, their defence was not listened to.

'''Update 17 September:'''

The honorary consul spoke to the men via video call. The situation in the LGBT pavilion is even worse than in the previous section. They share a cell with an aggressive transvestite whose behaviour ensures that they get little or no food. In addition, they are still being abused by the military, and the prison authority SNAI is aware of this. The men are called ‘child abusers’ and are constantly receiving threats from fellow prisoners. They are only allowed to leave their cell for fifteen minutes a week to walk around the courtyard. Marthijn (almost two metres tall) weighs less than sixty kilos and faints regularly. They want to be transferred back to the previous section as soon as possible, because they say they were still somewhat protected by the mafia there.

'''Update 23 September:'''

The Ecuadorian lawyers confirm that the regional court had already made the decision (confirmation of the verdict) before the hearing. They have now spoken to Marthijn and Lesley. They are opting for cassation, because they want to see their innocence proven. Transferring the sentence to the Netherlands is therefore off the table for the time being. According to the lawyers, the Court of Cassation is less sensitive to pressure from the media, although the process could take more than a year. The lawyers are trying to have the men transferred back to their old department, where they feel less unsafe.

'''Update October 4:'''

A message from Lesley. They no longer trust the lawyers, because they did not coordinate the defense with him and Marthijn. There was no substantive consultation and they were only told afterwards that the hearing had already taken place - without them. They want the sentence to be transferred to the Netherlands as soon as possible. The authorities involved have been informed about this. Dutch&Detained is planning a video call with the lawyers.

'''Update October 17:'''

A lawyer from Dutch&Detained has spoken to the men. They have been transferred to another cell and have been given nicer cellmates. They absolutely want to appeal because they want to continue fighting for their innocence. WOTS (serving a sentence in the Netherlands) is therefore not an option for the time being. The video call was again terminated prematurely.

'''Update October 23:'''

The charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Click [https://americancrimejournal.com/plaintiffs-file-lawsuit-against-tim-ballard-and-operation-underground-railroad-for-human-trafficking-violations/ here] for the latest news.

'''Update October 27:'''

I spoke to Marthijn, Lesley and lawyer V. via Zoom for an hour and a half last Thursday. The men have two new cellmates and that is going well. They have also not been beaten by the military for a while. Marthijn looked bad, he is much too thin. Lesley seems to be coping better with the detention. They are only given German books, but their German is improving. V. showed the images from the file that were labelled as child pornography by the judge. She took the time to discuss each image with the men. In Marthijn's case, it concerns about twenty images that were on his laptop. It was almost laughable: watercolours, paintings, a postcard from a Dutch bookshop (bought during one of my book presentations; I remember it well, in Livius De Zevensprong), covers of Dutch and American magazines (children in sports shorts etc.) and a few images that come from the internet, but no child pornography. Bizarre to see. In Lesley's case, it only concerns three videos on his mobile phone, originating from TikTok: a dancing girl (with clothes on), a showering boy (only upper body visible) and an official instructional video of a doctor examining a boy (with underwear on) with a stethoscope. Again, no child pornography. According to V., there is no burden of proof and the men were only convicted because of the media attention. Moreover, procedural errors were deliberately made and the appeal had already been settled in advance, the judge is corrupt. That is also the reason why the men were not heard; they were ready for the Zoom connection with the courtroom, but the judge refused to open the link. He was probably afraid that Marthijn and Lesley would start talking about corruption, Tim Ballard and O.U.R. and that this information would end up in the file. V. is hopeful about the cassation, because the court in Quito is known to be less corrupt, but it cannot give any guarantees in that regard. She expects that once the written verdict is available and they can officially appeal, it will take another year before the case is heard. Martijn and Lesley's hotel is safe for the time being; it can only be confiscated after completion of the entire process, and then only if the $20,000 fine imposed by the court is not paid on time. Marthijn said that he has not been able to speak to anyone in the Netherlands for a year and a half and that it is hard for him. When he started talking about his mother who recently turned eighty, he had to cry. V. will try to arrange a phone call with her. She is also open to speaking to the journalist from Nieuwsuur; according to her, it is important to create a counter-voice in the media. I encouraged the men and promised to continue helping them. It was nice to see and hear them, but also hard. What is happening to them is so unfair and I feel relatively powerless. The lawyer made a good impression: empathetic and professional.

'''Update 12 November:'''

The written verdict has not yet been made available, so there is still the possibility of appealing.

The journalist from Nieuwsuur has been put in touch with the Ecuadorian lawyers and with a Spanish colleague who is investigating corruption in Ecuador with the El Paccto project.

'''Update 13 November:'''

Revolts have broken out again in the Guayaquil prison. The media reports fifteen dead and dozens injured. I do not know how Marthijn and Lesley are doing; I have not heard from them since the Zoom conversation.

'''Update 14 November:'''

The men are safe, the uprising took place in Guayas 1 and they are in Guayas 4.

'''Update 27 November:'''

Nothing more heard from Lesley and Marthijn. The lawyers in Ecuador have not yet announced whether the written verdict has been received, so that the men can appeal in cassation.

'''Update December 10:'''

Dutch&Detained is trying to arrange a phone call between Marthijn and his mother before Christmas, together with the Ecuadorian lawyer. No further news. (Although, ABN-AMRO is again being difficult about the management account and is coming up with bizarre allegations.)

'''Update December 22:'''

No news. Unfortunately.

'''Update December 30:'''

Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to have Marthijn call his mother. According to the lawyers, filling in and assessing 'all kinds of paperwork' takes longer than hoped. In short, the bureaucracy is an obstacle. The written verdict has also not yet been made available.

===2025===

'''Update January 6, 2025:'''

The volunteers who were supposed to visit Marthijn and Lesley on December 27 unfortunately did not receive permission from the prison authorities. It is therefore still unclear how the men are doing.

'''Update January 8:'''

The phone call between Marthijn and his mother failed again, partly due to the 'bungling' of the prison authorities. D&D is trying to arrange a conversation again.

'''Update January 21:'''

The conversation with the mother has not yet worked out. The verdict has not yet been handed down in writing. No contact with the men yet. The relevant authorities are working on it.

'''Update January 26:'''

As far as known, no changes. We are trying to hire an additional lawyer to supervise the Cassation.

'''Update January 31:'''

Next Thursday, the phone call with the mother is scheduled.

'''Update 7 February:'''

Marthijn was finally able to video call his mother today. Unfortunately, she had no good news; last week, Marthijn's 55-year-old brother died suddenly.
Marthijn and Lesley are doing pretty well. They are in a cell together with a third prisoner with whom they fortunately get along. One problem is that they have to stay in their cells almost 24 hours a day; the military are still present in the complex. Thanks to the monthly deposit, they can regularly buy food in the prison shop. The much too thin Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Marthijn and Lesley speak pretty good Spanish by now.

'''Update 12 February:'''

The men managed to send some voice messages. They are doing reasonably well, although the military continue to harass. They sounded constructive.

'''Update 24 February:'''

Things are still going reasonably well with the men. We hope that soon the written verdict will be available so that they can finally go to Cassation.

ABN-AMRO threatens to cancel the management account; the ‘accusations’ are bizarre and mainly driven by bureaucracy and mistrust. The bill is used to pay the lawyers (in consultation with Dutch&Detained) in Ecuador and the monthly deposits (through the Ministry of foreign affairs) for the prison shop, so that Marthijn and Lesley can buy vitamins and fruit.

Attorney Sidney Smeets filed an objection on my behalf.

'''Update 10 March:'''

ABN-AMRO ignores the objection and eliminates the bill in mid-May. As this will lead to further problems, the organisations involved have been informed. So be prosecuted.

There are no major developments from Ecuador. Things are going pretty well with the men.

'''Update March 25:'''

The complications with ABN-AMRO have not yet been resolved, the process is proceeding slowly. Obstructive bureaucracy, in both countries.

A member of the embassy has visited the prison. The men are doing reasonably well. It could take another three years before a final verdict is issued, which is six years after the arrest.

'''Update April 7:'''

ABN-AMRO is threatening to proceed with the cancellation of the management account in mid-May. The Dutch Probation Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are trying to reverse this, but the bureaucracy fueled by distrust is stubborn.

'''Update April 17:'''

A lawyer from the Dutch Probation Service has delved into the case. He has found nothing that justifies the cancellation of the account 'other than arbitrariness and suspicions'. The bank probably does not want to be associated with the men and/or Ecuador. We are considering a judicial decision.

'''Update April 21:'''

Marthijn's birthday is today. The treat: a rusk with jam.

'''Update April 30:'''

The lawyers cannot get through the wall that ABN-AMRO is putting up. The account will be liquidated in two weeks. I am now working on plan B, so that the men can continue to be helped: legal assistance and food.

'''Update May 8:'''

The volunteers of Reclassering Nederland have spoken to the men via ZOOM. They are doing reasonably well, Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Less violence is used by the soldiers in the pavilion. The men are four in one cell and they are only allowed to air out for twenty minutes a week. The mattresses they lie on are very thin and need replacing. However, the latter is difficult to achieve.

'''Update May 15:'''

Plan B has been implemented. The men are assured of legal assistance and sufficient food. Fuck ABN-AMRO!

'''Update by Newgon, 15 May:'''

[[Norbert de Jonge]] has returned to the limelight, posting a [https://fstube.net/w/s5S9cYUow8FjGC3DTxP6c4 video] on multiple sharing platforms. We have reproduced it on FST.

'''Update May 27:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The main thing now is to wait for the appeal, but that could take a few years…

'''Update May 29:'''

Message from Lesley: ‘A lot of military violence again today. People revolted. Pistols were pointed at us. A warning shot was fired into the roof. The revolt did not stop there, but became more violent. It only became calmer when the prison management itself intervened.’

'''Update June 6:'''

Marthijn and Lesley announced that they have been transferred to another cell in the same pavilion.

'''Update June 9:'''

For the time being, no visits are possible due to the security situation in and around the prison. The appointment with the consul has therefore been postponed until further notice.

'''Update June 17:'''

The kitten that Lesley was caring for was bitten to death by malnourished dogs. Other cats were tortured by the military; live kittens were used as footballs. Marthijn wants to file a complaint via Konijnen in Nood.

'''Update June 23:'''

The (recently expanded) team of lawyers has managed to smooth out and accelerate the legal process. The cassation will be heard next Friday. We were able to keep it quiet for a long time, but unfortunately there was a leak to Tim Ballard – he has connections in the highest regions. Ballard is now in Canoa and is trying to influence the judges with videos, messages and interviews. In the name of God. Once again he speaks of large-scale abuse, kidnappings, rapes and sex parties. In his messages he shows photos of Marthijn, Lesley and their hotel. The media are eagerly diving on it again. Image formation is more important in Ecuador than the truth and the country is thoroughly corrupt. The outcome of the cassation can be guessed. A reaction from the men: 'A lot of tension. We sleep badly with only bad dreams. Little hope. The system is too corrupt. Bad people often seem to win and are described as heroes.' Lesley and Marthijn previously indicated that when they are released they will file an (international) lawsuit against Ballard, O.U.R. and Free a Girl.

'''July 18th Update:'''

There is still no verdict, the legal deadline (ten working days) has been significantly exceeded. The lawyers have no explanation for this. The prison shop has been closed for three weeks, leaving the men with insufficient food.

'''July 20th Update''':

The shop is open again, but the military only allows the purchase of cleaning supplies, not food. Marthijn and Lesley are starving and weakened. Furthermore, the number of tuberculosis infections in the cells is increasing. The relevant authorities have been notified.

'''Update August 3:'''

Marthijn and Lesley have been moved to a new cell. There is no food for sale in the prison store, but bread and bananas will likely be available for sale soon. Due to hunger and weakened immune systems, the tuberculosis epidemic has escalated (more than 500 infections in Guayaquil prison, dozens of deaths); several pavilions have been cleared for patients. The appeal: still no verdict.

'''Update August 14:'''

The appeal has been rejected. The lawyer's response: "It surprised us all. But we understood why the court took so long to give us a verdict. The judges were looking for a way to deny us the appeal. Each of the arguments was dismissed on silly and unfounded grounds, for reasons that were even alleged by us, although the court said that was not stated. All this time they were looking for reasons to deny us, and it became evident that the decision had already been made. We would understand that this is related to the arrival of Tim Ballard that week." We are increasingly disappointed with the corrupt justice system in this country.

'''Update August 17:'''

Food is still unavailable in the prison store; the president of Ecuador currently considers it an unnecessary luxury. The number of tuberculosis deaths is rising; a large proportion of the prisoners are malnourished and lack exercise, and there is also a shortage of medicine. The mafia controls the regular food distribution in the kitchen; for a fee, you can get twice the allowed portion. Any leftovers are divided among the other prisoners. Lesley and Marthijn do not participate in this out of solidarity with the prisoners without money. They have, however, exchanged cleaning supplies for six sandwiches a week. These come from outside the prison, so they do not disadvantage the other prisoners.

'''Update September 3:'''

The men have been moved to another cell. They feel safe there, as they were already friends with two of their three cellmates. They also finally have access to the prison shop again; their credit (for three months) has been replenished. They have also managed to transfer additional money so the men can purchase vitamins and nutritional supplements. Finally, the process for sentence transfer to the Netherlands has been initiated – WOTS, the Act on Transfer of Enforcement of Criminal Judgments.

'''Update September 24:'''

The men are doing relatively well. No news on the legal front.

'''Update October 20:'''

Things are still going relatively well. The regime has been relaxed somewhat; the men are allowed to leave their cells for 45 minutes every Saturday and Sunday. They are reading a lot, especially German and Spanish books. The shop is open again.

'''Update November 10:'''

Dozens of people have died in prison riots in Ecuador. Fortunately, the location where Lesley and Marthijn are being held has escaped unscathed this time.

'''Update December 8:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The sentence transfer process has been initiated, but this may take some time.

===2026===

'''Update January 16:'''

The situation remains unchanged. Marthijn and Lesley are reading, drawing, and writing extensively. They are still waiting for information about the sentence transfer. It is now up to the Dutch authorities to make an initial assessment.

'''Update February 15:'''

No news. They are still waiting for the sentence transfer to the Netherlands.

Marthijn is writing a diary in Spanish in prison. [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2026/02/dagboek-marthijn/ Click here] to read it.

'''Update March 1:'''

Military personnel have searched Marthijn and Lesley's cell and destroyed all drawings and writings. Furthermore, there is a tuberculosis epidemic in the prison, but there is a shortage of medication. The organizations involved have been notified. Nothing is known yet regarding the possible transfer of sentences. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update March 16:'''

The process surrounding the transfer of sentences is proceeding slowly; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects to establish contact with Ecuador soon. The men are not receiving the medication they need; the prison authority SNAI is blocking this. Lesley is trading food for medication for a skin infection. Money has been stolen again from the men's account at the prison shop. Despite everything, they report that they are doing well considering the circumstances.

'''Update April 16:'''

The situation is, factually speaking, unchanged. Unfortunately.

'''Update May 22:'''

The men are doing reasonably well. They are reading, drawing, and painting. Lesley sent a portrait he made of Greta Thunberg, a woman he admires. Unfortunately, there is no news to report yet regarding the transfer of sentences.

'''Update June 24:'''

No change in the situation.

'''Update July 24:'''

The situation is (unfortunately) unchanged.

'''Update August 2:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been moved to another pavilion due to a major tuberculosis outbreak.

===Latest update===

'''Update 20 August:'''

The men are doing relatively well in their new cell. Lesley has painted a large world map on the wall together with a fellow inmate. There is no news regarding the transfer of their sentence.

'''Update 6 September:'''

Police raided the cell again during the night. They dealt blows and stole food and medication.

'''Update 22 September:'''

For months, the men have been unable to buy food from the prison shop. The mafia is blocking this and also controls the prison kitchen. The prisoners are receiving less and less food, forcing them to turn to the mafia for sustenance. Marthijn and Lesley refuse to play along, resulting in starvation, stomach pain, and dizziness. I have informed the relevant authorities and urged them to expedite the transfer to the Netherlands.

'''Update 27 September:'''

The prison shop is once again accessible to Lesley and Marthijn.

<hr>

SEE ALSO:
[https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth ''(Vice)'']

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

<hr>

''This translation is courtesy of the user [https://www.boychat.org/ycdtobc/messages/119860.htm Manstuprator at BoyChat].''
[[Category:Essays]][[Category:A.H.J. Dautzenberg's Essays]]

Essay:The Gruesome Consequences of a Hysterical Witch Hunt

2026-09-28T00:51:39Z

Jim Burton: /* Latest update */

The following is a mirror of an article originally titled '''''[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/02/de-gruwelijke-gevolgen-van-een-hysterische-heksenjacht/ De gruwelijke gevolgen van een hysterische heksenjacht]''''', which appears on the website of Dutch writer [https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Dautzenberg A.H.J. Dautzenberg]. We provide an English translation of it here, in the interest of maintaining a copy of this important journalism. The opinions reflected in this article are those of A.H.J. Dautzenberg who is unaffiliated with Newgon Organization. For the latest update, see at the [[#Latest update|bottom of the page]].
<hr>
'''February 5, 2023'''

In Ecuador, two Dutch men have been detained under appalling conditions for almost eight months, two men with a pedophile orientation. They still don't know exactly what they are suspected of and they haven't seen a judge yet. I think I know them well, consider them friends. My impression is that they are innocent.

In recent months I have tried several times in vain to interest the quality media in the case, also to encourage them to put an investigative journalist on it. In particular, the role of the Dutch Public Prosecution Service and that of the [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] pedo hunter club (and its dubious American partner [[Operation Underground Railroad]]) should be critically examined; in my view they create a toxic climate that smothers any nuanced discussion in advance. The word "child pornography" is used far too lightly and just a little too eagerly by them – all shutters are immediately closed.

I believe I have followed the (long run-up to the) arrest relatively objectively, but perhaps my view is clouded by fear, anger, disappointment and friendship. That's why I hope for help.

One of the media I approached indicated that it was "not a newsworthy story". The editor-in-chief of an opinion weekly emphasized that a sensitive subject such as pedophilia cannot be treated from the perspective of two detained pedophiles – "Who says they are innocent?" Another reaction: "It would make me very uncomfortable to post this piece." The overall tone in a nutshell.

Below is the essay I wrote – it consists of two parts that alternate between a more or less journalistic report, and my personal thoughts, although the distinction is sometimes difficult to make. I have my personal thoughts.

Set aside your gut reaction that tries to take over your feelings, and don't judge too quickly; smoke does not always mean fire, after all, smoke machines do not need to be on fire. Take up the challenge, if you will. Vulnerable minorities deserve protection, not a witch hunt. That is good for everything and everyone.

[[File:Huis.jpg|thumb|Action outside of Marthijn's house]]

'''Ten years of Mart[h]ijn'''

The zeitgeist dictates which topics may or may not be discussed. For example, pedophilia. Nevertheless, it is still important not to shy away from an "unmentionable" subject; by exposing insensitive mechanisms, future victims can be spared. Moreover, freedom of expression is sacred in our country. Or so I thought.'''

At the moment, two Dutch men have been detained in Ecuador under appalling conditions for more than six months, and they have not yet seen a judge. It is still not entirely clear what crime in particular they are suspected of. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not interfere with the legal process and the Netherlands does not have an embassy in Ecuador. A hopeless situation, they fear for their lives.

The run-up to the arrest of the two men started in 2011, with an attempt by the Public Prosecution Service to ban the association [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn]], founded in 1982; The ball starts rolling then. After years of intensive investigation, no criminal offenses had been uncovered, so according to Minister of Justice Opstelten (VVD), only civil law could offer a solution.

In the early 1980s, the VVD regularly approached the Martijn association for advice on the subject of pedophilia. In 1986, then-VVD-minister Korthals Altes submitted a bill to lower the "age of consent" law from sixteen to twelve years. He referred, among other things, to scientific studies that indicate that sex with minors is not necessarily harmful.

The JOVD – (left-liberal) Mark Rutte, who was also a member at the time and would become chairman two years later – just like the Young Socialists in 1986, signed a petition for the change in the law. The law passed in a slimmed-down version, but it was then abolished at the beginning of the new millennium. In the early years, the roots of the Martijn Association therefore received political support, especially from the VVD.

By 2011 things had completely changed. In November of that year, in the run-up to the court case to ban the [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn association]], VVD minister Opstelten publicly expressed the hope that the court would issue a ban. Which was strange to say the least, because a minister is not allowed to give his opinion on a case that is still before the courts. The left and right both agreed with Minister Opstelten's statement that the association should be banned.

Tofik Dibi (of GroenLinks) said during the same parliamentary debate: ''"The Martijn association is an association of dirty little men, with dirty points of view, that arouse disgust and revulsion. My gut says: lock them up and throw away the key."'' And Madeleine van Toorenburg (CDA) stated: ''"How is such a disgusting association allowed to exist."'' At the time, Pieter Omtzigt regularly referred to "Martijn's victims" in his tweets. Mind you, ten years of investigation by the police and the Public Prosecution Service had not resulted in any criminal charges.

For more than ten years I have studied the subject of pedophilia, a distinction in sexual orientation that I believe should no longer be made, and should be eliminated. And let's not beat around the bush, I was terrified. The hatred that wins over the facts, the myths that are devoured like candy, the denial that follows any hint or suggestion, the opportunistic role of politics and especially that of the Public Prosecution Service. With regards to this topic, all good sense and logic seems to have disappeared, and the only reaction is a visceral one.

Even before the legal process began, I decided in 2011 to become a member of the Martijn association in order to start a dialogue and put an end to the escalating witch hunt; a pedophile is a human being, not an undesirable scourge – which unwelcome minority is next? A side effect was that not much later I could follow the court case in Assen both externally and internally. "''Your career is over''," tweeted some cynical fellow writers with apparently mocking pleasure.

For the record, I keep repeating it out of necessity: I am not in favor of sexual contact between adults and children. I do think that people with a pedophile orientation should be allowed to dream and fantasize about it, and that they should be allowed to speak and write about their desires – and that they (just like the VVD in 1986) should be allowed to argue for a liberalization of the legislation regarding sexuality.

In fact, I am convinced that openness and transparency will lead to greater understanding, and to a mutual understanding. An innate disposition does not disappear by publicly condemning it. Not in Iran, not in Russia, not in Hungary and not in the Netherlands. An estimated one hundred and fifty thousand people with pedophilic feelings, men and women, live in our country. Get used to it. Talk to them, don't banish them to the dungeons of society. And understand that approximately eighty percent of child abuse actually takes place within the immediate family, by "opportunistic paedophiles".

So in 2011 I signed up as a member of the Martijn association, which was founded in 1982. I attended meetings, talked to members and advised the board. At the end of 2011, a child and adolescent psychiatrist e-mailed me the following: ''"Thank you for your contribution to the quest that we as a society must undertake. Not a nonsensical black-and-white opinion, but a nuanced story."'' Various statements of support from that quarter followed, but the senders added that they did not dare to express their opinions publicly.

In May 2012 I represented the association before the court in Assen. At the time, I tried repeatedly to talk to MPs, but I couldn't get any response. Other members of the Martijn association also tried this, and they were also ignored.

'''The "Yuck" Factor'''

The lawsuit would ultimately be heard in Assen, on May 16, 2012. The Public Prosecution Service had to make it plausible that (the activities of) the Martijn association are "contrary to public order". Both in the petition and in the closing requisition, the Public Prosecution Service claims that the Martijn association poses a serious danger to children in the Netherlands. "The ideas and the way in which these are expressed must be seen as a serious threat to the physical and sexual integrity of the child."

The Public Prosecution Service had formulated a criterion for testing texts and images that had appeared in the association's magazine and on the site since 1982: the "yucky content". Especially the texts from the early years of the association were judged with a high yuck content. The Public Prosecution Service included a review that former senator Edward Brongersma (PvdA) wrote in the magazine about Kees Verheul's novel A boy with four legs, published in 1982 by publisher Van Oorschot. "Apparently intended to be sexually arousing," suggested the District Attorney. (Apparently intended to be sexually arousing - just how does one measure that?)

The following poem on the site was also given a high yuck content by the Public Prosecution Service:
<blockquote>
''I would love to''

''Sail with you in a boat''

''Love you''

''Kiss you''

''Your body against me''

''I caress in my dreams''

''Everywhere I want to go''

''And you like it''

''Thoughts are free''

''It's a cliché''

''But what I just wrote''

''Is only one chance in a hundred''

''Reality''

''We live in a world''

''Where such things can't be''

''But luckily''

''How lucky''

''Fantasizing is cool''

''And it can't hurt anyone.''
</blockquote>
On June 27, 2012, the Martijn association was banned by the court. The press reacted to the verdict. NRC Ombudsman Sjoerd de Jong thought it too subdude: ''"On June 27, the court in Assen banned the association Martijn, which wants to represent the interests of pedophiles. That was remarkable news, but the newspaper did not comment on it. Now you don't have to do that with every news event, but you would expect it regarding this one. That seems entirely in line with the liberal principles of the newspaper: after all, it is [not about the words but] about the deeds."''

'''The Appeal'''

The Martijn Association appealed to the Court of Appeal in Leeuwarden. The Public Prosecution Service argued that the appeal should be declared inadmissible, because an association that has been banned no longer exists and can therefore not appeal. The court did not agree with this and ruled in April 2013 that there was no threat of social disruption and that the association could therefore not be banned. According to the court, society should also accept expressions that are widely abhorred. Moreover, the statements and behavior of Martijn are not punishable, the court emphasized.

The Public Prosecution Service then submitted this judgment to the Supreme Court for review. It decided on April 18, 2014 that the association should be banned immediately, because it goes contrary to public order. According to the Supreme Court, it is necessary as this is a very special case, in the interest of protecting the health and the rights and freedoms of children. ''"These social views are also widely supported outside the Netherlands, and the Netherlands has committed itself internationally to taking measures in that regard."'' So Brussels was watching.

The lawyers Gerard Spong and Sidney Smeets then approached the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Marthijn Uittenbogaard. At the beginning of 2015, it announced that it would not consider the appeal. The reaction of Spong and Smeets: ''"We see this decision as a case of evading the giving of a legal opinion on a socially sensitive legal question. And therefore a lack of courage. In a resilient democratic society it is precisely the unpopular opinions that should be protected. Freedom of expression is only meaningful if it also (or especially) protects unpopular opinions. Even opinions that not everyone agrees with and that some even find offensive."''

'''Seclusion'''

At this point, the Martijn Association is definitively banned, including the association's website, but former chairman Marthijn Uittenbogaard is told by the Public Prosecutor that he may continue the website privately. He decides to concentrate on his websites www.brongersma.info and www.marthijn.nl (with an h), which he started in 2001, renaming a site he started a quarter of a century ago.

As a private person, Marthijn Uittenbogaard continues to fight for discussion about and the seeking of approval for intergenerational relationships. He does this mainly by collecting information on pedophilia and paedosexuality on his websites, information in the broadest sense of the word, including studies that emphasize the potentially harmful effects of paedosexual activity.

His activism and the ruling of the Supreme Court have caused Marthijn Uittenbogaard many problems: there have been threats, rocks and paving stones have been thrown against and through his windows, lit fireworks have been left in his mail box, a fireworks bomb was left on his doorstep – the list fills dozens of pages. In addition, he says he is shadowed by the police and his phone is wire-tapped.

Over time he has decided not to leave his home in Hengelo; he spends his days playing video games for hours on end and maintaining his web sites. He has had plexiglass fitted to the windows of his house and he installed security cameras, which the police had refused to do, despite several requests from him.

Former Martijn figurehead Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner Lesley have become friends of mine over the years and I trust them. Not out of naivety or misplaced loyalty, but as a result of frank conversations and a thorough study of the facts – and the many lies that have been spread about them. I haven't seen any hard evidence to date that confirms that either has committed any crimes.

I kept in touch with the two men for the past ten years – two passionate, sweet, gentle people. When I stayed with them a few years ago, I saw what the isolation did to Marthijn. Like a shy little bird, he sat in an almost blinded house, glued to his almost life-size game screen. Lesley tried to remain anonymous and went to work in a warehouse every day. In his spare time, a convinced vegan, he devoted himself to the necessary charitable institutions. I saw two fellow sufferers who loved each other very much.

[[File:Megafoon.jpg|frame|Demo outside Marthijn's house]]

'''Onslaught'''

The day was coming for an attack to be made on Uittenbogaard. It would be in a morning in 2020. A 41-year-old man from Spakenburg entered the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley early in the morning, ran up the stairs, entered the bedroom and threatened to stab Marthijn to death with a fish-boning knife. A friend who is staying over heard the noise, intervened in time and knocked the knife out of the hands of the man, who was standing next to Marthijn's bed.

The man fled, but was arrested shortly afterwards. He was released the same day, but he was banned from the vicinity. A lawsuit followed. The man did not have to go to prison; the judge gave him 150 hours of community service.

The man, who had already been hospitalized eight times for bouts of manic-depression, claimed that he entered the house because of media reports he had heard, which stated that a children's room with dildos had been found in Marthijn's house and that Marthijn's partner had been arrested on suspicion of engaging in child abuse.

At the time of the attack on Marthijn I had been in touch with the people who had been in contact with Marthijn, and even more so around the time of the raid and the arrest of Lesley. Marthijn is still convinced that his partner was arrested at the time in order to intimidate him, and to silence him. He wrote to me: ''"I saw my partner being taken away on a completely fabricated charge. The extensions of the pretrial detention were outrageous. As his partner, I was also not allowed to attend the sessions allegedly due to measures taken due to the corona virus pandemic. But journalists were allowed to attend! The only thing they had against my partner was that he was "the-partner-of". On that, and on based on the lie that his parents did not want him to be released, his pretrial detention was repeatedly extended. That was outrageous!"''

'''Detention'''

In 2020, a house search took place at the house of Marthijn and his partner Lesley. This was legally sanctioned by the authorities suspecting Marthijn of having committed "sedition"; the Public Prosecution Service referred to statements on its websites and in the media. Lesley was arrested during the house search, then confined in isolation for ten weeks and then only released after six months.

The OM revealed that Lesley was suspected of having "prepared to kidnap and rape a child." The OM also reports that a children's room was found within the house of Lesley and Marthijn and a studio in the garage to make child pornography. Sex paraphernalia, including dildos, were found in Lesley's bedroom. And according to the Public Prosecution Service, a Stanley knife, lubricant and anesthetic tablets were found in his backpack, which indicated he was preparing to commit that crime.

The OM kept Lesley hanging for two years. At the end of April 2022, the case finally went to court. The charge of "preparing to kidnap and rape a child" had disappeared from the indictment, as had charges concerning the possession of dozens of images of child pornography. According to the Public Prosecution Service, there were no indications of the existence of a "children's room," nor of a studio to make child pornography.

Lesley (like his colleagues) needs the Zip ties and the Stanley knife for his work – he is a warehouse worker. The "lube" was actually a jar of Working Hands cream - the skin of his hands is cracked because of his physical work. The so-called "anesthetics" were actually magnesium pills he used to numb the recurring pain in his leg muscles, a consequence of Lesley's veganism.

'''"Child Pornography"'''

The charge against Lesley has been reduced by the OM to "making and possessing child pornography". The petition from the prosecutor: one year in prison, four months of which were to be suspended. Lesley was sentenced to ten weeks in prison. (He was held in pre-trial detention for six months.) From the verdict: ''"The suspect is found guilty of making a film containing child pornography. The suspect filmed the bare buttocks of an underage boy with sexual intent."'' ("With sexual intent" – how does one measure that??)

Lesley had been making family films for a family of friends for years. During one of those filmings, one of the children mischievously dropped his pants for a moment. The Public Prosecution Service has cut that image from the video and submitted it to the court as "child pornography". A letter submitted by Lesley's lawyer, in which one of the parents wrote that Lesley was innocent and should be immediately released, is ignored by the judge.

Lesley attempted suicide twice after his release and still continues to struggle with depression. His employer, neighbours, the voluntary associations he had been involved in and many of his friends no longer want anything to do with him. He suddenly has to go through life with a criminal record stating that he has been convicted of producing child pornography. Lesley won't appeal because, mentally, he can't handle that stress.

Lesley sent me the notes that he had made while in detention. I read the poignant and above all disconcerting text with horror.

<blockquote>''I thought they mistook me for someone else and I could probably clear that up. I have never abused children and never will. Just the thought of hurting children makes me sad. I regularly burst into tears about the simplistic reporting made about me.''

''The mother of the child is also being seen as responsible by those around her for supposedly having made children available to a pedophile who, according to people, abuses children. I sometimes spontaneously bursts into tears. Both the investigation and how the people around her have reacted to it in response to news reports have deeply damaged her. I have not abused children and do not intend to. The Public Prosecution Service and the police have abused people in this case, including children, and the damage to them is immeasurable and lifelong.''</blockquote>

'''Continuing the Association'''

The raid on the house of Marthijn and Lesley appears to be a direct result of an investigation by RTL Nieuws ["Radio Television Luxembourg News," a popular Dutch television news service]. According to them, this went on undercover for several months within a private email list ''"in which the Martijn Association is still active"''. In that group, according to RTL, tips were also given on how abuse children. But for the record, the email group was not closed, and non-pedophiles and (even undercover) journalists could also join it.

RTL also placed an attention-grabbing statement on its web site: ''"A pedophile is a person with sexual feelings for children under the age of 13. Pedophilia is a sexual preference and is not punishable in the Netherlands. Sexual abuse of children, together with viewing and downloading child pornography, is punishable by law. That is not always done by pedophiles: a majority of child abusers do not have pedophilic feelings, but suffer from antisocial and sexual disorders."''

In 2021, partly on the basis of the RTL investigation and the house search, the Public Prosecution Service decided to prosecute three people for continuing the banned "pedo club Martijn": [[Nelson Maatman|Nelson]], [[Norbert de Jonge|Norbert]] and (the figurehead) [[Marthijn Uittenbogaard|Marthijn]] – all three without any previous criminal records. Nelson was acquitted, because he had never been a member of the Martijn association. The other two were sentenced to prison terms. Norbert was sentenced to four months because he helped Marthijn with the technical maintenance of the sites. Marthijn received a six-month prison sentence, without the possibility of parole, after which he appealed his sentence.

'''Ideologies'''

A quote from the judgment regarding Marthijn dated 8 March 2022. ''"Together with his co-defendant [Norbert], the suspect has continued the activities of the banned association Martijn by posting publications on various websites and making statements via a mailing list and Twitter."''

According to the court, the views expressed on the sites correspond to those of the banned association. The fact that the opinions expressed are largely quotes from politicians and scientists is not mentioned in the judgment. Moreover, it is reasonable that the views are in agreement; Marthijn (born in 1972) became a member at the time because he recognized his personal convictions in the ideas of the association founded in 1982.

The verdict continues with this striking passage: ''"It does note, however, that this ideology cannot be equated with child abuse or incitement to it. The fact that this was or would have been the case has not been evident in the proceedings that led to the prohibition of the Martijn association. The suspect has also never been convicted of sexual offenses (or any other offense)."'' And then a prison sentence of six months was imposed.

Because Marthijn and Norbert were convicted for continuing the Martijn association, I decided to take action together with former university lecturers in sexual citizenship [[Gert Hekma]] (deceased 2022) and his partner Mattias Duyves, emeritus professor [[Meindert Fennema]] and writer [[Delphine Lecompte]]. The last paragraphs of an op-ed that we offered to all respectable media:
<blockquote>
''A society that is genuinely concerned with the interests and safety of children is not content to create and then brutally destroy demonic symbols. It invests heavily in youth care and education, it ensures that the Supplement Scandal children removed from home are reunited with their parents as quickly as possible, it does not allow children to grow up in dire poverty, it does not allow reports of child abuse and abuse to be filed for months, sometimes even years on the shelf, and it does not leave children who have fled from war zones to fend for themselves.''

''Finally, last month, the majority of the House of Representatives approved the addition of 'sexual orientation' as a non-discrimination ground in Article 1 of the Constitution. The proposal is now before the Senate. A conscious choice was made for the term 'orientation' (gerichtheid) and not for 'sex' (geaardheid). The reason is that legally the term "orientation" (gerichtheid) only represents so-called consensual orientations. This excludes people with a pedophile orientation. The idea behind it: if they would give concrete expression to their focus, they would be guilty of criminal offences. The government also suffers from prejudice. [The law has now been passed, AHJD.]''

''To protest against the witch hunt for pedophiles, we are taking action: from now on we will take over the site www.brongersma.info from Marthijn Uittenbogaard. This is to prevent the rich archive he has built up over the past decades from being destroyed. If Uittenbogaard is acquitted on appeal, the site will be his again. (Norbert de Jonge will not appeal, he no longer trusts the judiciary.) If Uittenbogaard is convicted for expressing his opinion – which we cannot imagine, we expect an independent, careful approach from a judge – then we will look for a suitable host for the archive. Initially we are thinking of the COC or the IHLIA.''

''Stop criminalizing people with a pedophile orientation. Talk to them, protect them, help them, listen to them – everyone benefits from that. And above all, don't interfere with freedom of expression.''
</blockquote>

The piece was rejected by all the respected media we approached.

'''Ecuador'''

Because Marthijn and Lesley no longer have a (safe) future in the Netherlands, they decided to emigrate to a country where life is cheap. They eventually choose Ecuador because they could buy an old hotel there. The plan was to open a vegan restaurant on the ground floor, to make apartments in the rest of the building, and to rent them out.

They called in local construction workers for the renovation. Some (paid) villagers have also come to help. Meanwhile, their children played with Marthijn's PlayStation, a luxury they cannot afford. Nelson visited and rented a room, but Lesley turned him away; his alcohol and drug use and fatalistic attitude could put them in danger. Nelson left for Mexico.

Norbert, a friend of Marthijn for more than twenty-five years, comes along a few months later, as does a (straight) friend. They soon leave. They think it is unwise that village and construction worker children freely walk in and out of the house. In addition, ominous reports are beginning to appear in the local media.

The hotel, its new owners and their visitors have been on the radar of paedo hunter Tim Ballard of O.U.R. (Operation Underground Railroad) and the Dutch organization Free a Girl. The latter decided to track down the men after their emigration and called O.U.R. in.

'''QAnon'''

Tim Ballard is a conservative Mormon, a fanatical Trump and QAnon supporter, who, with his organization, hunts alleged pedophiles (supposed "networks") and pro-abortion activists worldwide. He also fulminates against the LGBTIQ + community; according to him, only straight relationships are godly. His organization raises many millions annually, without it being clear exactly where the money goes.

In addition, several investigations against him and his organization are ongoing; he is suspected of incitement, lying about actions of O.U.R. and spreading conspiracy theories about "pedo networks." He claims to have saved thousands of children from criminal (paedo) organizations, but there is no evidence. Nevertheless, his influence is growing. He is friends with several (populist) heads of state.

Algemeen Dagblad wriote about Marthijn's arrest on June 24, 2022: ''"The convicted and since-then fugitive paedosexual Marthijn U. from Hengelo was arrested in Ecuador on Thursday evening. The fugitive pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested."'' Het Parool wrote that same day:'Marthijn U. is said to have been arrested after a manhunt.' For the record, Marthijn Uittenbogaard is not a paedosexual and he was not a fugitive.

Continuation of the message from the AD: ''"In Ecuador, the well-known pedophile Lesley L. was also arrested that same Thursday. [Absent] Lesley L. was sentenced in Rotterdam on April 26, 2022 to 10 weeks in prison for producing child pornography. L. was now under arrest in the seaside resort of Canoa, for suspected abuse of three young children in his home. The organization Free a Girl had passed on incriminating information about the three men to its American partner Operation Underground Railroad and the authorities of Mexico and Ecuador."'' For the record, Lesley was not a fugitive either; he was working at the hotel at the time of the arrest.

''Het Parool'' further wrote: ''"According to Free a Girl, several children regularly stayed in the house of L. and U. They would have been lured to play video games with the story. In exchange for sweets and money, they would have had to provide sexual services. Parties are also said to have been organized with children at the swimming pool, where children were touched and sometimes raped under the influence of drugs. There would be abuse of dozens of children."''

I also kept in touch with Marthijn and Lesley when they tried to build a new life in Ecuador. Marthijn let me know in the beginning that he was terrified that someone would find out their identity; they avoided places that (Dutch) tourists visited.

A few minutes before Marthijn was arrested, I contacted him through a mobile phone app. He was on his way to the Netherlands to reconsider his situation there and to prepare for the appeal. His last message: '"'We haven't done anything, but there are lies everywhere on the internet. Norbert also had problems, I think I will, too, at customs here. Fascism. I'm listening to the song Wonderful World at the airport. It's not the Louis Armstrong version, but a cover."''

A few days after the arrest, the first ominous messages began to reach me. Marthijn and Lesley had been tortured and beaten with hammers in prison by the mafia. The videos of this were sent to acquaintances, along with ransom demands. If no payment was made, the men would be killed. That money for the ransom was put together by some friends, and then transferred to the mafia through on-line pay sites.

A few days later, Lesley emailed me:

<blockquote>''"Marth and I came to Ecuador with the goal of starting a new life. Without activism. A life where we could just walk down the street. And we could just make friends with people. Many people know that we are innocent and have said so themselves. However, those statements were not in writing. We still need a lawyer. So he can take down the statements and bring them in. The beatings stopped a few days back, but you never know if they will start again."''</blockquote>

I got some photos of the cell and of the courtyard. And of the men, too. The photos didn't make me happy. Marthijn in particular looked terrible: he was skinny and sad. Lesley, despite his bruises, seemed to be doing better. He wrote me that he wants to donate the hotel and restaurant to a vegan movement and then, with the proceeds, his friends and the poor people from the village can be helped.

''''Swimming pool''''

More is now becoming clear about the arrests. Several reports had appeared in the local media, each time with the name "Tim Ballard" appearing in them. The hotel had (according to him) housed an international network of pedophiles, of which Marthijn and Lesley were the leaders. Hundreds of children were (supposedly) drugged, abused and sold for sexual purposes. "Sex parties" with children were (supposedly) regularly held in the hotel's swimming pool, something Free a Girl claimed as well. For now, it is enough to note that Marthijn and Lesley's hotel does not have a swimming pool at all!

Ballard ramped up coverage of us in the months following our arrest. He claimed in films that he had tracked down and liberated more than four hundred victims in the home of Marthijn and Lesley. He emphasized the conviction of Lesley (production of child pornography) and the case against Marthijn (continuation of a prohibited association). The snowball is keeps increasing in size as it rolls along.

Due to the coverage in the Ecuadorian media, the two men were transferred for security reasons to a secluded part of the prison, and they have a room they have to share with seven drug addicts. A lawyer is now in the picture, who keeps in touch with a family member of Marthijn.

After a while, Marthijn and Lesley managed to arrange a lawyer. She asked for thirty thousand euros to bribe the judge and the police. A day later this amount was increased to one hundred and sixty thousand euros. Maybe she too was threatened. The fact that communication took place via Google Translate did not make it any easier: the lawyer barely speaks English.

Together with the family member with whom the men were and are in contact, I decided not to take up the family member's offer, perhaps it was a trap. Fortunately, the family member got in touch with Lesley via the prison telephone, and he and Marthijn also wanted no illegal "hanky-panky", but they wanted a fair trial. The lawyer gave in, but she had to have money to do research and prepare the case.

Martijn and Lesley were now back in contact with their fellow villagers. They heard from them that Tim Ballard was paying the media to write the menacing reports. Reports also reached Martijn and Lesley that Ballard had paid witnesses to give false statements; if they refused - these friends had pointed out that Lesley and Marthijn were innocent - he threatened them with trial and imprisonment. They also heard that Americans in contact with Ballard were offering money to have them killed.

According to the lawyer, the first session, without Marthijn and Lesley, was halted by the judge; he wanted more money for him and his secretary. He also threatened to transfer the men to another prison if payment was not made.

'''Corruption'''

The tone of reporting in the Ecuadorian media has become even grimmer. The newspapers and web sites claim that Ballard has exposed the largest international pedo ring ever known. Not much later, Lesley and Marthijn were suddenly transferred to the most notorious prison in the country, the Guayaquil Prison. According to the lawyer, there were plans to hang Marthijn and Lesley in their cell and call it suicide. That explains the move.

Dutch lawyer Sidney Smeets tried to bring the case before the Ministry again, but that was not successful. He did get the addresses of three law firms that are "probably" not corrupt. Both the men's relative and their lawyer tried to call them in, but the lawyers wouldn't take the case: there is too much negative coverage in the media.

The extortion (asking for bribes) started again, as Lesley and Marthijn had become a "lucrative business model". Whenever I saw the area code for Ecuador on my cell phone screen, I wouldn`t answer the phone. The family member also stopped responding. Finally, the attempts at extortion stopped.

An "influential" fellow prisoner informed Lesley that he had brought them to Guayaquil because he wanted to use them for a prisoner exchange with the Netherlands. Whether that is true, we do not know, but Marthijn and Lesley were "safe" again. The lawyer indicated that he needed more money for the investigation, so we transferred money again; always in small amounts, so as not to arouse suspicion - Ecuador is known as a "suspect country" and business transactions are therefore prohibited.

During that time, Lesley sent us the following email:

<blockquote>''"Our lawyer is very bad, and probably a fraud. She has cost us more than U.S. $20,000 and the trial hasn't even begun yet. People here say she's a con artist. She recently applied to transfer us to Bahia, even though she knows that it is not safe for us there. Again, she did not consult with us first. And she had already indicated that she was no longer our lawyer. Also, this recent filing supposedly costs a few thousand dollars more. This country is all about extorting money, stealing money, blackmailing, and cheating."''</blockquote>

Nevertheless, Marthijn and Lesley generally did not sound bitter in their messages. I received many touching messages and texts, and the name Gandhi regularly appeared in them. Marthijn and Lesley advocate for peaceful protest, not hatred towards their enemies. And in believing what you stand for.

Other messages, on the other hand, were pretty grim. ''"Two days ago 14 dead. Prisoners have machine guns, pistols, knives, etc. We hear the fighting, shots and loud explosions, but they are at a another location, not far away."''

And this one, about a fellow villager: ''"Then comes a statement from G. who says "the police keep harassing me, I want this to stop. The police insist that I make false statements about Lesley. They offered me money to do so, and also things like a TV and a refrigerator. I saw that they also tried to bribe my sister, too."''

Lesley also told me that the person who tortured him and demanded a ransom in the first prison they stayed in has recently been murdered. And this: ''"The lawyer who had claimed to be from the mafho had asked for absurd amounts of money to help us get out of prison was also assassinated two months ago."''

'''National Award'''

Meanwhile, Tim Ballard received a national award from the wife of the president of <s>Mexico</s>[Ecuador<ref>[https://www.ourrescue.org/reports/2022-annual.pdf OUR 2022 Impact Report]</ref> - Newgon] for dismantling "the network" of Marthijn, Lesley and Nelson. It's unclear what happened to Nelson. However, it is suspected that Ballard set a trap for him and was present at Nelson's arrest.

In any case, when Lesley was arrested, Ballard was conspicuously present, dressed in a police uniform and equipped with a machine gun. His team filmed the spectacular arrest; the footage will be featured in a documentary that Ballard plans to put online in March 2023, "The Hidden War". He claims online that he intends to visit the Netherlands, among other places, to promote it.

The men have not yet seen a judge; without their being involved in the process, their detention has been extended several times. They still don't know exactly what crime they are suspected of having committed. Marthijn emailed Amnesty International about their case, and also about the lawsuit that is still pending in the Netherlands. The Amnesty spokesperson replied: ''"We do not focus on individual cases, but on situations where criticism (from the media, political parties, activist groups, lawyers and investigative committees, etc. etc.) of the authorities are deliberately and systematically blocked (as in China for example)."''

I emailed Evelien Holsken, from Free a Girl, and their spokesman, Arjan Erkel, who was once an innocent prisoner himself. I explained to them the situation in Ecuador, including the information about their partner, Tim Ballard. I indicated that I wanted a constructive conversation with them, and not one full of accusations. I got no response from them. It is likely that Holsken and Erkel are not pleased with the legal case that Free a Girl has brought to the public's attention with such bravado, which has put the men in fear of their lives.

''De Telegraaf'' interviewed Tim Ballard at the time. In response to the text submitted to him via Sidney Smeets, Lesley wrote, as I mentioned, that he is in close contact with friendly villagers:

<blockquote>''I heard that the children were detained by the police for 24 hours when I was arrested. And that they were repeatedly threatened with being beaten with batons. When they were hungry, they were not given food. Police were eating in front of the children, and laughing at them. Their parents sat outside crying. And it is understood that the police here are known to be violent. Tim Ballard was always there. And he threatened the parents several times. The problem is that if you report these things publicly, it is very risky. Tim Ballard can operate with impunity in these countries. With the money he has, he can wrap the police and the OM around his finger. And people don't dare stand up for themselves.''</blockquote>

''De Telegraaf'' decided not to publish the interview with Ballard.''

'''Brongersma'''

Meanwhile, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is also making its presence known again. This time, not to Marthijn and Lesley, but through a registered letter to the people who host the websites www.marthijn.nl and www.brongersma.info. On November 17, 2022, the Public Prosecutor wrote:

<blockquote>''The court is of the opinion that the website www.brongersma.info can be regarded as a continuation of the activities of an organization that has been declared prohibited by an irrevocable court decision. Continuing that activity constitutes a criminal offense as referred to in Article 140 paragraph 2 of the Penal Code . Taking into account the above, I urge you to make the illegal content inaccessible within 7 days and to remove it as far as possible.''</blockquote>

According to the Public Prosecution Service, the site www.brongersma.info should be taken offline and removed. Our host complied with the request, fearing prosecution and the associated expensive attorney fees. We have now obtained legal advice and it appears that the content of the site is not criminal and that the verdict does not stipulate that the site must go offline. Moreover, the destruction of the site cannot be requested because Marthijn's appeal has yet to be filed. Meindert Fennema and I are now investigating how we can get the site back online as soon as possible. The other site co-owners have discontinued their participation.

'''PEN Netherlands'''

Finally, the personal consequences. Of course they are completely insignificant compared to what Lesley and Marthijn are going through, but they say a lot about the (intolerant) zeitgeist.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that I have received the threats that were expected to come. It was no surprise to me, either. But I never realized that twenty years of work experience could evaporate in such a short time. My work experience as an economist, consultant, project leader, editor-in-chief, workshop leader, lecturer, etc. was suddenly worthless. The word "pedophilia" unleashes strange emotions.

When you type my name into any search engine, the word often appears, accompanied by unnuanced and highly biased reporting. (i.e."Pedophile Writer Supports Child Rapists.")

I was fired, clients said goodbye, my communication agency went bankrupt, performances and (literary) projects were (and are) cancelled, books were returned scratched, and social media did what they do best. The word "pedophilia" often appears in reviews of my books as well, showing that the public's opinions of the author are more important than the content of his books, and that is of course disastrous for book sales. My literary career continues to dwindle, to evaporate -- although that is not due to "Martijn" alone. The majority of my income is provided by the Dutch Foundation for Literature, for which I am very grateful, but of course this cannot continue indefinitely.

At the height of the threats and firings, I approached PEN Netherlands. Alexis de Roode said on behalf of the board that PEN did not want to help me. According to them, I had caused the consequences myself; with a subject like pedophilia one should know what to expect. I replied that a critical writer in Iran or China also knows what the consequences of his or her actions can be. Unfortunately, there is no help available, and even PEN is dominated by superficial activism. Kristien Hemmerechts experienced the same thing after she was threatened after the publication of her novel about Marc Dutroux's wife, The woman who fed the dogs. She knocked on the door of PEN Belgium and was told almost the same thing that I was.

Despite such large opposition, my motto remains unchanged: Always boldly forward! We are the zeitgeist!

We are now writing early February 2023. Marthijn and Lesley have been locked up in Ecuador for about eight months and they have still not appeared before a judge. The search for a non-corrupt lawyer there continues, as does the search for funds to finance the defense. According to the latest reports, the trial is scheduled for early March.

Marthijn's higher court appeal in the Netherlands is still pending, and no date has been set yet.

On February 3, Lesley emailed me:
<blockquote>
'''We only have 27 days left.''

''We don't have a (good) lawyer yet.''

''We don't have a dossier.''

''We don't have any witness statements.''
</blockquote>
'''Disclosure:'''

In writing this essay I have made use of some texts that I previously published, including Frayed Edges of Moral (Atlas Contact Publishers, 2013).

I've submitted the text to Marthijn and Lesley, to make sure I'm not putting them in any unnecessary danger; I removed some passages (referring to the Mafia). Lawyer Sidney Smeets has also read and commented on that earlier version. Norbert emailed the following: ''"This is a standardized reply. A portion of your email contains subject matter related to pedophilia, either explicitly or indirectly. Nowadays, certain Dutch nationals discuss such subjects in any way risk imprisonment. Therefore, unfortunately, it's too dangerous for me to respond to your email."''

==Rolling updates==

'''Update February 7th, 2023:'''

Lesley emailed me that OUR (Operation Underground Railroad) is back in Canoa and is offering parents big bucks to falsely testify:

<blockquote>''Because the police have nothing, they try to bribe the parents. They are offering large amounts of money. One of the parents told me: 'If I had said yes, I would never have to work again for the rest of my life. ''[...]'' OUR has promised family F., among other things, to buy them a house if they testify against me. C., who has been bribed, is said to have received, among other things, a piece of land in Jama. G. was promised large sums of money and a house yesterday. Tomorrow they will declare under oath.''</blockquote>

'''Update - February 9:'''

Arjan Erkel (ambassador of Free a Girl) sent me an concerned email after I sent him the essay. He indicated that he would inform Free a Girl about the case. A few hours later he emailed again. The contact person at Free a Girl had told him that I was not a neutral party, because I was a member of the Martijn association and was also a pedophile. Arjan asked me if it was true that I was a pedophile. My answer:
<blockquote>
''Hi Arjan, Free a Girl's response immediately indicates where things go wrong: prejudices and wrong assumptions – not good research. What are they basing their information on? And does it matter if someone is a pedophile?

''In addition, I wrote to you this morning:''

''"Arjan, thank you very much for your answer.''

''It is good to be informed about the activities of Free a Girl, because they go too far in their mission (which I sympathize with in principle).''

''Unfortunately, I know quite a few victims of abuse in my immediate vicinity, and I see that thirty or forty years later they are still struggling with the consequences. In all cases, however, it is not the work of a pedophile, but of a family member. Studies show that approximately eighty percent of child abuse takes place in the within the family, mainly by fathers. And that only is with regards to the reported cases – parents of victims within a family context are less likely to report. Because in such cases the domestic safety of the child is also at risk, given the overall lack of a sense of security, the impact is even greater than with 'strangers'. Moreover, 'situational paedosexuals' (heterosexuals) have penetration fantasies, while most pedophiles mainly want to give caresses, as they do not wish to harm the child.''

'''''My wife works in child welfare''' and she also sees this problem, but due to budget cuts they cannot do all that is necessary. Yet the government, the Public Prosecution Service in the lead, stubbornly continues to look the other way. Just like Free a Girl.''

''I think it would be better if Free a Girl focused its attentions on the main source of child abuse (and maltreatment!) in the Netherlands and not continue to pick the low-hanging fruit - and make a lot of noise about it. As I write in the essay, creating and then destroying evil symbols is detrimental to solving the problem and preventing future victims. Hubris and self-aggrandizing is also lurking in the background.''

''It is important to distance yourself from the Operation Underground Railroad, as they are deeply in the wrong - try searching Google, in particular Vice magazine has written a lot about Ballard and his associates.''

''Warm regards and good luck,''

''Anton."''
</blockquote>
'''Update - February 12:'''

''The site www.brongersma.info is online again.''

'''Update - February 14:'''

Arnon Grunberg published an article in ''[https://archive.is/zl1eT Het Parool]'' in which he draws attention to the bad practices of Tim Ballard / O.U.R.

Lesley told me that Ballard is absent in the process that starts on March 1st. A few fellow villagers are witnessed, however.

'''Update February 16:'''

The men have found a new (reliable) lawyer. According to Lesley, the file has recently changed (afterwards). Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have disappeared from the text as the reason for the arrest. Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that the arrest was based on lies, nonsense stories and prejudices of Ballard trying to keep his name out of the file.

'''Update February 20:'''

Marth & Lesley have told me that their lawyer has prevented parents from giving incriminating statements about O.U.R. and the police.

''"All lawyers here are liars who always claim something else."''

According to them, a false statement has been included from a woman who has received goods, a house and a piece of land from the police in exchange for fabrications about Lesley. There would be several witnesses that confirm this.

'''Update February 23:'''

I received an email from Nelson, from prison in Mexico:

<blockquote>''Nelson here.''

''The story about me is just as bizarre as Lesley and Marthijn. The police claimed that the head detective in my case was half a meter away and I was so nervous that I dropped a folder with child pornography on the street. Child porn from girls notable. Video images of Operation Underground Railroad shows that it is bullshit. I put the [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207031054/https://www.freespeechtube.org/user/Nelson whole story] on freesepeechtube.org including [https://web.archive.org/web/20230207015558mp_/https://www.freespeechtube.org/v/19jF charge] (which is atm offline for maintenance)''
''
Sincerely,''

''Nelson.''</blockquote>

'''27 Feb: [https://twitter.com/looovetinkebell/status/1630319860256317440 Interview with Dautzenberg and Tinkebell]''' (In Dutch, Twitter.com).

'''Update March 1:'''

The process in Ecuador has been postponed to 14 and 15 March.

The criminal file contains a passage that can be interpreted as saying that the Dutch prosecutor's office has given information to Free a Girl and Tim Ballard, and participated in the arrest of Marthijn and Lesley. Lawyer Sidney Smeets asked both the OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 16 February for clarification. Because there was no answer to this, he sent a remover. He then received an answer that they had not received the mail. (I was in the BCC, so very debatable.) But well, now they can't get away from it anymore.

'''Update March 2:'''

A message from Lesley:

<blockquote>''I'm going to talk about corruption in court. By name and by everyone. I want to inform you that I and Marthijn are not going to commit suicide. Regardless of what comes out. If we are found dead, I want to be very clear here that it was not suicide. Regardless of what it would look like according to the authorities. ''[...]'' Police who gets money from someone to preach lies. A judge who asks me personal money to release me. ''[...]'' Police who promised parents money, goods and houses in exchange for false statements. ''[...]'' My strength lies in that foreign media is following it. And I am sending it my file right now. So we wait.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 10:'''

Marthijn's new lawyer was refused entry to the prison despite obtaining written permission. She wants to prepare the case with her client. According to her, the defense is very bad so far, probably deliberately so. The necessary opportunities for entering and requesting evidence are wasted. The OM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have still not answered the letter from Sidney Smeets (March 1). The session will take place definitively on March 14 and 15.

'''Update March 14:'''

Lesley and Marthijn now have the same lawyer. She has now been partly paid, but she demands more money to "pay" the police and the judge. Lesley and Marthijn refuse; they do not want to participate in corruption.

<blockquote>''I am not going to give money to lawyers for whose entire strategy consists of corruption. I have told this lawyer several times that I do not want to spend 1 dollar on corruption. She asks for 22k in wages, but it appears that at least half of the 22k is intended for corruption. Therefore, lawyers have little interest in discussing the case, because their strategy is not making a strong plea, but simply giving all those present money. O.U.R. has already given the man far more than 20k. They are not going to support me if they would get 1 or 2 K from me. ''[...]'' If I knew everything in advance, I would not have taken a lawyer. And I could have given the children more in Canoa.''</blockquote>

'''Update March 16:'''

The process was extended by a day. The men get the impression that the lawyers are taking their own course, without consultation. The interpreter that is present during the process hardly speaks English, let alone Dutch. Lesley says that the parents who have to testify today are threatened by the police. They do not feel safe and do not want to testify without the presence of a reliable lawyer. Lesley asks for this today at the judge.

'''Update March 17:'''

The Dutch OM has finally responded to the letter from Sidney Smeets. However, they do not give a clear answer and beat around the bush. Moreover, the Public Prosecutor sends his answer (consciously) exactly one day after the hearing in Ecuador would have been officially completed. That hearing has been postponed to March 22. Lesley did not want to participate in corruption and fired the lawyer. The court now appoints its own lawyer. In addition, a Dutch translator will be arranged.

'''Update March 22:'''

The session with Marthijn and Lesley has been moved forward again.

Lesley said that documents have emerged on which the previous lawyer forged the signatures of Marthijn and Lesley. He sent a clear example. These were documents that gave her "permission" to act on their behalf.

An elderly Belarusian woman is now also involved in the process. She rented a room in the hotel from Marthijn and Lesley for a short period of time. According to Lesley, she too is a victim of Tim Ballard's lies. She is likely to be released due to health issues.

'''Update March 24:'''

The process will continue on March 31.

'''Update April 3:'''

Lesley informed me that the court-appointed attorney is very good. ''"Other lawyers could only talk about money and corruption. They were not aware of the matter. This one came up with a good defense against a statement from an agent."'' The agent has stated in court that his previous statements were incorrect. '''The case will continue on April 6.''' Three judges are now on the case; the chance of corruption is thus reduced.

'''Update April 12:'''

The men informed me that the process is well under way. Agents who lied earlier now tell the truth: children were not drugged and abused. The psychologist who spoke to the children reported that they were never touched. The neighborhood researcher indicated that the villagers are angry about the behavior of the police and that Lesley and Marthijn are good friendly people.

'''Update April 18:'''

The prosecutor is sick; the trial continues on May 3.

'''Update May 7:'''

The prosecutor is still sick, but he sends messages to the media. According to the men's lawyer, these are diversionary tactics, tricks, because he knows he is losing the case. The media reports also publish the [[Operation Underground Railroad|O.U.R.]] and [[Free A Girl|Free a Girl]] sourced information (which is demonstrably false). ''De Telegraaf'' has picked up those messages, spiced them up and provided them with even more suggestive (demonstrably false) information. Moreover, the 'journalists' of ''De Telegraaf'' do not refer to the adversity.

'''Update May 9:'''

OM man was absent again today. He now has until 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon to come up with a doctor's statement. He had to report whether he was still ill 24 hours before the hearing, but had not reported anything. And that OM man indicated last week, after being called why he was not there, that he was about to undergo surgery. Two hours later he was present at another court case as a public prosecutor… If he does not come with a doctor's statement, his department will be fined. But everything is fraud here… Another negative article about us in the media here by the same author but now on another news site.

'''Update May 10:'''

Today the NOS has taken over an article from RTV Oost. It was written by an anti-pedo activist, not a journalist. It is based solely on reports in the Ecuadorian media and on erroneous assumptions. The information is demonstrably false and suggestive. Lawyer Sidney Smeets is in consultation with both NOS and RTV Oost about a rectification on behalf of Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update May 11:'''

NOS has removed the message. ''"On closer inspection, the article turned out not to meet the journalistic standards of the NOS. We have not been able to sufficiently verify the facts so far and have decided to withdraw the article until further notice."'' RTV Oost has also removed the message. A gang war is currently raging again in Guayaquil prison. Lesley said that they are also being shot at. ''"Tim Ballard declares that I raped 400 children in 1 village. And would have smuggled 6000 children and women from Ukraine to Latin America. Such things are not possible at all. Certainly not without leaving evidence."''

'''Update May 13:'''

The judge has issued an ultimatum to the Public Prosecution Service, which has now been delaying the court case for more than three weeks by not showing up: a (new) public prosecutor must take office within 24 hours, otherwise he threatens to dismiss the case. According to the lawyer, the attitude is of the Public Prosecution Service most likely a deliberate strategy; when the judge dismisses the case, both they and the police can remain unaffected. It is time for a quality Dutch newspaper to finally delve into the process, a journalist who is not out to confirm prejudices – so far they systematically refuse to do so.

'''Update May 16:'''

According to the men's lawyer, the Public Prosecution Service has not yet made any statements. Lesley: ''“It is now 4×24 hours later (96 hours). I wonder when a decision will be made. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday. ''[…]'' Letting us speak on the basis of system errors is the best outcome for them. They know they are losing the case. Hence the negative media reports. When we get out they are going to portray the judges and us as corrupt.”''

'''Update May 19:'''

The sessions have started again.

'''Update June 13:'''

The trial is nearing its end, and a verdict is expected at the end of this week. "Lawyer against us: there is no evidence against you, but I can't say that you will be declared innocent, this is Ecuador, you never know what is going on behind the scenes."

'''Update June 20:'''

Judgment is at 9 p.m.

Message at 7:48 p.m:

<blockquote>
Minutes crawl by. Kitten normally sleeps on my bed all day. And plays outside at night. Now she slept all night. And now she's playing outside. Hopefully we can still get her out. Life in prison is not fun for animals either. Not everyone is as sweet as us. While there is 0 evidence against us and parents stand up for us and tell us about police corruption, the chance of staying in jail because of corruption remains very high. All parents and children in Canoa are also tense. Many could not sleep. Hopefully I'll be on the mountain with all of them tonight. Looking at the sea. With some beers and cocktails. Now lunchtime. Hopefully the last time I have to eat meat.
</blockquote>

Message at 22.59: 'Conviction for possession of child pornography. Ten years.'

'''Update June 21:'''

Much is unclear, the verdict has not yet been made available. [https://www.telegraaf.nl/nieuws/816563997/pedo-marthijn-u-samen-met-compagnon-veroordeeld-tot-10-jaar-cel-voor-kinderporno De Telegraaf] took over a message from an Ecuadorian site and blew it up, but did not translate it properly. The men were reportedly only convicted because 'child pornography', mainly TikTok videos, was allegedly found on Marthijn's computer and on Lesley's phone. All charges of O.U.R. and Free a Girl have been rejected, contrary to what De Telegraaf claims. More information will follow when the verdict becomes available.

'''Update June 28:'''

The written verdict has not yet been released. Marthijn is not doing well; he is depressed and cries all day. Lesley seems to remain fairly stable and constructive. The men are appealing.
Parents in Canoa, the village where Marthijn and Lesley lived, post messages on social media in which they call O.U.R. accusing them of misusing photos and videos of their children to illustrate alleged acts of heroism. O.U.R. claims to have saved the children after the parents allegedly sold the children.

'''Update July 3:'''

The written judgment has not yet been made available; therefore no appeal can be lodged yet, even though there are legal deadlines attached to this. The Dutch & Detained Foundation contacts the Ecuadorian lawyer to prevent the appeal from being declared inadmissible.

'''Note from Newgon Org, Jul 5''':

It is worth mentioning at this point, a large post made on the blog of Dautzenberg, which includes statements made by Marthijn. These will require translating and checking over, as they are in Dutch and Spanish.

But the gist of these messages is that the men have been set-up, and Dautzenberg does not doubt their innocence. The absurd claims made by O.U.R. and their state-funded Dutch partner were found to be without credit in court, and were dismissed with extreme prejudice. Thus, a charge had to be concocted to bring the prosecution to a credible conclusion for the well-funded and well-connected charities who had initiated the arrests, but whose lies could not pass in a court of law. And thus, a decision was made by the judge to aver on the balance of probabilities that material obtained from freely available and highly controlled websites such as [[Wikipedia:Pornhub|Pornhub]] and [[Wikipedia:TikTok|TikTok]] featured people marginally under the age of majority in "sexual" situations. It is against these claims that the men will appeal, and will seek to mobilize a liberal element in Dutch journalism, to shine a light on the injustice.

'''In two parts:'''

*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/persbericht-gevangen-in-ecuador-we-zijn-onschuldig/ PERSBERICHT – gevangen in Ecuador, ‘We zijn onschuldig’]
*[https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/07/teksten-van-marthijn-uittenbogaard/ Teksten van Marthijn Uittenbogaard]

'''Update July 5:'''

A press release [above] has been sent to about thirty media addresses. Added two texts by Marthijn.

'''Update July 7:'''

Marthijn responded to the message that an agent in the Netherlands has been sentenced to one day in prison, because he violated the duty of confidentiality (about rapper Lil Kleine) and because he sent sexually tinted messages to a twelve-year-old girl and tried to get her to commit fornication. “If Lesley or I committed those two sex offenses, I suspect we would get years. Plus possibly TBS.'

'''Update July 13:'''

The written verdict is still not available, so the appeal cannot yet be lodged. As far as is known, nothing has been done with the press release that was sent to thirty media outlets in the Netherlands on 5 July. Apparently there is no room for adversity, for the sound of Marthijn and Lesley. Perhaps the journalists are just too busy closely following the vicissitudes of the Hazes, De Mol and Op1 families. Lesley and Marthijn are now in contact with the American YouTube journalists who critically investigate Tim Ballard's crusades inspired by God.

'''Update July 16:'''

Tim Ballard has left O.U.R. He travels the world to promote Sound of Freedom, a feature film about his (alleged) exploits. His successor at O.U.R. is Matt Osborne, also reportedly a far-right Mormon and QAnon supporter. Lesley from prison: "You'd think O.U.R. very interesting for critical journalists. Apparently pedo hunters are untouchable, even if it is very clear that the people who are arrested are probably not pedos.”

'''Update July 24:'''

According to VICE, Tim Ballard has left not only O.U.R., but also the Nazarene Fund, a similar organization. He was fired for sexual misconduct on missions and financial malpractice. His documentary The Hidden War, with footage of the arrest of Lesley and children (‘victims’) from the village, is unlikely to be broadcast; O.U.R. deleted all information about it.

In the prison of Marthijn and Lesley, a fight broke out between two gangs and the police. "Bombs have exploded in our pavilion and a tank has driven in, the prison shop is completely broken."

'''Update July 27:'''

The death toll of the uprising has risen to 31. Lesley and Marthijn are unharmed and indicate that peace has returned and that they feel relatively safe.

They received the news about Thijs Römer from their cell. The actor has persuaded several underage girls to send him masturbation photos and videos. He himself sent dickpics. The Public Prosecution Service demands community service. Lesley and Marthijn would receive years of imprisonment for the same offense, because the Public Prosecution Service condemns their orientation, their inner world. Lesley on the case in Ecuador: 'We are political prisoners. Amnesty does nothing either. Here too, an Ecuadorian would not get a cell for what was found with us: adult pornography and a girl who dances like Beyoncé and who recorded it herself.

'''Update August 4:'''

Dutch & Detained has contacted Marthijn and Lesley's pro bono lawyer and informed him of the legal term for publishing the judgment and for the appeal. Both have been amply exceeded, but according to the lawyer, this is how it works in Ecuador and it could take months before the judge releases the written verdict.

Things are going well with the men. Peace has returned after the great uprising and they are learning Spanish. Fortunately, Marthijn is no longer depressed, but he is angry with those involved. He especially seeks solace in the songs of George Michael and Bruce Springsteen.

'''Update August 14:'''

In the wing of the Guayaquil prison where Lesley and Marthijn are detained, the Ecuadorian army removed and transferred the leader of one of Ecuador's largest gangs in a large-scale raid last Saturday. Adolfo Macias Villamar, aka Fito - sentenced to 34 years in prison for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder - is suspected of involvement in the deadly attack on presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio. Weapons, ammunition and explosives were found during the raid. All cells in the wing were searched and telephones seized, including those of Marthijn and Lesley. So there is no longer any contact with them. Last Friday, Lesley announced that they are making progress in learning Spanish. ‘Marth practices for hours every day with Duolingo and reading books. His vocabulary is wide. But he can't understand people very well. I understand people. And can have conversations. But vocabulary is insufficient. I can read well. I use whatsapp and social media a lot in Spanish.' He also sent a photo of their fully healed pussy. As far as is known, the written judgment has still not been made public.
I have informed my contact persons at Dutch & Detained and Probation Service.

'''Update August 21:'''

A befriended fellow villager reported that Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe and that they will probably be able to communicate again soon. They have not eaten for days, but money has now been transferred to the prison so that they can buy water and food.

Dutch & Detained and Probation Service have not yet responded to the messages.

'''Update September 7:'''

There were riots in several prisons in Ecuador last week. Guards were taken hostage by prisoners, but have now been released. It is not clear whether this also happened at the location where Marthijn and Lesley are located. Contact with the men is not yet possible.

'''Update September 9:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going reasonably well and they feel relatively safe again. However, they were tortured by the army during the raids: they had to lie on their stomachs on the concrete floor for more than four hours, with their hands and feet tied. The soldiers also demolished a lot: doors, cupboards and television sets.

'''Update September 17:'''

Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are under heavy fire in Ecuador. They are accused of fabricating the liberation of alleged child abuse victims in Canoa, and threatening innocent people and children who claim otherwise. The allegations also relate to corruption; they allegedly bribed police and high-ranking officials to confirm their fake stories. The Ecuadorian minister says that not a single victim has been found, Ballard continues to cling to four hundred victims. Official charges are being prepared, including by the parents of children who have been wrongly portrayed as rape victims by Ballard and co. In the meantime, Marthijn and Lesley are still in custody and have still not received the written verdict.

'''Update September 28:'''

The allegations against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Reportedly, American Crime Journal will further investigate and report on 'Canoa'. They say they have evidence that O.U.R. bribes judges to get people convicted. Lesley and Martijn have still not received a written verdict and the lawyer assigned to them cannot tell them what exactly they have been convicted of. Dutch&Detained also receives no answer. We are diligently looking for money to arrange a good lawyer, so that he can provide clarity and prepare the appeal.

'''Update October 9:'''

We have managed to free up money. Dutch&Detained will try to arrange a reliable lawyer and will supervise the process contractually. The Unmasking of Tim Ballard and O.U.R. in the American media is progressing well.

'''Update October 21:'''

American Crime Journal journalists are working on a series of articles on the Canoa case. They interview children (and their parents) allegedly by Tim Ballard and O.U.R. have been kidnapped, abused and pressured to give false testimony about alleged abuse. VICE also prepares publications. We contacted the NRC correspondent in Ecuador, but he did not respond. Dutch journalists still do not want to delve into the case.

'''Update October 31:'''

The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances. The written judgment has still not been published. Dutch&Detained is trying to find a reliable lawyer. American Crime Journal is working on a series of articles about the case. The Dutch media still look the other way.

'''Update November 8:'''

Shots are fired again in Guayaquil prison. Explosions can also be heard again. The drug wars between different gangs are partly fought in prison. Marthijn and Lesley try to remain aloof as much as possible. They are holding up relatively well under the circumstances and are even trying to follow the Dutch elections. Marthijn in particular is concerned about the further rightward movement of our country. 'Asylum centers will soon become full or half prisons.' Yet there remains room for gentleness. 'Try to enjoy life and don't worry too much about all this nonsense. How's your book going?'

'''Update November 20:'''

Another person has been found dead in the men's pavilion, a murder or suicide.

ING still refuses to cooperate in a transfer of Lesley's savings; they make impossible demands and do not delve into the situation. We need the money to hire a reliable lawyer and pay off debts.

Good news: the men were able to buy fruit this week for the first time since the arrest. And Lesley celebrated his birthday this week. A fellow inmate cooked noodles for him in a pot heated with electric wires, in exchange for a bar of soap and a sachet of detergent – €1.35 in total.
We are still waiting for the written verdict.

'''Update November 30:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available.

The criticism and charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Several American journalists have become involved in the case.

After much insistence, ING has indicated that it is willing to cooperate in releasing Lesley's assets. We now have to wait for a reliable lawyer; Dutch&Detained is still working on that.

Marthijn and Lesley will regularly write a text from prison; the texts can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2023/11/berichten-uit-ecuador/ here].

'''Update December 10:'''

Lesley had an allergic reaction this week: swollen lips, little air. Fortunately, the complaints disappeared after a while. He is a vegan, but in prison he has to eat whatever is served to him. He has had several life-threatening allergic reactions in his life. According to him, there is no doctor in prison and there are no medicines either. He's worried. “God gave me a bad body.”

'''Update December 21:'''

The written judgment has still not been made available and made public.

Dutch & Detained has not yet managed to find an Ecuadorian lawyer willing to take on the case.

Lesley and Marthijn are doing quite well.

'''Update December 31:'''

Still no written judgment, still no lawyer, still no money from ING...

Let's hope that 2024 will go more smoothly and the truth will prevail.

'''Update January 9, 2024:'''

A state of emergency has been declared in Ecuador following the escape of Fito, the country's most dangerous criminal. He sat in the same pavilion as Lesley and Marthijn. The newsreels do not bode well: all the prisoners lie half-naked on the ground, their hands and feet tied with tie-wraps. To date it has not been possible to contact Lesley and/or Marthijn.

'''Update January 11:'''

The situation in Ecuador is rapidly deteriorating, a spiral of violence has gripped the country. Nothing has been heard from Marthijn and Lesley for days. It is unknown where they are and how they are doing. The Foreign Affairs diplomatic mission has made contact with the Ecuadorian prison system (SNAI).

'''Update January 13:'''

Lesley called me collect call from prison. I paraphrase: 'The police carried out raids with brute force for four days. Each time I was handcuffed and had to lie on the ground in an awkward position for six hours. I was kicked in the head at least twenty times and in the back several times. The police also stood on my arms and spat in my face. Even though I didn't resist and cooperated. Other prisoners were pepper-sprayed and beaten even harder; the skin had split open and blood was pouring from the head. Les Choneros gang members then wanted to take revenge and attack and kidnap the guards, just as those from Los Lobos had done in another prison, but several inmates convinced the mafia not to do this and to call for peace. It is now quiet again. Many prisoners here are innocent, while murderers and mafia leaders are acquitted. Everything is corrupt here, money gets you free. We refuse to participate in that, justice must prevail.'

'''Update January 21:'''

The army invades several times a week. Marthijn: 'Layed on the ground for nine o'clock today, my wrists tied. The army sprays pepper spray. We were kicked, hit and verbally abused several times. Also, someone had to wear a devil mask and hit everyone hard twice with a stick, while shouting with each blow. It was hell. I also lost my reading glasses. The army tears up my written texts, including my Spanish lessons. With army boots they stood on my shoulder blade, arms and fingers. They empty bottles of water over our mattress and throw sugar, coffee powder and all our belongings on the floor.' Lesley: 'The soldiers use extreme violence. I have been hit in the face many times and had pepper spray rubbed into my face. We were beaten with clubs, tortured for ten hours. Two prisoners died during the previous raid, today I also thought I would not survive. Report it to the Foreign Office, report it to the consulate, ask Arnon to pay attention to it together with Amnesty.'
Dutch&Detained, the Probation Service, the Foreign Affairs and Arnon Grunberg have been informed.

'''Update January 30:'''

Communication with the men is becoming increasingly difficult, the army is present in the prison with a heavy hand. Below is an illustrative photo; Lesley (dark brown underpants) and Marthijn (blue underpants) are in the back row, above the right of the soldiers. [Picture in original link - Newgon]

Dutch&Detained has not yet managed to find a reliable lawyer (via Amnesty and other contacts). The offices approached do not want to be exposed to the subject that has already been so emphatically framed in the media. Image formation is more important in Ecuador.

The written judgment has still not been made available. An appeal is therefore not yet possible.

Something else: today there is an article in the Volkskrant about child abuse within the family. It states that the environment is usually aware, but does not intervene. “We find child abuse so terrible that we prefer to pretend it doesn't exist.” I add: and that is why we look for scapegoats to alleviate the dissatisfaction and feelings of guilt. It was that pragmatic reflex that put Marthijn and Lesley in this situation. With thanks to the Public Prosecution Service, which also chooses the path of least resistance.

'''Update February 12:'''

Unfortunately, still no written judgment and no lawyer. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update February 26:'''

Still no verdict and no lawyer.

A fifth lawsuit is now underway against Tim Ballard and O.U.R.

Marthijn has written a letter to the Ombudsman following his investigation into the Dutch state's unlawful terrorist list. The letter can be read [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2024/02/brief-van-marthijn-aan-de-ombudsman/ here].

'''Update Mar 11:'''

After six days of no contact, the men finally heard back, albeit indirectly. The reports are alarming. They are tortured every day by the army and have multiple wounds. All their belongings have been taken and they are barely fed. In addition, they should pray out loud every day to God and ask Jesus for forgiveness. If they do not do so, they are beaten with a wooden stick or iron bar.

The written judgment has now been delayed for eight months, while the legal period is ten days. Dutch & Detained has not yet been able to find a reliable lawyer.

'''Update Mar 17:'''

Still no contact with the men. The authorities involved have been informed.

'''Update March 21:'''

Lesley came forward through a fellow inmate. The violence by the soldiers continues, they are beaten with whips and clubs while they have to call on Jesus. Lesley is injured. The prisoners are forced to say in front of TV recordings that everything is okay; if not, they are hit with an electroshock weapon. They also get little food, Marthijn is emaciated. They are given one minute to eat, then their hands have to be raised and the remainder of the meal is taken away. The soldiers tell the prisoners that Marthijn and Lesley have abused and raped children, but most prisoners know the case and know that this is nonsense. 'But we are strong, we will make it. Sad that the international community is barely responding to the circumstances. Marth asks how your book and such are going.'

'''Update March 26:'''

Lesley and Marthijn, like their fellow prisoners, are still beaten by the military, but only when the prison authority SNAI is not nearby. They expect the soldiers to leave within two weeks and that it will then become relatively safe again. The story goes that in another pavilion prisoners died after being abused. The transfer of money via Foreign Affairs and the consulate to the prison shop was successful; Martijn and Lesley are allowed to place a small order once a week: cheese spread, slice of cake, some nuts and banana chips.

'''Update April 3:'''

There was another riot in the prison last weekend, making physical visits impossible. Volunteers from the consulate are trying to arrange a video connection to provide official information about how Lesley and Marthijn are doing.

At the request of the Foreign Affairs, the Honorary Consul has contacted several law firms, but none of them want to take on the case. The Honorary Consul in Quito also does not want to assist the men as a lawyer. Lesley and Marthijn still do not have a reliable lawyer. The written judgment is also omitted, so that no appeal can be filed. Image formation and bureaucracy rule, the law is subordinate to it.

'''Update April 16:'''

The soldiers are still present in the prison, but Marthijn and Lesley feel relatively safe. In the meantime, we continue to wait for the verdict and a lawyer.

'''Update April 27:'''

No contact for almost a week. According to media reports, things are wrong again in the prison; Food from outside is no longer allowed inside.

'''Update May 6:'''

There is contact with the men again. Things are going well considering the circumstances.

'''Update May 12:'''

The army is present 'only' three times a day, usually during meals. The soldiers hit less often, but they did take away all the belongings, including the mattresses. Lesley and Marthijn have been sleeping on concrete for a month. They have lost the Spanish textbooks, so they are bored. The pro bono lawyer remains silent. They want a reliable lawyer who can take action as quickly as possible. The head of security is (still) on their side, but there are guards who believe the media reports and accuse Marthijn and Lesley of kidnapping and raping hundreds of children. At the moment they are not very concerned about their safety, but that may be motivated by naivety and/or resignation. Their greatest need is a lawyer.

'''Update May 24:'''

Finally in touch again. Lesley had to be treated by a prison doctor because of the blows he received, but he says he is doing reasonably well again. He and Marthijn try to arrange a transfer to an LGBTQ department with the prison authorities. The authorities in the Netherlands initially have no influence on this. In the meantime, they continue to wait for the written verdict and a reliable lawyer.

'''Update June 11:'''

There has been no contact with the men for three weeks.

'''Update June 22:'''

There is still no contact with the men. The authorities involved also have no current information about the situation. Dutch&Detained has managed to find two Ecuadorian lawyers who want to take up the case. They try to contact the prison.

'''Update June 29:'''

Finally received another sign of life from the men. Things are going fairly well considering the circumstances, although they get little to eat and are only allowed to leave their cell briefly once a week. Lesley takes care of some stray cats. They are bored and hope that the consulate will deliver some books soon. He also indicates again that he wants to be transferred.

The Ecuadorian lawyers will try to visit the men this week. The consulate has also planned a video call.

'''Update July 3:'''

The lawyers visited Lesley and Marthijn and had a constructive discussion. They start working on the case. Initially, they concentrate on obtaining the written judgment.

'''Update 12 July:'''

The appointed lawyers are investigating the status of the legal case, because Marthijn and Lesley have been waiting for the written verdict for almost a year. The consulate made two video calls with the men last week. Marthijn and Lesley are still sleeping on the concrete, they are not allowed to leave their cell or are hardly allowed to leave it and they only get a meager meal once a day. They only have one pair of trousers and three T-shirts. They have explicitly stated that they want to be transferred to an LGBTI department, but that the military does not want to pass on their request to SNAI, the prison authority. Marthijn and Lesley are also regularly physically and verbally abused by the military. The consulate will now mediate and keep a finger on the pulse, so that the transfer request actually reaches the director of SNAI.

'''Update 15 July:'''

The verdict appears to have been made available to the public lawyer last May. He then filed an appeal and that was supposed to be heard this week. Marthijn and Lesley were not informed of any of this. The new lawyers are now taking over the case and have asked the judge for a postponement in order to be able to prepare properly for the appeal. As far as is known, Marthijn and Lesley were only convicted for ‘possession of child pornography’. So not for producing child pornography, kidnapping, rape, selling children, pool parties and all kinds of other nonsensical allegations as presented in the Ecuadorian (and Dutch!) media – with OUR and Free a girl as the main sources. Both Marthijn and Lesley and the lawyers strongly deny that the images found concern child pornography.

'''Update 24 July:'''

Nothing has been heard from Lesley and Marthijn in the past two weeks. Dutch&Detained is in close contact with the Ecuadorian lawyers. It is not yet known when the appeal will be heard. ABN-AMRO is being difficult about the management account with which we support the men and their legal case. It ‘poses risks for the bank that we cannot accept’, while there is legal and fully transparent cooperation with all the authorities involved. Distrust is the reagent that makes bureaucracy ferment.

'''Update July 28:'''

Alarming messages from Ecuador. Lesley and Marthijn are constantly being abused by the military. Lesley is seriously injured and has fainted several times; he has been electrocuted and beaten so badly that he cannot walk or lie on his back. Soldiers put pistols to their heads and say that they will soon be shot dead. Lesley indicates that they will not survive the continuous violence. I have informed all the organizations involved, because the men must be transferred to a safe department quickly. Code deep red/black.

A bizarre contrast: a beach volleyball player who was convicted a few years ago for abusing a minor is participating on behalf of the Netherlands at the Olympic Games. According to the NOC, everyone deserves a second chance. That is right, but it is cruel that the Netherlands hardly or not at all looks after two pedophile citizens who are being held in Ecuador under miserable conditions and who have never (not even in Ecuador) been convicted for abusing a minor.

'''Update July 31:'''

Tim Ballard is back in Ecuador, this time to promote his (heroic) film Sound of Freedom. And at the same time, the media is once again reporting on Indian stories about Marthijn and Lesley.

'''Update August 11:'''

No contact or news from prison. The team of lawyers and the authorities involved are working on arranging a transfer to an LGBTQ department. The date of the appeal is not yet known.

'''Update August 12:'''

The appeal will be heard on August 23.

'''Update August 15:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been transferred to an LGBTQ-friendly department.

The appeal will be heard on August 23. The lawyers are hopeful; according to them, there is insufficient evidence to support the charges, but the media's image plays a major role in rulings.

'''Update August 19:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are doing reasonably well. They are given little to eat and the people in the new department are unpleasant, but they feel safer. For the first time in a long time, they have received books, although unfortunately they are in German. They are looking forward to the appeal.

'''Update August 24:'''

The appeal did not go ahead. The hearing has been postponed until September 11. The reason is not yet known.

'''Update September 6:'''

Yesterday, the prison in Guayaquil was bombed. How the men are doing is not known.

'''Update September 9:'''

Lesley and Marthijn are safe. The appeal is scheduled to be heard on September 11.

'''Update 13 September:'''

The judge's ruling has been upheld in the appeal. According to the lawyers, their defence was not listened to.

'''Update 17 September:'''

The honorary consul spoke to the men via video call. The situation in the LGBT pavilion is even worse than in the previous section. They share a cell with an aggressive transvestite whose behaviour ensures that they get little or no food. In addition, they are still being abused by the military, and the prison authority SNAI is aware of this. The men are called ‘child abusers’ and are constantly receiving threats from fellow prisoners. They are only allowed to leave their cell for fifteen minutes a week to walk around the courtyard. Marthijn (almost two metres tall) weighs less than sixty kilos and faints regularly. They want to be transferred back to the previous section as soon as possible, because they say they were still somewhat protected by the mafia there.

'''Update 23 September:'''

The Ecuadorian lawyers confirm that the regional court had already made the decision (confirmation of the verdict) before the hearing. They have now spoken to Marthijn and Lesley. They are opting for cassation, because they want to see their innocence proven. Transferring the sentence to the Netherlands is therefore off the table for the time being. According to the lawyers, the Court of Cassation is less sensitive to pressure from the media, although the process could take more than a year. The lawyers are trying to have the men transferred back to their old department, where they feel less unsafe.

'''Update October 4:'''

A message from Lesley. They no longer trust the lawyers, because they did not coordinate the defense with him and Marthijn. There was no substantive consultation and they were only told afterwards that the hearing had already taken place - without them. They want the sentence to be transferred to the Netherlands as soon as possible. The authorities involved have been informed about this. Dutch&Detained is planning a video call with the lawyers.

'''Update October 17:'''

A lawyer from Dutch&Detained has spoken to the men. They have been transferred to another cell and have been given nicer cellmates. They absolutely want to appeal because they want to continue fighting for their innocence. WOTS (serving a sentence in the Netherlands) is therefore not an option for the time being. The video call was again terminated prematurely.

'''Update October 23:'''

The charges against Tim Ballard and O.U.R. are increasing. Click [https://americancrimejournal.com/plaintiffs-file-lawsuit-against-tim-ballard-and-operation-underground-railroad-for-human-trafficking-violations/ here] for the latest news.

'''Update October 27:'''

I spoke to Marthijn, Lesley and lawyer V. via Zoom for an hour and a half last Thursday. The men have two new cellmates and that is going well. They have also not been beaten by the military for a while. Marthijn looked bad, he is much too thin. Lesley seems to be coping better with the detention. They are only given German books, but their German is improving. V. showed the images from the file that were labelled as child pornography by the judge. She took the time to discuss each image with the men. In Marthijn's case, it concerns about twenty images that were on his laptop. It was almost laughable: watercolours, paintings, a postcard from a Dutch bookshop (bought during one of my book presentations; I remember it well, in Livius De Zevensprong), covers of Dutch and American magazines (children in sports shorts etc.) and a few images that come from the internet, but no child pornography. Bizarre to see. In Lesley's case, it only concerns three videos on his mobile phone, originating from TikTok: a dancing girl (with clothes on), a showering boy (only upper body visible) and an official instructional video of a doctor examining a boy (with underwear on) with a stethoscope. Again, no child pornography. According to V., there is no burden of proof and the men were only convicted because of the media attention. Moreover, procedural errors were deliberately made and the appeal had already been settled in advance, the judge is corrupt. That is also the reason why the men were not heard; they were ready for the Zoom connection with the courtroom, but the judge refused to open the link. He was probably afraid that Marthijn and Lesley would start talking about corruption, Tim Ballard and O.U.R. and that this information would end up in the file. V. is hopeful about the cassation, because the court in Quito is known to be less corrupt, but it cannot give any guarantees in that regard. She expects that once the written verdict is available and they can officially appeal, it will take another year before the case is heard. Martijn and Lesley's hotel is safe for the time being; it can only be confiscated after completion of the entire process, and then only if the $20,000 fine imposed by the court is not paid on time. Marthijn said that he has not been able to speak to anyone in the Netherlands for a year and a half and that it is hard for him. When he started talking about his mother who recently turned eighty, he had to cry. V. will try to arrange a phone call with her. She is also open to speaking to the journalist from Nieuwsuur; according to her, it is important to create a counter-voice in the media. I encouraged the men and promised to continue helping them. It was nice to see and hear them, but also hard. What is happening to them is so unfair and I feel relatively powerless. The lawyer made a good impression: empathetic and professional.

'''Update 12 November:'''

The written verdict has not yet been made available, so there is still the possibility of appealing.

The journalist from Nieuwsuur has been put in touch with the Ecuadorian lawyers and with a Spanish colleague who is investigating corruption in Ecuador with the El Paccto project.

'''Update 13 November:'''

Revolts have broken out again in the Guayaquil prison. The media reports fifteen dead and dozens injured. I do not know how Marthijn and Lesley are doing; I have not heard from them since the Zoom conversation.

'''Update 14 November:'''

The men are safe, the uprising took place in Guayas 1 and they are in Guayas 4.

'''Update 27 November:'''

Nothing more heard from Lesley and Marthijn. The lawyers in Ecuador have not yet announced whether the written verdict has been received, so that the men can appeal in cassation.

'''Update December 10:'''

Dutch&Detained is trying to arrange a phone call between Marthijn and his mother before Christmas, together with the Ecuadorian lawyer. No further news. (Although, ABN-AMRO is again being difficult about the management account and is coming up with bizarre allegations.)

'''Update December 22:'''

No news. Unfortunately.

'''Update December 30:'''

Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to have Marthijn call his mother. According to the lawyers, filling in and assessing 'all kinds of paperwork' takes longer than hoped. In short, the bureaucracy is an obstacle. The written verdict has also not yet been made available.

'''Update January 6, 2025:'''

The volunteers who were supposed to visit Marthijn and Lesley on December 27 unfortunately did not receive permission from the prison authorities. It is therefore still unclear how the men are doing.

'''Update January 8:'''

The phone call between Marthijn and his mother failed again, partly due to the 'bungling' of the prison authorities. D&D is trying to arrange a conversation again.

'''Update January 21:'''

The conversation with the mother has not yet worked out. The verdict has not yet been handed down in writing. No contact with the men yet. The relevant authorities are working on it.

'''Update January 26:'''

As far as known, no changes. We are trying to hire an additional lawyer to supervise the Cassation.

'''Update January 31:'''

Next Thursday, the phone call with the mother is scheduled.

'''Update 7 February:'''

Marthijn was finally able to video call his mother today. Unfortunately, she had no good news; last week, Marthijn's 55-year-old brother died suddenly.
Marthijn and Lesley are doing pretty well. They are in a cell together with a third prisoner with whom they fortunately get along. One problem is that they have to stay in their cells almost 24 hours a day; the military are still present in the complex. Thanks to the monthly deposit, they can regularly buy food in the prison shop. The much too thin Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Marthijn and Lesley speak pretty good Spanish by now.

'''Update 12 February:'''

The men managed to send some voice messages. They are doing reasonably well, although the military continue to harass. They sounded constructive.

'''Update 24 February:'''

Things are still going reasonably well with the men. We hope that soon the written verdict will be available so that they can finally go to Cassation.

ABN-AMRO threatens to cancel the management account; the ‘accusations’ are bizarre and mainly driven by bureaucracy and mistrust. The bill is used to pay the lawyers (in consultation with Dutch&Detained) in Ecuador and the monthly deposits (through the Ministry of foreign affairs) for the prison shop, so that Marthijn and Lesley can buy vitamins and fruit.

Attorney Sidney Smeets filed an objection on my behalf.

'''Update 10 March:'''

ABN-AMRO ignores the objection and eliminates the bill in mid-May. As this will lead to further problems, the organisations involved have been informed. So be prosecuted.

There are no major developments from Ecuador. Things are going pretty well with the men.

'''Update March 25:'''

The complications with ABN-AMRO have not yet been resolved, the process is proceeding slowly. Obstructive bureaucracy, in both countries.

A member of the embassy has visited the prison. The men are doing reasonably well. It could take another three years before a final verdict is issued, which is six years after the arrest.

'''Update April 7:'''

ABN-AMRO is threatening to proceed with the cancellation of the management account in mid-May. The Dutch Probation Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are trying to reverse this, but the bureaucracy fueled by distrust is stubborn.

'''Update April 17:'''

A lawyer from the Dutch Probation Service has delved into the case. He has found nothing that justifies the cancellation of the account 'other than arbitrariness and suspicions'. The bank probably does not want to be associated with the men and/or Ecuador. We are considering a judicial decision.

'''Update April 21:'''

Marthijn's birthday is today. The treat: a rusk with jam.

'''Update April 30:'''

The lawyers cannot get through the wall that ABN-AMRO is putting up. The account will be liquidated in two weeks. I am now working on plan B, so that the men can continue to be helped: legal assistance and food.

'''Update May 8:'''

The volunteers of Reclassering Nederland have spoken to the men via ZOOM. They are doing reasonably well, Marthijn has gained a few kilos. Less violence is used by the soldiers in the pavilion. The men are four in one cell and they are only allowed to air out for twenty minutes a week. The mattresses they lie on are very thin and need replacing. However, the latter is difficult to achieve.

'''Update May 15:'''

Plan B has been implemented. The men are assured of legal assistance and sufficient food. Fuck ABN-AMRO!

'''Update by Newgon, 15 May:'''

[[Norbert de Jonge]] has returned to the limelight, posting a [https://fstube.net/w/s5S9cYUow8FjGC3DTxP6c4 video] on multiple sharing platforms. We have reproduced it on FST.

'''Update May 27:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The main thing now is to wait for the appeal, but that could take a few years…

'''Update May 29:'''

Message from Lesley: ‘A lot of military violence again today. People revolted. Pistols were pointed at us. A warning shot was fired into the roof. The revolt did not stop there, but became more violent. It only became calmer when the prison management itself intervened.’

'''Update June 6:'''

Marthijn and Lesley announced that they have been transferred to another cell in the same pavilion.

'''Update June 9:'''

For the time being, no visits are possible due to the security situation in and around the prison. The appointment with the consul has therefore been postponed until further notice.

'''Update June 17:'''

The kitten that Lesley was caring for was bitten to death by malnourished dogs. Other cats were tortured by the military; live kittens were used as footballs. Marthijn wants to file a complaint via Konijnen in Nood.

'''Update June 23:'''

The (recently expanded) team of lawyers has managed to smooth out and accelerate the legal process. The cassation will be heard next Friday. We were able to keep it quiet for a long time, but unfortunately there was a leak to Tim Ballard – he has connections in the highest regions. Ballard is now in Canoa and is trying to influence the judges with videos, messages and interviews. In the name of God. Once again he speaks of large-scale abuse, kidnappings, rapes and sex parties. In his messages he shows photos of Marthijn, Lesley and their hotel. The media are eagerly diving on it again. Image formation is more important in Ecuador than the truth and the country is thoroughly corrupt. The outcome of the cassation can be guessed. A reaction from the men: 'A lot of tension. We sleep badly with only bad dreams. Little hope. The system is too corrupt. Bad people often seem to win and are described as heroes.' Lesley and Marthijn previously indicated that when they are released they will file an (international) lawsuit against Ballard, O.U.R. and Free a Girl.

'''July 18th Update:'''

There is still no verdict, the legal deadline (ten working days) has been significantly exceeded. The lawyers have no explanation for this. The prison shop has been closed for three weeks, leaving the men with insufficient food.

'''July 20th Update''':

The shop is open again, but the military only allows the purchase of cleaning supplies, not food. Marthijn and Lesley are starving and weakened. Furthermore, the number of tuberculosis infections in the cells is increasing. The relevant authorities have been notified.

'''Update August 3:'''

Marthijn and Lesley have been moved to a new cell. There is no food for sale in the prison store, but bread and bananas will likely be available for sale soon. Due to hunger and weakened immune systems, the tuberculosis epidemic has escalated (more than 500 infections in Guayaquil prison, dozens of deaths); several pavilions have been cleared for patients. The appeal: still no verdict.

'''Update August 14:'''

The appeal has been rejected. The lawyer's response: "It surprised us all. But we understood why the court took so long to give us a verdict. The judges were looking for a way to deny us the appeal. Each of the arguments was dismissed on silly and unfounded grounds, for reasons that were even alleged by us, although the court said that was not stated. All this time they were looking for reasons to deny us, and it became evident that the decision had already been made. We would understand that this is related to the arrival of Tim Ballard that week." We are increasingly disappointed with the corrupt justice system in this country.

'''Update August 17:'''

Food is still unavailable in the prison store; the president of Ecuador currently considers it an unnecessary luxury. The number of tuberculosis deaths is rising; a large proportion of the prisoners are malnourished and lack exercise, and there is also a shortage of medicine. The mafia controls the regular food distribution in the kitchen; for a fee, you can get twice the allowed portion. Any leftovers are divided among the other prisoners. Lesley and Marthijn do not participate in this out of solidarity with the prisoners without money. They have, however, exchanged cleaning supplies for six sandwiches a week. These come from outside the prison, so they do not disadvantage the other prisoners.

'''Update September 3:'''

The men have been moved to another cell. They feel safe there, as they were already friends with two of their three cellmates. They also finally have access to the prison shop again; their credit (for three months) has been replenished. They have also managed to transfer additional money so the men can purchase vitamins and nutritional supplements. Finally, the process for sentence transfer to the Netherlands has been initiated – WOTS, the Act on Transfer of Enforcement of Criminal Judgments.

'''Update September 24:'''

The men are doing relatively well. No news on the legal front.

'''Update October 20:'''

Things are still going relatively well. The regime has been relaxed somewhat; the men are allowed to leave their cells for 45 minutes every Saturday and Sunday. They are reading a lot, especially German and Spanish books. The shop is open again.

'''Update November 10:'''

Dozens of people have died in prison riots in Ecuador. Fortunately, the location where Lesley and Marthijn are being held has escaped unscathed this time.

'''Update December 8:'''

The men are doing reasonably well, given the circumstances. The sentence transfer process has been initiated, but this may take some time.

'''Update January 16:'''

The situation remains unchanged. Marthijn and Lesley are reading, drawing, and writing extensively. They are still waiting for information about the sentence transfer. It is now up to the Dutch authorities to make an initial assessment.

'''Update February 15:'''

No news. They are still waiting for the sentence transfer to the Netherlands.

Marthijn is writing a diary in Spanish in prison. [https://www.ahjdautzenberg.nl/2026/02/dagboek-marthijn/ Click here] to read it.

'''Update March 1:'''

Military personnel have searched Marthijn and Lesley's cell and destroyed all drawings and writings. Furthermore, there is a tuberculosis epidemic in the prison, but there is a shortage of medication. The organizations involved have been notified. Nothing is known yet regarding the possible transfer of sentences. The men are doing reasonably well considering the circumstances.

'''Update March 16:'''

The process surrounding the transfer of sentences is proceeding slowly; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects to establish contact with Ecuador soon. The men are not receiving the medication they need; the prison authority SNAI is blocking this. Lesley is trading food for medication for a skin infection. Money has been stolen again from the men's account at the prison shop. Despite everything, they report that they are doing well considering the circumstances.

===Latest update===

'''Update April 16:'''

The situation is, factually speaking, unchanged. Unfortunately.

'''Update May 22:'''

The men are doing reasonably well. They are reading, drawing, and painting. Lesley sent a portrait he made of Greta Thunberg, a woman he admires. Unfortunately, there is no news to report yet regarding the transfer of sentences.

'''Update June 24:'''

No change in the situation.

'''Update July 24:'''

The situation is (unfortunately) unchanged.

'''Update August 2:'''

Lesley and Marthijn have been moved to another pavilion due to a major tuberculosis outbreak.

'''Update 20 August:'''

The men are doing relatively well in their new cell. Lesley has painted a large world map on the wall together with a fellow inmate. There is no news regarding the transfer of their sentence.

'''Update 6 September:'''

Police raided the cell again during the night. They dealt blows and stole food and medication.

'''Update 22 September:'''

For months, the men have been unable to buy food from the prison shop. The mafia is blocking this and also controls the prison kitchen. The prisoners are receiving less and less food, forcing them to turn to the mafia for sustenance. Marthijn and Lesley refuse to play along, resulting in starvation, stomach pain, and dizziness. I have informed the relevant authorities and urged them to expedite the transfer to the Netherlands.

'''Update 27 September:'''

The prison shop is once again accessible to Lesley and Marthijn.

<hr>

SEE ALSO:
[https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7a3qw/a-famed-anti-sex-trafficking-group-has-a-problem-with-the-truth A Famed Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Has a Problem With the Truth ''(Vice)'']

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

<hr>

''This translation is courtesy of the user [https://www.boychat.org/ycdtobc/messages/119860.htm Manstuprator at BoyChat].''
[[Category:Essays]][[Category:A.H.J. Dautzenberg's Essays]]

Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity

2026-09-25T17:12:01Z

Jim Burton:

{{Template:Adj}}__NOTOC__
:''Formerly allied '''LGBT''' (at the time Gay) and '''MAP''' (at the time Man/Boy Love and Pedophile) groups are referred to by their present names in the title of this article, and parts of the body text.''

The modern '''LGBT''' ('''2SLGBTQQIA+''' among other variations <ref>Explanatory Note: 2SLGBTQQIA+ has been endorsed by Justin Trudeau (see gallery) during his time as Prime Minister of Canada. It has become a culture war cliche, to refer to the ever-expanding list of letters and symbols in the LGBTQ+ acronym. Is it a co-incidence that these new ''inclusive caveats'' have arisen after the point at which pedophiles were ''excluded'' from the umbrella?</ref>) lobby is famously insistent and defensive<ref>[https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jun/08/instagram-posts/internet-created-flag-for-pedophiles-is-not-connec/ Fact check] in which inaccurate/since debunked claims about the [[MAP Flag]] and the Gay Movement's history with pedophiles are repeated, and the representative of a Gay Advocacy organization accuses MAPs of being "disordered" and inhuman.</ref><ref>Notably, it is a common claim within liberal social media circles (in response to [[pedophobia|pedophobic]] attacks on the LGBTQ+ community), that the ''"LGBT community never had anything to do with pedophiles"''. It is technically correct that the exact concept of an "LGBT community" emerged at roughly the same time [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|as the exclusion of pederasts from the gay-lib movement]], and that pederasts are technically [[hebephilia|hebephiles]] rather than pedophiles. However, the key caveat of MAPs existing within what are now known as queer and LGBT communities, is rarely acknowledged, either out of ignorance, or in service of simplifying the narrative.</ref> in its distancing attempts towards [[Minor Attracted People|MAPs]]. Young LGBT people are routinely lied to by older community leaders about the history of their movement in embracing pederasts/pedophiles, providing shelter to "loved boys" and agitating for the removal of [[Age of Consent]] laws<ref>Jenkins, Philip (2006). Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America. Oxford University Press. p. 120</ref> - for example, at the 1985 ILGA conference detailed below.<ref>For a detailed scholarly article on the relationship between NAMBLA and ILGA in U.S. history, see Tyler Carson (Rutgers University, PhD) [https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/ilga/ilgaintro The International Lesbian and Gay Association’s Suspension from the United Nations, 1993-1994], (2024/2025, ''Out History'').</ref> They also tend to ignore the pederastic roots of their movement, the dominance and normalcy of pederasty and age gap relationships throughout human history, and presence of teenage hookers at Stonewall to name but a few inconvenient truths.<ref>For the domiance of age gap relationships, there are many relevant sources in peer-reviewed scholarship. See, for example, Cleves, R. H. (2020). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/48729159 The Problem of Modern Pederasty in Queer History: A Case Study of Norman Douglas]. ''Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques'', 46(1), 47–61; Amanda Littauer's article on "Queer Girls and Intergenerational Lesbian Sexuality in the 1970s" in the same issue, with its [[Testimony:_Adult_Female_with_Minor|cases documented in our testimonials]]. More broadly, see [[Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History]] and [[Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships]] for further reading and examples. For the presence of teenage sex workers at Stonewall, search this page for relevant info.</ref>

'''To MAPs, and others using MAP awareness to their advantage in a debate''':

When LGBT people deny these facts, they may be corrected using the sources here. While LGBT [[Validity Policing]] frequently takes place on social media (and at the same time, many of us do not presently wish to associate with the LGBT Movement), it is still important to point out uncomfortable, widely-acknowledged historical facts.<ref>[https://www.schwulesmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Protokoll_Distanzierung-ist-noch-keine-Aufarbeitung.pdf Schwules Museum: on Distancing "pedoactivists" and their history with the Gay Movement]</ref> There are also [[Queer Theory|arguments in favor of]] identifying MAPs as "queer", or at least building alliances with others who feel marginalized by or disappointed with the corporate nature of the modern mainstream LGBT community and identity. [[Allyn Walker]], for example, studied 'The Use of Queer-Spectrum Identity Labels Among Minor-Attracted People', finding varied responses and reasons behind MAPs identifying as 'gay', 'queer', and so on. Walker also noted the history of association between MAPs and other queer communities.<ref name="Walkerstad">Walker, A. (2019). “I’m Not like That, So Am I Gay?” The Use of Queer-Spectrum Identity Labels Among Minor-Attracted People, in ''Journal of Homosexuality'', 67:12, pp. 1736-1759. Generally available for free via '''[[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 1]]''' in shadow libraries, doi: 10.1080/00918369.2019.1613856. ''"While MAPs often struggle to disclose their attractions to friends and family, LGBT individuals and other queer communities continue to have these struggles as well. Even with this and other commonalities, however, MAPs are not generally accepted by queer communities. This was not always the case. Multiple researchers have explored ties between gay rights organizations and MAPs lasting from the 1960s and declining until, in some cases, the early 1990s (Chenier, 2008; Janssen, 2017; Paternotte, 2014; [https://sci-hub.usualwant.com/10.1300/j082v20n01_15 Thorstad, 1991]). Thorstad (1991) quoted a 1969 article in a gay newspaper as saying, “‘Off the consenting adults bullshit!’” (p. 251). He added, “the Stonewall Generation [...] affirmed the joys of an outlaw sexuality in the face of the outmoded moral norms of the dominant society,” (p. 252), showing acceptance of individuals with attractions to minors."'' (p. 4).</ref>

===A timeline===

We use pink highlighter to draw attention to key developments.

====1858-1969====

The very [[wikipedia:First_homosexual_movement|beginnings of the gay movement]] were literally steeped in ''[[Pederasty|pederastic]] imagery'', since it represented most of homosexuality's recorded history. The publications of [[wikipedia:Friedrich_Radszuweit|Friedrich Radszuweit]], the leader of Germany's first mass homosexual organization (the ''League for Human Rights''), included images of male youths in his publications.<ref>See, e.g. the research of Javier Samper Vendrell, ''Seduction of Youth: Print Culture and Homosexual Rights in the Weimar Republic'' (University of Toronto Press, 2020). [[https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zQPcDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=info:X1Ae6ip5E1wJ:scholar.google.com&ots=bOfiDN_xs8&sig=OpMeM6EaeBdAOdkl6ZAYAzypB1U Google books] link].</ref><ref>See also, Rottmann, A. (2023). [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/878052 of the book The Seduction of Youth: Print Culture and Homosexual Rights in the Weimar Republic, by Javier Samper Vendrell]. ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', 32(1), 105-109.</ref><ref>For further reading on the politics of adolescence in Weimar Germany, see Vendrell, J.S. (2018). [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/703546 Adolescence, Psychology, and Homosexuality in the Weimar Republic]. ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', 27(3), 395-419.</ref> In Britain and America, the group of writers known as the [[Uranian Poetry|Uranians]] (1858-1930), including [[Oscar Wilde]], Edward Carpenter, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Ralph Chubb, challenged anti-homosexual prejudice through writing on the subject of Ancient Greece or "[[Greek Love]]": the love between older males and male youth.

The Uranian writer John Addington Symonds (profiled on BoyWiki),<ref>[https://www.boywiki.org/en/John_Addington_Symonds BoyWiki: John Addington Symonds]</ref> inspired by "gay" (pederast) author [[Walt Whitman]],<ref>See the work of [[Charles Shively]]. See also, Jeremy Lybarger, [https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/jeremy-lybarger-walt-whitmans-boys/ Walt Whitman’s Boys] (''Boston Review'', May 30, 2019).</ref> is credited as being the 1st person to use the term "homosexual" in the English-language<ref>In Jan 2023, the Wikipedia page for Symonds stated: ''"The work, "perhaps the most exhaustive eulogy of Greek love," remained unpublished for a decade, and then was printed at first only in a limited edition for private distribution. Although the Oxford English Dictionary credits the medical writer C. G. Chaddock for introducing "homosexual" into the English language in 1892, Symonds had already used the word in '''A Problem in Greek Ethics'''."'' For the full-text of Symond's book, see [https://www.boywiki.org/en/A_Problem_in_Greek_Ethics_(Full_Text) BoyWiki.]</ref> in his book ''A Problem in Greek Ethics'', written in 1873 and privately printed in 1901. This work was also the 1st to use the term "[[Boylove|boy-love]]", considered accurately as another form of homosexuality in the Uranian effort to defend and advocate for same-sex love. The American Uranian poet [[Edward Perry Warren]]<ref>[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Edward_Perry_Warren BoyWiki - Edward Perry Warren]</ref> also authored an early defense of same-sex love, in his 3-volume magnum opus (1928-1930), ''A Defence of Uranian Love''. In an even earlier defense of homosexuality published in 1749, the English writer [[Wikipedia:Thomas_Cannon_(author)|Thomas Cannon]] published ''Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplified'', which argued that: ''"Unnatural Desire is a Contradiction in Terms; downright Nonsense. ''[...]'' Nature sometimes assumes an unusual Appearance; But the extraordinary Pederast seeking Fruition, is as naturally acted as the ordinary Woman's Man in that Pursuit."''<ref>The Indictment of John Purser, Containing Thomas Cannon's ''Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd'', Edited by Hal Gladfelder, in ''Eighteenth-Century'', 31 (Number 1, Winter 2007), p. 54. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ancient_and_Modern_Pederasty_Investigated_and_Exemplify%27d Copyright free text available online (external link)].</ref> Finally, "the first homosexual novel", ''[[wikipedia:Alcibiades_the_Schoolboy|Alcibiades the Schoolboy]]'' (1652) by Antonio Rocco, portrays age-gap homosexuality / [[pederasty]] (reprinted in 2000 with an [https://greek-love.com/index.php/europe-5th-17th-centuries/alcibiades/introduction-alcibiades-the-schoolboy-pederasty?highlight=WyJ3YWx0ZXIiLCJicmVlbiJd Afterword] by [[Donald_Mader|Mader]]).

The first anthology of homosexual literature to be published in America - [[Men and Boys: An Anthology (1924)]] - is credited to the American Uranian poet [[Edward Mark Slocum]]. "In ''Inversions'', the first French homophile periodical" published from 1924-1926, the Queer historian [[Kadji Amin]] writes that, "two men with such opposed politics as Camille Spiess, a Swiss-born fascist sympathizer, and [[Andre Gide]], a leftist critic of colonialism, both celebrate pederasty as a virile culture-building and nation-sustaining form of homosociality" (Amin, p. 117).<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/md5/a4bfa9ca1e6ff4fb00bf63cf570f0c2e Kadji Amin, ''Disturbing Attachments'' (2014)], p. 117.</ref> A member of the first French homophile organization "Arcadie" (founded in 1954)<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadie Wikipedia on Arcadie]</ref>, recalls that “back in the 1950s, the idea of a stable, lifelong partnership with someone his own age was not part of his personal homosexual identity” and goes on to relate this to the unavailability of a homosexual identity distinct from [[pederasty]] before the 1980s" (Amin, footnote 51, p. 220).<ref>Amin, ''Disturbing Attachments'' (2014), footnote 51, p. 220.</ref>

As shown by gay historian [[Hubert Kennedy]], one of the earliest and longest lasting gay journals - the Swiss '''Der Kreis''' (''The Circle'') published from 1932 to 1967 and distributed internationally - included numerous short stories and poetry about men and youths in sexual relationships as well as drawings of pubescent boys.<ref>Kennedy, H. (1999). ''The Ideal Gay Man: The Story of Der Kreis''. New York: The Haworth Press; co-published simultaneously in [https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wjhm20/38/1-2 Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 38, Numbers 1/2]. See p. 1 and especially chapter 9: 'Man and boy' ([https://sci-hub.st/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J082v38n01_10 Sci-hub link]).</ref> '''Der Eigene (''The Self-Owner'', 1896-1932)''', the very first Gay Journal, focused on pederastic writings and photography, and "advocated classical pederasty as a cure for the moral flabbiness of German youth". Scans are available via Wikipedia.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Eigene Wikipedia - Der Eigene]</ref> ''Der Eigene'' was founded by Anarchist activist '''[[Wikipedia:Adolf_Brand|Adolf Brand]]''', who in 1900 published the first anthology of gay poetry in Germany, called [[wikipedia:Lieblingminne_und_Freundesliebe_in_der_Weltliteratur|''Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltliteratur'']]. Compiled by '''[[wikipedia:Elisar_von_Kupffer|Elisar von Kupffer]]''', Kupffer wrote a preface arguing for homosexuality (including between men and boys) as an integral part of society. Later, '''von Kupffer''' moved to Switzerland with a male friend and possible lover, establishing himself as a muralist. After years spent making photographic studies of boys for use in the creation of his paintings, Kupffer transformed his villa into an opulent collection of art - the ''Sanctuarium Artis Elisarion'' - which "consisted of a monumental painting by Kupffer of eighty-four strikingly similar naked ephebic youths in various positions."<ref>[https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/129225040/Oosterhuis_2000_Elisar_von_Kupffer_Gay_Histories_and_Cultures.pdf Oosterhuis, H. (2000). Elisar von Kupffer (1872-1942). In G. E. Haggerty (Ed.), Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (pp. 524-525). Garland Publishing].</ref>

[[David Thorstad]] notes of the Germans:

:''"The issue of love between men and boys has intersected the gay movement since the late nineteenth century, with the rise of the first gay rights movement in Germany. ''[...]'' A few (Hans Blüher, for example, famous for his book on the Wandervogel movement) believed that pederasty and male bonding provided a basis for a stronger nation and state - a view that, in a perverted form, found a distorted expression in the militarism of the Hitler Youth."''<ref name=ThorstadPed>[https://www.nambla.org/pederasty.html Pederasty and Homosexuality - David Thorstad, 2003.] See also on [[Text of Pederasty and Homosexuality|Newgon]].</ref>
[[Image:Haykiss1994.jpg|thumb|1994: [[Harry Hay]] blows a kiss. By this time, [[NAMBLA]] was already highly unfashionable]]
A 2021 journal issue entitled "''Restoring Intergenerational Dynamics to Queer History''"<ref>[https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/historical-reflections/46/1/historical-reflections.46.issue-1.xml Restoring Intergenerational Dynamics to Queer History]</ref> reminds us that intergenerational love and eroticism represent an integral part of Queer history; before terms like "homosexuality" - once designating same-sex attraction - came to be associated with "androphile" or "adults only." In her book on the once famous and influential pederast Norman Douglas [[Norman Douglas|(see book review)]], Historian [[Rachel Hope Cleves]] quotes from [[Kadji Amin]]:

:''"According to Amin, “modern pederasty,” which he defines as age-differentiated sex, was the dominant form of male same-sex practice until the mid-twentieth century. As he reminds readers:''

::''Virtually all late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century canonical authors now remembered as “gay” — including Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde (whose famous “love that dare not speak its name” was pederasty), Marcel Proust, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, Jean Genet, and even James Baldwin — participated in and, in some cases, wrote about age-differentiated same-sex erotic relations"''<ref>Rachel Hope Cleves, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/4fb01d8582cb462bf79d0cf28a43bf00 Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality] (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020) (p. 6)</ref>

In their book chapter "''Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History''," [[Gert Hekma]] and [[Donald_Mader|D. H. Mader]] survey the history of recorded male same-sex eroticism through surviving photography artwork. They conclude: "The history of pederasty is to a large extent the history of homosexuality, and vice versa". Reflecting on the dire consequences of expansive definitions of "child pornography,"<ref>[https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3156232 Hessick, 2018]</ref> which can in some jurisdictions include drawings, animation, writing, and any material said to feature people under 18 years of age with any hint of erotic significance, Hekma and Mader note that the mere possession of much material discussed by past LGBTQ historians could now be considered illegal. They argue that, "When the age for “child pornography” rises to 21, a very significant part of the visual history that the LGBT community now celebrates becomes off limit." <ref>[https://archive.org/details/censoringsexresearch Gert Hekma and Donald H. Mader. (2013). Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History, in ''Censoring Sex Research''.]</ref>
[[File:One---announcement-for-an-analysis-of-boylove-1968.jpg|thumb|[[wikipedia:One_Institute|One Inc.]] ad for the talk ''An Analysis of Boy Love'' (Dr. Bruno Vitale), set to take place on June 10th, 1968.]]
In the American [[wikipedia:Homophile movement|Homophile movement]], the [[wikipedia:One_Institute|One Institute]] (f. 1952 as ONE Inc.) published the nation's first wide-circulated, national homosexual periodical ''ONE Magazine''. ONE's writings and speaking events are known to have included pederasty / boy-love, as with the (pictured) example of Dr. Bruno Vitale, a "Friend of ONE" who had "presented this topic at ONE's 1959 Midwinter Institute and has written on numerous occasions for One Magazine and One Institute Quarterly." ONE also assisted in creating ''The Ladder'', a magazine published by the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States - the [[Wikipedia:Daughters_of_Bilitis|''Daughters of Bilitis'']] (f. 1955) - who named themselves after the Ancient Greek character Bilitis from [[Pierre Louys]]' [[Intergenerational_Lesbianism|Sapphic/pederastic]] poetry collection [[Wikipedia:The_Songs_of_Bilitis|''The Songs of Bilitis'']] (1894). After emerging from a [[Harry Hay|Mattachine Society]] discussion held on October 15, 1952, the One Institute is now considered the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the United States.<ref>This last claim is made in Wikipedia, linked above. To learn more about the One Institute from one of its founders and leaders, see [[wikipedia:W._Dorr_Legg|Dorr Legg's]] book [https://www.amazon.com/Homophile-Studies-Practice-Dorr-Legg/dp/1879194171 ''Homophile Studies in Theory and Practice''] (written and edited by Dorr Legg, co-edited by David G. Cameron and [[Walter L. Williams]], One Institute Press / GLB Publishers, 1994).</ref>

Keith Vacha, a gay writer whose work appeared in ''Fag Rag'', interviewed over 100 homosexuals from the pre-Stonewall generation (born around 1900) for his book ''[[Testimony:_Adult_Male_with_Minor_Male|Quiet Fire]]'', and noted "a high degree of inter-generational relationships among the men I met" (''Quiet Fire'', 1985, p. 217). On the basis of his interviews, Vacha attributed this tendency "not so much to preference as to their lack of hesitancy in entering into such age-segregated relationships. The stigma against these kinds of relationships does not appear to be as strong in the gay community as it is in society in general." (pp. 217-218).

Homosexual sexual contact (including [[pederasty]]) remained illegal, with same-sex desire widely taboo and stigmatized until the liberation movements of the 60s.<ref>"In 1965, The Detroit Free Press ran a series of articles aimed at parents who were "concerned with rearing sons who are manly and daughters who are truly feminine." [... The] syndicated advice columnist Ann Landers reported that "70% of the mail I recieve from boys 14 to 19 concerns their homosexual tendencies, begging for help, terrified someone may lean they aren't 'like everyone else.'" - Quoted in Shepard, Nikita. (2026). [https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sex.00057 "I Just Had to Write”: Queer Youth Letters in the Mid-Twentieth-Century United States."] ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', vol. 35, no. 1, 2026, pp. 135-143 (p. 135).</ref><ref>For some interviews with gay men who experienced life in the 1950s, who experienced the-then extreme pressure to seek therapy as a coping mechanism for living with their hidden, extremely stigmatized sexual feelings that if exposed threatened to ruin their life - see [[Gary Dowsett]]'s 1996 book [https://annas-archive.gl/md5/60eb6c41c74e5b450140e2078f99a6f7 ''Practicing Desire: Homosexual Sex in the Era of AIDS'' (Stanford University Press, 1996)]. (Annas Archive link).</ref> People with same-sex desire faced being arrested, physically attacked or killed, and feared becoming outcasts and social rejects if they opened up to friends, colleagues, and parents.<ref>For an experience of a gay teen being chased at knife-point by his parents, see Barney's recollection of being chased around his kitchen at knife-point by his mother (“I'll cut it off!”), after she discovered him engaging in sex play with another child. ''Ibid''. p. 14; p. 260. For an account of seeking therapy to cope with a hostile society, see ''Ibid'', the story of Ralph Coles, pp. 124-125.</ref> With effectively ''no age of consent'' for homosexuality, the movement was age-queered as inter-generational sex was no more illegal than same age homosexuality. Witch-hunts such as the earlier [[Boston-Boise affair|Boise controversy]] targeted pederasts in the name of curbing homosexuality - since the homosexuals were largely pederasts. During the 1950s and 60s, gay commerce began to expand with the circulation of physique magazines sporting "images and illustrations of nearly naked men, as well as articles, letters from readers, and advertisements, [which for many] served as an initiation into gay culture." "With circulation rates many times higher than the openly political "homophile" magazines," it has been argued that "gay commerce was not a byproduct but rather an important catalyst for the gay rights movement."<ref>Johnson, David K. [https://annas-archive.org/md5/63375a4cfaaadfcec13c528b9df355f8 ''Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement''] (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019). Here, we quote from the book description / blurb.</ref> Boy prostitution was also common form of homosexuality in this intervening period, with many such examples documented.<ref>[http://greek-love.com See, e.g. Greek-Love.com] emphasis on works of [[Parker Rossman]].</ref><ref>See also, Romesburg, Don. (2009). [https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sex.0.0061 “Wouldn’t a Boy Do?”: Placing Early-Twentieth-Century Male Youth Sex Work into Histories of Sexuality]. ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', 18(3), 367-392.</ref> Some of our man-boy [[Accounts and Testimonies|accounts and testimonies]] also refer to this revealing period in time.

====1969: The Stonewall Myth====

'''Stonewall Inn, NY, 1969:''' Research has revealed the presence of underage rent boys and street kids at Stonewall, a joint known for its lax door policies; cultivating a collection of underage hustlers, drag queens, transsexuals and ailing pederasts.<ref>[https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/gay-rights-stonewall-riots-what-happened-lgbtq/ History Extra: Explains door policies and the kind of community at Stonewall]</ref><ref>[https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/june-2019-stonewall-fifty-unfinished-gay-revolution-riot Origins: Underage Boys at Stonewall]</ref><ref>[https://www.cntraveller.in/story/what-exactly-happened-at-stonewall-inn-that-night-new-york-pride-lgbtq-riots/ Conde Nast Traveller: "drag queens, hustlers, older men who liked younger guys"]</ref><ref>[https://news.airbnb.com/sharing-the-stories-of-the-stonewall-uprising/ AirBNB - Group of underage kids, and more underage at Stonewall]</ref><ref>[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stonewall-inn-riots-50th-anniversary-interview-lgbtq-elders-uprising/ Underage and drawn into the riots: "They just wanted the police to lay off"]</ref><ref>[https://allthatsinteresting.com/stonewall-riots AllThatsInteresting: A favorite with the underage]</ref><ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/when-it-comes-stonewall-myths-are-famous-riots-n1016616 NBC News: More references to underage]</ref> There was a network of corruption involving the Feds and the Mob, who exploited this consensual trade in underage boys, using it to extort Wall St traders and others. The bars, many of which were frequented by hookers aged 14-18+ (the more mature end of the boy trade in New York<ref>[https://greek-love.com/americas/boy-pederasty-prostitution-in-new-york-1968 Drew/Drake - BOY PROSTITUTION IN NEW YORK IN 1968]</ref>) were generally run by the Mob, and would pay the Feds off with money raised via this extortion racket/pleasure-boy trade. When said financial relationship broke down (or when politicians and officials were seeking to promote themselves as champions of Law and Order), raids occurred - as was common with sex shops, brothels and bars of that era. London's Soho gay village had a so-called "meat rack" of boys as young as 10, much like the major American cities.

A few accounts from Stonewall follow:

:''"'''Bob Kohler''' used to talk to the homeless youth in Sheridan Square and said, "When people talk about Judy Garland's death having anything much to do with the riot, that makes me crazy. The street kids faced death every day. They had nothing to lose. And they couldn't have cared less about Judy. We're talking about kids who were fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. Judy Garland was the middle-aged darling of the middle-class gays. I get upset about this because it trivializes the whole thing."''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/questionofequali00deit Deitcher, David, ed. (1995). ''The Question of Equality: Lesbian and Gay Politics in America Since Stonewall.'' Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-80030-1.]</ref>
[[File:Stonewall-Stein.png|thumb|The Stonewall Riots, by Marc Stein (source used)]]
:''"The crowd was young, some of them very young, the Stonewall being known for its underage crowd. In fact, it turned out that the purpose of the raid was to bust a Mob blackmail ring being run out of the Stonewall. The Mob was using underage hustlers to entrap older gay men, mainly from Wall Street, and extract money from them."'' - (Personal Account, '''Lucian Truscott''').<ref>[https://www.salon.com/2017/06/28/the-night-they-busted-stonewall/ The Night They Busted Stonewall - Lucian Truscott]</ref> He has described them as between 15 and 17<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/stonewall-participants/ Truscott in PBS]</ref>

:''"In Stonewall’s heyday you had underage hustlers, people selling drugs, and it was really a seedy place,"''<ref>[https://observer.com/2006/08/stonewall-to-shutter-queen-bees-stinging-glad/ David Carter Quoted in Observer.com]</ref> According to Carter, historian and author of ''Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution'', the ''“hierarchy of resistance”'' in the riots began with the homeless or “street” kids, those young gay men who viewed the Stonewall as the only safe place in their lives.<ref>[https://www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-timeline History.com: Hierarchy of resistance]</ref><ref>[https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/us/1969-stonewall-riots-history/index.html Carter and Marcus: Rainbow of kids. Homeless]</ref>

It is a gross simplification to present the riots as a crystallizing moment rooted in a conscious political sea-change.<ref>[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stonewall-Riots-Documentary-History/dp/147981685X ''The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History'', By Marc Stein, 2019]</ref> We know there was already decades of organizing and a widespread feeling of resentment towards law enforcement. Yet we also know the street kids and transvestites who were seen to fight back probably had nowhere to return to that early morning, and acted for reasons other than immediate political demands. Nevertheless, within a month of Stonewall, some radical youth organizations such as the youth wing of NACHO were already calling for the abolition of ages of consent, among other demands.<ref>[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/1969docs.asp NACHO Youth Wing - Abolish AoC]</ref><ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_Our_Children Save Our Children]</ref><ref name=deorio>[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/138757/sadeorio_1.pdf Scott De Orio]</ref>

In his article "''When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children''" (2018), [[Michael Bronski]] explained:

:"In his foundational “The Gay Manifesto,” published a month before the Stonewall riots, Carl Wittman wrote:

::''A note on the exploitation of children: kids can take care of themselves, and are sexual beings way earlier than we’d like to admit. Those of us who began cruising in early adolescence know this, and we were doing the cruising, not being debauched by dirty old men [...] And as for child molesting, the overwhelming amount is done by straight guys to little girls: it is not particularly a gay problem, and is caused by the frustrations resulting from anti-sex puritanism.''<ref>[https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/michael-bronski-gay-family/ Michael Bronski, When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children, ''Boston Review'' (2018)].</ref>

====1970-1994: Age-queer foundations of the modern LGBT movement====

The modern gay movement was age-queer from the beginning (not without assimilationist tendencies, it represented a broad and sometimes fractious church). This is demonstrated by the foundation of gay youth groups immediately after Stonewall, and their policy platforms. New York's ''Gay Youth'', for example, lobbied for the complete removal of ages of consent.<ref name="Cohen" /> What is also striking about these youth groups, is how they viewed Boylovers (Chickenhawks) as a means to an end. The 1972 ''Gay Rights Platform'', created at the National Coalition of Gay Organizations Convention held in Chicago in 1972, demanded at a state level, "repeal of all laws governing the age of sexual consent".<ref>[http://www.rslevinson.com/gaylesissues/features/collect/onetime/bl_platform1972.htm The 1972 Gay Rights Platform: Platform created at the National Coalition of Gay Organizations Convention held in Chicago in 1972.]</ref> That same year, members of Boston’s Gay Men’s Liberation lobbied the Democratic National Convention for the complete abolition of parental rights, adding that "free twenty-four hour child care centers should be established where faggots and lesbians can share the responsibility of child rearing".<ref>[https://bostonreview.net/articles/michael-bronski-gay-family/ When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children - Michael Bronski]</ref> Abolitionism wasn't just limited to the US. London's ''Gay Youth Movement''<ref>[https://lgbthistoryuk.org/wiki/Gay_Youth_Movement No 1 June 1981 to no 9 June 1983] are held in the British Library. Issues after 1982 often contain support for the Paedophile Information Exchange (P.I.E.). Issue 10 (Dec 1983/Jan 1984) states ' GYM supports paedophiles' (copy in Hall-Carpenter Archives)</ref> explicitly supported pedophiles, and ''Gay Liberation Front'' & its youth wing marched in favor of repealing the Age of Consent<ref>Williams, Clifford (2021) Courage to Be: Organised Gay Youth in England 1967-1990. The Book Guild Ltd. ISBN 9781913913632</ref>, and the following excerpt from ''Radical History Review'', suggests similar movements were seen in Canada:

:''"Certainly, youth liberation was understood to be part of the gay movement. A 1973 editorial in TBP stated, “At the centre of the Gay Liberation Movement is the whole burning question, which we cannot ignore, of sexual rights for gay youth and youth in general.” A few years later, Fiona Rattray, then a young member of LOOT, penned a positive review of Growing Up Gay, a 1976 anthology published by the Youth Liberation Press, a wing of the Ann Arbor-based Youth Liberation Organization. Founded in 1970, the youth-led YLO included in its fifteen-point program the “unhindered right” to “sexual self-determination.” ''[...]'' At a national ''[Canadian]'' gay conference in 1975, two young lesbians, in a shrewd demonstration of youth power, told delegates over the age of twenty-one that they should vote on the age-of-consent issue based on the wishes of those under twenty-one. All the youth delegates were in favor of the outright abolition, not just equalization, of the age of consent. While the issue never achieved complete consensus in the movement, the National Gay Rights Coalition, like many of its member groups, including TBP, adopted as part of its platform the abolition of all age-of-consent laws. ''[...]'' In the 1,000-strong march up Toronto’s main drag in January 1978 to protest Anita Bryant’s visit and to defend TBP, protesters chanted, “Women and Gays and Children Unite: Same Struggle, Same Fight.”"''<ref name="RHR" />

Elsewhere, gay historian Bronski notes how, "In 1972 members of Boston's Gay Men's Liberation, one of the most significant Gay Liberation groups formed after the 1969 Stonewall riots, drove to Miami to hand out a ten-point list of demands at the Democratic National Convention. [...]

"Its first demand [...] was for "''an end to any discrimination based on biology. Neither skin color, age nor gender should be recorded by any government agency. Biology should never be the basis for any special legal handicap or privilege.''"

It's 6th demand:

:''Rearing children should be the common responsibility of the whole community. Any legal rights parents have over 'their' children should be dissolved and each child should be free to choose its own destiny.''<ref>[https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/michael-bronski-gay-family/ Michael Bronski, When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children, ''Boston Review'' (2018)].</ref>

In France, the early LGBT rights advocate and founder of queer theory [[Guy Hocquenghem]] - referred to as "a founding father of homosexual liberation in France" - had a lifelong relationship with his then high school philosophy teacher [[René Schérer]], which had began as an affair when Hocquenghem was 15 years of age. Hocquenghem participated in the May '68 student revolt and published a coming out essay in January 1972 entitled the "''Revolution of Homosexuals''", described as "the literary event that, probably more than any single other, helped establish the cause of gay liberation firmly in the wider public consciousness."<ref>[http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.0642292.0032.023 Ron Haas. (2004). Utopia Aborted: May '68 in the Philosophy of Guy Hocquenghem. ''French History'', Volume 32].</ref> He was prominent member of the Front ''Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire'' (FHAR), which opposed the age of consent, and signed and defended the [[Wikipedia:French_petition_against_age_of_consent_laws|French Petition against Age of Consent Laws]]<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/feb/24/jonhenley Henley - Calls for legal child sex rebound on luminaries of May 68]</ref> signed by many of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, including [[Michel Foucault]] and founder of 2nd wave [[Feminism|feminism]] [[Simone de Beauvoir]]. In ''[[Sexual Morality and the Law]]''<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/danger.htm ''Sexual Morality and the Law'' - Ipce]</ref> (1978), a radio discussion alongside [[Michel Foucault]] and Jean Danet, Hocquenghem famously stated:

:''"As far as this question of consent is concerned, I prefer the terms used by Michel Foucault: listen to what the child says and give it a certain credence. This notion of consent is a trap, in any case. What is sure is that the legal form of an intersexual consent is nonsense. No one signs a contract before making love."''

Queer historian [[Kadji Amin]] (2017) wrote:

:''"During the French gay liberation moment of the early 1970s, male “homosexual revolutionaries” widely accepted that the liberation of pederasts would be the cutting edge of the sexual revolution agenda. As the Groupe de Libération Homosexuelle 14 writes in a 1976 publication, “The fight for the liberation of pederasts . . . is essential, perhaps, more fundamental than that of homosexuals, perhaps even more than that of women. It radically questions all of society; subversion par excellence.” French gay liberationists valued pederasty as a radical challenge to the bourgeois nuclear family, understood to be the fundamental disciplinary unit of a society founded on repressive sex and gender normalization. They theorized pederasty/pedophilia as a crucial means of contesting parents’ possessive investment in their children and of championing minors’ free exercise of their sexuality."''<ref>Amin, Kadji. "Disturbing attachments: Genet, modern pederasty, and queer history. Duke University Press, 2017," p. 23.</ref>

[[David Thorstad]] says of the post-Stonewall American group he led:

:''"New York's Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), successor to the Gay Liberation Front and a prototype activist group founded in December 1969, opposed legal restrictions on sex based on age, although this was never a focus of the group's activities. In 1976 GAA became the first gay group in New York — and probably in the country — to sponsor a public forum on man/boy love. Held at the Church of the Beloved Disciple on April 4, the forum brought together a "panel of pederasts" to speak on the topic "Of Men and Boys: Pederasty and the Age of Consent." The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Rights Coalition, a cross-Canada group, also favored abolishing the age of consent. Many activists shared the view that the state had no business regulating sex between consenting partners, whatever their age ''[...]'' In 1977, the issue of sex between adults and minors moved abruptly to center stage. Anita Bryant began to articulate the mounting backlash to gay liberation by zeroing in on a perceived weak link: the widespread belief that gay men seduce young boys and turn them into queers. The name of her organization — Save Our Children— transparently implied this. Simultaneously, a new hysteria about "kiddie porn" arose, fed by the political right and the [[Feminism|feminist movement]], with unmistakable suggestions that gay men who loved boys were in reality exploiting and abusing them. This clever propaganda ploy not only deftly exploited the public's ignorance about homosexuality, but also caught the gay movement off guard: It was unprepared to make an intelligent rebuttal."''<ref name="Thorstad">[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2086634/ Man/boy love and the American gay movement] and [https://archive.org/stream/ManboyLoveAndTheAmericanGayMovement/Man_boy_love_and_the_American_Gay_Movement_2_djvu.txt full text], and [Media:Man Boy Love and the American Gay Movement by David Thorstad.pdf our copy]</ref>

In 1974, the gay umbrella group '''ILGA''' ('''IGA''' at the time) is set up. The openly pro-pedophile '''[[Ian Dunn]]''' is a key founding member, the same year he helped set up the '''[[Paedophile Information Exchange]]'''.<ref>[https://gript.ie/pedophile-information-exchange-pie-founder-among-the-founders-of-ilga/ Gript Piece on Ian Dunn - PIE and ILGA.]</ref> ILGA exist to this day as part of the UN consultative network - running social media accounts as @ILGAWORLD. In 1978, [[Tom Reeves]] and [[David Thorstad]] were already accepted gay activists, but decide to form [[NAMBLA]] - an organization dedicated to pederasty - which was initially accepted by the gay community<ref>[https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/15/boy-crazy/ Boston Magazine: Boy Crazy]</ref> and soon joined up with ILGA.<REF>[https://4w.pub/lesbians-vs-pedophiles/ Lesbians vs Pedophiles]</ref> Between 1975 and 1977, the British Gay Charity, Albany Trust, with help from the Paedophile Information Exchange and the Paedophile Action for Liberation, published a booklet on paedophilia.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Trust Wikipedia: Albany Trust]</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/07/no-evidence-home-office-funded-paedophile-group Guardian: Albany Trust controversy]</ref>
[[File:Mc-PIE-Pride-1983-768x1024 by Bob Workman.jpg|thumb|Loud and proud: A PIE contingent at London Gay Pride in 1983 proclaims the MAP message]]
By the late 70s, the nascent [[NAMBLA]] (having formed after [[Boston-Boise_affair|another witch hunt against pederasts]]) was already attracting negative attention from some angry Lesbian [[Feminism|Feminists]] and infiltration by the FBI<ref name=deorio/>. In 1980, 15-year old Gay Youth Activist, Mark Moffett, who had pursued relationships with older men<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/califa_aftermath_text.htm The Aftermath of the Great Kiddy-Porn Panic of '77]</ref>, spoke at a rally in Sheridan Square, defending the right of boy-lovers to participate in the movement.<ref name="Thorstad" /> His personal testimony, views on the Age of Consent, and that many other young gay people from around the same time have been compiled in the 2019 Kids Club Anthology (Vol. 1).<ref>[https://www.brongersma.info/images/Anthology_01.pdf 2019 - Kids Club Anthology - Youth speak out on youthlove]</ref> Vol. 2, ''She said - Women, Lesbians, and Feminist Speak Out about Youthlove'' (2019), shows similar accounts and perspectives from females.<ref>[https://library.lol/main/99099C4003BC144DCA222C5D34D84A6C ''She said - Women, Lesbians, and Feminist Speak Out about Youthlove'' (2019)] - on Libgen.</ref>

American associations between gay and pedophile groups weren't an exception to the rule. Indeed, in the UK, the largest and most influential organisation in the gay rights movement was the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and they were affiliated with the [[Paedophile Information Exchange]] from 1975. In 1977, they hosted their own conference on Pedophilia; leading Dutch pederast [[Edward Brongersma]] was invited to talk (see gallery). In 1983, they showed further solidarity with PIE, after they were denied banking services by the Midland Bank (also in gallery). PIE has been involved in further scandals over its past associations with the civil liberties group NCCL (now ''Liberty'') and various former NCCL members who went on to take political office. Two successive 1978-9 copies of ''Gay Left'' magazine presented a number of radical takes on pedophilia, including a piece from [[Paedophile Information Exchange|PIE]] activist [[Thomas O'Carroll]].<ref>See, for example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718212111/http://www.gayleft1970s.org/issues/gay.left_issue.07.pdf Gay Left 7], [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718212111/http://www.gayleft1970s.org/issues/gay.left_issue.08.pdf Gay Left 8] and support for activists in [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718212111/http://www.gayleft1970s.org/issues/gay.left_issue.10.pdf Gay Left 10]</ref>

Gay activists Bob Cant and Nigel Young wrote in a 1980 book edited by the Gay Left Collective, that conspiracy laws were being used by the UK government to "prosecute members of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) on a charge of conspiracy to corrupt public morals," in just the same way as conspiracy charges were being used to attack the rights of workers.<ref>Bob Cant and Neil Young, ''Homosexuality: Power & Politics'' (Allison & Busby Ltd and Gay Left, 1980), p. 126.</ref> The authors argued that the "hysterical attacks on paedophiles by the state and press" had to be "fought against," as they represented "attempts by all sorts of reactionary groups to define childhood as a state of innocence, which will inevitably turn into heterosexuality at sixteen unless tainted by contact with homosexuals" (''Ibid'', p. 125). In the same book, a chapter by Stephen Gee concerns the ''Gay Activists Alliance'' (GAA) that he helped found, which led a campaign to abolish the [[age of consent]].<ref>See Stephen Gee, in Cant and Young (1980), ''Ibid''.; For the claim about GAA wishing to abolish the age of consent, see London Gay Activists Alliance, ‘Child temptress chased man to bed’, ''Submission to the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure'', April 1979.</ref> Gee argued that there was a "shift to the right in Britain's social and political climate, which has led to a general decline in confidence and activity on the left; the hysteria surrounding pedophilia and child sexuality have a particularly immobilizing effect on the gay movement" (''Ibid'', pp. 201-202). For him, "We should continue to work at making alliances between women and gay men and other oppressed groups. [...] We need alliances because we face a period of resistance to attacks with little chance of any extension of civil rights. [...] The attack on [[PIE]] is possibly only the beginning of a general undermining of sexual rights and freedoms; it is the state fortifying itself in a battle for the possession and dispossession of children, women and homosexuals. Are we ready?" (''Ibid'', pp. 203-204).

Sweden's ''Pedophile Working Group'' was part of the LGBT group '''Riksförbundet för Sexuellt Likaberättigande''' - RFSL. In 1983 they sent a petition to the Swedish government demanding [[Age of Consent]] abolition, and in 1993 were accused of publishing a guide to child prostitution abroad, after only rejecting the idea of restarting the workgroup due to social pressure. One journalist writes ''"RFSL explicitly wrote that "the pedophile gives tenderness and love" and that the pedophile should not be considered sick. The man behind these formulations was called Kjell Rindar and was then the confederation chairman of the RFSL. As recently as 2011, he gave the opening speech at Stockholm Pride."''<ref>[https://detgodasamhallet-com.translate.goog/2019/01/02/gastskribent-john-gustavsson-pedofilerna-och-hbtq-rorelsens-morka-historia/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=nl&_x_tr_pto=wapp ”Pedofilerna och HBTQ-rörelsens mörka historia” i Det goda samhället, 2019-01-02]</ref>

In a recent review, Brussels academic and researcher David Paternotte observes of ILGA, now in its 6th year (1980):

:''"The documents of the 1980 Barcelona conference, where pedophilia was thoroughly discussed in two workshops (the women's caucus and a specific one on the topic), reveal that, despite the cautiousness and the already emerging dissent, positions were primarily liberationist. The defence of pedophilia was presented as an issue of solidarity between oppressed sexual minorities and an endorsement of young people's right to sexual autonomy. If the women's caucus raised the issues of power imbalance in sexual relationships, of patriarchy and of institutional violence against women and children, it refused a systematic association between pedophilia and gender violence, stating that mutual relationships are possible between adults and children. Besides, female activists emphasised the existence of 'a link between the repression of (paedo)sexuality and the appearance of repressive sexuality (rape and sexual assaults). ''[...]'' A discussion paper prepared by the COC on request of the 1980 Barcelona conference and discussed at the 1981 Torre Pelice conference, which relied on an earlier decision by the COC annual congress (Sandfort, 1987b), confirmed this stance. It urged homosexuals to show their solidarity with pedophiles, particularly because both groups suffer from normative compulsory heterosexuality, and maintains that "a successful homo-emancipation should include pedo-emancipation"''.

:[...]

:''"The pedophilia workshop, which included representatives of some pedophile groups (the German DSAP, the British Fallen Angels and the French Groupe de Recherche pour une Enfance Differente), proposed another resolution suggesting to continue the debate, both within national organisations and at ILGA. Although this document acknowledged tensions and debates within IGA, its preamble was clearly inspired by a liberationist agenda. It claimed that arguments about this topic were often used against ‘homosexual liberation’, emphasised ‘the place liberation of paedosexuality takes in the whole of sexual liberation’, and stressed ‘our distinctive ability, derived from our own experience of oppression as gay men and lesbian women, to contribute to the discussion of the liberation of paedosexuality’. Age of consent laws were condemned, and activists claimed the right to sexual self-determination irrespective of age."''<ref name="Paternotte">[https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/1363460713511103 The ILGA and the question of pedophilia: Tracking the demise of gay liberation ideals, by David Paternotte]. See also [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137321466_16 Pedophilia, Homosexuality and Gay and Lesbian Activism] (By Paternotte) in ''[https://annas-archive.org/md5/07b8bf5a92448f869ee9abc9f210d816 Sexual Revolutions]''</ref>

Leading Lesbian [[Feminism|Feminist]] [[Jane Rule]] seemed to concur:

:''"If we accepted sexual behaviour between children and adults, we would be far more able to protect children from abuse and exploitation.”''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bodypolitic53toro/page/28/mode/2up The Body Politic, 1979]</ref>

Lesbian Feminist [[Kate Millett]] made similar comments in 1980:

:''"one of children's essential rights is to express themselves sexually, probably primarily with each other but with adults as well ''(...)'' the sexual freedom of children is an important part of a sexual revolution ''(...)'' if you don't change the social condition of children you still have an inescapable inequality".''<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/interv_kate_m.htm Sexual Revolution and the Liberation of Children: An Interview With Kate Millett]</ref>

In 1979, anti-rape feminists in New Jersey won [[Age of Consent]] reforms, temporarily lowering it to 13, in an effort to “reduce the number of teenagers in the courts - to reduce the number of teenagers with arrest records.”<ref>Warren Blumenfeld, “NJ Tackles Age of Consent,” Gay Community News, May 26, 1979</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/12/archives/new-jersey-law-changes-reflect-the-new-morality-a-compilation-from.html Waldron in NYT: A Decade in the Making, the State's First Criminal Code Takes Effect Next Month]</ref>

As part of an internal debate within the gay community, the following is a statement from the Chicago Stonewall Committee, as published in the 26 March 1983 Gay Community News:
[[File:Nam1982pressconf.webp|thumb|David Thorstad - 1982 NAMBLA press conference]]
:''"We think s/m lesbians and NAMBLA do belong. The gay movement is based on expanding people's options, in bed and out, not on setting some new sexual “party line.” Not too long ago, the whole gay issue was too kinky to be taken seriously as a progressive social movement. In the particular cases mentioned above, NAMBLA and the s/m women were only seeking places to talk about their sexual preferences. We certainly support their right to act on them as well"''<REF>[https://books.google.nl/books?id=d5_rAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA389&dq=%22We+think+s/m+lesbians+and+NAMBLa+do+belong%22&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22We%20think%20s%2Fm%20lesbians%20and%20NAMBLa%20do%20belong%22&f=false Who belongs in the gay movement, and who decides?]</REF>

Referring to this time, scholar [[Theo Sandfort]] observed the fickle nature of the Netherlands' main Gay Advocacy group, the [[COC]]. From 1946-1958, they shared in their magazine, pictures of boys (clothed and naked) along with poems and captions professing of the heightened desires these boys aroused in the observer. This was followed by a period of growing separation between homosexuals and pederasts, and then vehement rejection of them all the way into the mid-70s, when standards again relaxed and attraction to minors was viewed in a more positive light. By the 80s, the COC insisted (as noted earlier in our article) the liberation of pedophiles was necessary to the full liberation of homosexuals.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1300/J082v13n02_08 Sandfort, T. (1987). Pedophilia and the Gay Movement. Journal of Homosexuality, 13(2-3), 89–110. doi:10.1300/j082v13n02_08], see also his ''[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/sbn90.htm Man-Boy Relationships: Different Concepts for a Diversity of Phenomena]''</ref> Only these statements are now curiously absent from the COC Nederland website, and mixed with misuse and stigmatization of pedophile labelling<ref>[https://coc.nl/blog/2006/01/19/seksueel-misbruik-allochtone-jongens/ COC NL confuses pedophilia with CSA as early as 2006]</ref> suggesting a ''third'' volte-face.

In American universities at least, the Netherlands' brand of sex-positivity was also being exported. In 1984, at Stanford University, for example, Dutch Criminologist and Lawyer Dr [[Edward Brongersma]] spoke openly about man-boy relationships, including those that involved incest. He received a round of applause from the Gay and Lesbian Law Students Association, when he recalled the testimony of a youth whose main takeaway from his relationship with a much older man, was that he "was shown the meaning of love".<ref>[https://purl.stanford.edu/fp053bx1299 'Legal and social aspects of pedophilia: an international perspective.' History Corner 034. Sponsored by GLAS and the Gay and Lesbian Law Students' Association] - Don't forget, the interview has a "B side", accessible on the tab below the information tab, as it was recorded on a cassette!</ref>

In 1984, the [[Australian Paedophile Support Group]] was infiltrated by law enforcement. The gay community responded in solidarity, with a positive editorial in ''Outrage''. Queer historian [[Steven Angelides]] documented the case of Alison Thorne, then spokesperson for the Gay Legal Rights Coalition, who spoke sympathetically during an interview with Mike Edmonds of Melbourne’s 3aw radio: "paedophiles really care for children. Paedophiles would absolutely abhor child ... abuse of children, are really concerned about consent." Usenet (early internet) archives are available from around this time, reflecting a variety of takes among the gay community.<ref>Steven Angelides, [http://library.lol/main/F116FBAFF6D65A4D5F387C139486FE54 The Homosexualizationof Pedophilia: The Case of Alison Thorne and the Australian Pedophile Support Group], in ''Homophobias: Lust and Loathing Across Time and Space'', edited by David A. B. Murray (Duke Uni Press: Durham & London, 2009), pp. 64-81. See also, [https://www.usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=net.motss&mid=PDQ4NUBiYm5jY2EuQVJQQT4 Example Usenet thread], and [https://www.usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=net.motss&mid=PDE5MTA1QHdpdmF4LlVVQ1A%2B usenet post].</ref>

Thorstad comments further:

:''"NAMBLA's October 1984 convention in San Francisco's Pride Center included a public panel discussion on "Man/Boy Love and Sexual Liberation" with Mattachine Society founder [[Harry Hay]]; [[Jim Kepner]], curator of the International Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles; Morris Kight, long-time gay rights and social activist from Los Angeles; Jes Harrison, a 16-year-old gay youth; and me. The participation of Hay, Kepner, and Kight was welcome support from activists whose credentials went back to the beginnings of the U.S. gay movement."''<ref name="Thorstad" />

At its 1985 conference in Toronto ILGA voted for members to "lobby their government to abolish the age of consent law" in its position on "Age of Consent/Paedophilia/Children's Rights".<ref>Haggerty, George. ''Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures'', 2013 Edition.</ref><ref>[https://wiki.yesmap.net/prd/hist/ILGAexp/index.html PRD: Expulsion of organizations marked as pedophile from ILGA]</ref> As [[NAMBLA]]'s [[Bill Andriette]] recalls:

:''"But the IGA nearly passed a resolution that would have sounded like music to any NAMBLA member's ears. As first conceived by the IGA youth section, the resolution called for the abolition of age-of-consent statutes. But under feminist pressure that was changed to a call for the equalization of ages of consent for gay and straight sex, and the eventual abolition of such statutes when young people were deemed sufficiently protected from abuse. NAMBLA's was the lone dissenting vote, but even in its compromised state the resolution is supportable."''<ref>[https://www.brongersma.info/NAMBLA_in_Toronto NAMBLA in Toronto: The notes of Bill Andriette]</ref>

Andriette describes in an ILGA Bulletin the following year (see gallery), how positions were and had been "generally sympathetic to man/boy love". He goes on to describe an international pedophile conference adjacent to ILGA's main event as its "little brother", and explains how the groups had set up a "pedophile information pool". However, in 1986, NAMBLA were also excluded from marching in an LA pride parade - an exception to the rule, as they had been present in parades since 1979, for example, being seen in a video at SF in 87'.<ref>[https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/40001/did-nambla-march-in-gay-pride-parades-in-the-70s-and-80s Did NAMBLA march in Gay Pride parades in the 70s and 80s?]</ref><ref>[https://fstube.net/w/iTxNNVngswwQraAY8dRD4u NAMBLA in Gay Pride Parade - SF, 1987]</ref> Gay liberation pioneer [[Harry Hay]] protested this decision, arguing that NAMBLA's exclusion was “an affront to the whole process of gay liberation,” because it was undemocratic: it was not the place of the parade organizers to “arbitrarily decide who are members of the gay community and who may speak.”

[[File:Harry_Hay_NAMBLA_Walks_With_Me.JPG|thumb|Harry Hay "NAMBLA Walks With Me" at LA Pride in 1986]]

In 1986 Germany, Gay groups were still widely appreciative of Boy-lovers. Schwules Gay Museum Curator Birgit Bosold spoke to journalists in 2023 regarding an exhibition documenting these now embarrassing associations. Sources stated ''"for a long time there had been close cooperation between the gay and lesbian movement and pedophiles. As late as 1986, a poster for Christopher Street Day in Munich named lesbians, gays and pedophiles as equal emancipating minorities. Only in the 1990s and under the impact of the HIV pandemic did people distance themselves"''.<ref>[https://scouting.de/gemeinsame-ausstellung/ Gemeinsame Ausstellung - Translation - SCOUTING.DE]</ref> In 1988, as the German VSG point out in page 7, L8 of their response (in gallery), the ILGA passed a resolution at their annual conference, recommending that the now embattled pedophile member groups twin with non pedophile member groups for "both moral and political support". These attempts to encourage twinning of groups persisted well into the 1990s, as our scans of their Bulletin reveal. The 11th Annual ILGA Conference in Vienna in 1989 also hosted a pedophile workshop. Minutes (in the gallery below) reveal that many were in favor of eliminating Age of Consent laws entirely, and then asked ''“Should the Pedophile Workshop ask the scientific community to design unbiased research on consent, how it develops in children, and what cross cultural, educational, developmental, and sex differences exist in the ability to consent? ''[…]'' Some expressed distrust and contempt for the “scientific community” because of the tremendous damage it has done to the self-esteem of pedophiles.”''

Principled support for pederasts in the Gay Movement was evidently fading, but could still be seen in organizations like ILGA, and personalities such as ''ACT-UP'''s Larry Kramer:

:''"In those cases where children do have sex with their homosexual elders... I submit that often, very often, the child desires the activity, and perhaps even solicits it, either because of a natural curiosity... or because he or she is homosexual and innately knows it. ... And unlike girls or women forced into rape or traumatized, most gay men have warm memories of their earliest and early sexual encounters; when we share these stories with each other, they are invariably positive ones."''<ref>Larry Kramer (ACT-UP) in ''Reports from the Holocaust'', New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991</ref>

In October, 1991, ILGA used their bulletin to publicly call out [[Vereniging MARTIJN]] among other organisations for not paying their membership fees. In 1993, Francesco Vallini, who was a journalist at the gay magazine ''Babilonia'', and ten others associated with his pedophile activist organization [[Gruppo P]] were arrested. At the time, the magazine's editorial staff defended him. The group published the bulletin Corriere del pedofili.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130927185909/http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1993/luglio/15/gruppo_reclutava_bambini_co_0_9307151114.shtml il " gruppo P " reclutava i bambini]</ref> The worsening relationship between NAMBLA and the LGBT Movement is captured in the documentary: Chicken Hawk.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWPPyogWfoc Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys]</ref>

In 1993/4, only 9 years after supporting the abolition of ages of consent, ILGA were embroiled in a [[Wikipedia:ILGA consultative status controversy|public controversy]] regarding their consultative status with the UN. As Wikipedia details, US Senator Jesse Helms introduced a bill to cut funding to the United Nations unless it could certify that it did not grant any official status to "any organization which promotes, condones or seeks the legalization of pedophilia". The bill passed, tying the UN's hands and forcing ILGA to eject the groups if they were to stand any chance of retaining their consultative status. Paternotte observes, that after gaining this roster consultative status within the UN, Christian Right attacks against the ILGA were fierce, causing them to make the following clarification:

:''"Debate about paedophilia, as well as about other complex issues regarding sexuality, has been ongoing for a long time, both within and outside the ILGA. The ILGA has therefore called upon its members to treat all sexual minorities with respect and to enter into a dialogue with them. Neither in the ILGA or in scientific circles has a consensus about the issue, which has caused and still causes considerable controversy, been reached. It is therefore important that discussion can continue in an open and respectful manner, which takes into account the feelings of all parties involved."''

Gay assimilationists eventually won these internal battles in 1994 with an about-turn 214-30 vote at the ILGA World Conference in New York,<ref name="Paternotte" /> and the "pedophile organizations" NAMBLA, Project Truth/Free Will, and [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn]] were thus ejected. NAMBLA itself was an early member and on some occasions its only representative from the US. On the hypocrisy, NAMBLA pointed out:

:''"We've been continuously active in ILGA longer than any other US organization. NAMBLA delegates to ILGA helped write ILGA's constitution, its official positions on the sexual rights of youth, and its stands against sexual coercion and corporal punishment. ''[...]'' Already, several ILGA activists and member organizations have condemned the secretariats' actions and reaffirmed their support for the participation in ILGA of man/boy lovers. The '''national German gay coalition''' Bundesverband Homosexualitat has declared that it is "astonished and embarrassed" at the secretariats' actions. "We are convinced that any attempt to expel NAMBLA and others from ILGA will be rejected by the vast majority of ILGA members," writes BVH executive committee member Wolfram Setz. Another German group, Verein for Sexuelle Gleichberechtigung adds, "The fight for... fundamental human right[s] must not be relinquished or reduced because of the political pressure from any government. Where would we end up if we made concessions in this respect? NAMBLA's objectives are as far we know absolutely in agreement with... the UN declarations of human rights and children's rights.""''<ref>[https://wiki.yesmap.net/prd/hist/ILGAexp/NAMBLAtoILGA.html PRD: NAMBLA Affirms Its Membership in ILGA (December, 1993)]</ref> Usenet archives again reveal considerable dissent against the drive to remove NAMBLA from the umbrella.<ref>[https://groups.google.com/g/alt.politics.homosexuality/c/ERfDjkhOKTw?pli=1 1994 Usenet archive: Roy Radow]</ref>

The expedience and western-bourgeoise underpinnings of the 1994 decision are starkly revealed by the nature of responses from member organisations in the 1994 May-Jun Bulletin. Israel and other Western-aligned countries are particularly elaborate and vociferous in their denunciation of the pedophile groups, while nonwestern members issue short statements of obligatory agreement, disapproval, and even requests for clarification as to what the issue entails. Richard J. Rosendall was particularly animated in an article distributed via numerous gay newspapers, and to voters at the 1994 conference:<ref>[http://www.glaa.org/archive/1994/namblaoutofbounds.shtml NAMBLA: Out of the Movement's Bounds]</ref>

<blockquote>
''A common thread running through this material is an utter inability to recognize a conflict of interest. These men really seem to believe that they have the boys' best interests at heart, despite clear evidence from their own accounts that they are taking grotesque advantage of troubled boys' need for love, attention, support, and freedom from abuse. Their subtler form of abuse directs an adult's arsenal against the innocence of children and the nascent sexuality of young adolescents and, when it succeeds, calls the result consensual love. ''[...]'' Who among us has never said of a lovely child, that one is destined to break a few hearts? This should cause us to treasure and respect childhood, not to steal it with the seductions and subtle power plays of unrestrained adults behaving like Jupiter engulfing Semele. In that myth, it was Semele who insisted upon seeing Jupiter in all his glory. But that did not excuse Jupiter, who knew that such a revelation would overwhelm the mortal he claimed to love. ''[...]'' Those who consider ILGA's breakthrough toward visibility and participation in the U.N. "a meaningless symbol of their own self-importance" clearly do not comprehend the magnitude of ILGA's opportunity to advance the cause of Gay and Lesbian civil rights in the world. Anyone who would throw that away deserves the company of the self-serving denizens of NAMBLA.''
</blockquote>

In 1995, ILGA then demanded that member organizations either sign a letter of confirmation endorsing the expulsion of the former members, or themselves be ejected. This caused the [[Pink Triangle Press]] to resign in protest, although they would rejoin in 1998. After this incident, ILGA would ironically take over a decade to achieve UN consultative status, and have since released a series of highly misleading statements such as:

:''"ILGA does not advocate – and never has advocated – paedophilia ''[...]'' The ILGA conference (the highest decision making authority) has passed a resolution categorically rejecting any attempt to promote or legalize paedophilia."''<ref>[https://ilga.org/ilga-ecosoc-status-controversy ILGA release on 1990s UN Consultative Controversy]</ref>

ILGA have thus in effect confirmed the fact their '''"highest decision making authority"''' previously voted for the abolition of the age of consent in a vote on "pedophilia". In reality, most people connected with the gay literature business will be well aware, that for over a decade after 1994, gay book shops continued to sell boy-related material, such as [[Child Pornography|Azov Films]] material - in the instance of Amsterdam's ''Intermale'', which closed in 2011.

By 1998, virtually all human sexuality textbooks exhibited a politically-correct revisionist approach to documenting the history of homosexuality. Man-boy practises were documented, but were co-opted in support of modern man-man homosexuality, a form that was at the very least, less well documented throughout history, if not less common. [[Bruce Rind]] analyzed various texts in the same year.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/00224499809551958 Rind, B. (1998). Biased use of cross‐cultural and historical perspectives on male homosexuality in human sexuality textbooks. Journal of Sex Research, 35(4), 397–407.]</ref> One surprising fact about NAMBLA and their (un)acceptability, is that until 2000, Peter Melzer (a key member of NAMBLA) still held a post at Bronx High School of Science, albeit at the district office following a 1993 media expose and protracted legal dispute.<ref>[https://nypost.com/2000/04/27/pedophile-teacher-faces-ax-after-7-years/ PEDOPHILE TEACHER FACES AX AFTER 7 YEARS ] and [https://www.edweek.org/leadership/court-rebuffs-teacher-who-advocated-man-boy-sex/2004/03 Court Rebuffs Teacher Who Advocated ‘Man-Boy’ Sex]</ref>

===Gallery of files===

<gallery>
File:Offthe.png|"Off the consenting adults bullshit!" says gay newspaper in 1969.<ref name="Walkerstad" />
NYGayYouth1972Cohen.png|Cohen: NY's Gay Youth Group - AoC Repeal 1972<ref name="Cohen">[https://archive.org/details/cohen-gylib The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: "An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail"]</ref>
NYGayYouth1972Cohen(2).png|Cohen: NY's Gay Youth Group - AoC Repeal 1972 (2)<ref name="Cohen" />
NYGayYouth1974Cohen.png|Cohen: NY's Gay Youth Group in 1974 - Attitude to Chickenhawks<ref name="Cohen" />
File:1975Guardian.png|26th August 1975: Child-lovers win fight for role in Gay Lib (The Guardian)<ref>[https://theguardian.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian-pie-member-wins-censure-of/120428348/ Guardian scan: Child Lovers win fight for role in Gay Lib]</ref>
CHEinTimes19Aug1977.png|CHE Support PIE in 1977
File:Rule.png|Jane Rule in 1979
File:TBP-ad-May-1978.jpg|May 1978 advert for a gay youth conference in The Body Politic (Canadian magazine)
NYGayYouth1980Cohen.png|Cohen: NY's Gay Youth Group in 1980 - Mark Moffett<ref name="Cohen" />
CHEPedophileSupport1983.jpg|CHE Support PIE in 1983
File:1986-5-Andriette.jpg|Andriette in the 5th ILGA Bulletin of 1986
File:1986-5-Andriette2.jpg|Andriette continued
File:AndrietteNamblaBull.png|Andriette further comments in [[NAMBLA Bulletin]]
File:1986-5-AustraliaRelevant.jpg|Alison Thorne incident recalled in the 5th ILGA Bulletin of 1986
File:Pedowrk89.png|ILGA's ''Pedophile Workshop'' minutes from 1989
File:Bearchell.jpg|Celebrated Lesbian Feminist, Chris Bearchell in 1989
File:ILGA92Paedo.png|Continued Pedosexuality references and Twinning in a 1992 ILGA Bulletin
ILGANAMBLATwin1992-3.png|NAMBLA seeking a twin in the 3rd 1992 ILGA Bulletin
File:LGFM_-_Fuck_the_Age_of_Consent!_(Lesbian_&_Gay_Freedom_Movement,_Winter_1993).pdf|''Fuck the Age of Consent!'' - In ''Lesbian & Gay Freedom Movement'', Winter 1993.
File:Lambda.png|Late 1993, and the Lambda Report publishes it's expose
ILGAApril-May-Jun94LetterIsrael.png|Israel right-on with anti-youth language in 94 (May/Jun ILGA Bulletin)
VSG1995-2(1).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (1)
VSG1995-2(2).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (2)
VSG1995-2(3).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (3)
VSG1995-2(4).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (4)
VSG1995-2(5).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (5)
VSG1995-2(6).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (6)
VSG1995-2(7).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin(7)
File:FRD4PebXIAIxuuQ.jpg|Letter from [[Peter Tatchell]]
File:PTPrejoinsILGA21Jan1998.png|Pink Triangle Press rejoins ILGA - with details of ILGA demands in 1995 (Jan 1998 ILGA Bulletin)
File:Prideinply.png|An exception to LGBT distancing of pederasty was Pride in Plymouth's 2012 inclusion of the [[Wikipedia:Warren Cup|Warren Cup]] in a display
File:Screenshot 20211007-005011 DuckDuckGo.jpg|LGBT identitarian peak insanity in 2021
</gallery>

==Supportive and ambiguous gay icons==

In addition to the various established gay activists who went on to form pedophile/pederast organizations within the LGBT movement, and pioneers of the gay press, others are still openly celebrated by the mainstream:

*[[Edmund White]] - Pioneering figure of American gay literature, author of ''The Joy of Gay Sex'' (1977). White openly wrote of how he seduced men as a teenager, speaking positively of them into the 2010s and never disavowing or gaslighting the memory of his own experience. In ''States of Desire'' (1980), he supported an [[age of consent]] at 12-years-old for both sexes. In the same book, he interviewed a self-identified pedophile in Boston, ending his segment by wishing that he were 9-years-old again so that he could have sex with the man: "While you were talking, I kept wishing I’d met you when I was nine and you the age you are now."
*[[Jane Rule]] and [[Kate Millett]] (discussed in this article) were Lesbian [[Feminism|Feminists]] who supported the rights of children to pursue intergenerational relationships.
*[[Alan Turing]] - Idolized as a gay hero, however his relationships and interests strongly suggest that he was also a MAP (Boy Lover).<ref>[https://fstube.net/w/dPne9BxPAaL2ooYUDXbCht YMG: Documentary excerpts from "The Strange Life and Death of Dr Turing"]</ref>
* [[Harvey Milk]] - An icon of the modern LGBT community, Milk was an early pro-LGBT U.S. politician who became a gay martyr after he was killed. Milk has a public holiday dedicated to him in California, an airport and Navy vessel named after him, his image on postage stamps, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a symbolic gesture by President Obama in 2009. A biographer of Milk's states that Milk had his first sexual experience with a man at 14 years of age, and "always maintained [...] about those early sexual contacts[,] that he had not been molested, because they were exactly what he had been anxiously looking and hoping for. He had had homosexual feelings ever since he could remember".<ref name="milk">[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?page_id=288 Review of ''Harvey Milk]: His Lives and Death'' by Lillian Faderman. Quotes passages from Faderman about their relationship; e.g. "Harvey … took him to museums, operas and ballets, and made him feel like he was the only person in the world who mattered.”</ref> Milk is known to have entered a sexual relationship with runaway hustler Jack Galen McKinley, who had just turned 17 at the time, whilst Milk was 33 years-of-age and served as a father figure/mentor role for McKinley.<ref name="milk" /> A personal friend of Harvey's said he "always had a penchant for young waifs," and Milk is alleged to have had sexual contact with people below 15 years-of-age, whilst the known case of Jack McKinley alone would already make Milk guilty of statutory rape in U.S. states which venerate him (e.g. California) where the age of consent is 18.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikab8wOXCX0 This video] presents useful historical information despite being hostile to Milk and framing him negatively. Ironically, the video's creator ends by contrasting [[Alan Turing]] as a respectable (i.e. non-MAP related) gay icon, and seems unaware that Alan Turing likely shared Harvey Milk's attraction towards younger males.</ref>
*[[Oscar Wilde]] - Jailed for sex with boys.<ref>[https://greek-love.com/biographies/secret-life-oscar-wilde-pederasty Greek Love: Profile on Oscar Wilde]</ref> See also, [[Uranian Poetry]] and the upper-class homosexuals who pursued it. Authors such as [[Walt Whitman]] and others mentioned further up in the article.
*[[Andre Gide]] - French author, pederast, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947.<ref>[https://greek-love.com/modern-europe/france/initiation-andre-gide-pederasty Greek Love: Profile of Andre Gide]</ref> His book Corydon<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corydon_(book) Wikipedia: Corydon]</ref> is considered a classic defense of homosexuality and pederasty, which, at that time, were not considered to be rigidly distinct. The New York Times described Gide as "France's greatest contemporary man of letters" and "judged the greatest French writer of this century.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110806050538/http://www.andregide.org/remembrance/nytgide.html Web Archive: AndreGide.org]</ref>
*[[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Michel Foucault]] (a key founder of Queer Theory) and other gay/bi signatories of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_petition_against_age_of_consent_laws French Petition against Age of Consent Laws.]<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/feb/24/jonhenley Henley - Calls for legal child sex rebound on luminaries of May 68]</ref>
*[[Wilhelm von Gloeden]] - This much-celebrated photographer of boys had a 14-year old lover, and seems to have escaped censure. Copies of his work being present in the homes of many mature gay men.
*[[Hajo Ortil]] - A dumbfounding example of a German Naturist pederast who was celebrated throughout his life and posthumously.
*[[Harry Hay]] - Radical Faerie, loved boy, pederasty supporter and founding member of the modern gay movement. Famously declared "NAMBLA walks with me".<ref>[https://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2012/05/sf-public-library-radically-gay-harry.html?m=1 MPetrelis blog: Harry Hay's support of NAMBLA]</ref><ref>[https://fstube.net/w/ssPzZgoUURhR5FtsxFQXAM Hay Interview]</ref>
*[[Wikipedia:Jim Kepner|Jim Kepner]] - Gay activist pioneer, who was overtly inclusivist towards Boy Lovers.<ref>[https://fstube.net/w/a6UqsvsyMEYRJzfFF66NDH Kepner, 1984 NAMBLA Conference]</ref> Founder and curator of the International Gay and Lesbian Archives (Los Angeles), which has recognized the contributions of many NAMBLA activists. A longtime gay activist, Kepner recalled that “half of gay history is pedophile history.”<ref>[https://www.nambla.org/kepner.htm Jim Kepner - NAMBLA]</ref><ref>[https://hubertkennedy.angelfire.com/BL-Reviews.pdf Hubert Kennedy's BL Reviews]</ref>
*[[Charles Shively]] - Gay history professor who argued for Walt Whitman as a pederast / boy-lover. Driving force behind the ''Fag Rag Collective'', he worked closely with [[NAMBLA]] founder [[Tom Reeves]] and published the gay journal ''Fag Rag'', which supported "what it characterized as adolescents' right to sexual freedom, as well as consensual sex between adults and children".<ref>[https://www.cjr.org/special_report/great-magazines-fag-rag.php Jeremy Lybarger, ''Fag Rag: The 70s paper of gay political revolution''. (Columbia Journalism Review, September 11, 2020)].</ref>
*[[Wikipedia:Larry Kramer|Larry Kramer]] - HIV-AIDS Activist, as detailed above.
*[[Guy Strait]] - Strait founded the first gay newspaper in San Francisco in 1961, and co-founded one of the 1st U.S. gay organizations, the ''League for Civil Education''. Radical pro-sex queer who went into business producing pornographic films, and was arrested multiple times throughout life on claims that he had "cornered the market on the production of 'kiddie porn'".<ref>For discussion of Strait's relationship to the early gay community, see Mori Reithmayr, ''[https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f2870916-9c5f-4145-bff4-f3c376837d2f/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=Reithmayr_2022_Community_before_liberation.pdf&type_of_work=Thesis Community before Liberation: Theorizing Gay Resistance in San Francisco, 1953-1969]'' (2022 PhD Thesis, University of Oxford). See especially Ch. 4, ''Guy Strait and the openness of early homophile theorizing of community''.</ref>
*[[Allen Ginsberg]] - Famous, much beloved poet and pederast.
*[[Ian Dunn]] mentioned in this article.
*[[Nettie Pollard]] - British Lesbian Feminist Civil-Liberties campaigner.<ref>[https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paedophile-information-exchange-nettie-pollard-3222352 PIE/Nettie Pollard]</ref>
*[[Peter Tatchell]] - His positions have at times been very supportive.
*[[Eric Presland]] - British gay writer, cabaret artist and founder of the ''Homo Promos'' theater company. Presland has authored unapologetically supportive pieces in [[The_Age_Taboo|''The Age Taboo'']] (1981) and [[The_Betrayal_of_Youth_(Book)|The Betrayal of Youth]] (1986).
*[[Ken Popert]]<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Popert Ken Popert - Wikipedia]</ref> and [[Gerald Hannon]] - Key figures within the Pink Triangle Press - a highly successful commercial venture that now counts the gay dating site Squirt.org among its subsidiaries. Wrote and published the highly controversial article ''[[Text of Men loving boys loving men|Men loving boys loving men]].'' They were in turn supported by [[Gayle Rubin]].<ref name="RHR">[https://www.radicalhistoryreview.org/abusablepast/1969-and-all-that-age-consent-and-the-myth-of-queer-decriminalization-in-canada/ Radical History Review]</ref>
*[[Wikipedia:Carl Wittman|Carl Wittman]] - In what Wikipedia declares "one of the most influential gay liberation writings of the 1970s", the San Fransisco gay activist called for youth liberation in his ''Gay Manifesto'', offering that many gays were cruising for sex from their early teens, not being molested by elders.
*[[Rosa von Praunheim]] - German filmmaker who gave a sympathetic interview which platformed [[NAMBLA]] founder [[Tom Reeves]]. Praunheim's works influenced the development of LGBTQ+ rights movements worldwide, with his 1971 film ''[[wikipedia:It_Is_Not_the_Homosexual_Who_Is_Perverse,_But_the_Society_in_Which_He_Lives|It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse]]'', leading to many gay rights groups being founded and thus began the modern gay liberation movement in Germany and Switzerland.
*[[Wikipedia:Volcker Beck|Volcker Beck]] - German politician who penned the 1988 essay: "Amending criminal law? An appeal for a realistic, new orientation of sexuality politics", promoting the decriminalization of [[Minor attracted neologisms|"pedosexuality"]]. He has since distanced himself from his previous writings.
*Bill Dobbs - The Gay Activist who organized a pro-BL marching group, moderating a meeting at the Stonewall Inn in 1994.<ref>[https://www.nambla.org/sosconference1994.html Spirit of Stonewall]</ref>
*Any number of international gay figureheads who signed a petition to support NAMBLA's continued right to march in the 1990s.<ref>[https://groups.google.com/g/bit.listserv.gaynet/c/y0uVNdQ2Juw/m/V6WEVdXErOgJ Roy Radow of NAMBLA publishes list of signatories]</ref>
*[[Hubert Kennedy]]
*[[Wikipedia:Samuel R. Delany|Samuel R. Delany]] has shown support for [[NAMBLA]].<ref>[https://www.nambla.org/delaney.html NAMBLA: Delany]</ref>
*Publishers such as [[Pink Triangle Press]], [[Spartacus International Gay Guide|Spartacus]], the later [[Destroyer]] Journal and [[Milo Yiannopoulos]] controversy, all showing a symbiotic relationship with [[boylove]], bring us up to date.

==Prominent gay people who speak from experience==

Gay celebrities such as '''[[Stephen Fry]]'''<ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/modern-europe/great-britain/boys-20th-century-boarding-school-experiences/stephen-fry-boyhood-pederasty Greek-love.com - Stephen Fry collection of testimony]</ref> and '''Elton John'''<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20080511143520/http://www.chrislowe.co.uk/interviews_neil_elton.html Neil Tennant <> Elton John discussion, Chrislowe.co.uk]</ref> recall stories of early encounters or yearning in their youths. Fry clearly shows a depth of knowledge on the subject, and Elton wishes he had been "molested" just for the experience. [[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Male|Scotty Bowers]] - Bisexual, and fixer of Hollywood film Actors' sexual trysts, was unequivocal about his positive experiences with men from a very early age, and these included sex work. Many similar examples exist, and they are not hard to find:

<div style="column-count:2;-moz-column-count:2;-webkit-column-count:2">

*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Tom_Driberg Tom Driberg] - Gay Activist Politician.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Guy_Hocquenghem&lang=FR Guy Hocquenghem] - Founding figure in [[Queer Theory]].
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=John_Mitzel John Mitzel] - Gay Activist.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=William_Percy William Percy] - Gay Historian.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Ivo_van_Hove&lang=NL Ivo van Hove] - Arts Figure.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Beth_Kelly Beth Kelly] - Academic.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Scott_OHara Scott O'Hara] - Porn Actor.
*'''[https://fstube.net/w/h7XqyJGBHgvpms4AzK9Vuk Jane Rule]''' and '''Chris Bearchell''' - Lesbian Feminists.<ref name="RHR" />

</div>

==LGBT Hypocrisy==

:''For more examples of how gay culture erases Pederasts and Youth Erotica from its history, see [[Rainbow Revisionism]].''
[[File:Screenshot 2024-05-05 222525.png|thumb|The start of a tribute thread on a gay porn site aligned perfectly with Jacob Sartorius' 18th birthday. Within a couple of years, users were already suggesting he was over the hill, and looked "like a lesbian". Many such cases.]]
The LGBT movement is not so much a "community" these days, but an expedient political lobby.<ref>[https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/15/lgbt-a-dissection/ LGBT: A Dissection By David Thorstad], see [http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/LGBT1.pdf backup]</ref> It is very easy to identify internal contradictions, cynical strategies and realpolitik when one assesses the state of the modern movement.

:''"One obvious contradiction in the assimilationist position is that if homosexual identity is inborn, as they say, then why do they oppose freedom of sexual expression for minors? Assimilationists argue that sexual identity is fixed by age six, but they deny young people the right to enjoy sexual pleasure with the person of their own choice."'' - [[David Thorstad]].<ref name=ThorstadPed />
Thorstad also opines:

:''"The struggle for sexual liberation has been diluted by a focus on dozens of fanciful and questionable genders and has resulted in a virtual erasure of gay males and lesbians,"'' [Thorstad said in an interview before the Stonewall 50 march in 2019, explaining why he wasn't going] ''"Sex is not even part of the alphabet-soup vocabulary. Highlighting victimhood is in. Instead of fighting social injustice, the LGBT goal is to assimilate into a heterodominant capitalist system, aping its failed institution of marriage, promoting monogamy (a bit player in the mammalian heritage), and espousing patriotism, militarism, and conventionality."''<ref>[https://www.nambla.org/Thorstad.html David Thorstad Obit]</ref>

Kathleen Stock:

:''"Should a sexual libertarian ''[by implication, [[Peter Tatchell|Tatchell]] - Ed]'' ever go rogue and overdo the transgression (say, by claiming that “children have sexual desires at an early age”), ''[queer]'' bureaucrats will instantly appear in reassuring mummy-mode to steady the horses, talking soothingly about best international practice and strong [[safeguarding]] policies…"''<ref>[https://unherd.com/2022/05/the-emptiness-of-being-queer/ Kathleen Stock, in UnHerd]</ref>
[[File:Screenshot 2024-04-13 123153.png|thumb|One gay man describes the dynamics he assumes as both a "top" and a "bottom"<ref>[https://bodybybernard.com/using-imodium-before-bottoming/ Noah Bernard (2020): Using Imodium Before Bottoming]</ref>]]
However, pederasty didn't suddenly disappear the moment a taboo was placed on it. A perfect example of this is how gay men fetishize "straight boys" in the porn industry, or the feeding frenzy that ensues on user-shared porn sites such as LPSG, whenever a boy celebrity turns 18. The resulting search among users is invariably for self-shot/leaked photographs of the young male's preferably erect penis. While "gay for pay", "straight boy" models are over the age of 18, these tend to be scenes in which young "straight" males are cast as inexperienced and juvenile in character. The producers are thus "taking advantage of boys" by tricking them or using money to have their way with them. The relative popularity of this type of content in the gay porn industry is sometimes seen as "displaced pederasty" or at least a hangover from the "seedy" sex trade in boys that received so much attention in the 1970s before fading out. This argument can be further extended to the many "equal" gay relationships in which there is a clear "man" and "boy", unequal power differential,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040627231748/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/social19.htm Rictor Norton, A Critique of Social Constructionism and Postmodern Queer Theory, "Intergenerational and Egalitarian Models," 1 June 2002]</ref> and indeed kinky gay expressions such as slavery, chastity bondage and dogs on leashes. Taken together, this tells us that the spirit of pederasty never really left the gay world. Only, the "boy" lives on as an archetype we are allowed to fetishize and trivialize, but seldom accept as a more meaningful object of desire.

*In 1994, LGBT figureheads were already mythologizing Stonewall and its (as documented earlier, pro-pederast) legacy: ''"Last month, a New York group called Stonewall 25 voted to bar the controversial North American Man-Boy Love Association from its international march on the United Nations on June 26. The demonstration will commemorate the 25th anniversary of an uprising at the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar. ″Those who advocate or engage in sexual abuse of young people are not welcome in the family of gay men and lesbians who live upstanding and honorable lives,″ said Pat Norman, a co-chair of the march."''<ref>[https://apnews.com/article/c64e816cac5b0fa1194dd40f576813b2 AP News: Gay Groups Try to Put Distance Between Themselves and Pedophile Group]</ref>

*Modern gays have often attempted to ''reclaim'' the history of pederasts such as Wilde and ignore evidence concerning others such as Turing. One example of this rewriting of history is the gay ''New York Times'' journalist, Anthony Tommasini describing Franz Schubert's reported partners as "adolescent men", a category otherwise unheard of in any form of commentary or analysis.<ref>[https://artdaily.com/news/129007/Maynard-Solomon--provocative-biographer-of-composers--dies-at-90 NYT: Adolescent Men]</ref> In another, a [[A Problem in Greek Ethics|famous book]] by [[John Addington Symonds]] (in effect, a treatment of [[Pederasty]]), was recalled as "promoting the morality of same-sex relations".<ref>[https://www.queerty.com/rare-artifact-queer-history-pops-nearly-150-years-google-20200103 Queerty Pederastic Erasure]</ref> The piece contains the first known mention of the term [[boylove]].

*See for example, the rise and rise of IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) laser hair removal devices and other methods among the same class of mature gay men who distance pederasts, as an example of hypocrisy. Removal of hair from the perianal area is intended to attract (via "dating" apps) the same bisexual and "straight" men who are attracted to boyish or androgynous features, and do not like giving oral or penetrative sex to other hirsute males.

*More recently, it has been a daily occurrence on social media to see LGBT, Social-Justice oriented persons [[Validity Policing|relentlessly and obsessively badgering]] MAP-receptive or adjacent opponents to declare whether or not they are "pedophiles". Within these groups, the idea of pressuring a person for potentially compromising details about their personal life is anathema, when applied to transsexuals and other minorities.

==Examples of tolerance outside of the LGBT community==

While the LGBT community is not without its expedient tendencies, others (many of them academics such as [[Alfred Kinsey]], married with children, but posthumously thought to be a bisexual) have taken principled stands. Activists such as [[John Holt]]<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Holt_(educator) John Holt (Wikipedia)]</ref> supported the sexual rights of youth, and were followed up by ASFAR and NYRA<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Youth_Rights_Association Youth Rights on Wikipedia]</ref>. The UK Communist Party supported abolition all the way up to 2021.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Great_Britain_%28Provisional_Central_Committee%29 Wikipedia - British Communists] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20201018151051/https://communistparty.co.uk/3-immediate-demands/ Archived Demand]</ref> Even allies of [[NARTH]] have taken positions on pederasty/pedophilia far more liberal than the modern LGBT lobby:

<blockquote>''Michael Wertheimer is the son of the late Max Wertheimer, one of the founders of the Gestalt school of psychology. He is a Harvard-educated experimental psychologist, a retired full professor at the University of Colorado, and the author or editor of approximately forty psychology books, as well as several hundred articles. He specializes in the history of psychology. ''[...]'' Dr. Wertheimer is in sympathy with NARTH, in that he strongly supports the right to sexual-reorientation treatment. However he holds a another, postmodern theoretical position that is representative of many psychologists today: that concepts of psychological health and disorder are largely socially constructed, rather than objectively true or false. Even pedophilia is not, he believes, necessarily a disorder. ''[...]'' "I know of no convincing evidence that even pedophilia is harmful to the boy."''<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130811135906/http://narth.com/docs/clash.html NARTH.com - Michael Wertheimer interview]</ref></blockquote>

Bizarrely, it is likely that the late Enoch Powell - famous for his right-wing politics, was a closeted homosexual. He was indeed a pioneer in liberalising the laws against homosexuality, a married man, and most probably a dabbling pederast.<ref>[https://villagemagazine.ie/suffer-little-children/ Village Magazine - Powell], [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/double-lives-a-history-of-sex-and-secrecy-at-westminster The Guardian - Powell]</ref>

==External links==

*[https://yasminnair.com/on-kink-at-pride/ On Kink at Pride] - Yasmin Nair rips into the orthodoxy of queer "kink" politics.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: British]][[Category:History & Events: American]][[Category:History & Events: German]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 1970s]][[Category:History & Events: 1980s]][[Category:History & Events: 1990s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity

2026-09-25T17:10:16Z

Jim Burton:

{{Template:Adj}}__NOTOC__
:''Formerly allied '''LGBT''' (at the time Gay) and '''MAP''' (at the time Man/Boy Love and Pedophile) groups are referred to by their present names in the title of this article, and parts of the body text.''

The modern '''LGBT''' ('''2SLGBTQQIA+''' among other variations <ref>Explanatory Note: 2SLGBTQQIA+ has been endorsed by Justin Trudeau (see gallery) during his time as Prime Minister of Canada. It has become a culture war cliche, to refer to the ever-expanding list of letters and symbols in the LGBTQ+ acronym. Is it a co-incidence that these new ''inclusive caveats'' have arisen after the point at which pedophiles were ''excluded'' from the umbrella?</ref>) lobby is famously insistent and defensive<ref>[https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2023/jun/08/instagram-posts/internet-created-flag-for-pedophiles-is-not-connec/ Fact check] in which inaccurate/since debunked claims about the [[MAP Flag]] and the Gay Movement's history with pedophiles are repeated, and the representative of a Gay Advocacy organization accuses MAPs of being "disordered" and inhuman.</ref><ref>Notably, it is a common claim within liberal social media circles (in response to [[pedophobia|pedophobic]] attacks on the LGBTQ+ community), that the ''"LGBT community never had anything to do with pedophiles"''. It is technically correct that the exact concept of an "LGBT community" emerged at roughly the same time [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|as the exclusion of pederasts from the gay-lib movement]]. However, the key caveat of MAPs existing within what are now known as queer and LGBT communities, is rarely acknowledged, either out of ignorance, or in service of simplifying the narrative.</ref> in its distancing attempts towards [[Minor Attracted People|MAPs]]. Young LGBT people are routinely lied to by older community leaders about the history of their movement in embracing pederasts/pedophiles, providing shelter to "loved boys" and agitating for the removal of [[Age of Consent]] laws<ref>Jenkins, Philip (2006). Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America. Oxford University Press. p. 120</ref> - for example, at the 1985 ILGA conference detailed below.<ref>For a detailed scholarly article on the relationship between NAMBLA and ILGA in U.S. history, see Tyler Carson (Rutgers University, PhD) [https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/ilga/ilgaintro The International Lesbian and Gay Association’s Suspension from the United Nations, 1993-1994], (2024/2025, ''Out History'').</ref> They also tend to ignore the pederastic roots of their movement, the dominance and normalcy of pederasty and age gap relationships throughout human history, and presence of teenage hookers at Stonewall to name but a few inconvenient truths.<ref>For the domiance of age gap relationships, there are many relevant sources in peer-reviewed scholarship. See, for example, Cleves, R. H. (2020). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/48729159 The Problem of Modern Pederasty in Queer History: A Case Study of Norman Douglas]. ''Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques'', 46(1), 47–61; Amanda Littauer's article on "Queer Girls and Intergenerational Lesbian Sexuality in the 1970s" in the same issue, with its [[Testimony:_Adult_Female_with_Minor|cases documented in our testimonials]]. More broadly, see [[Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History]] and [[Research: Nonwestern Intergenerational Relationships]] for further reading and examples. For the presence of teenage sex workers at Stonewall, search this page for relevant info.</ref>

'''To MAPs, and others using MAP awareness to their advantage in a debate''':

When LGBT people deny these facts, they may be corrected using the sources here. While LGBT [[Validity Policing]] frequently takes place on social media (and at the same time, many of us do not presently wish to associate with the LGBT Movement), it is still important to point out uncomfortable, widely-acknowledged historical facts.<ref>[https://www.schwulesmuseum.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Protokoll_Distanzierung-ist-noch-keine-Aufarbeitung.pdf Schwules Museum: on Distancing "pedoactivists" and their history with the Gay Movement]</ref> There are also [[Queer Theory|arguments in favor of]] identifying MAPs as "queer", or at least building alliances with others who feel marginalized by or disappointed with the corporate nature of the modern mainstream LGBT community and identity. [[Allyn Walker]], for example, studied 'The Use of Queer-Spectrum Identity Labels Among Minor-Attracted People', finding varied responses and reasons behind MAPs identifying as 'gay', 'queer', and so on. Walker also noted the history of association between MAPs and other queer communities.<ref name="Walkerstad">Walker, A. (2019). “I’m Not like That, So Am I Gay?” The Use of Queer-Spectrum Identity Labels Among Minor-Attracted People, in ''Journal of Homosexuality'', 67:12, pp. 1736-1759. Generally available for free via '''[[Help:Research_Resources#Information_Freedom_Companions|OPTION 1]]''' in shadow libraries, doi: 10.1080/00918369.2019.1613856. ''"While MAPs often struggle to disclose their attractions to friends and family, LGBT individuals and other queer communities continue to have these struggles as well. Even with this and other commonalities, however, MAPs are not generally accepted by queer communities. This was not always the case. Multiple researchers have explored ties between gay rights organizations and MAPs lasting from the 1960s and declining until, in some cases, the early 1990s (Chenier, 2008; Janssen, 2017; Paternotte, 2014; [https://sci-hub.usualwant.com/10.1300/j082v20n01_15 Thorstad, 1991]). Thorstad (1991) quoted a 1969 article in a gay newspaper as saying, “‘Off the consenting adults bullshit!’” (p. 251). He added, “the Stonewall Generation [...] affirmed the joys of an outlaw sexuality in the face of the outmoded moral norms of the dominant society,” (p. 252), showing acceptance of individuals with attractions to minors."'' (p. 4).</ref>

===A timeline===

We use pink highlighter to draw attention to key developments.

====1858-1969====

The very [[wikipedia:First_homosexual_movement|beginnings of the gay movement]] were literally steeped in ''[[Pederasty|pederastic]] imagery'', since it represented most of homosexuality's recorded history. The publications of [[wikipedia:Friedrich_Radszuweit|Friedrich Radszuweit]], the leader of Germany's first mass homosexual organization (the ''League for Human Rights''), included images of male youths in his publications.<ref>See, e.g. the research of Javier Samper Vendrell, ''Seduction of Youth: Print Culture and Homosexual Rights in the Weimar Republic'' (University of Toronto Press, 2020). [[https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zQPcDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=info:X1Ae6ip5E1wJ:scholar.google.com&ots=bOfiDN_xs8&sig=OpMeM6EaeBdAOdkl6ZAYAzypB1U Google books] link].</ref><ref>See also, Rottmann, A. (2023). [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/878052 of the book The Seduction of Youth: Print Culture and Homosexual Rights in the Weimar Republic, by Javier Samper Vendrell]. ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', 32(1), 105-109.</ref><ref>For further reading on the politics of adolescence in Weimar Germany, see Vendrell, J.S. (2018). [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/703546 Adolescence, Psychology, and Homosexuality in the Weimar Republic]. ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', 27(3), 395-419.</ref> In Britain and America, the group of writers known as the [[Uranian Poetry|Uranians]] (1858-1930), including [[Oscar Wilde]], Edward Carpenter, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Ralph Chubb, challenged anti-homosexual prejudice through writing on the subject of Ancient Greece or "[[Greek Love]]": the love between older males and male youth.

The Uranian writer John Addington Symonds (profiled on BoyWiki),<ref>[https://www.boywiki.org/en/John_Addington_Symonds BoyWiki: John Addington Symonds]</ref> inspired by "gay" (pederast) author [[Walt Whitman]],<ref>See the work of [[Charles Shively]]. See also, Jeremy Lybarger, [https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/jeremy-lybarger-walt-whitmans-boys/ Walt Whitman’s Boys] (''Boston Review'', May 30, 2019).</ref> is credited as being the 1st person to use the term "homosexual" in the English-language<ref>In Jan 2023, the Wikipedia page for Symonds stated: ''"The work, "perhaps the most exhaustive eulogy of Greek love," remained unpublished for a decade, and then was printed at first only in a limited edition for private distribution. Although the Oxford English Dictionary credits the medical writer C. G. Chaddock for introducing "homosexual" into the English language in 1892, Symonds had already used the word in '''A Problem in Greek Ethics'''."'' For the full-text of Symond's book, see [https://www.boywiki.org/en/A_Problem_in_Greek_Ethics_(Full_Text) BoyWiki.]</ref> in his book ''A Problem in Greek Ethics'', written in 1873 and privately printed in 1901. This work was also the 1st to use the term "[[Boylove|boy-love]]", considered accurately as another form of homosexuality in the Uranian effort to defend and advocate for same-sex love. The American Uranian poet [[Edward Perry Warren]]<ref>[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Edward_Perry_Warren BoyWiki - Edward Perry Warren]</ref> also authored an early defense of same-sex love, in his 3-volume magnum opus (1928-1930), ''A Defence of Uranian Love''. In an even earlier defense of homosexuality published in 1749, the English writer [[Wikipedia:Thomas_Cannon_(author)|Thomas Cannon]] published ''Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplified'', which argued that: ''"Unnatural Desire is a Contradiction in Terms; downright Nonsense. ''[...]'' Nature sometimes assumes an unusual Appearance; But the extraordinary Pederast seeking Fruition, is as naturally acted as the ordinary Woman's Man in that Pursuit."''<ref>The Indictment of John Purser, Containing Thomas Cannon's ''Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplify'd'', Edited by Hal Gladfelder, in ''Eighteenth-Century'', 31 (Number 1, Winter 2007), p. 54. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ancient_and_Modern_Pederasty_Investigated_and_Exemplify%27d Copyright free text available online (external link)].</ref> Finally, "the first homosexual novel", ''[[wikipedia:Alcibiades_the_Schoolboy|Alcibiades the Schoolboy]]'' (1652) by Antonio Rocco, portrays age-gap homosexuality / [[pederasty]] (reprinted in 2000 with an [https://greek-love.com/index.php/europe-5th-17th-centuries/alcibiades/introduction-alcibiades-the-schoolboy-pederasty?highlight=WyJ3YWx0ZXIiLCJicmVlbiJd Afterword] by [[Donald_Mader|Mader]]).

The first anthology of homosexual literature to be published in America - [[Men and Boys: An Anthology (1924)]] - is credited to the American Uranian poet [[Edward Mark Slocum]]. "In ''Inversions'', the first French homophile periodical" published from 1924-1926, the Queer historian [[Kadji Amin]] writes that, "two men with such opposed politics as Camille Spiess, a Swiss-born fascist sympathizer, and [[Andre Gide]], a leftist critic of colonialism, both celebrate pederasty as a virile culture-building and nation-sustaining form of homosociality" (Amin, p. 117).<ref>[https://annas-archive.org/md5/a4bfa9ca1e6ff4fb00bf63cf570f0c2e Kadji Amin, ''Disturbing Attachments'' (2014)], p. 117.</ref> A member of the first French homophile organization "Arcadie" (founded in 1954)<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcadie Wikipedia on Arcadie]</ref>, recalls that “back in the 1950s, the idea of a stable, lifelong partnership with someone his own age was not part of his personal homosexual identity” and goes on to relate this to the unavailability of a homosexual identity distinct from [[pederasty]] before the 1980s" (Amin, footnote 51, p. 220).<ref>Amin, ''Disturbing Attachments'' (2014), footnote 51, p. 220.</ref>

As shown by gay historian [[Hubert Kennedy]], one of the earliest and longest lasting gay journals - the Swiss '''Der Kreis''' (''The Circle'') published from 1932 to 1967 and distributed internationally - included numerous short stories and poetry about men and youths in sexual relationships as well as drawings of pubescent boys.<ref>Kennedy, H. (1999). ''The Ideal Gay Man: The Story of Der Kreis''. New York: The Haworth Press; co-published simultaneously in [https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/wjhm20/38/1-2 Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 38, Numbers 1/2]. See p. 1 and especially chapter 9: 'Man and boy' ([https://sci-hub.st/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J082v38n01_10 Sci-hub link]).</ref> '''Der Eigene (''The Self-Owner'', 1896-1932)''', the very first Gay Journal, focused on pederastic writings and photography, and "advocated classical pederasty as a cure for the moral flabbiness of German youth". Scans are available via Wikipedia.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Eigene Wikipedia - Der Eigene]</ref> ''Der Eigene'' was founded by Anarchist activist '''[[Wikipedia:Adolf_Brand|Adolf Brand]]''', who in 1900 published the first anthology of gay poetry in Germany, called [[wikipedia:Lieblingminne_und_Freundesliebe_in_der_Weltliteratur|''Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltliteratur'']]. Compiled by '''[[wikipedia:Elisar_von_Kupffer|Elisar von Kupffer]]''', Kupffer wrote a preface arguing for homosexuality (including between men and boys) as an integral part of society. Later, '''von Kupffer''' moved to Switzerland with a male friend and possible lover, establishing himself as a muralist. After years spent making photographic studies of boys for use in the creation of his paintings, Kupffer transformed his villa into an opulent collection of art - the ''Sanctuarium Artis Elisarion'' - which "consisted of a monumental painting by Kupffer of eighty-four strikingly similar naked ephebic youths in various positions."<ref>[https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/129225040/Oosterhuis_2000_Elisar_von_Kupffer_Gay_Histories_and_Cultures.pdf Oosterhuis, H. (2000). Elisar von Kupffer (1872-1942). In G. E. Haggerty (Ed.), Gay Histories and Cultures: An Encyclopedia (pp. 524-525). Garland Publishing].</ref>

[[David Thorstad]] notes of the Germans:

:''"The issue of love between men and boys has intersected the gay movement since the late nineteenth century, with the rise of the first gay rights movement in Germany. ''[...]'' A few (Hans Blüher, for example, famous for his book on the Wandervogel movement) believed that pederasty and male bonding provided a basis for a stronger nation and state - a view that, in a perverted form, found a distorted expression in the militarism of the Hitler Youth."''<ref name=ThorstadPed>[https://www.nambla.org/pederasty.html Pederasty and Homosexuality - David Thorstad, 2003.] See also on [[Text of Pederasty and Homosexuality|Newgon]].</ref>
[[Image:Haykiss1994.jpg|thumb|1994: [[Harry Hay]] blows a kiss. By this time, [[NAMBLA]] was already highly unfashionable]]
A 2021 journal issue entitled "''Restoring Intergenerational Dynamics to Queer History''"<ref>[https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/historical-reflections/46/1/historical-reflections.46.issue-1.xml Restoring Intergenerational Dynamics to Queer History]</ref> reminds us that intergenerational love and eroticism represent an integral part of Queer history; before terms like "homosexuality" - once designating same-sex attraction - came to be associated with "androphile" or "adults only." In her book on the once famous and influential pederast Norman Douglas [[Norman Douglas|(see book review)]], Historian [[Rachel Hope Cleves]] quotes from [[Kadji Amin]]:

:''"According to Amin, “modern pederasty,” which he defines as age-differentiated sex, was the dominant form of male same-sex practice until the mid-twentieth century. As he reminds readers:''

::''Virtually all late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century canonical authors now remembered as “gay” — including Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde (whose famous “love that dare not speak its name” was pederasty), Marcel Proust, Jean Cocteau, André Gide, Jean Genet, and even James Baldwin — participated in and, in some cases, wrote about age-differentiated same-sex erotic relations"''<ref>Rachel Hope Cleves, [https://annas-archive.org/md5/4fb01d8582cb462bf79d0cf28a43bf00 Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality] (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020) (p. 6)</ref>

In their book chapter "''Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History''," [[Gert Hekma]] and [[Donald_Mader|D. H. Mader]] survey the history of recorded male same-sex eroticism through surviving photography artwork. They conclude: "The history of pederasty is to a large extent the history of homosexuality, and vice versa". Reflecting on the dire consequences of expansive definitions of "child pornography,"<ref>[https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3156232 Hessick, 2018]</ref> which can in some jurisdictions include drawings, animation, writing, and any material said to feature people under 18 years of age with any hint of erotic significance, Hekma and Mader note that the mere possession of much material discussed by past LGBTQ historians could now be considered illegal. They argue that, "When the age for “child pornography” rises to 21, a very significant part of the visual history that the LGBT community now celebrates becomes off limit." <ref>[https://archive.org/details/censoringsexresearch Gert Hekma and Donald H. Mader. (2013). Same Sex, Different Ages: On Pederasty in Gay History, in ''Censoring Sex Research''.]</ref>
[[File:One---announcement-for-an-analysis-of-boylove-1968.jpg|thumb|[[wikipedia:One_Institute|One Inc.]] ad for the talk ''An Analysis of Boy Love'' (Dr. Bruno Vitale), set to take place on June 10th, 1968.]]
In the American [[wikipedia:Homophile movement|Homophile movement]], the [[wikipedia:One_Institute|One Institute]] (f. 1952 as ONE Inc.) published the nation's first wide-circulated, national homosexual periodical ''ONE Magazine''. ONE's writings and speaking events are known to have included pederasty / boy-love, as with the (pictured) example of Dr. Bruno Vitale, a "Friend of ONE" who had "presented this topic at ONE's 1959 Midwinter Institute and has written on numerous occasions for One Magazine and One Institute Quarterly." ONE also assisted in creating ''The Ladder'', a magazine published by the first lesbian civil and political rights organization in the United States - the [[Wikipedia:Daughters_of_Bilitis|''Daughters of Bilitis'']] (f. 1955) - who named themselves after the Ancient Greek character Bilitis from [[Pierre Louys]]' [[Intergenerational_Lesbianism|Sapphic/pederastic]] poetry collection [[Wikipedia:The_Songs_of_Bilitis|''The Songs of Bilitis'']] (1894). After emerging from a [[Harry Hay|Mattachine Society]] discussion held on October 15, 1952, the One Institute is now considered the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the United States.<ref>This last claim is made in Wikipedia, linked above. To learn more about the One Institute from one of its founders and leaders, see [[wikipedia:W._Dorr_Legg|Dorr Legg's]] book [https://www.amazon.com/Homophile-Studies-Practice-Dorr-Legg/dp/1879194171 ''Homophile Studies in Theory and Practice''] (written and edited by Dorr Legg, co-edited by David G. Cameron and [[Walter L. Williams]], One Institute Press / GLB Publishers, 1994).</ref>

Keith Vacha, a gay writer whose work appeared in ''Fag Rag'', interviewed over 100 homosexuals from the pre-Stonewall generation (born around 1900) for his book ''[[Testimony:_Adult_Male_with_Minor_Male|Quiet Fire]]'', and noted "a high degree of inter-generational relationships among the men I met" (''Quiet Fire'', 1985, p. 217). On the basis of his interviews, Vacha attributed this tendency "not so much to preference as to their lack of hesitancy in entering into such age-segregated relationships. The stigma against these kinds of relationships does not appear to be as strong in the gay community as it is in society in general." (pp. 217-218).

Homosexual sexual contact (including [[pederasty]]) remained illegal, with same-sex desire widely taboo and stigmatized until the liberation movements of the 60s.<ref>"In 1965, The Detroit Free Press ran a series of articles aimed at parents who were "concerned with rearing sons who are manly and daughters who are truly feminine." [... The] syndicated advice columnist Ann Landers reported that "70% of the mail I recieve from boys 14 to 19 concerns their homosexual tendencies, begging for help, terrified someone may lean they aren't 'like everyone else.'" - Quoted in Shepard, Nikita. (2026). [https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sex.00057 "I Just Had to Write”: Queer Youth Letters in the Mid-Twentieth-Century United States."] ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', vol. 35, no. 1, 2026, pp. 135-143 (p. 135).</ref><ref>For some interviews with gay men who experienced life in the 1950s, who experienced the-then extreme pressure to seek therapy as a coping mechanism for living with their hidden, extremely stigmatized sexual feelings that if exposed threatened to ruin their life - see [[Gary Dowsett]]'s 1996 book [https://annas-archive.gl/md5/60eb6c41c74e5b450140e2078f99a6f7 ''Practicing Desire: Homosexual Sex in the Era of AIDS'' (Stanford University Press, 1996)]. (Annas Archive link).</ref> People with same-sex desire faced being arrested, physically attacked or killed, and feared becoming outcasts and social rejects if they opened up to friends, colleagues, and parents.<ref>For an experience of a gay teen being chased at knife-point by his parents, see Barney's recollection of being chased around his kitchen at knife-point by his mother (“I'll cut it off!”), after she discovered him engaging in sex play with another child. ''Ibid''. p. 14; p. 260. For an account of seeking therapy to cope with a hostile society, see ''Ibid'', the story of Ralph Coles, pp. 124-125.</ref> With effectively ''no age of consent'' for homosexuality, the movement was age-queered as inter-generational sex was no more illegal than same age homosexuality. Witch-hunts such as the earlier [[Boston-Boise affair|Boise controversy]] targeted pederasts in the name of curbing homosexuality - since the homosexuals were largely pederasts. During the 1950s and 60s, gay commerce began to expand with the circulation of physique magazines sporting "images and illustrations of nearly naked men, as well as articles, letters from readers, and advertisements, [which for many] served as an initiation into gay culture." "With circulation rates many times higher than the openly political "homophile" magazines," it has been argued that "gay commerce was not a byproduct but rather an important catalyst for the gay rights movement."<ref>Johnson, David K. [https://annas-archive.org/md5/63375a4cfaaadfcec13c528b9df355f8 ''Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement''] (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019). Here, we quote from the book description / blurb.</ref> Boy prostitution was also common form of homosexuality in this intervening period, with many such examples documented.<ref>[http://greek-love.com See, e.g. Greek-Love.com] emphasis on works of [[Parker Rossman]].</ref><ref>See also, Romesburg, Don. (2009). [https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sex.0.0061 “Wouldn’t a Boy Do?”: Placing Early-Twentieth-Century Male Youth Sex Work into Histories of Sexuality]. ''Journal of the History of Sexuality'', 18(3), 367-392.</ref> Some of our man-boy [[Accounts and Testimonies|accounts and testimonies]] also refer to this revealing period in time.

====1969: The Stonewall Myth====

'''Stonewall Inn, NY, 1969:''' Research has revealed the presence of underage rent boys and street kids at Stonewall, a joint known for its lax door policies; cultivating a collection of underage hustlers, drag queens, transsexuals and ailing pederasts.<ref>[https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/gay-rights-stonewall-riots-what-happened-lgbtq/ History Extra: Explains door policies and the kind of community at Stonewall]</ref><ref>[https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/june-2019-stonewall-fifty-unfinished-gay-revolution-riot Origins: Underage Boys at Stonewall]</ref><ref>[https://www.cntraveller.in/story/what-exactly-happened-at-stonewall-inn-that-night-new-york-pride-lgbtq-riots/ Conde Nast Traveller: "drag queens, hustlers, older men who liked younger guys"]</ref><ref>[https://news.airbnb.com/sharing-the-stories-of-the-stonewall-uprising/ AirBNB - Group of underage kids, and more underage at Stonewall]</ref><ref>[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stonewall-inn-riots-50th-anniversary-interview-lgbtq-elders-uprising/ Underage and drawn into the riots: "They just wanted the police to lay off"]</ref><ref>[https://allthatsinteresting.com/stonewall-riots AllThatsInteresting: A favorite with the underage]</ref><ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/when-it-comes-stonewall-myths-are-famous-riots-n1016616 NBC News: More references to underage]</ref> There was a network of corruption involving the Feds and the Mob, who exploited this consensual trade in underage boys, using it to extort Wall St traders and others. The bars, many of which were frequented by hookers aged 14-18+ (the more mature end of the boy trade in New York<ref>[https://greek-love.com/americas/boy-pederasty-prostitution-in-new-york-1968 Drew/Drake - BOY PROSTITUTION IN NEW YORK IN 1968]</ref>) were generally run by the Mob, and would pay the Feds off with money raised via this extortion racket/pleasure-boy trade. When said financial relationship broke down (or when politicians and officials were seeking to promote themselves as champions of Law and Order), raids occurred - as was common with sex shops, brothels and bars of that era. London's Soho gay village had a so-called "meat rack" of boys as young as 10, much like the major American cities.

A few accounts from Stonewall follow:

:''"'''Bob Kohler''' used to talk to the homeless youth in Sheridan Square and said, "When people talk about Judy Garland's death having anything much to do with the riot, that makes me crazy. The street kids faced death every day. They had nothing to lose. And they couldn't have cared less about Judy. We're talking about kids who were fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. Judy Garland was the middle-aged darling of the middle-class gays. I get upset about this because it trivializes the whole thing."''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/questionofequali00deit Deitcher, David, ed. (1995). ''The Question of Equality: Lesbian and Gay Politics in America Since Stonewall.'' Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-80030-1.]</ref>
[[File:Stonewall-Stein.png|thumb|The Stonewall Riots, by Marc Stein (source used)]]
:''"The crowd was young, some of them very young, the Stonewall being known for its underage crowd. In fact, it turned out that the purpose of the raid was to bust a Mob blackmail ring being run out of the Stonewall. The Mob was using underage hustlers to entrap older gay men, mainly from Wall Street, and extract money from them."'' - (Personal Account, '''Lucian Truscott''').<ref>[https://www.salon.com/2017/06/28/the-night-they-busted-stonewall/ The Night They Busted Stonewall - Lucian Truscott]</ref> He has described them as between 15 and 17<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/stonewall-participants/ Truscott in PBS]</ref>

:''"In Stonewall’s heyday you had underage hustlers, people selling drugs, and it was really a seedy place,"''<ref>[https://observer.com/2006/08/stonewall-to-shutter-queen-bees-stinging-glad/ David Carter Quoted in Observer.com]</ref> According to Carter, historian and author of ''Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution'', the ''“hierarchy of resistance”'' in the riots began with the homeless or “street” kids, those young gay men who viewed the Stonewall as the only safe place in their lives.<ref>[https://www.history.com/news/stonewall-riots-timeline History.com: Hierarchy of resistance]</ref><ref>[https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/us/1969-stonewall-riots-history/index.html Carter and Marcus: Rainbow of kids. Homeless]</ref>

It is a gross simplification to present the riots as a crystallizing moment rooted in a conscious political sea-change.<ref>[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stonewall-Riots-Documentary-History/dp/147981685X ''The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History'', By Marc Stein, 2019]</ref> We know there was already decades of organizing and a widespread feeling of resentment towards law enforcement. Yet we also know the street kids and transvestites who were seen to fight back probably had nowhere to return to that early morning, and acted for reasons other than immediate political demands. Nevertheless, within a month of Stonewall, some radical youth organizations such as the youth wing of NACHO were already calling for the abolition of ages of consent, among other demands.<ref>[https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/pwh/1969docs.asp NACHO Youth Wing - Abolish AoC]</ref><ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_Our_Children Save Our Children]</ref><ref name=deorio>[https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/138757/sadeorio_1.pdf Scott De Orio]</ref>

In his article "''When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children''" (2018), [[Michael Bronski]] explained:

:"In his foundational “The Gay Manifesto,” published a month before the Stonewall riots, Carl Wittman wrote:

::''A note on the exploitation of children: kids can take care of themselves, and are sexual beings way earlier than we’d like to admit. Those of us who began cruising in early adolescence know this, and we were doing the cruising, not being debauched by dirty old men [...] And as for child molesting, the overwhelming amount is done by straight guys to little girls: it is not particularly a gay problem, and is caused by the frustrations resulting from anti-sex puritanism.''<ref>[https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/michael-bronski-gay-family/ Michael Bronski, When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children, ''Boston Review'' (2018)].</ref>

====1970-1994: Age-queer foundations of the modern LGBT movement====

The modern gay movement was age-queer from the beginning (not without assimilationist tendencies, it represented a broad and sometimes fractious church). This is demonstrated by the foundation of gay youth groups immediately after Stonewall, and their policy platforms. New York's ''Gay Youth'', for example, lobbied for the complete removal of ages of consent.<ref name="Cohen" /> What is also striking about these youth groups, is how they viewed Boylovers (Chickenhawks) as a means to an end. The 1972 ''Gay Rights Platform'', created at the National Coalition of Gay Organizations Convention held in Chicago in 1972, demanded at a state level, "repeal of all laws governing the age of sexual consent".<ref>[http://www.rslevinson.com/gaylesissues/features/collect/onetime/bl_platform1972.htm The 1972 Gay Rights Platform: Platform created at the National Coalition of Gay Organizations Convention held in Chicago in 1972.]</ref> That same year, members of Boston’s Gay Men’s Liberation lobbied the Democratic National Convention for the complete abolition of parental rights, adding that "free twenty-four hour child care centers should be established where faggots and lesbians can share the responsibility of child rearing".<ref>[https://bostonreview.net/articles/michael-bronski-gay-family/ When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children - Michael Bronski]</ref> Abolitionism wasn't just limited to the US. London's ''Gay Youth Movement''<ref>[https://lgbthistoryuk.org/wiki/Gay_Youth_Movement No 1 June 1981 to no 9 June 1983] are held in the British Library. Issues after 1982 often contain support for the Paedophile Information Exchange (P.I.E.). Issue 10 (Dec 1983/Jan 1984) states ' GYM supports paedophiles' (copy in Hall-Carpenter Archives)</ref> explicitly supported pedophiles, and ''Gay Liberation Front'' & its youth wing marched in favor of repealing the Age of Consent<ref>Williams, Clifford (2021) Courage to Be: Organised Gay Youth in England 1967-1990. The Book Guild Ltd. ISBN 9781913913632</ref>, and the following excerpt from ''Radical History Review'', suggests similar movements were seen in Canada:

:''"Certainly, youth liberation was understood to be part of the gay movement. A 1973 editorial in TBP stated, “At the centre of the Gay Liberation Movement is the whole burning question, which we cannot ignore, of sexual rights for gay youth and youth in general.” A few years later, Fiona Rattray, then a young member of LOOT, penned a positive review of Growing Up Gay, a 1976 anthology published by the Youth Liberation Press, a wing of the Ann Arbor-based Youth Liberation Organization. Founded in 1970, the youth-led YLO included in its fifteen-point program the “unhindered right” to “sexual self-determination.” ''[...]'' At a national ''[Canadian]'' gay conference in 1975, two young lesbians, in a shrewd demonstration of youth power, told delegates over the age of twenty-one that they should vote on the age-of-consent issue based on the wishes of those under twenty-one. All the youth delegates were in favor of the outright abolition, not just equalization, of the age of consent. While the issue never achieved complete consensus in the movement, the National Gay Rights Coalition, like many of its member groups, including TBP, adopted as part of its platform the abolition of all age-of-consent laws. ''[...]'' In the 1,000-strong march up Toronto’s main drag in January 1978 to protest Anita Bryant’s visit and to defend TBP, protesters chanted, “Women and Gays and Children Unite: Same Struggle, Same Fight.”"''<ref name="RHR" />

Elsewhere, gay historian Bronski notes how, "In 1972 members of Boston's Gay Men's Liberation, one of the most significant Gay Liberation groups formed after the 1969 Stonewall riots, drove to Miami to hand out a ten-point list of demands at the Democratic National Convention. [...]

"Its first demand [...] was for "''an end to any discrimination based on biology. Neither skin color, age nor gender should be recorded by any government agency. Biology should never be the basis for any special legal handicap or privilege.''"

It's 6th demand:

:''Rearing children should be the common responsibility of the whole community. Any legal rights parents have over 'their' children should be dissolved and each child should be free to choose its own destiny.''<ref>[https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/michael-bronski-gay-family/ Michael Bronski, When Gays Wanted to Liberate Children, ''Boston Review'' (2018)].</ref>

In France, the early LGBT rights advocate and founder of queer theory [[Guy Hocquenghem]] - referred to as "a founding father of homosexual liberation in France" - had a lifelong relationship with his then high school philosophy teacher [[René Schérer]], which had began as an affair when Hocquenghem was 15 years of age. Hocquenghem participated in the May '68 student revolt and published a coming out essay in January 1972 entitled the "''Revolution of Homosexuals''", described as "the literary event that, probably more than any single other, helped establish the cause of gay liberation firmly in the wider public consciousness."<ref>[http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.0642292.0032.023 Ron Haas. (2004). Utopia Aborted: May '68 in the Philosophy of Guy Hocquenghem. ''French History'', Volume 32].</ref> He was prominent member of the Front ''Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire'' (FHAR), which opposed the age of consent, and signed and defended the [[Wikipedia:French_petition_against_age_of_consent_laws|French Petition against Age of Consent Laws]]<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/feb/24/jonhenley Henley - Calls for legal child sex rebound on luminaries of May 68]</ref> signed by many of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, including [[Michel Foucault]] and founder of 2nd wave [[Feminism|feminism]] [[Simone de Beauvoir]]. In ''[[Sexual Morality and the Law]]''<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/danger.htm ''Sexual Morality and the Law'' - Ipce]</ref> (1978), a radio discussion alongside [[Michel Foucault]] and Jean Danet, Hocquenghem famously stated:

:''"As far as this question of consent is concerned, I prefer the terms used by Michel Foucault: listen to what the child says and give it a certain credence. This notion of consent is a trap, in any case. What is sure is that the legal form of an intersexual consent is nonsense. No one signs a contract before making love."''

Queer historian [[Kadji Amin]] (2017) wrote:

:''"During the French gay liberation moment of the early 1970s, male “homosexual revolutionaries” widely accepted that the liberation of pederasts would be the cutting edge of the sexual revolution agenda. As the Groupe de Libération Homosexuelle 14 writes in a 1976 publication, “The fight for the liberation of pederasts . . . is essential, perhaps, more fundamental than that of homosexuals, perhaps even more than that of women. It radically questions all of society; subversion par excellence.” French gay liberationists valued pederasty as a radical challenge to the bourgeois nuclear family, understood to be the fundamental disciplinary unit of a society founded on repressive sex and gender normalization. They theorized pederasty/pedophilia as a crucial means of contesting parents’ possessive investment in their children and of championing minors’ free exercise of their sexuality."''<ref>Amin, Kadji. "Disturbing attachments: Genet, modern pederasty, and queer history. Duke University Press, 2017," p. 23.</ref>

[[David Thorstad]] says of the post-Stonewall American group he led:

:''"New York's Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), successor to the Gay Liberation Front and a prototype activist group founded in December 1969, opposed legal restrictions on sex based on age, although this was never a focus of the group's activities. In 1976 GAA became the first gay group in New York — and probably in the country — to sponsor a public forum on man/boy love. Held at the Church of the Beloved Disciple on April 4, the forum brought together a "panel of pederasts" to speak on the topic "Of Men and Boys: Pederasty and the Age of Consent." The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Rights Coalition, a cross-Canada group, also favored abolishing the age of consent. Many activists shared the view that the state had no business regulating sex between consenting partners, whatever their age ''[...]'' In 1977, the issue of sex between adults and minors moved abruptly to center stage. Anita Bryant began to articulate the mounting backlash to gay liberation by zeroing in on a perceived weak link: the widespread belief that gay men seduce young boys and turn them into queers. The name of her organization — Save Our Children— transparently implied this. Simultaneously, a new hysteria about "kiddie porn" arose, fed by the political right and the [[Feminism|feminist movement]], with unmistakable suggestions that gay men who loved boys were in reality exploiting and abusing them. This clever propaganda ploy not only deftly exploited the public's ignorance about homosexuality, but also caught the gay movement off guard: It was unprepared to make an intelligent rebuttal."''<ref name="Thorstad">[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2086634/ Man/boy love and the American gay movement] and [https://archive.org/stream/ManboyLoveAndTheAmericanGayMovement/Man_boy_love_and_the_American_Gay_Movement_2_djvu.txt full text], and [Media:Man Boy Love and the American Gay Movement by David Thorstad.pdf our copy]</ref>

In 1974, the gay umbrella group '''ILGA''' ('''IGA''' at the time) is set up. The openly pro-pedophile '''[[Ian Dunn]]''' is a key founding member, the same year he helped set up the '''[[Paedophile Information Exchange]]'''.<ref>[https://gript.ie/pedophile-information-exchange-pie-founder-among-the-founders-of-ilga/ Gript Piece on Ian Dunn - PIE and ILGA.]</ref> ILGA exist to this day as part of the UN consultative network - running social media accounts as @ILGAWORLD. In 1978, [[Tom Reeves]] and [[David Thorstad]] were already accepted gay activists, but decide to form [[NAMBLA]] - an organization dedicated to pederasty - which was initially accepted by the gay community<ref>[https://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/15/boy-crazy/ Boston Magazine: Boy Crazy]</ref> and soon joined up with ILGA.<REF>[https://4w.pub/lesbians-vs-pedophiles/ Lesbians vs Pedophiles]</ref> Between 1975 and 1977, the British Gay Charity, Albany Trust, with help from the Paedophile Information Exchange and the Paedophile Action for Liberation, published a booklet on paedophilia.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany_Trust Wikipedia: Albany Trust]</ref><ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/07/no-evidence-home-office-funded-paedophile-group Guardian: Albany Trust controversy]</ref>
[[File:Mc-PIE-Pride-1983-768x1024 by Bob Workman.jpg|thumb|Loud and proud: A PIE contingent at London Gay Pride in 1983 proclaims the MAP message]]
By the late 70s, the nascent [[NAMBLA]] (having formed after [[Boston-Boise_affair|another witch hunt against pederasts]]) was already attracting negative attention from some angry Lesbian [[Feminism|Feminists]] and infiltration by the FBI<ref name=deorio/>. In 1980, 15-year old Gay Youth Activist, Mark Moffett, who had pursued relationships with older men<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/califa_aftermath_text.htm The Aftermath of the Great Kiddy-Porn Panic of '77]</ref>, spoke at a rally in Sheridan Square, defending the right of boy-lovers to participate in the movement.<ref name="Thorstad" /> His personal testimony, views on the Age of Consent, and that many other young gay people from around the same time have been compiled in the 2019 Kids Club Anthology (Vol. 1).<ref>[https://www.brongersma.info/images/Anthology_01.pdf 2019 - Kids Club Anthology - Youth speak out on youthlove]</ref> Vol. 2, ''She said - Women, Lesbians, and Feminist Speak Out about Youthlove'' (2019), shows similar accounts and perspectives from females.<ref>[https://library.lol/main/99099C4003BC144DCA222C5D34D84A6C ''She said - Women, Lesbians, and Feminist Speak Out about Youthlove'' (2019)] - on Libgen.</ref>

American associations between gay and pedophile groups weren't an exception to the rule. Indeed, in the UK, the largest and most influential organisation in the gay rights movement was the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, and they were affiliated with the [[Paedophile Information Exchange]] from 1975. In 1977, they hosted their own conference on Pedophilia; leading Dutch pederast [[Edward Brongersma]] was invited to talk (see gallery). In 1983, they showed further solidarity with PIE, after they were denied banking services by the Midland Bank (also in gallery). PIE has been involved in further scandals over its past associations with the civil liberties group NCCL (now ''Liberty'') and various former NCCL members who went on to take political office. Two successive 1978-9 copies of ''Gay Left'' magazine presented a number of radical takes on pedophilia, including a piece from [[Paedophile Information Exchange|PIE]] activist [[Thomas O'Carroll]].<ref>See, for example, [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718212111/http://www.gayleft1970s.org/issues/gay.left_issue.07.pdf Gay Left 7], [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718212111/http://www.gayleft1970s.org/issues/gay.left_issue.08.pdf Gay Left 8] and support for activists in [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718212111/http://www.gayleft1970s.org/issues/gay.left_issue.10.pdf Gay Left 10]</ref>

Gay activists Bob Cant and Nigel Young wrote in a 1980 book edited by the Gay Left Collective, that conspiracy laws were being used by the UK government to "prosecute members of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) on a charge of conspiracy to corrupt public morals," in just the same way as conspiracy charges were being used to attack the rights of workers.<ref>Bob Cant and Neil Young, ''Homosexuality: Power & Politics'' (Allison & Busby Ltd and Gay Left, 1980), p. 126.</ref> The authors argued that the "hysterical attacks on paedophiles by the state and press" had to be "fought against," as they represented "attempts by all sorts of reactionary groups to define childhood as a state of innocence, which will inevitably turn into heterosexuality at sixteen unless tainted by contact with homosexuals" (''Ibid'', p. 125). In the same book, a chapter by Stephen Gee concerns the ''Gay Activists Alliance'' (GAA) that he helped found, which led a campaign to abolish the [[age of consent]].<ref>See Stephen Gee, in Cant and Young (1980), ''Ibid''.; For the claim about GAA wishing to abolish the age of consent, see London Gay Activists Alliance, ‘Child temptress chased man to bed’, ''Submission to the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure'', April 1979.</ref> Gee argued that there was a "shift to the right in Britain's social and political climate, which has led to a general decline in confidence and activity on the left; the hysteria surrounding pedophilia and child sexuality have a particularly immobilizing effect on the gay movement" (''Ibid'', pp. 201-202). For him, "We should continue to work at making alliances between women and gay men and other oppressed groups. [...] We need alliances because we face a period of resistance to attacks with little chance of any extension of civil rights. [...] The attack on [[PIE]] is possibly only the beginning of a general undermining of sexual rights and freedoms; it is the state fortifying itself in a battle for the possession and dispossession of children, women and homosexuals. Are we ready?" (''Ibid'', pp. 203-204).

Sweden's ''Pedophile Working Group'' was part of the LGBT group '''Riksförbundet för Sexuellt Likaberättigande''' - RFSL. In 1983 they sent a petition to the Swedish government demanding [[Age of Consent]] abolition, and in 1993 were accused of publishing a guide to child prostitution abroad, after only rejecting the idea of restarting the workgroup due to social pressure. One journalist writes ''"RFSL explicitly wrote that "the pedophile gives tenderness and love" and that the pedophile should not be considered sick. The man behind these formulations was called Kjell Rindar and was then the confederation chairman of the RFSL. As recently as 2011, he gave the opening speech at Stockholm Pride."''<ref>[https://detgodasamhallet-com.translate.goog/2019/01/02/gastskribent-john-gustavsson-pedofilerna-och-hbtq-rorelsens-morka-historia/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=nl&_x_tr_pto=wapp ”Pedofilerna och HBTQ-rörelsens mörka historia” i Det goda samhället, 2019-01-02]</ref>

In a recent review, Brussels academic and researcher David Paternotte observes of ILGA, now in its 6th year (1980):

:''"The documents of the 1980 Barcelona conference, where pedophilia was thoroughly discussed in two workshops (the women's caucus and a specific one on the topic), reveal that, despite the cautiousness and the already emerging dissent, positions were primarily liberationist. The defence of pedophilia was presented as an issue of solidarity between oppressed sexual minorities and an endorsement of young people's right to sexual autonomy. If the women's caucus raised the issues of power imbalance in sexual relationships, of patriarchy and of institutional violence against women and children, it refused a systematic association between pedophilia and gender violence, stating that mutual relationships are possible between adults and children. Besides, female activists emphasised the existence of 'a link between the repression of (paedo)sexuality and the appearance of repressive sexuality (rape and sexual assaults). ''[...]'' A discussion paper prepared by the COC on request of the 1980 Barcelona conference and discussed at the 1981 Torre Pelice conference, which relied on an earlier decision by the COC annual congress (Sandfort, 1987b), confirmed this stance. It urged homosexuals to show their solidarity with pedophiles, particularly because both groups suffer from normative compulsory heterosexuality, and maintains that "a successful homo-emancipation should include pedo-emancipation"''.

:[...]

:''"The pedophilia workshop, which included representatives of some pedophile groups (the German DSAP, the British Fallen Angels and the French Groupe de Recherche pour une Enfance Differente), proposed another resolution suggesting to continue the debate, both within national organisations and at ILGA. Although this document acknowledged tensions and debates within IGA, its preamble was clearly inspired by a liberationist agenda. It claimed that arguments about this topic were often used against ‘homosexual liberation’, emphasised ‘the place liberation of paedosexuality takes in the whole of sexual liberation’, and stressed ‘our distinctive ability, derived from our own experience of oppression as gay men and lesbian women, to contribute to the discussion of the liberation of paedosexuality’. Age of consent laws were condemned, and activists claimed the right to sexual self-determination irrespective of age."''<ref name="Paternotte">[https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/1363460713511103 The ILGA and the question of pedophilia: Tracking the demise of gay liberation ideals, by David Paternotte]. See also [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137321466_16 Pedophilia, Homosexuality and Gay and Lesbian Activism] (By Paternotte) in ''[https://annas-archive.org/md5/07b8bf5a92448f869ee9abc9f210d816 Sexual Revolutions]''</ref>

Leading Lesbian [[Feminism|Feminist]] [[Jane Rule]] seemed to concur:

:''"If we accepted sexual behaviour between children and adults, we would be far more able to protect children from abuse and exploitation.”''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bodypolitic53toro/page/28/mode/2up The Body Politic, 1979]</ref>

Lesbian Feminist [[Kate Millett]] made similar comments in 1980:

:''"one of children's essential rights is to express themselves sexually, probably primarily with each other but with adults as well ''(...)'' the sexual freedom of children is an important part of a sexual revolution ''(...)'' if you don't change the social condition of children you still have an inescapable inequality".''<ref>[https://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/interv_kate_m.htm Sexual Revolution and the Liberation of Children: An Interview With Kate Millett]</ref>

In 1979, anti-rape feminists in New Jersey won [[Age of Consent]] reforms, temporarily lowering it to 13, in an effort to “reduce the number of teenagers in the courts - to reduce the number of teenagers with arrest records.”<ref>Warren Blumenfeld, “NJ Tackles Age of Consent,” Gay Community News, May 26, 1979</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1979/08/12/archives/new-jersey-law-changes-reflect-the-new-morality-a-compilation-from.html Waldron in NYT: A Decade in the Making, the State's First Criminal Code Takes Effect Next Month]</ref>

As part of an internal debate within the gay community, the following is a statement from the Chicago Stonewall Committee, as published in the 26 March 1983 Gay Community News:
[[File:Nam1982pressconf.webp|thumb|David Thorstad - 1982 NAMBLA press conference]]
:''"We think s/m lesbians and NAMBLA do belong. The gay movement is based on expanding people's options, in bed and out, not on setting some new sexual “party line.” Not too long ago, the whole gay issue was too kinky to be taken seriously as a progressive social movement. In the particular cases mentioned above, NAMBLA and the s/m women were only seeking places to talk about their sexual preferences. We certainly support their right to act on them as well"''<REF>[https://books.google.nl/books?id=d5_rAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA389&dq=%22We+think+s/m+lesbians+and+NAMBLa+do+belong%22&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22We%20think%20s%2Fm%20lesbians%20and%20NAMBLa%20do%20belong%22&f=false Who belongs in the gay movement, and who decides?]</REF>

Referring to this time, scholar [[Theo Sandfort]] observed the fickle nature of the Netherlands' main Gay Advocacy group, the [[COC]]. From 1946-1958, they shared in their magazine, pictures of boys (clothed and naked) along with poems and captions professing of the heightened desires these boys aroused in the observer. This was followed by a period of growing separation between homosexuals and pederasts, and then vehement rejection of them all the way into the mid-70s, when standards again relaxed and attraction to minors was viewed in a more positive light. By the 80s, the COC insisted (as noted earlier in our article) the liberation of pedophiles was necessary to the full liberation of homosexuals.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1300/J082v13n02_08 Sandfort, T. (1987). Pedophilia and the Gay Movement. Journal of Homosexuality, 13(2-3), 89–110. doi:10.1300/j082v13n02_08], see also his ''[https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/sbn90.htm Man-Boy Relationships: Different Concepts for a Diversity of Phenomena]''</ref> Only these statements are now curiously absent from the COC Nederland website, and mixed with misuse and stigmatization of pedophile labelling<ref>[https://coc.nl/blog/2006/01/19/seksueel-misbruik-allochtone-jongens/ COC NL confuses pedophilia with CSA as early as 2006]</ref> suggesting a ''third'' volte-face.

In American universities at least, the Netherlands' brand of sex-positivity was also being exported. In 1984, at Stanford University, for example, Dutch Criminologist and Lawyer Dr [[Edward Brongersma]] spoke openly about man-boy relationships, including those that involved incest. He received a round of applause from the Gay and Lesbian Law Students Association, when he recalled the testimony of a youth whose main takeaway from his relationship with a much older man, was that he "was shown the meaning of love".<ref>[https://purl.stanford.edu/fp053bx1299 'Legal and social aspects of pedophilia: an international perspective.' History Corner 034. Sponsored by GLAS and the Gay and Lesbian Law Students' Association] - Don't forget, the interview has a "B side", accessible on the tab below the information tab, as it was recorded on a cassette!</ref>

In 1984, the [[Australian Paedophile Support Group]] was infiltrated by law enforcement. The gay community responded in solidarity, with a positive editorial in ''Outrage''. Queer historian [[Steven Angelides]] documented the case of Alison Thorne, then spokesperson for the Gay Legal Rights Coalition, who spoke sympathetically during an interview with Mike Edmonds of Melbourne’s 3aw radio: "paedophiles really care for children. Paedophiles would absolutely abhor child ... abuse of children, are really concerned about consent." Usenet (early internet) archives are available from around this time, reflecting a variety of takes among the gay community.<ref>Steven Angelides, [http://library.lol/main/F116FBAFF6D65A4D5F387C139486FE54 The Homosexualizationof Pedophilia: The Case of Alison Thorne and the Australian Pedophile Support Group], in ''Homophobias: Lust and Loathing Across Time and Space'', edited by David A. B. Murray (Duke Uni Press: Durham & London, 2009), pp. 64-81. See also, [https://www.usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=net.motss&mid=PDQ4NUBiYm5jY2EuQVJQQT4 Example Usenet thread], and [https://www.usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=net.motss&mid=PDE5MTA1QHdpdmF4LlVVQ1A%2B usenet post].</ref>

Thorstad comments further:

:''"NAMBLA's October 1984 convention in San Francisco's Pride Center included a public panel discussion on "Man/Boy Love and Sexual Liberation" with Mattachine Society founder [[Harry Hay]]; [[Jim Kepner]], curator of the International Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles; Morris Kight, long-time gay rights and social activist from Los Angeles; Jes Harrison, a 16-year-old gay youth; and me. The participation of Hay, Kepner, and Kight was welcome support from activists whose credentials went back to the beginnings of the U.S. gay movement."''<ref name="Thorstad" />

At its 1985 conference in Toronto ILGA voted for members to "lobby their government to abolish the age of consent law" in its position on "Age of Consent/Paedophilia/Children's Rights".<ref>Haggerty, George. ''Encyclopedia of Gay Histories and Cultures'', 2013 Edition.</ref><ref>[https://wiki.yesmap.net/prd/hist/ILGAexp/index.html PRD: Expulsion of organizations marked as pedophile from ILGA]</ref> As [[NAMBLA]]'s [[Bill Andriette]] recalls:

:''"But the IGA nearly passed a resolution that would have sounded like music to any NAMBLA member's ears. As first conceived by the IGA youth section, the resolution called for the abolition of age-of-consent statutes. But under feminist pressure that was changed to a call for the equalization of ages of consent for gay and straight sex, and the eventual abolition of such statutes when young people were deemed sufficiently protected from abuse. NAMBLA's was the lone dissenting vote, but even in its compromised state the resolution is supportable."''<ref>[https://www.brongersma.info/NAMBLA_in_Toronto NAMBLA in Toronto: The notes of Bill Andriette]</ref>

Andriette describes in an ILGA Bulletin the following year (see gallery), how positions were and had been "generally sympathetic to man/boy love". He goes on to describe an international pedophile conference adjacent to ILGA's main event as its "little brother", and explains how the groups had set up a "pedophile information pool". However, in 1986, NAMBLA were also excluded from marching in an LA pride parade - an exception to the rule, as they had been present in parades since 1979, for example, being seen in a video at SF in 87'.<ref>[https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/40001/did-nambla-march-in-gay-pride-parades-in-the-70s-and-80s Did NAMBLA march in Gay Pride parades in the 70s and 80s?]</ref><ref>[https://fstube.net/w/iTxNNVngswwQraAY8dRD4u NAMBLA in Gay Pride Parade - SF, 1987]</ref> Gay liberation pioneer [[Harry Hay]] protested this decision, arguing that NAMBLA's exclusion was “an affront to the whole process of gay liberation,” because it was undemocratic: it was not the place of the parade organizers to “arbitrarily decide who are members of the gay community and who may speak.”

[[File:Harry_Hay_NAMBLA_Walks_With_Me.JPG|thumb|Harry Hay "NAMBLA Walks With Me" at LA Pride in 1986]]

In 1986 Germany, Gay groups were still widely appreciative of Boy-lovers. Schwules Gay Museum Curator Birgit Bosold spoke to journalists in 2023 regarding an exhibition documenting these now embarrassing associations. Sources stated ''"for a long time there had been close cooperation between the gay and lesbian movement and pedophiles. As late as 1986, a poster for Christopher Street Day in Munich named lesbians, gays and pedophiles as equal emancipating minorities. Only in the 1990s and under the impact of the HIV pandemic did people distance themselves"''.<ref>[https://scouting.de/gemeinsame-ausstellung/ Gemeinsame Ausstellung - Translation - SCOUTING.DE]</ref> In 1988, as the German VSG point out in page 7, L8 of their response (in gallery), the ILGA passed a resolution at their annual conference, recommending that the now embattled pedophile member groups twin with non pedophile member groups for "both moral and political support". These attempts to encourage twinning of groups persisted well into the 1990s, as our scans of their Bulletin reveal. The 11th Annual ILGA Conference in Vienna in 1989 also hosted a pedophile workshop. Minutes (in the gallery below) reveal that many were in favor of eliminating Age of Consent laws entirely, and then asked ''“Should the Pedophile Workshop ask the scientific community to design unbiased research on consent, how it develops in children, and what cross cultural, educational, developmental, and sex differences exist in the ability to consent? ''[…]'' Some expressed distrust and contempt for the “scientific community” because of the tremendous damage it has done to the self-esteem of pedophiles.”''

Principled support for pederasts in the Gay Movement was evidently fading, but could still be seen in organizations like ILGA, and personalities such as ''ACT-UP'''s Larry Kramer:

:''"In those cases where children do have sex with their homosexual elders... I submit that often, very often, the child desires the activity, and perhaps even solicits it, either because of a natural curiosity... or because he or she is homosexual and innately knows it. ... And unlike girls or women forced into rape or traumatized, most gay men have warm memories of their earliest and early sexual encounters; when we share these stories with each other, they are invariably positive ones."''<ref>Larry Kramer (ACT-UP) in ''Reports from the Holocaust'', New York: St. Martin's Press, 1991</ref>

In October, 1991, ILGA used their bulletin to publicly call out [[Vereniging MARTIJN]] among other organisations for not paying their membership fees. In 1993, Francesco Vallini, who was a journalist at the gay magazine ''Babilonia'', and ten others associated with his pedophile activist organization [[Gruppo P]] were arrested. At the time, the magazine's editorial staff defended him. The group published the bulletin Corriere del pedofili.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130927185909/http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1993/luglio/15/gruppo_reclutava_bambini_co_0_9307151114.shtml il " gruppo P " reclutava i bambini]</ref> The worsening relationship between NAMBLA and the LGBT Movement is captured in the documentary: Chicken Hawk.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWPPyogWfoc Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys]</ref>

In 1993/4, only 9 years after supporting the abolition of ages of consent, ILGA were embroiled in a [[Wikipedia:ILGA consultative status controversy|public controversy]] regarding their consultative status with the UN. As Wikipedia details, US Senator Jesse Helms introduced a bill to cut funding to the United Nations unless it could certify that it did not grant any official status to "any organization which promotes, condones or seeks the legalization of pedophilia". The bill passed, tying the UN's hands and forcing ILGA to eject the groups if they were to stand any chance of retaining their consultative status. Paternotte observes, that after gaining this roster consultative status within the UN, Christian Right attacks against the ILGA were fierce, causing them to make the following clarification:

:''"Debate about paedophilia, as well as about other complex issues regarding sexuality, has been ongoing for a long time, both within and outside the ILGA. The ILGA has therefore called upon its members to treat all sexual minorities with respect and to enter into a dialogue with them. Neither in the ILGA or in scientific circles has a consensus about the issue, which has caused and still causes considerable controversy, been reached. It is therefore important that discussion can continue in an open and respectful manner, which takes into account the feelings of all parties involved."''

Gay assimilationists eventually won these internal battles in 1994 with an about-turn 214-30 vote at the ILGA World Conference in New York,<ref name="Paternotte" /> and the "pedophile organizations" NAMBLA, Project Truth/Free Will, and [[Vereniging MARTIJN|Martijn]] were thus ejected. NAMBLA itself was an early member and on some occasions its only representative from the US. On the hypocrisy, NAMBLA pointed out:

:''"We've been continuously active in ILGA longer than any other US organization. NAMBLA delegates to ILGA helped write ILGA's constitution, its official positions on the sexual rights of youth, and its stands against sexual coercion and corporal punishment. ''[...]'' Already, several ILGA activists and member organizations have condemned the secretariats' actions and reaffirmed their support for the participation in ILGA of man/boy lovers. The '''national German gay coalition''' Bundesverband Homosexualitat has declared that it is "astonished and embarrassed" at the secretariats' actions. "We are convinced that any attempt to expel NAMBLA and others from ILGA will be rejected by the vast majority of ILGA members," writes BVH executive committee member Wolfram Setz. Another German group, Verein for Sexuelle Gleichberechtigung adds, "The fight for... fundamental human right[s] must not be relinquished or reduced because of the political pressure from any government. Where would we end up if we made concessions in this respect? NAMBLA's objectives are as far we know absolutely in agreement with... the UN declarations of human rights and children's rights.""''<ref>[https://wiki.yesmap.net/prd/hist/ILGAexp/NAMBLAtoILGA.html PRD: NAMBLA Affirms Its Membership in ILGA (December, 1993)]</ref> Usenet archives again reveal considerable dissent against the drive to remove NAMBLA from the umbrella.<ref>[https://groups.google.com/g/alt.politics.homosexuality/c/ERfDjkhOKTw?pli=1 1994 Usenet archive: Roy Radow]</ref>

The expedience and western-bourgeoise underpinnings of the 1994 decision are starkly revealed by the nature of responses from member organisations in the 1994 May-Jun Bulletin. Israel and other Western-aligned countries are particularly elaborate and vociferous in their denunciation of the pedophile groups, while nonwestern members issue short statements of obligatory agreement, disapproval, and even requests for clarification as to what the issue entails. Richard J. Rosendall was particularly animated in an article distributed via numerous gay newspapers, and to voters at the 1994 conference:<ref>[http://www.glaa.org/archive/1994/namblaoutofbounds.shtml NAMBLA: Out of the Movement's Bounds]</ref>

<blockquote>
''A common thread running through this material is an utter inability to recognize a conflict of interest. These men really seem to believe that they have the boys' best interests at heart, despite clear evidence from their own accounts that they are taking grotesque advantage of troubled boys' need for love, attention, support, and freedom from abuse. Their subtler form of abuse directs an adult's arsenal against the innocence of children and the nascent sexuality of young adolescents and, when it succeeds, calls the result consensual love. ''[...]'' Who among us has never said of a lovely child, that one is destined to break a few hearts? This should cause us to treasure and respect childhood, not to steal it with the seductions and subtle power plays of unrestrained adults behaving like Jupiter engulfing Semele. In that myth, it was Semele who insisted upon seeing Jupiter in all his glory. But that did not excuse Jupiter, who knew that such a revelation would overwhelm the mortal he claimed to love. ''[...]'' Those who consider ILGA's breakthrough toward visibility and participation in the U.N. "a meaningless symbol of their own self-importance" clearly do not comprehend the magnitude of ILGA's opportunity to advance the cause of Gay and Lesbian civil rights in the world. Anyone who would throw that away deserves the company of the self-serving denizens of NAMBLA.''
</blockquote>

In 1995, ILGA then demanded that member organizations either sign a letter of confirmation endorsing the expulsion of the former members, or themselves be ejected. This caused the [[Pink Triangle Press]] to resign in protest, although they would rejoin in 1998. After this incident, ILGA would ironically take over a decade to achieve UN consultative status, and have since released a series of highly misleading statements such as:

:''"ILGA does not advocate – and never has advocated – paedophilia ''[...]'' The ILGA conference (the highest decision making authority) has passed a resolution categorically rejecting any attempt to promote or legalize paedophilia."''<ref>[https://ilga.org/ilga-ecosoc-status-controversy ILGA release on 1990s UN Consultative Controversy]</ref>

ILGA have thus in effect confirmed the fact their '''"highest decision making authority"''' previously voted for the abolition of the age of consent in a vote on "pedophilia". In reality, most people connected with the gay literature business will be well aware, that for over a decade after 1994, gay book shops continued to sell boy-related material, such as [[Child Pornography|Azov Films]] material - in the instance of Amsterdam's ''Intermale'', which closed in 2011.

By 1998, virtually all human sexuality textbooks exhibited a politically-correct revisionist approach to documenting the history of homosexuality. Man-boy practises were documented, but were co-opted in support of modern man-man homosexuality, a form that was at the very least, less well documented throughout history, if not less common. [[Bruce Rind]] analyzed various texts in the same year.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/00224499809551958 Rind, B. (1998). Biased use of cross‐cultural and historical perspectives on male homosexuality in human sexuality textbooks. Journal of Sex Research, 35(4), 397–407.]</ref> One surprising fact about NAMBLA and their (un)acceptability, is that until 2000, Peter Melzer (a key member of NAMBLA) still held a post at Bronx High School of Science, albeit at the district office following a 1993 media expose and protracted legal dispute.<ref>[https://nypost.com/2000/04/27/pedophile-teacher-faces-ax-after-7-years/ PEDOPHILE TEACHER FACES AX AFTER 7 YEARS ] and [https://www.edweek.org/leadership/court-rebuffs-teacher-who-advocated-man-boy-sex/2004/03 Court Rebuffs Teacher Who Advocated ‘Man-Boy’ Sex]</ref>

===Gallery of files===

<gallery>
File:Offthe.png|"Off the consenting adults bullshit!" says gay newspaper in 1969.<ref name="Walkerstad" />
NYGayYouth1972Cohen.png|Cohen: NY's Gay Youth Group - AoC Repeal 1972<ref name="Cohen">[https://archive.org/details/cohen-gylib The Gay Liberation Youth Movement in New York: "An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail"]</ref>
NYGayYouth1972Cohen(2).png|Cohen: NY's Gay Youth Group - AoC Repeal 1972 (2)<ref name="Cohen" />
NYGayYouth1974Cohen.png|Cohen: NY's Gay Youth Group in 1974 - Attitude to Chickenhawks<ref name="Cohen" />
File:1975Guardian.png|26th August 1975: Child-lovers win fight for role in Gay Lib (The Guardian)<ref>[https://theguardian.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian-pie-member-wins-censure-of/120428348/ Guardian scan: Child Lovers win fight for role in Gay Lib]</ref>
CHEinTimes19Aug1977.png|CHE Support PIE in 1977
File:Rule.png|Jane Rule in 1979
File:TBP-ad-May-1978.jpg|May 1978 advert for a gay youth conference in The Body Politic (Canadian magazine)
NYGayYouth1980Cohen.png|Cohen: NY's Gay Youth Group in 1980 - Mark Moffett<ref name="Cohen" />
CHEPedophileSupport1983.jpg|CHE Support PIE in 1983
File:1986-5-Andriette.jpg|Andriette in the 5th ILGA Bulletin of 1986
File:1986-5-Andriette2.jpg|Andriette continued
File:AndrietteNamblaBull.png|Andriette further comments in [[NAMBLA Bulletin]]
File:1986-5-AustraliaRelevant.jpg|Alison Thorne incident recalled in the 5th ILGA Bulletin of 1986
File:Pedowrk89.png|ILGA's ''Pedophile Workshop'' minutes from 1989
File:Bearchell.jpg|Celebrated Lesbian Feminist, Chris Bearchell in 1989
File:ILGA92Paedo.png|Continued Pedosexuality references and Twinning in a 1992 ILGA Bulletin
ILGANAMBLATwin1992-3.png|NAMBLA seeking a twin in the 3rd 1992 ILGA Bulletin
File:LGFM_-_Fuck_the_Age_of_Consent!_(Lesbian_&_Gay_Freedom_Movement,_Winter_1993).pdf|''Fuck the Age of Consent!'' - In ''Lesbian & Gay Freedom Movement'', Winter 1993.
File:Lambda.png|Late 1993, and the Lambda Report publishes it's expose
ILGAApril-May-Jun94LetterIsrael.png|Israel right-on with anti-youth language in 94 (May/Jun ILGA Bulletin)
VSG1995-2(1).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (1)
VSG1995-2(2).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (2)
VSG1995-2(3).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (3)
VSG1995-2(4).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (4)
VSG1995-2(5).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (5)
VSG1995-2(6).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin (6)
VSG1995-2(7).png|VSG Feb 1995 response in ILGA Bulletin(7)
File:FRD4PebXIAIxuuQ.jpg|Letter from [[Peter Tatchell]]
File:PTPrejoinsILGA21Jan1998.png|Pink Triangle Press rejoins ILGA - with details of ILGA demands in 1995 (Jan 1998 ILGA Bulletin)
File:Prideinply.png|An exception to LGBT distancing of pederasty was Pride in Plymouth's 2012 inclusion of the [[Wikipedia:Warren Cup|Warren Cup]] in a display
File:Screenshot 20211007-005011 DuckDuckGo.jpg|LGBT identitarian peak insanity in 2021
</gallery>

==Supportive and ambiguous gay icons==

In addition to the various established gay activists who went on to form pedophile/pederast organizations within the LGBT movement, and pioneers of the gay press, others are still openly celebrated by the mainstream:

*[[Edmund White]] - Pioneering figure of American gay literature, author of ''The Joy of Gay Sex'' (1977). White openly wrote of how he seduced men as a teenager, speaking positively of them into the 2010s and never disavowing or gaslighting the memory of his own experience. In ''States of Desire'' (1980), he supported an [[age of consent]] at 12-years-old for both sexes. In the same book, he interviewed a self-identified pedophile in Boston, ending his segment by wishing that he were 9-years-old again so that he could have sex with the man: "While you were talking, I kept wishing I’d met you when I was nine and you the age you are now."
*[[Jane Rule]] and [[Kate Millett]] (discussed in this article) were Lesbian [[Feminism|Feminists]] who supported the rights of children to pursue intergenerational relationships.
*[[Alan Turing]] - Idolized as a gay hero, however his relationships and interests strongly suggest that he was also a MAP (Boy Lover).<ref>[https://fstube.net/w/dPne9BxPAaL2ooYUDXbCht YMG: Documentary excerpts from "The Strange Life and Death of Dr Turing"]</ref>
* [[Harvey Milk]] - An icon of the modern LGBT community, Milk was an early pro-LGBT U.S. politician who became a gay martyr after he was killed. Milk has a public holiday dedicated to him in California, an airport and Navy vessel named after him, his image on postage stamps, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom as a symbolic gesture by President Obama in 2009. A biographer of Milk's states that Milk had his first sexual experience with a man at 14 years of age, and "always maintained [...] about those early sexual contacts[,] that he had not been molested, because they were exactly what he had been anxiously looking and hoping for. He had had homosexual feelings ever since he could remember".<ref name="milk">[https://wapercyfoundation.org/?page_id=288 Review of ''Harvey Milk]: His Lives and Death'' by Lillian Faderman. Quotes passages from Faderman about their relationship; e.g. "Harvey … took him to museums, operas and ballets, and made him feel like he was the only person in the world who mattered.”</ref> Milk is known to have entered a sexual relationship with runaway hustler Jack Galen McKinley, who had just turned 17 at the time, whilst Milk was 33 years-of-age and served as a father figure/mentor role for McKinley.<ref name="milk" /> A personal friend of Harvey's said he "always had a penchant for young waifs," and Milk is alleged to have had sexual contact with people below 15 years-of-age, whilst the known case of Jack McKinley alone would already make Milk guilty of statutory rape in U.S. states which venerate him (e.g. California) where the age of consent is 18.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikab8wOXCX0 This video] presents useful historical information despite being hostile to Milk and framing him negatively. Ironically, the video's creator ends by contrasting [[Alan Turing]] as a respectable (i.e. non-MAP related) gay icon, and seems unaware that Alan Turing likely shared Harvey Milk's attraction towards younger males.</ref>
*[[Oscar Wilde]] - Jailed for sex with boys.<ref>[https://greek-love.com/biographies/secret-life-oscar-wilde-pederasty Greek Love: Profile on Oscar Wilde]</ref> See also, [[Uranian Poetry]] and the upper-class homosexuals who pursued it. Authors such as [[Walt Whitman]] and others mentioned further up in the article.
*[[Andre Gide]] - French author, pederast, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947.<ref>[https://greek-love.com/modern-europe/france/initiation-andre-gide-pederasty Greek Love: Profile of Andre Gide]</ref> His book Corydon<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corydon_(book) Wikipedia: Corydon]</ref> is considered a classic defense of homosexuality and pederasty, which, at that time, were not considered to be rigidly distinct. The New York Times described Gide as "France's greatest contemporary man of letters" and "judged the greatest French writer of this century.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110806050538/http://www.andregide.org/remembrance/nytgide.html Web Archive: AndreGide.org]</ref>
*[[Simone de Beauvoir]], [[Michel Foucault]] (a key founder of Queer Theory) and other gay/bi signatories of the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_petition_against_age_of_consent_laws French Petition against Age of Consent Laws.]<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/feb/24/jonhenley Henley - Calls for legal child sex rebound on luminaries of May 68]</ref>
*[[Wilhelm von Gloeden]] - This much-celebrated photographer of boys had a 14-year old lover, and seems to have escaped censure. Copies of his work being present in the homes of many mature gay men.
*[[Hajo Ortil]] - A dumbfounding example of a German Naturist pederast who was celebrated throughout his life and posthumously.
*[[Harry Hay]] - Radical Faerie, loved boy, pederasty supporter and founding member of the modern gay movement. Famously declared "NAMBLA walks with me".<ref>[https://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2012/05/sf-public-library-radically-gay-harry.html?m=1 MPetrelis blog: Harry Hay's support of NAMBLA]</ref><ref>[https://fstube.net/w/ssPzZgoUURhR5FtsxFQXAM Hay Interview]</ref>
*[[Wikipedia:Jim Kepner|Jim Kepner]] - Gay activist pioneer, who was overtly inclusivist towards Boy Lovers.<ref>[https://fstube.net/w/a6UqsvsyMEYRJzfFF66NDH Kepner, 1984 NAMBLA Conference]</ref> Founder and curator of the International Gay and Lesbian Archives (Los Angeles), which has recognized the contributions of many NAMBLA activists. A longtime gay activist, Kepner recalled that “half of gay history is pedophile history.”<ref>[https://www.nambla.org/kepner.htm Jim Kepner - NAMBLA]</ref><ref>[https://hubertkennedy.angelfire.com/BL-Reviews.pdf Hubert Kennedy's BL Reviews]</ref>
*[[Charles Shively]] - Gay history professor who argued for Walt Whitman as a pederast / boy-lover. Driving force behind the ''Fag Rag Collective'', he worked closely with [[NAMBLA]] founder [[Tom Reeves]] and published the gay journal ''Fag Rag'', which supported "what it characterized as adolescents' right to sexual freedom, as well as consensual sex between adults and children".<ref>[https://www.cjr.org/special_report/great-magazines-fag-rag.php Jeremy Lybarger, ''Fag Rag: The 70s paper of gay political revolution''. (Columbia Journalism Review, September 11, 2020)].</ref>
*[[Wikipedia:Larry Kramer|Larry Kramer]] - HIV-AIDS Activist, as detailed above.
*[[Guy Strait]] - Strait founded the first gay newspaper in San Francisco in 1961, and co-founded one of the 1st U.S. gay organizations, the ''League for Civil Education''. Radical pro-sex queer who went into business producing pornographic films, and was arrested multiple times throughout life on claims that he had "cornered the market on the production of 'kiddie porn'".<ref>For discussion of Strait's relationship to the early gay community, see Mori Reithmayr, ''[https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f2870916-9c5f-4145-bff4-f3c376837d2f/download_file?file_format=application%2Fpdf&safe_filename=Reithmayr_2022_Community_before_liberation.pdf&type_of_work=Thesis Community before Liberation: Theorizing Gay Resistance in San Francisco, 1953-1969]'' (2022 PhD Thesis, University of Oxford). See especially Ch. 4, ''Guy Strait and the openness of early homophile theorizing of community''.</ref>
*[[Allen Ginsberg]] - Famous, much beloved poet and pederast.
*[[Ian Dunn]] mentioned in this article.
*[[Nettie Pollard]] - British Lesbian Feminist Civil-Liberties campaigner.<ref>[https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paedophile-information-exchange-nettie-pollard-3222352 PIE/Nettie Pollard]</ref>
*[[Peter Tatchell]] - His positions have at times been very supportive.
*[[Eric Presland]] - British gay writer, cabaret artist and founder of the ''Homo Promos'' theater company. Presland has authored unapologetically supportive pieces in [[The_Age_Taboo|''The Age Taboo'']] (1981) and [[The_Betrayal_of_Youth_(Book)|The Betrayal of Youth]] (1986).
*[[Ken Popert]]<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Popert Ken Popert - Wikipedia]</ref> and [[Gerald Hannon]] - Key figures within the Pink Triangle Press - a highly successful commercial venture that now counts the gay dating site Squirt.org among its subsidiaries. Wrote and published the highly controversial article ''[[Text of Men loving boys loving men|Men loving boys loving men]].'' They were in turn supported by [[Gayle Rubin]].<ref name="RHR">[https://www.radicalhistoryreview.org/abusablepast/1969-and-all-that-age-consent-and-the-myth-of-queer-decriminalization-in-canada/ Radical History Review]</ref>
*[[Wikipedia:Carl Wittman|Carl Wittman]] - In what Wikipedia declares "one of the most influential gay liberation writings of the 1970s", the San Fransisco gay activist called for youth liberation in his ''Gay Manifesto'', offering that many gays were cruising for sex from their early teens, not being molested by elders.
*[[Rosa von Praunheim]] - German filmmaker who gave a sympathetic interview which platformed [[NAMBLA]] founder [[Tom Reeves]]. Praunheim's works influenced the development of LGBTQ+ rights movements worldwide, with his 1971 film ''[[wikipedia:It_Is_Not_the_Homosexual_Who_Is_Perverse,_But_the_Society_in_Which_He_Lives|It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse]]'', leading to many gay rights groups being founded and thus began the modern gay liberation movement in Germany and Switzerland.
*[[Wikipedia:Volcker Beck|Volcker Beck]] - German politician who penned the 1988 essay: "Amending criminal law? An appeal for a realistic, new orientation of sexuality politics", promoting the decriminalization of [[Minor attracted neologisms|"pedosexuality"]]. He has since distanced himself from his previous writings.
*Bill Dobbs - The Gay Activist who organized a pro-BL marching group, moderating a meeting at the Stonewall Inn in 1994.<ref>[https://www.nambla.org/sosconference1994.html Spirit of Stonewall]</ref>
*Any number of international gay figureheads who signed a petition to support NAMBLA's continued right to march in the 1990s.<ref>[https://groups.google.com/g/bit.listserv.gaynet/c/y0uVNdQ2Juw/m/V6WEVdXErOgJ Roy Radow of NAMBLA publishes list of signatories]</ref>
*[[Hubert Kennedy]]
*[[Wikipedia:Samuel R. Delany|Samuel R. Delany]] has shown support for [[NAMBLA]].<ref>[https://www.nambla.org/delaney.html NAMBLA: Delany]</ref>
*Publishers such as [[Pink Triangle Press]], [[Spartacus International Gay Guide|Spartacus]], the later [[Destroyer]] Journal and [[Milo Yiannopoulos]] controversy, all showing a symbiotic relationship with [[boylove]], bring us up to date.

==Prominent gay people who speak from experience==

Gay celebrities such as '''[[Stephen Fry]]'''<ref>[https://www.greek-love.com/modern-europe/great-britain/boys-20th-century-boarding-school-experiences/stephen-fry-boyhood-pederasty Greek-love.com - Stephen Fry collection of testimony]</ref> and '''Elton John'''<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20080511143520/http://www.chrislowe.co.uk/interviews_neil_elton.html Neil Tennant <> Elton John discussion, Chrislowe.co.uk]</ref> recall stories of early encounters or yearning in their youths. Fry clearly shows a depth of knowledge on the subject, and Elton wishes he had been "molested" just for the experience. [[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Male|Scotty Bowers]] - Bisexual, and fixer of Hollywood film Actors' sexual trysts, was unequivocal about his positive experiences with men from a very early age, and these included sex work. Many similar examples exist, and they are not hard to find:

<div style="column-count:2;-moz-column-count:2;-webkit-column-count:2">

*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Tom_Driberg Tom Driberg] - Gay Activist Politician.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Guy_Hocquenghem&lang=FR Guy Hocquenghem] - Founding figure in [[Queer Theory]].
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=John_Mitzel John Mitzel] - Gay Activist.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=William_Percy William Percy] - Gay Historian.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Ivo_van_Hove&lang=NL Ivo van Hove] - Arts Figure.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Beth_Kelly Beth Kelly] - Academic.
*[https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/Case_Narrative?case=Scott_OHara Scott O'Hara] - Porn Actor.
*'''[https://fstube.net/w/h7XqyJGBHgvpms4AzK9Vuk Jane Rule]''' and '''Chris Bearchell''' - Lesbian Feminists.<ref name="RHR" />

</div>

==LGBT Hypocrisy==

:''For more examples of how gay culture erases Pederasts and Youth Erotica from its history, see [[Rainbow Revisionism]].''
[[File:Screenshot 2024-05-05 222525.png|thumb|The start of a tribute thread on a gay porn site aligned perfectly with Jacob Sartorius' 18th birthday. Within a couple of years, users were already suggesting he was over the hill, and looked "like a lesbian". Many such cases.]]
The LGBT movement is not so much a "community" these days, but an expedient political lobby.<ref>[https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/15/lgbt-a-dissection/ LGBT: A Dissection By David Thorstad], see [http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/images/LGBT1.pdf backup]</ref> It is very easy to identify internal contradictions, cynical strategies and realpolitik when one assesses the state of the modern movement.

:''"One obvious contradiction in the assimilationist position is that if homosexual identity is inborn, as they say, then why do they oppose freedom of sexual expression for minors? Assimilationists argue that sexual identity is fixed by age six, but they deny young people the right to enjoy sexual pleasure with the person of their own choice."'' - [[David Thorstad]].<ref name=ThorstadPed />
Thorstad also opines:

:''"The struggle for sexual liberation has been diluted by a focus on dozens of fanciful and questionable genders and has resulted in a virtual erasure of gay males and lesbians,"'' [Thorstad said in an interview before the Stonewall 50 march in 2019, explaining why he wasn't going] ''"Sex is not even part of the alphabet-soup vocabulary. Highlighting victimhood is in. Instead of fighting social injustice, the LGBT goal is to assimilate into a heterodominant capitalist system, aping its failed institution of marriage, promoting monogamy (a bit player in the mammalian heritage), and espousing patriotism, militarism, and conventionality."''<ref>[https://www.nambla.org/Thorstad.html David Thorstad Obit]</ref>

Kathleen Stock:

:''"Should a sexual libertarian ''[by implication, [[Peter Tatchell|Tatchell]] - Ed]'' ever go rogue and overdo the transgression (say, by claiming that “children have sexual desires at an early age”), ''[queer]'' bureaucrats will instantly appear in reassuring mummy-mode to steady the horses, talking soothingly about best international practice and strong [[safeguarding]] policies…"''<ref>[https://unherd.com/2022/05/the-emptiness-of-being-queer/ Kathleen Stock, in UnHerd]</ref>
[[File:Screenshot 2024-04-13 123153.png|thumb|One gay man describes the dynamics he assumes as both a "top" and a "bottom"<ref>[https://bodybybernard.com/using-imodium-before-bottoming/ Noah Bernard (2020): Using Imodium Before Bottoming]</ref>]]
However, pederasty didn't suddenly disappear the moment a taboo was placed on it. A perfect example of this is how gay men fetishize "straight boys" in the porn industry, or the feeding frenzy that ensues on user-shared porn sites such as LPSG, whenever a boy celebrity turns 18. The resulting search among users is invariably for self-shot/leaked photographs of the young male's preferably erect penis. While "gay for pay", "straight boy" models are over the age of 18, these tend to be scenes in which young "straight" males are cast as inexperienced and juvenile in character. The producers are thus "taking advantage of boys" by tricking them or using money to have their way with them. The relative popularity of this type of content in the gay porn industry is sometimes seen as "displaced pederasty" or at least a hangover from the "seedy" sex trade in boys that received so much attention in the 1970s before fading out. This argument can be further extended to the many "equal" gay relationships in which there is a clear "man" and "boy", unequal power differential,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040627231748/http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/social19.htm Rictor Norton, A Critique of Social Constructionism and Postmodern Queer Theory, "Intergenerational and Egalitarian Models," 1 June 2002]</ref> and indeed kinky gay expressions such as slavery, chastity bondage and dogs on leashes. Taken together, this tells us that the spirit of pederasty never really left the gay world. Only, the "boy" lives on as an archetype we are allowed to fetishize and trivialize, but seldom accept as a more meaningful object of desire.

*In 1994, LGBT figureheads were already mythologizing Stonewall and its (as documented earlier, pro-pederast) legacy: ''"Last month, a New York group called Stonewall 25 voted to bar the controversial North American Man-Boy Love Association from its international march on the United Nations on June 26. The demonstration will commemorate the 25th anniversary of an uprising at the Stonewall Inn, a Greenwich Village gay bar. ″Those who advocate or engage in sexual abuse of young people are not welcome in the family of gay men and lesbians who live upstanding and honorable lives,″ said Pat Norman, a co-chair of the march."''<ref>[https://apnews.com/article/c64e816cac5b0fa1194dd40f576813b2 AP News: Gay Groups Try to Put Distance Between Themselves and Pedophile Group]</ref>

*Modern gays have often attempted to ''reclaim'' the history of pederasts such as Wilde and ignore evidence concerning others such as Turing. One example of this rewriting of history is the gay ''New York Times'' journalist, Anthony Tommasini describing Franz Schubert's reported partners as "adolescent men", a category otherwise unheard of in any form of commentary or analysis.<ref>[https://artdaily.com/news/129007/Maynard-Solomon--provocative-biographer-of-composers--dies-at-90 NYT: Adolescent Men]</ref> In another, a [[A Problem in Greek Ethics|famous book]] by [[John Addington Symonds]] (in effect, a treatment of [[Pederasty]]), was recalled as "promoting the morality of same-sex relations".<ref>[https://www.queerty.com/rare-artifact-queer-history-pops-nearly-150-years-google-20200103 Queerty Pederastic Erasure]</ref> The piece contains the first known mention of the term [[boylove]].

*See for example, the rise and rise of IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) laser hair removal devices and other methods among the same class of mature gay men who distance pederasts, as an example of hypocrisy. Removal of hair from the perianal area is intended to attract (via "dating" apps) the same bisexual and "straight" men who are attracted to boyish or androgynous features, and do not like giving oral or penetrative sex to other hirsute males.

*More recently, it has been a daily occurrence on social media to see LGBT, Social-Justice oriented persons [[Validity Policing|relentlessly and obsessively badgering]] MAP-receptive or adjacent opponents to declare whether or not they are "pedophiles". Within these groups, the idea of pressuring a person for potentially compromising details about their personal life is anathema, when applied to transsexuals and other minorities.

==Examples of tolerance outside of the LGBT community==

While the LGBT community is not without its expedient tendencies, others (many of them academics such as [[Alfred Kinsey]], married with children, but posthumously thought to be a bisexual) have taken principled stands. Activists such as [[John Holt]]<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Holt_(educator) John Holt (Wikipedia)]</ref> supported the sexual rights of youth, and were followed up by ASFAR and NYRA<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Youth_Rights_Association Youth Rights on Wikipedia]</ref>. The UK Communist Party supported abolition all the way up to 2021.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Great_Britain_%28Provisional_Central_Committee%29 Wikipedia - British Communists] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20201018151051/https://communistparty.co.uk/3-immediate-demands/ Archived Demand]</ref> Even allies of [[NARTH]] have taken positions on pederasty/pedophilia far more liberal than the modern LGBT lobby:

<blockquote>''Michael Wertheimer is the son of the late Max Wertheimer, one of the founders of the Gestalt school of psychology. He is a Harvard-educated experimental psychologist, a retired full professor at the University of Colorado, and the author or editor of approximately forty psychology books, as well as several hundred articles. He specializes in the history of psychology. ''[...]'' Dr. Wertheimer is in sympathy with NARTH, in that he strongly supports the right to sexual-reorientation treatment. However he holds a another, postmodern theoretical position that is representative of many psychologists today: that concepts of psychological health and disorder are largely socially constructed, rather than objectively true or false. Even pedophilia is not, he believes, necessarily a disorder. ''[...]'' "I know of no convincing evidence that even pedophilia is harmful to the boy."''<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20130811135906/http://narth.com/docs/clash.html NARTH.com - Michael Wertheimer interview]</ref></blockquote>

Bizarrely, it is likely that the late Enoch Powell - famous for his right-wing politics, was a closeted homosexual. He was indeed a pioneer in liberalising the laws against homosexuality, a married man, and most probably a dabbling pederast.<ref>[https://villagemagazine.ie/suffer-little-children/ Village Magazine - Powell], [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/16/double-lives-a-history-of-sex-and-secrecy-at-westminster The Guardian - Powell]</ref>

==External links==

*[https://yasminnair.com/on-kink-at-pride/ On Kink at Pride] - Yasmin Nair rips into the orthodoxy of queer "kink" politics.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: British]][[Category:History & Events: American]][[Category:History & Events: German]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 1970s]][[Category:History & Events: 1980s]][[Category:History & Events: 1990s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

Rainbow Revisionism

2026-09-25T17:09:33Z

Jim Burton:

[[File:Pridelogos.jpg|thumb|450px|The modern-day pride movement seeks to appease its new corporate allies by sanitizing its own people's history]]
__NOTOC__'''Rainbow Revisionism''' is a phenomenon whereby historical queer figures and events are either [[Wikipedia:Memory hole|memory-holed]] or sanitized in such a way as to remove expressions of queerness deemed inconvenient to the "political objectives" of the modern LGBTQ+ Movement.<ref>Notably, it is a common claim within liberal social media circles (in response to [[pedophobia|pedophobic]] attacks on the LGBTQ+ community), that the ''"LGBT community never had anything to do with pedophiles"''. It is technically correct that the exact concept of an "LGBT community" emerged at roughly the same time [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|as the exclusion of pederasts from the gay-lib movement]]. However, the key caveat of MAPs existing within what are now known as queer and LGBT communities, is rarely acknowledged, either out of ignorance, or in service of simplifying the narrative.</ref> Usually, the target of this revisionism is historical [[pederasty]]. While revisionism is a discrete form of information warfare, the ''Rainbow Reactionaries'' who promulgate it may at the same time enjoy the lower-brow practise of [[Validity Policing]]. The revisionist phenomenon is thought to have increased in its velocity since the [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|exclusion of pederasts from the gay movement in the 80s]], which was formalized in the 90s.

A more aggressive form or Rainbow Revisionism has been described as "gaywashing". Here, historical examples of "gayness" are aggressively inserted into a person's legacy in order to reify modern notions of egalitarian homosexuality.<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1632630.htm Gaywashing]</ref> [[Wikipedia:Pinkwashing (LGBT)|Pinkwashing]] refers more often to opportunistic whitewashing of commercial brands and messages with pro-LGBTQ+ mantra.

==Well-known subjects of Rainbow Revisionism==

The history of homosexuality itself is a subject of Rainbow Revisionism, as documented by [[Bruce Rind]], in his analysis of various texts in 1998.<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/00224499809551958 Rind, B. (1998). Biased use of cross‐cultural and historical perspectives on male homosexuality in human sexuality textbooks. Journal of Sex Research, 35(4), 397–407.]</ref> As [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|our article points out]], the events of Stonewall are routinely whitewashed, as are the following movement's manifestations against the [[Age of Consent]] - including those supported by celebrated [[Harry Hay|founding members]] and the [[ILGA]] umbrella. Publications such as [[Spartacus International Gay Guide]] are good examples of how the gay movement and press whitewashed their history throughout the 1980s and 90s. The hostile reaction of the gay press to a pederastic novel, [[Greek Love Through The Ages|''Alexander's Choice'']] is another telling example.

[[File:RindPed2.png|thumb|Bruce Rind has attacked this subject in further treatments of [[Pederasty]]<ref>[https://greek-love.com/media/PDFs/Rind.Pederasty.an.Integration.pdf Bruce Rind - ''Pederasty: An Integration of Empirical, Historical, Sociological, Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Evolutionary Evidence and Perspectives''] in eds [[Thomas Hubbard|Hubbard]] and [[Beert Verstraete|Verstraete]]</ref>]]
One example of this rewriting of history is the gay ''New York Times'' journalist, Anthony Tommasini describing Franz Schubert's reported partners as "adolescent men", a category otherwise unheard of in any form of commentary or analysis.<ref>[https://artdaily.com/news/129007/Maynard-Solomon--provocative-biographer-of-composers--dies-at-90 NYT: Adolescent Men]</ref> In another, a [[A Problem in Greek Ethics|famous book]] by [[John Addington Symonds]] (in effect, a treatment of [[Pederasty]]), was recalled as "promoting the morality of same-sex relations".<ref>[https://www.queerty.com/rare-artifact-queer-history-pops-nearly-150-years-google-20200103 Queerty Pederastic Erasure]</ref> The piece contains the first known mention of the term [[boylove]].

The following prominent pederasts are either worshipped as "gay icons", or assumed to be homosexual in the modern, sanitized sense:

*[[Alan Turing]]
*[[Oscar Wilde]]
*[[Leonardo da Vinci]]

The following prominent pederasts have been permitted a public legacy, while certain aspects of their homosexuality have been ignored:
<div style="column-count:3;-moz-column-count:3;-webkit-column-count:3">
*[[Hajo Ortil]]<ref>[https://de.zxc.wiki/wiki/Hajo_Ortil Hajo Ortil]</ref>
*[[Walt Whitman]] and [[John Addington Symonds]]
*[[J.M. Barrie]]
*[[Benjamin Britten]]
*[[Marcel Proust]]
*[[Jean Cocteau]]
*[[Andre Gide|André Gide]]
*[[Jean Genet]]
*[[James Baldwin]]
*[[Michael Jackson]]
</div>

==Gay Erotic Literature, Film and Pornography==

[[Karl Andersson]] has noted that during the 1990s, there existed a "boy" genre of gay male pornography, in which the youths depicted were from around the age of 16 or so, and often hired casually on fake IDs. Documenting the legal controversy surrounding [[Wikipedia:Sebastian Bleisch|Sebastian Bleisch]] (a gay porn producer who specialized in such content), Andersson identifies the subsequent disappearance of "boy" content and emergence of the post-internet "twink" genre as a major assimilationist juncture. Following the 1990s, the "twinks" depicted were mainly men in their 20s, shorn of their hair and "dragged up" to look like the teenage boys who would never return to the screen, but for the darker corners of the internet.

<gallery>
File:Screenshot 2024-05-17 153522.png|Credit: [[Karl Andersson]]
Screenshot 2024-05-17 153826.png|Credit: Karl Andersson
</gallery>

Similar trends were seen in the screen adaptations of [[Wikipedia:Queer as Folk (British TV series)|Queer as Folk]]. In the 1999 British series, Nathan Maloney is aged only 15 when he insists on being defiled, whereas [[Wikipedia:Justin Taylor|Justin Taylor]] in the later American adaptation was 17.

==Historical forgiveness coefficient==

When assessing the case of many a historical pederast - it often becomes apparent that the earlier they lived, the more likely they are to be assumed a "straight gay" for pederasty that would be deemed unfathomable by modern-day standards and incompatible with gay identity. What this appears to reveal is that modern "[[queer]]ness" and "gay identity" is more of a political project than its proponents are willing to admit.

=="Coming to terms" with inconvenient 20th century pederasty==
[[File:Birgit Bosold.png|thumb|Birgit Bosold was appointed as curator at Berlin's Schwules Museum in 2006. Since then, the museum has slowly pushed towards a strategy of "atonement" for the association of pederasts with the German gay movement, rather than attempting to deny all connections (in the case of Germany, initial reaction against the American rejection of pederast groups was particularly strong)]]
On some occasions, [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity]] have been deliberately acknowledged by gay thought leaders, and then arbitrarily disavowed with overt displays of [[pedophobia]]. In 2023, a Berlin gay museum presented an exhibition doing just that, entitled ''"Sexualized violence against children and young people in the context of emancipation"''. According to the museum, both institutions involved had "committed themselves to consistently coming to terms with the disturbing fact that the communities whose legacy they are preserving offer space for sexualised violence against children and young people and their trivialization or ideological justification". A press release even suggested that the movement of the time was "susceptible" to the "rhetoric of perpetrators". This charge is perhaps related to just how strongly German gay organizations fought back against the sidelining of pederasts in the late 80s and 90s, albeit under no external pressure to side with them. In the founding statutes of the Museum itself, "boy lovers" were still listed as a "group to be appreciated" up until 2010, according to its curator.<ref>[https://www.evangelische-zeitung.de/schwules-museum-berlin-plant-ausstellung-zu-sexuellem-missbrauch Schwules Museum Berlin plant Ausstellung zu sexuellem Missbrauch], [https://www.aufarbeitungskommission.de/kommission/forschung-studien-kindesmissbrauch/ausstellung-paedosexuelle-netzwerke/ Ausstellungsvorhaben Pädosexuelle Netzwerke] and [https://scouting.de/gemeinsame-ausstellung/ Gemeinsame Ausstellung]</ref>

=="Woke" liberal revisionism==

Some heterodox and right-leaning LGBT people and their supporters<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBkMZMDEHlE Lotus Eaters video podcast on "Rainbow Revisionism" re. Trans Identity]</ref> complain that since the ascendancy of hyper-orthodox social-justice informed identity politics in the 10s, aspects of their history are being re-written by progressive activists. This is alleged (again) in the example of Stonewall and the New York Gay Scene. Already [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|cleansed of their pederastic significance]], the riots are now erroneously said to have been "started by a black trans woman", leading honest supervisors to advise their students to ignore sources published after 2010.<ref>[https://www.reddit.com/r/stupidpol/comments/r85hug/i_feel_genuine_rage_at_liberals_historical/ Reddit thread]</ref>

The term has also been used by conservatives in reference to attempts by gay activists to influence traditional cultures usually seen by liberals as in need of protection.<ref>[https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/rainbow-revisionism/ National Review: Rainbow Revisionism]</ref>

==See also==

*[[Karl Andersson]] and [[Destroyer]].
*[[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity]]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Censorship]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 1990s]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]][[Category:History & Events: 2010s]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

LifeLine

2026-09-21T23:49:25Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__'''LifeLine''' is a [[Free Spirits]] resource aimed at giving support to [[boylove]]rs and [[girllove]]rs in difficult life situations by providing real-time chat and a message board with a supportive, confidential environment. More casual conversations also take place when no visitor in crisis is present.

In 2026, the chatroom was the subject of a public controversy after it was discovered ''Wheel of Fortune'' announcer, Jim Thornton was a user, leading to his termination from the show and a widely-shared statement from LifeLine.<ref>[https://pagesix.com/2026/09/04/celebrity-news/wheel-of-fortune-announcer-jim-thornton-fired-after-in-flight-pedophilia-chatroom-incident/ ‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton fired after in-flight pedophilia chatroom incident], [https://pagesix.com/2026/09/03/celebrity-news/photos-show-wheel-of-fortune-announcer-jim-thornton-in-alleged-pedophilia-chatroom-for-nearly-an-hour-on-plane/ Photos show ‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton in alleged pedophilia chatroom for nearly an hour on plane]</ref><ref>[https://okmagazine.com/p/chat-room-jim-thornton-shutdown-airplane-photo-scandal-website-statement/ OK Magazine on LifeLine statement]</ref>

==Organization==

LifeLine is run by a webmaster along with moderators who are called Volunteers (Vols). LifeLine Volunteers are selected from long-term visitors who have been helpful in the chat rooms and send in letters of application. Along with moderating the chat and messageboard, they also answer email and help decide and enforce resource policy.

===Real-time chat===

LifeLine's biggest draw is its real-time chat rooms. Chat is only open while a Volunteer is present to open and moderate the chat room. Volunteers are marked with an ear in the user list to symbolize that they are there to listen to visitors. Sometimes they are called "ears" by visitors.

Because chat is only available while a Vol is on duty, the LifeLine home page lists both scheduled times as well as off-schedule planned times. When chat is not available, visitors can post on the message board or send an email via the contact page or to lifeline@freespirits.org.

==History==

The origins of LifeLine can be traced back to the late 90s when Kabouter first made the suggestion that such a service was needed in the community. After a couple failed suicide attempts by BoyChat posters, Steve2Boys formed a group of posters in Fall 2000 and began working on a plan for a way to help suicidal boylovers. Progress moved slowly. Because LifeLine wanted to be a place for both boylovers and girllovers, as well as youth, it approached Free Spirits with the request for hosting without becoming an official Free Spirits resource. The request was granted, and LifeLine launched as an independent resource in September 2001. Just before LifeLine launched, Steve2Boys stepped down and Nelly became webmaster.

After a suicide by a beloved La Garçonnière poster in December 2004, kody was sucessful in assembling a French-language version of LifeLine in early 2005 It started as scheduled hours in the English chat room, but in January 2005 a French-only chat room was added, followed shortly after with a dedicated message board.

When LifeLine launched, it had a distinctive bright orange design with a little hand grasping the fingers of a larger hand. As the site grew and became more complex, it also became more difficult to navigate. A blue design with unified navigation and incorporating the two hands was designed by Hínandil and was unveiled at the start of the 2005 Free Spirits Fundraiser.

On May 25. 2006 it was officially announced that LifeLine joined the Free Spirits to become a Free Spirits resource.

==External links==

* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/ LifeLine] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/ (https link)]
* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/ LifeLine Message Board] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/ (https link)]
* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/messages/101586.htm Announcement of LifeLine joining Free Spirits] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/messages/101586.htm (https link)]
* [http://boywiki.org/en/LifeLine "LifeLine"] (Original BoyWiki Article)

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]]

==References==

Accounts and Testimonies

2026-09-21T17:16:19Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC____NOTITLE__
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|<center>
[[Image:Experiencesheader.png|link=]]

This list is intended to be used as evidence that minor-adult sexual relations can be neutral or positive in nature when we eliminate the social repercussions. It is based on anecdote, and is therefore not an unbiased study, nor is it erotic literature/fiction, or an attempt to justify certain behaviors. Accounts vary in credibility, some of them being anonymous (the reasons for which, may be understandable) and others being the spoken or written word of one or more known persons. '''We also act as a hub for other publishers of said accounts.'''

The accounts are divided into sections for easy retrieval, and may require an archive search if the links have fallen dormant.</center>
|}


[[File:Bowers.png|thumb|'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Male|Inside]]''' - Scotty Bowers had multiple experiences: "Abused? absolutely not; this is bullshit, man! There's no such thing as someone ruining your life when they suck your cock [...] I did what I did because I knew what I was doing and I wanted to do it"]]
==Minor-Adult experiences==
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Female]]''': Man-Girl sex experiences.
*:'''Inside''': "''Why should I feel '''guilty''' about the wonderful relationship I had with that man ... right up until his death?.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Male]]''': Man-Boy sex experiences.
*:'''Inside''': "''It was clear that it certainly felt good to both of us. ... In some way it was a real lifesaver, because it made me feel that love and affection and closeness and sex would be possible in my life. ... when we were together, it was like a little oasis where we could be ourselves.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Female with Minor]]''': Sexual experiences of youth with women.
*:'''Inside''': "''The only fault I find with that part of my sexual education was the limit her guilt and fear put on our pleasure, the heterosexual pressure even she felt required to put on me. What she did "for my own good" caused both of us pain. If I were to improve on that experience now, it would not be to protect children from adult seduction but to make adults easier to seduce, less burdened with fear or guilt, less defended by hypocrisy.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: CSA (Children's Sexual Advances)]]''': Focuses on some, but not all of the cases where the younger partner made an advance.
*:'''Inside''': "''It developed over time and was great. We became friends and I invited him over once when my parents weren't home. I practically had to force sex on him because he was afraid about losing his job. Ended when I went away for the summer and he wasn't a teacher at my school no more.''"

==Experiences among children and youth==
*'''[[Testimony: Expressed childhood sexuality]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''I have naturally craved sex...sexual touch, through all stages of my conscious life. I do not remember any phase during my childhood, when I was without sexual attraction and arousal. It was very natural, and spontaneous. I never disliked it, though I learned to hide it from others.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Non-expressed childhood sexuality]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''The experience of sexual arousal as a child [at 6] is one of my sexual experiences. Whenever my girl friends and I would look at books while playing, I would always choose the book Little Black Sambo. The picture I am referring to is that of the tiger chasing Sambo around the tree as he is melting into butter. The tiger has previously taken all of Sambo's clothes. The sight of the nude little boy's rear end is what excited me.''"

==Attraction as an experience==
*'''[[Testimony: Experiences of chronophilias]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''I was open minded then about willingness to change my sexual orientation and participated sincerely but, of course, discovered that sexual orientation is deeply rooted in a person's being and not subject to behavioral modification. All this program did was exacerbate cognitive dissonance and create a great deal discomfort with myself, deflating self-esteem.''"

==Other publishers of accounts==

Other websites and texts exist, in which individuals testify of sexual experiences and attractions between adults and minors, and also youth sexuality. In some cases, (mainly homosexual) contacts between younger and older persons have been [[Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History|documented as "lists"]]. These may or may not involve testimony from the person whose lived experience is being discussed.

The resources we point to here supplement the above testimony lists of our own, and provide a counter-weight to the above-described type of "history list". As always, there may be some overlap:

*[http://www.consentingjuveniles.com/cases Consenting Juveniles] - New website focusing on '''verified accounts of high-profile individuals''' - bravely [https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/About_the_Research endorsed by numerous professionals].

*[https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipns/jumima.net/en/ Jumima] - A new site documenting '''200+''' man-boy experiences. Might be broken, and we hope it will return. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210305162412/https://jumima.net/en/ Here is an archive] and ZIP file download. 

*[http://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/tindall.htm The male adolescent involved with a pederast becomes an adult] - Ralph Tindall PhD (9 accounts).

*[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/index.htm Theo Sandfort] - Landmark study of a number of man-boy relationships.

*[https://www.ipce.info/host/wilson/index.htm The Man They Called a Monster] - Paul Wilson's book about [[Clarence Osborne]], a man who specialized in casually seducing boys.

*[http://www.jackinworld.com/bios/index.html JackinWorld Biographies] - Short sexual autobiographies focusing on masturbation. Many examples of expressed and unexpressed childhood sexuality.

===Archived here or elsewhere===

Our own [[Youth Perspectives]] archive may be of interest to readers of this project.

*[https://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/index.htm Positive Memories (a freely available ebook)] - Similar collection with around '''150 accounts''' and some overlap. Available in Polish, German, Russian. See also [https://uryourstory.org/index.php/social-criticism/188-positive-memories this] archive. Links to newgon.'''com''' can be altered to newgon.'''net'''. 

*[https://wiki.yesmap.net/prd/exp/index.html PRD] - '''Over 40''' accounts, translated from German.

:*Also, see our other archive, [https://wiki.yesmap.net/CPP/ Child's Perspective]: From Cerius.org.

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20020601171005/http://www.allaboutsex.org/KidsSpeakOut_Frameset.cfm?Topic=abuseandtrauma&Display=Abuse_And_Trauma All About Sex] - "Abuse and trauma" isn't the only section of this long-abandoned board, but as can be seen, most of the (unverified) experiences do not match that description.

*[[My Secret Garden]]: Women's Sexual Fantasies. Nancy Friday (Simon & Schuster, 1973). A collection of women's fantasies obtained through letters, tapes and personal interviews. Contains a large amount of frank, non-condemnatory discussion on sensitive topics such as sadism, bestiality, childhood sex, and sexual fantasy from childhood to adulthood.

====Girls with adults, or others====

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110520153820/http://www.the-clitoris.com/f_html/gen_indx.htm The Clitoris] - Females on early sexual experiences.

*[http://web.archive.org/web/20070717000843/http://www.bkgirls.net/personal/index.html BK Girls] - Only some of these are stored in the archive.

====Boys or others with men====

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170607231752/http://agetaboo.org/stories/ourstories.htm Age Taboo] - Many accounts, varying greatly in type.

*[[Testimony: BoyLover.net|BL.net]] - The forum provides a large number of positive anecdotes.

*[[Testimony: BoyMoment]] - A small number of anecdotes.

*[[Men loving boys loving men]] - Multiple man-boy accounts (Researched by the gay activist [[Gerald Hannon]])

==Gallery==

These excerpt graphics document verifiable positive experiences (information on record about publicly known individuals).

{{Template:EGLPM}}

[[fr:Comptes rendus et témoignages]]

Accounts and Testimonies

2026-09-21T17:15:57Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC____NOTITLE__
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|<center>
[[Image:Experiencesheader.png|link=]]

This list is intended to be used as evidence that minor-adult sexual relations can be neutral or positive in nature when we eliminate the social repercussions. It is based on anecdote, and is therefore not an unbiased study, nor is it erotic literature or fiction or an attempt to justify certain behaviors. Accounts vary in credibility, some of them being anonymous (the reasons for which, may be understandable) and others being the spoken or written word of one or more known persons. '''We also act as a hub for other publishers of said accounts.'''

The accounts are divided into sections for easy retrieval, and may require an archive search if the links have fallen dormant.</center>
|}


[[File:Bowers.png|thumb|'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Male|Inside]]''' - Scotty Bowers had multiple experiences: "Abused? absolutely not; this is bullshit, man! There's no such thing as someone ruining your life when they suck your cock [...] I did what I did because I knew what I was doing and I wanted to do it"]]
==Minor-Adult experiences==
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Female]]''': Man-Girl sex experiences.
*:'''Inside''': "''Why should I feel '''guilty''' about the wonderful relationship I had with that man ... right up until his death?.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Male]]''': Man-Boy sex experiences.
*:'''Inside''': "''It was clear that it certainly felt good to both of us. ... In some way it was a real lifesaver, because it made me feel that love and affection and closeness and sex would be possible in my life. ... when we were together, it was like a little oasis where we could be ourselves.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Female with Minor]]''': Sexual experiences of youth with women.
*:'''Inside''': "''The only fault I find with that part of my sexual education was the limit her guilt and fear put on our pleasure, the heterosexual pressure even she felt required to put on me. What she did "for my own good" caused both of us pain. If I were to improve on that experience now, it would not be to protect children from adult seduction but to make adults easier to seduce, less burdened with fear or guilt, less defended by hypocrisy.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: CSA (Children's Sexual Advances)]]''': Focuses on some, but not all of the cases where the younger partner made an advance.
*:'''Inside''': "''It developed over time and was great. We became friends and I invited him over once when my parents weren't home. I practically had to force sex on him because he was afraid about losing his job. Ended when I went away for the summer and he wasn't a teacher at my school no more.''"

==Experiences among children and youth==
*'''[[Testimony: Expressed childhood sexuality]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''I have naturally craved sex...sexual touch, through all stages of my conscious life. I do not remember any phase during my childhood, when I was without sexual attraction and arousal. It was very natural, and spontaneous. I never disliked it, though I learned to hide it from others.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Non-expressed childhood sexuality]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''The experience of sexual arousal as a child [at 6] is one of my sexual experiences. Whenever my girl friends and I would look at books while playing, I would always choose the book Little Black Sambo. The picture I am referring to is that of the tiger chasing Sambo around the tree as he is melting into butter. The tiger has previously taken all of Sambo's clothes. The sight of the nude little boy's rear end is what excited me.''"

==Attraction as an experience==
*'''[[Testimony: Experiences of chronophilias]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''I was open minded then about willingness to change my sexual orientation and participated sincerely but, of course, discovered that sexual orientation is deeply rooted in a person's being and not subject to behavioral modification. All this program did was exacerbate cognitive dissonance and create a great deal discomfort with myself, deflating self-esteem.''"

==Other publishers of accounts==

Other websites and texts exist, in which individuals testify of sexual experiences and attractions between adults and minors, and also youth sexuality. In some cases, (mainly homosexual) contacts between younger and older persons have been [[Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History|documented as "lists"]]. These may or may not involve testimony from the person whose lived experience is being discussed.

The resources we point to here supplement the above testimony lists of our own, and provide a counter-weight to the above-described type of "history list". As always, there may be some overlap:

*[http://www.consentingjuveniles.com/cases Consenting Juveniles] - New website focusing on '''verified accounts of high-profile individuals''' - bravely [https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/About_the_Research endorsed by numerous professionals].

*[https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipns/jumima.net/en/ Jumima] - A new site documenting '''200+''' man-boy experiences. Might be broken, and we hope it will return. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210305162412/https://jumima.net/en/ Here is an archive] and ZIP file download. 

*[http://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/tindall.htm The male adolescent involved with a pederast becomes an adult] - Ralph Tindall PhD (9 accounts).

*[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/index.htm Theo Sandfort] - Landmark study of a number of man-boy relationships.

*[https://www.ipce.info/host/wilson/index.htm The Man They Called a Monster] - Paul Wilson's book about [[Clarence Osborne]], a man who specialized in casually seducing boys.

*[http://www.jackinworld.com/bios/index.html JackinWorld Biographies] - Short sexual autobiographies focusing on masturbation. Many examples of expressed and unexpressed childhood sexuality.

===Archived here or elsewhere===

Our own [[Youth Perspectives]] archive may be of interest to readers of this project.

*[https://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/index.htm Positive Memories (a freely available ebook)] - Similar collection with around '''150 accounts''' and some overlap. Available in Polish, German, Russian. See also [https://uryourstory.org/index.php/social-criticism/188-positive-memories this] archive. Links to newgon.'''com''' can be altered to newgon.'''net'''. 

*[https://wiki.yesmap.net/prd/exp/index.html PRD] - '''Over 40''' accounts, translated from German.

:*Also, see our other archive, [https://wiki.yesmap.net/CPP/ Child's Perspective]: From Cerius.org.

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20020601171005/http://www.allaboutsex.org/KidsSpeakOut_Frameset.cfm?Topic=abuseandtrauma&Display=Abuse_And_Trauma All About Sex] - "Abuse and trauma" isn't the only section of this long-abandoned board, but as can be seen, most of the (unverified) experiences do not match that description.

*[[My Secret Garden]]: Women's Sexual Fantasies. Nancy Friday (Simon & Schuster, 1973). A collection of women's fantasies obtained through letters, tapes and personal interviews. Contains a large amount of frank, non-condemnatory discussion on sensitive topics such as sadism, bestiality, childhood sex, and sexual fantasy from childhood to adulthood.

====Girls with adults, or others====

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110520153820/http://www.the-clitoris.com/f_html/gen_indx.htm The Clitoris] - Females on early sexual experiences.

*[http://web.archive.org/web/20070717000843/http://www.bkgirls.net/personal/index.html BK Girls] - Only some of these are stored in the archive.

====Boys or others with men====

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170607231752/http://agetaboo.org/stories/ourstories.htm Age Taboo] - Many accounts, varying greatly in type.

*[[Testimony: BoyLover.net|BL.net]] - The forum provides a large number of positive anecdotes.

*[[Testimony: BoyMoment]] - A small number of anecdotes.

*[[Men loving boys loving men]] - Multiple man-boy accounts (Researched by the gay activist [[Gerald Hannon]])

==Gallery==

These excerpt graphics document verifiable positive experiences (information on record about publicly known individuals).

{{Template:EGLPM}}

[[fr:Comptes rendus et témoignages]]

Accounts and Testimonies

2026-09-21T17:15:14Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC____NOTITLE__
{|class="boilerplate" id="pd" style="width:80%; -moz-border-radius: 1em; margin: 0 auto; border:2px solid #2568aa; padding:5px; background-color:#DFCFEE;" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="4"
|<center>
[[Image:Experiencesheader.png|link=]]

This list is intended to be used as evidence that minor-adult sexual relations can be neutral or positive in nature when we eliminate the social repercussions. It is based on anecdote, and is therefore not an unbiased study, nor is it a erotic literature or fiction or an attempt to justify certain behaviors. Accounts vary in credibility, some of them being anonymous (the reasons for which, may be understandable) and others being the spoken or written word of one or more known persons. '''We also act as a hub for other publishers of said accounts.'''

The accounts are divided into sections for easy retrieval, and may require an archive search if the links have fallen dormant.</center>
|}


[[File:Bowers.png|thumb|'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Male|Inside]]''' - Scotty Bowers had multiple experiences: "Abused? absolutely not; this is bullshit, man! There's no such thing as someone ruining your life when they suck your cock [...] I did what I did because I knew what I was doing and I wanted to do it"]]
==Minor-Adult experiences==
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Female]]''': Man-Girl sex experiences.
*:'''Inside''': "''Why should I feel '''guilty''' about the wonderful relationship I had with that man ... right up until his death?.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Male with Minor Male]]''': Man-Boy sex experiences.
*:'''Inside''': "''It was clear that it certainly felt good to both of us. ... In some way it was a real lifesaver, because it made me feel that love and affection and closeness and sex would be possible in my life. ... when we were together, it was like a little oasis where we could be ourselves.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Adult Female with Minor]]''': Sexual experiences of youth with women.
*:'''Inside''': "''The only fault I find with that part of my sexual education was the limit her guilt and fear put on our pleasure, the heterosexual pressure even she felt required to put on me. What she did "for my own good" caused both of us pain. If I were to improve on that experience now, it would not be to protect children from adult seduction but to make adults easier to seduce, less burdened with fear or guilt, less defended by hypocrisy.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: CSA (Children's Sexual Advances)]]''': Focuses on some, but not all of the cases where the younger partner made an advance.
*:'''Inside''': "''It developed over time and was great. We became friends and I invited him over once when my parents weren't home. I practically had to force sex on him because he was afraid about losing his job. Ended when I went away for the summer and he wasn't a teacher at my school no more.''"

==Experiences among children and youth==
*'''[[Testimony: Expressed childhood sexuality]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''I have naturally craved sex...sexual touch, through all stages of my conscious life. I do not remember any phase during my childhood, when I was without sexual attraction and arousal. It was very natural, and spontaneous. I never disliked it, though I learned to hide it from others.''"
<hr>
*'''[[Testimony: Non-expressed childhood sexuality]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''The experience of sexual arousal as a child [at 6] is one of my sexual experiences. Whenever my girl friends and I would look at books while playing, I would always choose the book Little Black Sambo. The picture I am referring to is that of the tiger chasing Sambo around the tree as he is melting into butter. The tiger has previously taken all of Sambo's clothes. The sight of the nude little boy's rear end is what excited me.''"

==Attraction as an experience==
*'''[[Testimony: Experiences of chronophilias]]'''.
*:'''Inside''': "''I was open minded then about willingness to change my sexual orientation and participated sincerely but, of course, discovered that sexual orientation is deeply rooted in a person's being and not subject to behavioral modification. All this program did was exacerbate cognitive dissonance and create a great deal discomfort with myself, deflating self-esteem.''"

==Other publishers of accounts==

Other websites and texts exist, in which individuals testify of sexual experiences and attractions between adults and minors, and also youth sexuality. In some cases, (mainly homosexual) contacts between younger and older persons have been [[Research: Intergenerational Relationships in History|documented as "lists"]]. These may or may not involve testimony from the person whose lived experience is being discussed.

The resources we point to here supplement the above testimony lists of our own, and provide a counter-weight to the above-described type of "history list". As always, there may be some overlap:

*[http://www.consentingjuveniles.com/cases Consenting Juveniles] - New website focusing on '''verified accounts of high-profile individuals''' - bravely [https://www.consentingjuveniles.com/About_the_Research endorsed by numerous professionals].

*[https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipns/jumima.net/en/ Jumima] - A new site documenting '''200+''' man-boy experiences. Might be broken, and we hope it will return. [https://web.archive.org/web/20210305162412/https://jumima.net/en/ Here is an archive] and ZIP file download. 

*[http://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/tindall.htm The male adolescent involved with a pederast becomes an adult] - Ralph Tindall PhD (9 accounts).

*[http://www.ipce.info/host/sandfort_87/index.htm Theo Sandfort] - Landmark study of a number of man-boy relationships.

*[https://www.ipce.info/host/wilson/index.htm The Man They Called a Monster] - Paul Wilson's book about [[Clarence Osborne]], a man who specialized in casually seducing boys.

*[http://www.jackinworld.com/bios/index.html JackinWorld Biographies] - Short sexual autobiographies focusing on masturbation. Many examples of expressed and unexpressed childhood sexuality.

===Archived here or elsewhere===

Our own [[Youth Perspectives]] archive may be of interest to readers of this project.

*[https://www.ipce.info/booksreborn/index.htm Positive Memories (a freely available ebook)] - Similar collection with around '''150 accounts''' and some overlap. Available in Polish, German, Russian. See also [https://uryourstory.org/index.php/social-criticism/188-positive-memories this] archive. Links to newgon.'''com''' can be altered to newgon.'''net'''. 

*[https://wiki.yesmap.net/prd/exp/index.html PRD] - '''Over 40''' accounts, translated from German.

:*Also, see our other archive, [https://wiki.yesmap.net/CPP/ Child's Perspective]: From Cerius.org.

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20020601171005/http://www.allaboutsex.org/KidsSpeakOut_Frameset.cfm?Topic=abuseandtrauma&Display=Abuse_And_Trauma All About Sex] - "Abuse and trauma" isn't the only section of this long-abandoned board, but as can be seen, most of the (unverified) experiences do not match that description.

*[[My Secret Garden]]: Women's Sexual Fantasies. Nancy Friday (Simon & Schuster, 1973). A collection of women's fantasies obtained through letters, tapes and personal interviews. Contains a large amount of frank, non-condemnatory discussion on sensitive topics such as sadism, bestiality, childhood sex, and sexual fantasy from childhood to adulthood.

====Girls with adults, or others====

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110520153820/http://www.the-clitoris.com/f_html/gen_indx.htm The Clitoris] - Females on early sexual experiences.

*[http://web.archive.org/web/20070717000843/http://www.bkgirls.net/personal/index.html BK Girls] - Only some of these are stored in the archive.

====Boys or others with men====

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170607231752/http://agetaboo.org/stories/ourstories.htm Age Taboo] - Many accounts, varying greatly in type.

*[[Testimony: BoyLover.net|BL.net]] - The forum provides a large number of positive anecdotes.

*[[Testimony: BoyMoment]] - A small number of anecdotes.

*[[Men loving boys loving men]] - Multiple man-boy accounts (Researched by the gay activist [[Gerald Hannon]])

==Gallery==

These excerpt graphics document verifiable positive experiences (information on record about publicly known individuals).

{{Template:EGLPM}}

[[fr:Comptes rendus et témoignages]]

Bill Andriette

2026-09-17T15:50:22Z

Jim Burton:

'''Bill Andriette''' is an American journalist and gay activist, who often writes in a positive way about intergenerational relationships, especially in their political aspects. Andriette was the Features Editor of ''The Guide'', a gay travel and entertainment magazine published in Boston. He has had a long involvement with the North American Man/Boy Love Association ([[NAMBLA]]), having joined the organization as a 15-year-old very soon after its inauguration. He says he started having gay sex with men at the age of 14 in an unsupportive environment, and recalls these experiences as positive.

Andriette believes that the gay movement has sold out by not acknowledging the boy-lovers within its ranks. He has become a trenchant critic of [[Assimilationism|gay assimilationism]] and [[Rainbow_Revisionism|rainbow revisionism / pinkwashing]], alongside other political defenders of age-gap sex such as [[David Thorstad]].

==Links==

*[https://bostonphoenix.com/alt1/archive/styles/96/10/NAMBLA.html ''The boy-lover next door'' - An interview with Bill]
*[https://fstube.net/w/saCdcsqRe6LvfGgzMcmAfu Daniel Tsang interviews...]
*[[Media:Andriette Intergenerational Sex Consent Isn’t the Problem.pdf|Bill Andriette, 'Intergenerational Sex: Consent Isn't the Problem', in ''Empathy'', Vol. 3, No. 1 (1992)]].
*Selected Writings from [[Ipce|IPCE]]: E.g. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230404021642/http://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/consent_and_playing_with_marbles.htm ''Consent and playing with marbles'']; [https://web.archive.org/web/20210926220459/https://www.ipce.info/library_3/files/andr_church.htm ''Castrating the Church''] (2002).
*''The Guide'' - [http://www.ipce.info/library_2/files/paglia_guide.htm Interview with Camille Paglia]; Editorials on [https://web.archive.org/web/20050410174018/http://www.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=E6B2CF74-031D-11D4-AD990050DA7E046B Zoophilia/Bestiality], [https://web.archive.org/web/20060110053510/http://www.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=E6B2CF08-031D-11D4-AD990050DA7E046B Coprophilia], [https://web.archive.org/web/20051127130745/http://www.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=3F1E75D7-5449-11D4-A7B300A0C9D84F02 Rape and Queer Sex]; [https://web.archive.org/web/20160416091836/http://archive.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=dbb62bb1-db81-440f-9c99833183a9c551 Tipping Point for Gay Sex?]
*[[List of MAP-related magazines]]

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Sympathetic Activists]][[Category:People: American]][[Category:People: Adult or Minor sexually attracted to or involved with the other]][[Category:Gay]]

ILGA

2026-09-17T15:48:44Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__[[File:ILGALogo.png|thumb|ILGA World logo]]
The '''International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association''' (ILGA) is a "worldwide federation of more than 1,700 organizations from over 160 countries and territories campaigning for lesbian, [[Homosexuality|gay]], bisexual, [[Transgender youth and attraction to minors|trans]] and intersex human rights." Its activities include advocacy work at the Human Rights Council, fighting for the inclusion of queer people in international law, discussing queer women's issues at the Commission on the Status of Women, and more.<ref name=ILGA>[https://ilga.org/about-us ILGA]</ref><ref name=Wikipedia>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Lesbian,_Gay,_Bisexual,_Trans_and_Intersex_Association#History ILGA - Wikipedia]</ref>

Although the history of the ILGA is expansive, the controversy between organizations such as [[NAMBLA]], [[Vereniging MARTIJN]], Project Truth, and the ILGA is very often erased.<ref name=ILGA /><ref name=WikiNAMBLA>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Man/Boy_Love_Association#ILGA_controversy NAMBLA - Wikipedia]</ref><ref name=Academia>[https://www.academia.edu/27962003/The_International_Lesbian_and_Gay_Movement_ILGA_NAMBLA_and_the_Imagined_Future._Supervised_by International LGBT Movement and NAMBLA]</ref><ref name=Paternotte>[https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460713511103 The International (Lesbian and) Gay Association and the question of pedophilia: Tracking the demise of gay liberation ideals]</ref>

== A brief overview of the founding and goals ==

[[File:ILGA1998.png|thumb|left|1998 Logo (Internet Archive)]]
The ILGA was founded in 1978 in Coventry (UK) at a meeting at the annual conference of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality. Among the attendees were members of gay organizations from Australia, Britain, Denmark, France, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Scotland, and the United States. The meeting was chaired by Rob Pistor (of Netherland's COC) and Peter Ashman of Britain's (CHE.)<ref name=History>[https://ilga.org/ilga-history ILGA History page]</ref>

The aims were to maximize the effectiveness of gay organizations through international coordination as well as to set up an information center to distribute information on gay matters. The ILGA would continue to advocate for gay rights throughout the decades and to this day, and they would notably gain become the first non-governmental organization to gain UN Consultative status.<ref name=History /><ref name=Wikipedia />

== Affiliation with NAMBLA and the question of intergenerational relationships ==

:''See also: [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity]].''

According to David Paternotte, the ILGA's "discourse on pedophilia" was influenced heavily by "liberationist rhetoric," with the ILGA insisting on a "need for solidarity with other sexual minorities, including pedophiles and young people." Many identified common roots of oppression as well. He notes that [[Minor attracted neologisms|MAPs/YLs]] had been able to associate much more freely in countries such as the Netherlands, as well as observing that French intellectuals had begun to campaign for the decriminalization of homosexuality and the lowering of the [[Age of Consent]]. They would have support from individuals such as Foucault, Sartre, Beauvoir, and more. However, there was immediate conflict within the ILGA which was further spurred on by anti-pedophile campaigns in the USA and UK. One such example is [[Anita Bryant]]'s [[Save our Children|campaigns]]<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_Our_Children Save Our Children - Wikipedia]</ref>, which "used pedophilia to attack gay groups."<ref name=Paternotte /> Since Patternote, other scholars such as Tyler Carson, then a PhD student at Rutgers University in the United States, have written on the ILGA / NAMBLA controversy in extensive detail.<ref>See Tyler Carson (Rutgers University, PhD) [https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/ilga/ilgaintro The International Lesbian and Gay Association’s Suspension from the United Nations, 1993-1994], (2024/2025, ''Out History'').</ref>

The organization first handled the issue in 1979 during the Bergen (the Netherlands) conference. There was disagreement on what official position to adopt on the topic of intergenerational relationships, and so a specific panel was to be created. The decision was still yet postponed, and the debate was carried on at the next two conferences (Brighton 1979 and Barcelona 1980.) The justification for supporting intergenerational relationships was the need for solidarity between oppressed minorities and to support young people's sexual autonomy. The women's caucus would display concern over power imbalances and of patriarchy against women and children but would ultimately state that "mutual relationships are possible between adults and children."<ref name=Paternotte />

The debate would continue when a 1984 letter from the Flemish FWH to the Irish Gay Rights Movement (IGRM) revealed that the IGRM had suspended its memberships due to the handling of pedophilia in a 1983 Vienna conference. FWH made a call for 'international solidarity in the face of universal oppression,' and the original founding document of the ILGA included pedophiles and considered their oppression a "gay issue" regardless of whether the MAP/YL was gay. Paternotte goes on to express how discourse around pedophilia would change as the rights of MAPs and youth sexual autonomy became disjointed. Though youth had previously formed their own groups within and outside of the ILGA wherein they called for the abolition of the AoC, they slowly began to advocate for a lower AoC.<ref name=Paternotte />

At the same time that (some) youth began claiming there to be a need for sexual protection from adults, the views of women's groups switched. The topic of pedophilia began to be seen as a "male issue." These activists now focused on the "psychological and biological development" of the child, rather than a "constructivist approach" to sexuality. Furthermore, initiatives concerning "children's rights" began to emerge which, in one example, called for the ILGA to remain exclusive to lesbian and gay rights all the while stating that "sexual relations between sexually immature children and adults constitute an abuse of the child. ILGA should work against such abuse on a global basis." Though unsuccessful, controversy was further stoked.<ref name=Paternotte />

Positions that separated youth autonomy and MAP/youthlover rights would continue to be held and encouraged. Though not officially condemnatory, the ILGA's rhetoric began to favor the child advocates and liberationist sentiment was becoming less noticeable. Advocates for intergenerational relationships were beginning to feel far less supported in this new environment.<ref name="Paternotte" />

This controversy within the ILGA would come to a climax with the "United Nations crisis." The ILGA had finally gained a consultative status to the UN, but conservatives felt keen to fight against this. A Lambda Report article would be published that implied ILGA's age of [[consent]] and children's rights policies were based on NAMBLA's. Additionally, their consultative status would be suspended after a campaign by conservative US senator Jesse Helms, and a bill would be introduced to cut funding to the UN unless they could show they didn't grant official status to "any organization which promotes, condones, or seek the legalization of pedophilia." The ILGA would eventually kick [[NAMBLA]] from its membership, alongside Project Truth and [[Vereniging MARTIJN]].<ref name=Wikipedia /><ref name=Paternotte /><ref name=Academia />

Although this would mark the end of the ILGA's official involvement with organizations like NAMBLA, it would not mark the end of clandestine support by remaining members.<ref name=Paternotte />

== Current day ==

In the current day, the ILGA still seeks to advance the rights of queer individuals. The organization publishes "State-Sponsored Homophobia reports," conduct surveys on the attitudes of populations towards queer people, and came to sponsor the International Intersex Forum which has taken place annually since 2011. They currently claim that their prejudiced position on attraction to minors is "clear and a matter of public record" despite evidence to the contrary.<ref name=ILGA /><ref name=Wikipedia />

==External links==

*[https://fstube.net/w/8pRKkszH8ovcmPmqzg1jfe Larry King Live] - [[Bill Andriette|Andriette]] and ILGA's Julie Dorf discuss the controversy with a representative from the Lambda Report.

== References ==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 1970s]][[Category:History & Events: 1980s]][[Category:History & Events: 1990s]][[Category:Organisations]][[Category:Organisations: Fence-sitters]][[Category:Organisations: Charity & NGO]][[Category:Organisations: Real-life]][[Category:Organisations: International]]

Gary Gibson

2026-09-15T04:00:17Z

Jim Burton:

[[File:Gibson.jpg|thumb|Gary Gibson]]'''Gary Gibson''' (b. circa 1951) is a Christian American [[Minor Attracted Person|MAP]], father and self-declared non-offending [[Pedophilia|Pedophile]] who has been a member of [[Virtuous Pedophiles]] (Virped) peer-support group. He also founded the organization and website [[Preventionism|ASAP International]], which links MAPs with therapists. In 2017, he appeared on Dr. Phil<ref>[https://www.mailtribune.com/top-stories/2017/01/27/chiloquin-pedophile-goes-on-dr-phil/ Chiloquin pedophile goes on 'Dr. Phil']</ref> and in numerous online copies such as the UK's Daily Mail, Sun and Yahoo! His supportive wife, Dr. Tabatha Abel also appeared on ''This Morning''. This caused tensions within his community.

One of Gibson's foster daughters had previously accused Gibson of assaulting her, although this was investigated and determined to be fantastical. Bizarrely, she was allowed to be present during the Dr. Phil episode, in which she had an emotional breakdown.<ref>[https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2690151/gary-gibson-virtuous-paedophile-daughter-rape-claims/ Investigation into claims]</ref>

In 2015, VICE's Alexander McBride spent some time with Gibson and other members of Virped, going on to publish his reflections on a 2017 article, towards the end of the aforementioned group's fame in the mainstream media:

<blockquote>
''On the way over, the reality of what I was doing began to sink in and I started to feel nervous. However, after meeting Gary and being welcomed into his life for the week, I grew so comfortable that my perception of him came to be defined less and less by his sexual proclivity. This turned out to be the case with the others, too. From what I saw, they were regular people trying to get on with life in much the same way that anyone else does, all while having to tackle a burden that they did not choose to bare.''<ref>[https://www.vice.com/en/article/av39jz/i-spent-a-year-with-non-offending-paedophiles I Spent a Year Living With 'Non-Offending' Paedophiles - VICE]</ref>
</blockquote>

In 2026, Gibson was profiled in a YouTube expose by [[anti]] content creator, Sly Boy.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ToZoDAjiQ Video by Sly Boy]</ref>

==See also==

*[[Virtuous Pedophiles]]
*[[Preventionism]]
*[[Todd Nickerson]]
*[[NOMAP]]
*[[The Paedophile Next Door]]

==External Links==

*[http://www.asapinternational.org/ ASAP International]
*[https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2587878/gary-gibson-virtuous-paedophile-christian-anti-pornography/ 'COMFORTABLY OUT' Who is Gary Gibson and what is a ‘virtuous paedophile’? Christian who is anti-pornography] - ''The Sun''.
*[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4149408/Victim-faces-virtuous-pedophile-former-foster-dad.html Mail article with excerpts from the Dr. Phil Episode]
*[https://fstube.net/w/ec5GbjvWoVD1CmLjc6avbZ Complete episode on FST]
*[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4108998/There-difference-attraction-action-Wife-standing-husband-admitted-paedophile-insists-NOT-child-molester.html ‘She’s as bad as her husband!’ Woman who is standing by her paedophile spouse, 65, is branded 'disgusting' by This Morning viewers] - ''Mail''.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:TV & Media]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: American]][[Category:People: Adult or Minor sexually attracted to or involved with the other]][[Category:People: Sympathetic Activists]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

Ethos of Newgon

2026-09-15T03:13:05Z

Jim Burton: /* End legal discrimination against "sex offenders" (binding position) */

__NOTOC__'''Welcome to Yesmap.net''', the home of '''NewgonWiki''' - an information resource maintained by '''[[Newgon]] Organization''' and [[Newgon Support Team|its support team]].

Our site discusses and promotes alternative perspectives on physical attractions and relationships between legal [[minor]]s and [[adult]]s. In line with current trends, we also have an increasing focus on the social situation of [[Minor Attracted Person|minor attracted people]] (MAPs). Our aim is to produce information sources that are easy to use in front-line activism, and to organize that activism where possible. We are an international, '''informal''', organization with no official membership register. Our name/identity and information scheme are free to use and open source respectively. That is to say that you may register, or open new branches at the local level, which will remain officially independent of the international organization.

For Support Team members, we have two binding (dark green) and one non-binding (light green) policy positions, referred to below as our platform. Other ''topics of concern'' are highlighted in yellow. We may consult members of our immediate community (particularly funded initiatives) when formulating these positions.

==Platform==

===The MAP issue (and our policy)===

Despite our crucial role in the birth of MAP discourse, Newgon Organization is not a peer-support group for MAPs. We nevertheless welcome their input, and boast of many supporters who are themselves MAPs. Unlike some (but not all) MAP/ally organizations, we firmly believe that [[research]] already strongly indicates that [[pedophilia]] (estimated at 3-5% prevalence by the DSM-5) is not a mental illness or disorder. We maintain that pedophilia is wrongly conflated with [[hebephilia]], and used by the establishment and its media as a social scapegoat. We would like to see pedophilia addressed from a pure mental health point of view, with a secondary emphasis placed on reducing [[Research: The Dangers of Stigma|stigma]] and secondary harms through awareness raising. To this end, our binding policy is as follows:

====Remove all reference to chronophilias from the DSM and ICD (binding position)====

Our first position is that [[pedophilia]] should not be included as a category within the DSM, ICD and other diagnostic literature/guidance. Diagnostic categories should instead focus solely on the distress caused by a hostile social climate in relation to all non-normative identities, as opposed to labeling and pathologizing sexual inclinations.

===The Registry Reform issue (and our policy)===

Newgon Organization is not part of the [[Research: Recidivism and other offending figures#Facts and figures according to SOL Reform Groups and their allies|registry reform movement]], although we do support some of its goals, for example, bringing light to [[Special Article: Adverse effects of hysteria|adverse consequences of prosecuting "sex crimes"]]. One area where we go further than the modern registry-reform movement, is our longer-term drive towards a society that only seeks to criminalize assault or other common wrongs such as threats or blackmail, rather than "sex". In other words, we follow the anti-exceptionalist [[Sexceptionalism|approach]] pioneered by [[Text of Human Rights and the denial of sexual freedom|Rene Guyon]] in the late 1940s, and advocated by [[Alfred Kinsey]] thereafter, in which ideally, no law should be written with any special regard for "sex acts" as an area of concern.

====End legal discrimination against "sex offenders" (binding position)====

Our second binding position is, therefore, an immediate end to discrimination against "sex offenders". This may be realized by the abolition of the Sex Offender Registry and all laws sanctioning post-conviction/post-release discrimination against "sexual offenders". If crimes are to be logged on a public or private registry, this must apply to all crimes, all crimes of a particular severity (according to empirical evidence), or none at all.

===The Youth issue (and our policy)===

Our organization was founded in 2007 by teenage/youth MAP activists. We are a MAP and ally-led organization, and do not hide the fact that we seek to represent the interests of MAPs. Our policy positions are formed using a combination of the best available research literature on (and anecdotal knowledge of) youth perspectives. While a MAP bias will always be visible because of [[Debate Guide: The kids do not want it|basic demographic realities]], we also see [[Youth Perspectives|youth rights]] and [[Youth Perspectives|participation]] as crucial elements going forward. We often refer to the [[Accounts and Testimonies|lived experiences of young people]]. We hold that peer-reviewed [[Research|research]] indicates the monolithic belief system of [[Child Sexual Abuse]] is outdated and needs to be replaced with an alternative framework.

====An anti-offending organization====

While we maintain a reformist pro-choice position (see below) we are in favor of a non-offending lifestyle for all legal minors - referred to as "celibacy" in western erotophobic language. Sex-negative statutes, (including sex work laws) mean that legal minors may be institutionalized, criminalized and sometimes even registered for pursuing consensual relations with age peers and adults. Therefore, it is also incumbent upon adults not to offend, even if the offending aligns with their exclusive personal preferences. For both groups, we maintain that political action, co-operation, advocacy and personal development are instead, healthy and appropriate pursuits in the present climate.

====Elective-12 is our (non-binding) [[Age of Consent]] position====

The best available evidence supports the idea of an ''elective-emancipation'' system for young people aged 12 and up. We do not bind participants to this position.

The proposed model is in effect, a passport system where young [[Research: Cognitive ability|people age 12 and up]], can sign to '''emancipate''' themselves in (potentially) a variety of areas in line with their unique, [[evolving capacity|evolving capacities]]. With respect to adults and emancipated minors, this will include legal [[consent]] to physical/sexual relations. Other important rights may be included, however, we will not campaign on most of these issues until there are signs of an emerging policy consensus:

<div style="column-count:2;-moz-column-count:2;-webkit-column-count:2">
*Education
*Employment [debatably inc. military]
*Finance
*Driving a motor vehicle
*Alcohol, substances, gambling, body modifications and medical
*Graphic media content bars (so-called "harmful content")
*Voting (this might be dependent upon the above)
</div>

We propose that emancipation will be the ''choice of the young person'', assuming they can be assessed by a doctor as mentally competent - broadly in line with their peers. With respect to sexual relations, the age of 12 is identical to the system employed in the Netherlands up until very recently. However, allowing young people to ''self emancipate'' gives them the power to choose what aspects of their lives they will be responsibile for. Various controlled outcome studies will be conducted by social scientists after these changes are put into effect, creating more jobs.

===Inclusion/representation/gender (no defined policy)===

We are inclusive, drawing upon a diverse community of people. Some of us have experienced age-discrepant relationships at different points in our lives. Others have experienced cross-generational physical attractions and accompanying social hostility. Some of us have experience of legal systems, professions and academia, pertaining to the above. We are united by the fact that we now want to pool our knowledge collaboratively, and utilize it.

====Gender issues====

We consulted members of our community (i.e. account-holders on the Yesmap server we finance) on gender issues - which are often seen as [[Transgender youth and attraction to minors|closely related to sexuality topics including our subject]]. While server members expressed the full range of opinions described in the above article when canvassed on the popular topic of transgender youth, most of us agreed that younger women/girls and adult men are the primary victims of the purity culture we collectively fight to erase.

Opinions differred on how this should, or should not be addressed in the law. For example:

*Some community members have suggested laws against adults/parents who [[Research: Secondary Harm|secondarily victimize]] youth by shaming them as regards their gender identity, sexuality or choice of personal relationships, adding that girls would be protected by such laws. Others argue that this would be a violation of family privacy, and could be abused by political lobbying groups against unwilling minors.
*Some have suggested non-prosecution stipulations for women and transwomen engaged in demonstrably voluntary sexual activity with a minor that might still violate existing or revised laws. These cases may have become an unwanted topic of debate in the media, and tend to result in subjectively [[Research: Prevalence of Harm and Negative Outcomes|benign outcomes]] for the younger partner. Supporters of these type of laws might argue that the MAP Movement must show it is not driven by the needs of men, and cares about the treatment of women in the criminal justice system. Detractors might oppose legal discrimination in principle.

There is no consensus in the community for or against initiatives such as the above, and thus Newgon has no policy platform in this area.

==Official Guidance==

We occasionally publish guidance on important topics such as:

*[[Paraphilia]]
*[[Coming out]]
*[[Adult Attracted Minor|Communicating with "minors"]]
*[[Pediverse|Fediverse]] servers and their safety

These sections will always be described as "official guidance" and are subject to group consultation - primarily within communities we support. Therefore, an official guidance section can be considered as a loosely stated organizational position on various topics, but not a central part of our platform as such.

===Counter-extremism===

Newgon [[List of CSA/anti-pedophile proponents|actively compiles information]] about hostile groups. In some cases, we designate such organizations as "extremist hate groups", such as the defunct organizations [[Absolute Zero]] and [[Perverted Justice]]. We currently do not designate all such groups, as the amount of research required to do so with confidence exceeds our present resources.

In 2023, we designated '''[[Gays Against Groomers]]''' as an extremist hate group based upon archive research following extensive hostile interactions between their own volunteers and those of Newgon, after the latter conducted outreach and awareness operations on [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]]:

*[[Media:PR3.pdf|18 Jun 2023 - 1 Year Report on Gays Against Groomers (Hate Group)]]

We have also placed advisory ratings against '''[[Reduxx Magazine]], [[Operation Underground Railroad]], The Nazarene Fund, [[Free A Girl]]''' and '''Courage is a Habit''', but have not yet conducted the necessary collection and analysis of data to designate such organizations. We do not currently collect extensive data on, or designate "predator hunter" type organizations, as these are considered more of a concern for [[RSO Activism|Sex Offender Law]] activism.

==Organizational activities==

Our approach is conservative and sustainable; we describe it as '''"radical philosophy, moderate demands"'''.

With respect to the broader movement, a non-dogmatic "integrative model" is highly appropriate in the early stages, widening its scope and public appeal. Newgon Organization realizes the limitations of reintroducing outward-facing pro-choice activism to the MAP discourse, as we have taken part in similar campaigning in the past - with varying levels of success. We do believe a pro-choice alternative that aggressively combats the trauma myth, is a necessary counter-balance to the present-day alternatives. We also believe that our presence will encourage participation (including that of Allies who disagree with us on some points). We also believe our activities will encourage other MAPs to develop literacy throughout a broader range of topics, serving us well in the future. With respect to the future, building a body of knowledge (NewgonWiki) continues to be our first priority.

===Trust and Safety===

Newgon has a set of [[Ethos: Standards for moderation|moderation]] standards for social initiatives it funds. Newgon can not be held responsible for the behavior of chatserver/forum members on funded initiatives, or elsewhere, but strives to foster an inclusive environment without engaging in unnecessary censorship.

==Press releases and reports==

Newgon Organization occasionally publishes press releases and special reports on important topics. A list follows:

*[[Media:PR.pdf|18 Nov 2021 - Allyn Walker controversy re. Old Dominion University]]
*[[Media:PR2.pdf|13 Sep 2022 - Amber Parker controversy re. Franklin High School]]
*[[Media:PR3.pdf|18 Jun 2023 - 1 Year Report on Gays Against Groomers (Hate Group)]]
*[[Media:PR4.pdf|09 May 2024 - Appointment of new Ambassador, discontinuation of Matrix]]

In addition to our ever-present MediaWiki-based projects, we occasionally produce information packs for dissemination to the public, and/or media - usually for the [[Yesmap]] campaign:

*[[Media:ContentDemo.pdf|January 2022 - Minor-adult sex becomes a contentious social topic: A summary of recent press activity and research]]
*[[Media:Rindbasics.pdf|February 2022 - Accessible summary]] of [[Bruce Rind|Rind's]] most recent findings

Template:Ac

2026-09-13T12:42:32Z

Jim Burton:

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! Research topics  
|-
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[[Research|NewgonWiki Research Project]] 
|}

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
! Academics (present)  
|-
|
[[Steven Angelides|Angelides]], [[Helmut Graupner|Graupner]], [[Philip Tromovitch|Tromovitch]], [[Allyn Walker|Walker]] 
[[Charles Moser|Moser]], [[Karl Andersson|Andersson]], [[Judith Butler|Butler]], [[Jacob Breslow|Breslow]], [[Gayle Rubin|Rubin]] 
[[Stephen Kershnar|Kershnar]], [[Peter Singer|Singer]], [[Bruce Rind|Rind]], [[Diederik Janssen|Janssen]], [[Mark Smith|Smith]] 
[[Thomas Hubbard|Hubbard]], [[Hoko Horii|Horii]], [[Gilbert Herdt|Herdt]], [[Lee Edelman|Edelman]], [[Elizabeth Loftus|Loftus]] 
[[Rachel Hope Cleves|Cleves]], [[Nicholas Syrett|Syrett]], [[Leonardo Arce Vidal|Arce Vidal]], [[Bill Thompson|Thompson]] 
[[Slavoj Žižek|Žižek]], [[Theo Sandfort|Sandfort]], [[Kieran McCartan|McCartan]], [[Edmund White|White]] 
[[Simon Goldhill|Goldhill]], [[Juliette Rennes|Rennes]], [[Kerry Robinson|Robinson]], [[Kathryn Bond Stockton|Stockton]] 
[[Pierre Verdrager|Verdrager]], [[Michael Seto|Seto]], [[Ray Blanchard|Blanchard]], [[Michael Bailey|Bailey]] 
<hr>
[[Valerie Sinason|Sinason]], [[Gene Abel|Abel]], [[Alvin Malesky|Malesky]], [[David Finkelhor|Finkelhor]] 
|}

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
! Academics (inactive)  
|-
|
[[Terry Leahy|Leahy]], [[Gary Dowsett|Dowsett]], [[Pat Sikes|Sikes]], [[Patrick Califia|Califia]], [[Frans Gieles|Gieles]] 
[[Richard Yuill|Yuill]], [[James Kincaid|Kincaid]], [[Camille Paglia|Paglia]], [[Thore Langfeldt|Langfeldt]] 
[[LeRoy G. Schultz|Schultz]], [[Walter L. Williams|Williams]], [[Rudiger Lautmann|Lautmann]] 
[[Marjan Sax|Sax]], [[Warren Farrell|Farrell]], [[Joel Best|Best]], [[Philip Jenkins|Jenkins]] 
[[Chin-Keung Li|C. K. Li]], [[Paul Okami|Okami]], [[Allie C. Kilpatrick|Kilpatrick]], [[Martin Dannecker|Dannecker]] 
[[Dean Durber|Durber]], [[Gunter Schmidt|Schmidt]], [[Stevi Jackson|Jackson]], [[Carolyn Cocca|Cocca]]
 
<hr>
[[Mary de Young|De Young]], [[Stephanie Dallam|Dallam]] 
|}

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
! Academics (historical)  
|-
|
[[Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg|Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg]] 
[[Michel Foucault|Foucault]], [[Alfred Kinsey|Kinsey]], [[Hubert Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[William Percy|Percy]] 
[[David Sonenschein|Sonenschein]], [[Beatrice Faust|Faust]], [[Stephen Wayne Foster|Foster]], [[Donald Mader|Mader]] 
[[Gert Hekma|Hekma]], [[Floyd Martinson|Martinson]], [[Vern Bullough|Bullough]], [[Frits Bernard|Bernard]] 
[[Warren Johansson|Johansson]], [[Guy Hocquenghem|Hocquenghem]], [[John P. De Cecco|De Cecco]] 
[[René Schérer|Schérer]], [[Helmut Kentler|Kentler]], [[Volkmar Sigusch|Sigusch]], [[Michael C. Baurmann|Baurmann]] 
[[Sir Richard Burton|Burton]], [[Leonard Davis|Davis]], [[Katharina Rutschky|Rutschky]], [[Preben Hertoft|Hertoft]], [[Eberhard Schorsch|Schorsch]] 
[[Edward Brongersma|Brongersma]], [[Will H. L. Ogrinc|Ogrinc]], [[Ken Plummer|Plummer]], [[Jeffrey Weeks|Weeks]] 
[[John Money|Money]], [[Tony Duvert|Duvert]], [[Michael Ingram|Ingram]], [[Richard Green|Green]], [[Harris Mirkin|Mirkin]] 
[[William Simon|Simon]], [[John Gagnon|Gagnon]], [[Donald West|West]], [[Tom Reeves|Reeves]], [[Charles Shively|Shively]] 
[[David T. Evans|Evans]], [[John Holt|Holt]], [[Clarence Tripp|Tripp]], [[Paul D. Hardman|Hardman]], [[Wilhelm Reich|Reich]] 
[[Herman Musaph|Musaph]], [[Thomas Szasz|Szasz]], [[Lars Ullerstam|Ullerstam]], [[Joan Nestle|Nestle]] 
<hr>
[[Judianne Densen-Gerber|Densen-Gerber]], [[Judith Reisman|Reisman]], [[Charles Whitfield|Whitfield]], [[Paul Fink|Fink]] 
|}

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
! Related topics  
|-
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[[Queer Theory]], [[Feminism]], [[Consent]] 
[[Minor-adult sex]], [[Child Sexual Abuse|CSA]], [[Paraphilia]] 
[[Sexceptionalism]], [[Sexualization]] 
[[Heteronormativity]], [[Transgender youth and attraction to minors|Trans youth]] 
[[Hebephilia]], [[Pedophilia]], [[Teleiophilia]] 
[[Censorship]], [[Chris Brand]], [[Moral panic]] 
[[Preventionism]], [[Minor Attracted Person]] 
[[Masturbation]], [[Inner child]], [[Child Sexual Behaviour Inventory|CSBI]] 
[[IICSA]], [[Child Pornography|CSAM]], [[Covert incest]] 
[[Pedophilia themed OCD|POCD]], [[Teen Dating Violence]] 
[[Repressed memory]], [[Anal wink]] 
[[Kent State Study]], [[Rind et al]], [[CSA Accommodation Syndrome|CSAAS]] 
[[COPINE Scale]], [[Cognitive distortion (pseudoscience)|Cognitive distortion]] 
[[Adolescence]], [[Abel screening]] 
[[Actuarial testing]], [[Penile Plethysmography|Plethysmography]] 
[[Erwin Schrodinger]], [[Carleton Gajdusek]] 
[[David Riegel]], [[Jordan Peterson]] 
[[Wikipedia censorship of MAP related topics|Wikipedia]], [[Sexual rites of passage|Rites of passage]] 
[[Medicalism]], [[Evolving capacity]] 
[[Nocebogenic harm]], [[Moral Recruitment]] 
[[Intrinsic harm]] 
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[[Journal of Homosexuality|JoH]], [[Archives of Sexual Behavior|ASB]], [[Paidika]], [[Journal of Controversial Ideas|JCI]], [[Fund for Scientific Research of Sexuality|FSRS]] 
[[B4U-ACT]], [[Percy Foundation|PF]], [[Ipce]], [[AASECT]] 
<hr>
[[NARTH]], [[The Leadership Council|TLC]] 
[[Office of Justice Programs|OJP]], [[NSPCC]], [[American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children|ASPAC]] 
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Ray Blanchard

2026-09-13T12:41:29Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__ {{Template:Ac}} '''[[Wikipedia: Ray Blanchard| Ray Milton Blanchard III]]''' is a psychologist and sexologist best known for his influential and often controversial research on sexual orientation, gender dysphoria, paraphilias, and patterns of sexual arousal. He spent much of his career at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), where he headed Clinical Sexology Services from 1995 to 2010, and is currently a status-only Full Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.<ref>[https://psychiatry.utoronto.ca/faculty/ray-blanchard University of Toronto faculty profile]</ref> Blanchard also served as president of the International Academy of Sex Research and was a member of the DSM-5 Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group, including chairing its Paraphilias Subworkgroup.

== Impact on research concerning MAPs ==

Blanchard investigated possible associations between pedophilia and non-right-handedness, reduced stature, childhood accidents involving loss of consciousness, and possible neurological or developmental factors. These studies helped advance hypotheses about neurodevelopmental correlates, but their findings were based largely on referred male samples and should not be treated as establishing that brain injury, handedness, stature, or low IQ causes pedophilic interest. Questions have also been raised about findings drawn from unrepresentative forensic populations. <ref name="Blanchard2007"> Blanchard, Ray; Kolla, Nathan J.; Cantor, James M.; Klassen, Philip E.; Dickey, Robert; Kuban, Michael E.; and Blak, Thomas (2007). "IQ, Handedness, and Pedophilia in Adult Male Patients Stratified by Referral Source," Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment, 19(3), 285-309.</ref> <ref>Blanchard, R., Christensen, B.K., Strong, S.M. et al. Retrospective Self-Reports of Childhood Accidents Causing Unconsciousness in Phallometrically Diagnosed Pedophiles. Arch Sex Behav 31, 511–526 (2002).</ref> (See [[Research:_Psychopathy_and_abnormal_psychology|Research: Psychopathy and abnormal psychology]])

Blanchard has done more than any other to popularize ''[[Hebephilia|hebephilia]]'' and ''[[Teleiophilia|teleiophilia]]'' as professional and even lay terms. He has argued that pedophilia and hebephilia might be related conditions, differing mainly by degree rather than by kind. He proposed that the DSM-5 include a combined category, sometimes described as ''pedohebephilic disorder''.<ref>Blanchard, R., Lykins, A. D., Wherrett, D., Kuban, M. E., Cantor, J. M., Blak, T., Dickey, R., & Klassen, P. E. (2009). "[https://www.academia.edu/13111834/Pedophilia_Hebephilia_and_the_DSM_V Pedophilia, Hebephilia, and the DSM-V]," Archives of Sexual Behavior, 38(3), 335-350.</ref> <ref>[https://blog.atsa.com/2012/01/ A Guest Blog by DSM-5 Paraphilias Subworkgroup Chair Dr. Ray Blanchard on Proposed Criteria for Pedophilic Disorder]</ref> The proposal was influential in the DSM revision debate but was not adopted.

Despite his partly pathologizing contribution, Ray Blanchard also played an important role in depathologization of pedophilia and paraphilias in general. Blanchard defended a distinction between [[Paraphilia|paraphilia]] and paraphilic disorder. This distinction influenced the broader DSM-5 discussion.<ref>Blanchard R (April 2010). "[https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10508-009-9536-0 The DSM diagnostic criteria for pedophilia]". Arch Sex Behav. 39 (2): 304–16.</ref>

Blanchard considers [[Pedophilia|pedophilia]] a [[Research:_Pedophilia_as_a_sexual/erotic_orientation|sexual orientation]]. Initially, that term was included in the DSM, but pressure groups forced the APA to change the word "orientation" to "interest" in the online copy.

== References ==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Anti-Pedophile culture]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]
[[Category:History & Events: Canadian]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

Pediverse

2026-09-10T11:24:46Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__[[File:Pedi tree.png|thumb|Representation of the wider [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]] as a tree (late 2022)]]
The '''Pediverse''', (a portmanteau of "[[Pedophilia|pedophile]]" and "universe", deriving from the widely-used term "'''[[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]]'''") or '''Pedi''' for short, is an ensemble of [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|federated (i.e. interconnected) servers]] or services that are used by [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs and allies]] for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting. It is increasingly used by a wider group of [[Radqueer]]s, but widely blocked by the rest of the Fediverse.

While independently hosted, users on these servers can communicate with users on other servers, although one server owner may freely decide to block other servers, or promote particular servers to their userbase. On different servers (technically instances), pediverse users can create profiles on what are typically [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|open-source social media platforms]] modeled on popular social networks such as [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]]. These profiles are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more ''communication protocols'' that follow an open standard.

As an identity on the pediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities. In some cases, users can show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities, and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

The Pediverse is distinct from other social platforms in the clear-web [[Minor-attracted community|MAP Community]] (e.g. [[Virtuous Pedophiles]], [[Mu]], [[B4U-ACT]]) and shows a degree of cultural and generational ghettoization.

==Pediverse as a concept==

The idea of a distinct pediverse community, and its realization, is a thing of the early 20s, while other MAP communities have pre-existed it by decades.

MAP social media servers had long existed on Mastodon (2019, according to our section on NNIA predecessors) by the time "Pediverse" came into use. It is not known when the exact term first came into use, but excluding misspellings of "fediverse", there are a few important dates per platform:

*21 Dec, 2022 on X<ref>[https://x.com/sikanomaly/status/1605667884562145281 "You know they wanted to call it the pediverse. Sounds better than Groomerville."]</ref> Mentioned with increasing velocity from later in 2023.
*10 Mar, 2023 on NewgonWiki (this article's creation).
*09 Oct, 2023 in a blog post by a server admin.<ref>[https://www.mapblog.xyz/?p=641 Joining & Changing the Pediverse]</ref>
*23 Jun, 2024 on Kiwifarms. Various "callouts" had by then referred to it as "Pediverse".
*18 Sept, 2025 for a massive expose by the YouTuber gone_fishinq.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnHmd9N2CdA (...) The Internet's Epstein Island]</ref>

It is highly likely that "Pediverse"/"Pedi" is a transmutation of "Fediverse" that fell into popular use following ironic use among [[Anti]]s and the publication of this article with said title.

===Safety===

Pediverse has presented a number of unique user-safety challenges. The vast bulk of Pediverse users do not seek illegal material, as there simply is no point using (relatively insecure) clear web applications to exchange this material, even if it were sought-after. However, some servers on the fringe of Pediverse have been known to pursue lax enforcement against violating material, particularly AI and drawn erotica, which to complicate matters, may be legal in some jurisdictions. It has therefore been the source of controversy, what servers are federated, or not federated by some of the better-used servers. This exact challenge, and the alleged "grooming" of users who may or may not be "roleplaying" or "identified" as minors (but often not minors ''de jure'') was the reason given for the closure of [[NNIA]], the largest Pediverse server. To make matters worse, the "closed" nature of most fediverse servers has fostered a false sense of security, with many users disclosing details that have been abused by hostile parties and used in doxing and callouts.

The user-operated/managed nature of Fediverse servers also poses another content-moderation challenge. This is the necessity for server admins and moderators to ''assess'' the content of neighboring servers, some of it posted in violation of server rules, and a portion thereof, legally violating. In effect, content moderators must view; "download" material to a cache, or use "private browsing" for any browsing activity that might risk coming in to contact with violating content, i.e. ''all'' browsing activity. This potential exposure of some users to violating content is (ironically) necessary to protect other users from violating content. Regular users may also come into contact with unmoderated violating content on feeds, without intending to do so, before it is reported and removed.

This "blurred line" between violating and nonviolating content, intentional and nonintentional exposure, minor and fake-minor user, plus the sheer number of servers involved, is the likely reason the FBI have been unable to progress an investigation into Pediverse, according to the popular [[anti]] Youtuber, gone_fishinq, who has published a three-hour video investigating various Pediverse personalities.

==Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance[[Ethos of Newgon#Official Guidance|⁽ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗʰᶦˢˀ⁾]]==

:''Readers are advised to conduct their own research on instance content and the legalities within their home jurisdiction before viewing these servers. We are not responsible for their content and do not share their names or addresses to facilitate sharing of content that may violate any law.''

MAPs have been proactive in setting up federated/decentralized communication platforms, because of well-founded fears centering on [[censorship]] and [[Vigilantism|harassment]], mental health and [[Validity Policing|validity policing]].

Front-ends/user interfaces include Mastodon, and Akkoma/Pleroma, but the information being shared remains the same regardless of what server you are accessing it from, and what software is being used on the server. Pediverse servers uniformly prohibit [[Child Pornography|CP]] sharing and other illegal activity within their own effective jurisdictions, and most build in contingencies for user jurisdictions.

All such servers permit communication with one another. A few exceptions exist, such as NNIA's defederation of Youjo, Yesmap and Childlove, and the Xelebre.com instance, which has blocked almost every Pediverse instance, despite claiming to be anti-censorship and pro-free-speech. Most recently, the closure of Nyaw and NNIA led users to rush to instances like Cottoncandy.cafe.

The better-known federated social (ActivityPub) instances are listed below underneath their advisory ratings. These ratings are to be read as a guide only, and the factors determining how an instance is rated by us, are in constant flux. Please inform us if things change.

===Generally considered safe===

Excluding NNIA, the first pediverse servers that were "built to last" began to come out in 2023, observing content-moderation standards that allowed them to avoid the suspension of domain properties - something that effectively killed an instance due to the way servers federated.

*'''MAPSupport.de (from Mar 2023, 360 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::The instance federated NNIA (below) but defederates Yesmap. It contains general MAP related content and has survived for a long time by imposing strict rules against erotica and fascism. The instance's owner has been investigated by their local police department after a false report, but no fictional pornography could be found on their hard drive. They have been criticized for falsely alleging that other instances are involved in the trading of pornography and malicious behavior - this followed pressure from [[anti]]s who turned the site into an "anti-woke" meme on X.com.

::This instance had grown to be as large as NNIA by active number of user accounts (at the time of NNIA's closure).

*'''Fedi.yesmap.net (from Jan 2024, 40 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::[[Newgon]]-funded instance. Designed to have high levels of tolerance for freedom of speech, while completely excluding erotica, eye-candy/gooning, malicious sharing of personal information, illegal conduct and anti-MAP propaganda/disruption. It is thus intended to act as an "instance of last resort", providing sanctuary for those who have reservations about administrators on other instances, or who were not invited. Generally now used for main accounts of individuals with little interest in erotica looking for a sustainable instance.

::The concept underlying Yesmap's social, is that its domain has the highest levels of security, and its content has the lowest levels of liability. Therefore, when other instances go down, fediverse users will log in to their Yesmap account to view the entire Fediverse and receive updates concerning what the admins of those other instances intend to do. Yesmap will also serve as a repository for Fediverse users' more "meaningful" contributions, ensuring they are not lost for eternity.

*'''[[FreeSpeechTube]] (from Jun 2023, 120 MAU)'''

::A [[Wikipedia:PeerTube|Peertube]] instance with around 140 monthly active users. PeerTube is a network of servers devoted to the sharing and archiving of '''video content'''. Easy to register. Swedish law.

*'''Cottoncandy.cafe'''

::Akkoma instance that is relatively popular and established. Invite. Swedish law.

*'''Youjo (youjo.love, runs on modified Pleroma/Akkoma)'''

::An invite-only instance that is curated according to the owner's wishes, but pro-federation with respect to other servers. [[Pro-c]] predominates - the site was suspended and run as an unfederated private community for years following a misfortune with false reports and the domain registrar, leading to loss of domain.

::MAPs on other instances have criticized the admin of Youjo for platforming politically incorrect and extremist personalities, including donors - something she openly acknowledges as part of the instance's mode of operation in its previous form.

::As a social, Youjo is generally thought to run smoother than the Mastodon instances, which have suffered from loss of technical features. Other personal, invite-only instances do exist, and some host small cliques of friends. Youjo is one of the most popular examples of such an instance.

===Unknown===

*'''Numerous other servers'''

::Less information about reputation is available, and the servers are now constantly being replaced because registrars routinely suspend their domains. By signing up for servers with stricter rules against erotica, users can gain insight into what other servers might host or federate material which is legal in their jurisdiction.

===Extreme caution===

*'''Pawoo (runs on Mastodon)'''

::Described as *''adjacent'' to the Pediverse, this huge Mastodon instance is home to a large community of deviance fetishists ("Goons") who exchange masturbatory fictional material - most controversially on the topic of [[rape]]. Pawoo users are therefore often seen as stereotyped [[Teleiophilia|Teleiophiles]] or "normie" self-denying MAPs by users of "true" Pediverse instances who derogatorily refer to them as "''Pawooners''" (Pawoo + Gooners). Other pediverse users have attempted to convert Pawooners into self-aware MAPs.

::Has often had its domains suspended. Is often filtered by smaller instances due to the large amount of graphic material it contains. Mentioned here not as a promotion, but due to its fame and notoriety, and potentially for protection of other instances.

*'''[[NNIA]].space, NNIAS.net and NNIA.cc* (run on Mastodon and Soapbox respectively)'''

::Although MAP social networking sites had existed before it,<ref>NNIA's Map-Wiki offshoot [https://archive.is/9vg6I#selection-1099.0-1103.179 claims] there was an almost unknown instance that existed before it:

'''''"Phenomenal.masto.host'''. Launched in 2019 by an ex member of map Tumblr, this was the first known map Mastodon instance. It never gained publicity and was shut down by the admin after a couple of months."'' </ref> NNIA.space (created in May 2020) was the first true Pediverse social in the wider ''Fediverse''. NNIA runs on '''Mastodon''', and [[Anti-contact]] predominates, due to restrictions on contact debate/discourse. Putting aside the restrictions against contact debates, NNIA is home to a lot of identity discourse not seen elsewhere, with identities that could be seen as "more marginalized" and "less assimilated" being embraced. For example, following the earlier celebration of "[[Wikipedia:Zoosadism|Zoosadist]] Pride",<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Zoosadist_by_Lecter.png Zoosadist Pride Flag. Of note is the fact that the wiki has as many flags for Zoosadists as it does Zoosexuals]</ref> in 2023, a flag featuring hard candy<ref>Various flags: [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Aptomap_by_Lecter.png Aptomap], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Apto_by_Vile.png Apto], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necro_MAP_explained_by_Nyan_(Mewzyz_on_Twitter).png Necro MAP], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necropedozoo_by_Pappy.png Necropedozoo]</ref><ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Flags Flags for Over 1000 paraphilias, designed by NNIA members, including the "apto" (grooming) flags featuring hard candy.]</ref> was even created for individuals who are attracted to the idea of "grooming children" (while it is claimed these are genuine attempts at creating new identities, some disagree with this and suspect other motives). Nazi Fetish flags are among their other contributions.<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_fetish_by_Vinnie.png Nazi Fetish], and [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_kink_2_by_Death.png Nazi Kink]</ref> Defederation (i.e. censorship) of other MAPs for political/trivial reasons such as edgy humor makes the instance unsuitable for those accustomed to an unfiltered internet, or prone to political incorrectness.

::In 2025, NNIA announced its broadest-sweeping crackdown on non-conforming expression, with all individuals involved in [[pro-c]] organizing (anywhere) or sharing of child erotica asked to migrate away from NNIA. Numerous servers, including those opposed to the sharing of erotica, were also to be defederated due to pro-c opinions. After facing criticism, it was decided that all federating parts of NNIA would be shut down, possibly with permanent effect, leaving the self-contained NNIA.cc server in operation.

::Users should be '''cautioned''' that prominent administrators and users of NNIA have been implicated in [[Special Article: Anti-c MAP Tumblr, Twitter and Fediverse - Material for Character Analysis|doxing]].

===Defunct===

*'''Nyaw.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Appeared for around a week or two after Cutiepaws disappeared.

*'''Cutiepaws.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Successor to Puppyspace.org, a previous and similar instance. This was a large instance by the time admin decided it was too much work to keep running. A grace period was given to allow account migration.

*'''RQD2.net (runs on Lemmy)'''

::[[Alternative Initialism|Radqueer/Inclusionist]] instance that had some restrictions against uncivil conduct, while being more serious about limiting trolls and malicious actors than other instances. It ran on Lemmy, at the time an untested front-end, and new frontier in fediverse. The creator of this instance had stated they would not carry out discriminatory actions against users regardless of whether they are [[pro-c]] or [[anti-contact]]. Maintaining it became too much of a chore, and it had problems with some unregulated content.

*'''Oddballs.online'''

::A famous instance run by Ezra, and the subject of doxxing and YouTube videos. It was home to anti, neutral and pro-c MAPs among others and contained a high proportion of ironic, fiction and art posting.

::Shut down after prolonged DDoS attack.

*'''Lolison (.network .top, various domains runs on Pleroma)'''

::A large and multi-faceted instance, said to have its own forum and other projects.

*'''Childlove - (runs on Mangane, all domains suspended)'''

::Created as a Soapbox instance by Yesmap server members in October 2023, but independent of Yesmap.net and [[PCMA]], this was an anti-censorship instance that did not disable members for political opinions of any kind, and grew to 1000+ members within 2 weeks of opening. This was after concerns emerged re. doxxing and malicious conduct on other instances, and shortly before Youjo's domain was suspended for unrelated reasons, leading to an influx of refugees. Rules similar to Youjo.love, but open application (no invite required).

::Has faced minor controversy concerning two openly-identified Nazi members - although they were eventually banned for harassment or disappeared/left the instance voluntarily for alternatives including one server notorious for hosting Nazi MAPs. Has sometimes been criticized and ridiculed because of its administrators' "absolutist" view of borderline images featuring minors as a freedom of speech issue. It is held that this instance has no responsibility toward users in jurisdictions other than host country, Luxembourg, which has rather lax laws. Following the suspension of the .space domain by Namesilo, an .su alternative launched in November 2023 but was suspended.

::Another reincarnation appeared briefly in 2024 and 2025. Other instances often defederate childlove's new domains because of its content.

*'''Freak.university (runs on Mastodon, social currently unavailable)'''

::Similar to NNIA (above), with less restrictions on discourse. According to them, their userbase ''"includes paraphiles, the mentally ill, queer folk, transX folk, and people with any other non-normative or heavily stigmatized identity."'' Was relatively easy to join, and was known as the place some NNIA users take advantage of the more relaxed rules.

::There was varied debate in the community relating to this instance's toleration/amplification of malicious conduct. In 2023, following a leadership crisis in the community, FU administration did after some time take definitive action against two leading NNIA personalities for malicious behavior against other MAPs.

::One concern within the community related to the administrator's personal situation, which some believed made her instance vulnerable to law enforcement infiltration. There has, however, been no known fallout from this situation thus far.

::Parts of the site are slowly returning in 2024.

==Real-time chat==

Numerous servers host [[Wikipedia:Matrix (protocol)|Matrix accounts]] and promote lists of rooms with varying degrees of openness to MAPs. '''Yesmap.net''' (funded by us) was one such example, promoting an activist workgroup called [[Help:Joining_PCMA_chat|PCMA]], which links up with various others. Since Yesmap left the Matrix scene, some of the remaining servers are '''midov.pl''', '''needsmo.re''' '''crypted.cafe'''. Some users opt for the standard Matrix.org account, although Matrix.org has sometimes arbitrarily blocked access to legally nonviolating MAP servers.

==See also==

*[[Minor attracted community]]
*[[MAP Starting Guide]]

==External links==

*[https://map-wiki.com/index.php/Map_fediverse MAP Fediverse] - Wiki article. We are not responsible for the content of instances this article refers to and advise reviewers to conduct the necessary research before visiting them.
*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA joining instructions]]
*[https://wowana.me/blog/toward-a-healthier-federation.xht Toward a healthier federation] - Details (e.g.) Nil's anime.website.
*[https://wedistribute.org/2023/08/child-safety-fediverse/ Digesting the “Child Safety on Federated Social Media” Report ]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Censorship]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

Pediverse

2026-09-10T11:18:20Z

Jim Burton: /* Generally considered safe */

__NOTOC__[[File:Pedi tree.png|thumb|Representation of the wider [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]] as a tree (late 2022)]]
The '''Pediverse''', (a portmanteau of "[[Pedophilia|pedophile]]" and "universe", deriving from the widely-used term "'''[[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]]'''") or '''Pedi''' for short, is an ensemble of [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|federated (i.e. interconnected) servers]] or services that are used by [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs and allies]] for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting. It is increasingly used by a wider group of [[Radqueer]]s, but widely blocked by the rest of the Fediverse.

While independently hosted, users on these servers can communicate with users on other servers, although one server owner may freely decide to block other servers, or promote particular servers to their userbase. On different servers (technically instances), pediverse users can create profiles on what are typically [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|open-source social media platforms]] modeled on popular social networks such as [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]]. These profiles are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more ''communication protocols'' that follow an open standard.

As an identity on the pediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities. In some cases, users can show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities, and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

==Pediverse as a concept==

The idea of a distinct pediverse community, and its realization, is a thing of the early 20s.

MAP social media servers had long existed on Mastodon (2019, according to our section on NNIA predecessors) by the time "Pediverse" came into use. It is not known when the exact term first came into use, but excluding misspellings of "fediverse", there are a few important dates per platform:

*21 Dec, 2022 on X<ref>[https://x.com/sikanomaly/status/1605667884562145281 "You know they wanted to call it the pediverse. Sounds better than Groomerville."]</ref> Mentioned with increasing velocity from later in 2023.
*10 Mar, 2023 on NewgonWiki (this article's creation).
*09 Oct, 2023 in a blog post by a server admin.<ref>[https://www.mapblog.xyz/?p=641 Joining & Changing the Pediverse]</ref>
*23 Jun, 2024 on Kiwifarms. Various "callouts" had by then referred to it as "Pediverse".
*18 Sept, 2025 for a massive expose by the YouTuber gone_fishinq.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnHmd9N2CdA (...) The Internet's Epstein Island]</ref>

It is highly likely that "Pediverse"/"Pedi" is a transmutation of "Fediverse" that fell into popular use following ironic use among [[Anti]]s and the publication of this article with said title.

===Safety===

Pediverse has presented a number of unique user-safety challenges. The vast bulk of Pediverse users do not seek illegal material, as there simply is no point using (relatively insecure) clear web applications to exchange this material, even if it were sought-after. However, some servers on the fringe of Pediverse have been known to pursue lax enforcement against violating material, particularly AI and drawn erotica, which to complicate matters, may be legal in some jurisdictions. It has therefore been the source of controversy, what servers are federated, or not federated by some of the better-used servers. This exact challenge, and the alleged "grooming" of users who may or may not be "roleplaying" or "identified" as minors (but often not minors ''de jure'') was the reason given for the closure of [[NNIA]], the largest Pediverse server. To make matters worse, the "closed" nature of most fediverse servers has fostered a false sense of security, with many users disclosing details that have been abused by hostile parties and used in doxing and callouts.

The user-operated/managed nature of Fediverse servers also poses another content-moderation challenge. This is the necessity for server admins and moderators to ''assess'' the content of neighboring servers, some of it posted in violation of server rules, and a portion thereof, legally violating. In effect, content moderators must view; "download" material to a cache, or use "private browsing" for any browsing activity that might risk coming in to contact with violating content, i.e. ''all'' browsing activity. This potential exposure of some users to violating content is (ironically) necessary to protect other users from violating content. Regular users may also come into contact with unmoderated violating content on feeds, without intending to do so, before it is reported and removed.

This "blurred line" between violating and nonviolating content, intentional and nonintentional exposure, minor and fake-minor user, plus the sheer number of servers involved, is the likely reason the FBI have been unable to progress an investigation into Pediverse, according to the popular [[anti]] Youtuber, gone_fishinq, who has published a three-hour video investigating various Pediverse personalities.

==Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance[[Ethos of Newgon#Official Guidance|⁽ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗʰᶦˢˀ⁾]]==

:''Readers are advised to conduct their own research on instance content and the legalities within their home jurisdiction before viewing these servers. We are not responsible for their content and do not share their names or addresses to facilitate sharing of content that may violate any law.''

MAPs have been proactive in setting up federated/decentralized communication platforms, because of well-founded fears centering on [[censorship]] and [[Vigilantism|harassment]], mental health and [[Validity Policing|validity policing]].

Front-ends/user interfaces include Mastodon, and Akkoma/Pleroma, but the information being shared remains the same regardless of what server you are accessing it from, and what software is being used on the server. Pediverse servers uniformly prohibit [[Child Pornography|CP]] sharing and other illegal activity within their own effective jurisdictions, and most build in contingencies for user jurisdictions.

All such servers permit communication with one another. A few exceptions exist, such as NNIA's defederation of Youjo, Yesmap and Childlove, and the Xelebre.com instance, which has blocked almost every Pediverse instance, despite claiming to be anti-censorship and pro-free-speech. Most recently, the closure of Nyaw and NNIA led users to rush to instances like Cottoncandy.cafe.

The better-known federated social (ActivityPub) instances are listed below underneath their advisory ratings. These ratings are to be read as a guide only, and the factors determining how an instance is rated by us, are in constant flux. Please inform us if things change.

===Generally considered safe===

Excluding NNIA, the first pediverse servers that were "built to last" began to come out in 2023, observing content-moderation standards that allowed them to avoid the suspension of domain properties - something that effectively killed an instance due to the way servers federated.

*'''MAPSupport.de (from Mar 2023, 360 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::The instance federated NNIA (below) but defederates Yesmap. It contains general MAP related content and has survived for a long time by imposing strict rules against erotica and fascism. The instance's owner has been investigated by their local police department after a false report, but no fictional pornography could be found on their hard drive. They have been criticized for falsely alleging that other instances are involved in the trading of pornography and malicious behavior - this followed pressure from [[anti]]s who turned the site into an "anti-woke" meme on X.com.

::This instance had grown to be as large as NNIA by active number of user accounts (at the time of NNIA's closure).

*'''Fedi.yesmap.net (from Jan 2024, 40 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::[[Newgon]]-funded instance. Designed to have high levels of tolerance for freedom of speech, while completely excluding erotica, eye-candy/gooning, malicious sharing of personal information, illegal conduct and anti-MAP propaganda/disruption. It is thus intended to act as an "instance of last resort", providing sanctuary for those who have reservations about administrators on other instances, or who were not invited. Generally now used for main accounts of individuals with little interest in erotica looking for a sustainable instance.

::The concept underlying Yesmap's social, is that its domain has the highest levels of security, and its content has the lowest levels of liability. Therefore, when other instances go down, fediverse users will log in to their Yesmap account to view the entire Fediverse and receive updates concerning what the admins of those other instances intend to do. Yesmap will also serve as a repository for Fediverse users' more "meaningful" contributions, ensuring they are not lost for eternity.

*'''[[FreeSpeechTube]] (from Jun 2023, 120 MAU)'''

::A [[Wikipedia:PeerTube|Peertube]] instance with around 140 monthly active users. PeerTube is a network of servers devoted to the sharing and archiving of '''video content'''. Easy to register. Swedish law.

*'''Cottoncandy.cafe'''

::Akkoma instance that is relatively popular and established. Invite. Swedish law.

*'''Youjo (youjo.love, runs on modified Pleroma/Akkoma)'''

::An invite-only instance that is curated according to the owner's wishes, but pro-federation with respect to other servers. [[Pro-c]] predominates - the site was suspended and run as an unfederated private community for years following a misfortune with false reports and the domain registrar, leading to loss of domain.

::MAPs on other instances have criticized the admin of Youjo for platforming politically incorrect and extremist personalities, including donors - something she openly acknowledges as part of the instance's mode of operation in its previous form.

::As a social, Youjo is generally thought to run smoother than the Mastodon instances, which have suffered from loss of technical features. Other personal, invite-only instances do exist, and some host small cliques of friends. Youjo is one of the most popular examples of such an instance.

===Unknown===

*'''Numerous other servers'''

::Less information about reputation is available, and the servers are now constantly being replaced because registrars routinely suspend their domains. By signing up for servers with stricter rules against erotica, users can gain insight into what other servers might host or federate material which is legal in their jurisdiction.

===Extreme caution===

*'''Pawoo (runs on Mastodon)'''

::Described as *''adjacent'' to the Pediverse, this huge Mastodon instance is home to a large community of deviance fetishists ("Goons") who exchange masturbatory fictional material - most controversially on the topic of [[rape]]. Pawoo users are therefore often seen as stereotyped [[Teleiophilia|Teleiophiles]] or "normie" self-denying MAPs by users of "true" Pediverse instances who derogatorily refer to them as "''Pawooners''" (Pawoo + Gooners). Other pediverse users have attempted to convert Pawooners into self-aware MAPs.

::Has often had its domains suspended. Is often filtered by smaller instances due to the large amount of graphic material it contains. Mentioned here not as a promotion, but due to its fame and notoriety, and potentially for protection of other instances.

*'''[[NNIA]].space, NNIAS.net and NNIA.cc* (run on Mastodon and Soapbox respectively)'''

::Although MAP social networking sites had existed before it,<ref>NNIA's Map-Wiki offshoot [https://archive.is/9vg6I#selection-1099.0-1103.179 claims] there was an almost unknown instance that existed before it:

'''''"Phenomenal.masto.host'''. Launched in 2019 by an ex member of map Tumblr, this was the first known map Mastodon instance. It never gained publicity and was shut down by the admin after a couple of months."'' </ref> NNIA.space (created in May 2020) was the first true Pediverse social in the wider ''Fediverse''. NNIA runs on '''Mastodon''', and [[Anti-contact]] predominates, due to restrictions on contact debate/discourse. Putting aside the restrictions against contact debates, NNIA is home to a lot of identity discourse not seen elsewhere, with identities that could be seen as "more marginalized" and "less assimilated" being embraced. For example, following the earlier celebration of "[[Wikipedia:Zoosadism|Zoosadist]] Pride",<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Zoosadist_by_Lecter.png Zoosadist Pride Flag. Of note is the fact that the wiki has as many flags for Zoosadists as it does Zoosexuals]</ref> in 2023, a flag featuring hard candy<ref>Various flags: [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Aptomap_by_Lecter.png Aptomap], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Apto_by_Vile.png Apto], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necro_MAP_explained_by_Nyan_(Mewzyz_on_Twitter).png Necro MAP], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necropedozoo_by_Pappy.png Necropedozoo]</ref><ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Flags Flags for Over 1000 paraphilias, designed by NNIA members, including the "apto" (grooming) flags featuring hard candy.]</ref> was even created for individuals who are attracted to the idea of "grooming children" (while it is claimed these are genuine attempts at creating new identities, some disagree with this and suspect other motives). Nazi Fetish flags are among their other contributions.<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_fetish_by_Vinnie.png Nazi Fetish], and [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_kink_2_by_Death.png Nazi Kink]</ref> Defederation (i.e. censorship) of other MAPs for political/trivial reasons such as edgy humor makes the instance unsuitable for those accustomed to an unfiltered internet, or prone to political incorrectness.

::In 2025, NNIA announced its broadest-sweeping crackdown on non-conforming expression, with all individuals involved in [[pro-c]] organizing (anywhere) or sharing of child erotica asked to migrate away from NNIA. Numerous servers, including those opposed to the sharing of erotica, were also to be defederated due to pro-c opinions. After facing criticism, it was decided that all federating parts of NNIA would be shut down, possibly with permanent effect, leaving the self-contained NNIA.cc server in operation.

::Users should be '''cautioned''' that prominent administrators and users of NNIA have been implicated in [[Special Article: Anti-c MAP Tumblr, Twitter and Fediverse - Material for Character Analysis|doxing]].

===Defunct===

*'''Nyaw.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Appeared for around a week or two after Cutiepaws disappeared.

*'''Cutiepaws.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Successor to Puppyspace.org, a previous and similar instance. This was a large instance by the time admin decided it was too much work to keep running. A grace period was given to allow account migration.

*'''RQD2.net (runs on Lemmy)'''

::[[Alternative Initialism|Radqueer/Inclusionist]] instance that had some restrictions against uncivil conduct, while being more serious about limiting trolls and malicious actors than other instances. It ran on Lemmy, at the time an untested front-end, and new frontier in fediverse. The creator of this instance had stated they would not carry out discriminatory actions against users regardless of whether they are [[pro-c]] or [[anti-contact]]. Maintaining it became too much of a chore, and it had problems with some unregulated content.

*'''Oddballs.online'''

::A famous instance run by Ezra, and the subject of doxxing and YouTube videos. It was home to anti, neutral and pro-c MAPs among others and contained a high proportion of ironic, fiction and art posting.

::Shut down after prolonged DDoS attack.

*'''Lolison (.network .top, various domains runs on Pleroma)'''

::A large and multi-faceted instance, said to have its own forum and other projects.

*'''Childlove - (runs on Mangane, all domains suspended)'''

::Created as a Soapbox instance by Yesmap server members in October 2023, but independent of Yesmap.net and [[PCMA]], this was an anti-censorship instance that did not disable members for political opinions of any kind, and grew to 1000+ members within 2 weeks of opening. This was after concerns emerged re. doxxing and malicious conduct on other instances, and shortly before Youjo's domain was suspended for unrelated reasons, leading to an influx of refugees. Rules similar to Youjo.love, but open application (no invite required).

::Has faced minor controversy concerning two openly-identified Nazi members - although they were eventually banned for harassment or disappeared/left the instance voluntarily for alternatives including one server notorious for hosting Nazi MAPs. Has sometimes been criticized and ridiculed because of its administrators' "absolutist" view of borderline images featuring minors as a freedom of speech issue. It is held that this instance has no responsibility toward users in jurisdictions other than host country, Luxembourg, which has rather lax laws. Following the suspension of the .space domain by Namesilo, an .su alternative launched in November 2023 but was suspended.

::Another reincarnation appeared briefly in 2024 and 2025. Other instances often defederate childlove's new domains because of its content.

*'''Freak.university (runs on Mastodon, social currently unavailable)'''

::Similar to NNIA (above), with less restrictions on discourse. According to them, their userbase ''"includes paraphiles, the mentally ill, queer folk, transX folk, and people with any other non-normative or heavily stigmatized identity."'' Was relatively easy to join, and was known as the place some NNIA users take advantage of the more relaxed rules.

::There was varied debate in the community relating to this instance's toleration/amplification of malicious conduct. In 2023, following a leadership crisis in the community, FU administration did after some time take definitive action against two leading NNIA personalities for malicious behavior against other MAPs.

::One concern within the community related to the administrator's personal situation, which some believed made her instance vulnerable to law enforcement infiltration. There has, however, been no known fallout from this situation thus far.

::Parts of the site are slowly returning in 2024.

==Real-time chat==

Numerous servers host [[Wikipedia:Matrix (protocol)|Matrix accounts]] and promote lists of rooms with varying degrees of openness to MAPs. '''Yesmap.net''' (funded by us) was one such example, promoting an activist workgroup called [[Help:Joining_PCMA_chat|PCMA]], which links up with various others. Since Yesmap left the Matrix scene, some of the remaining servers are '''midov.pl''', '''needsmo.re''' '''crypted.cafe'''. Some users opt for the standard Matrix.org account, although Matrix.org has sometimes arbitrarily blocked access to legally nonviolating MAP servers.

==See also==

*[[Minor attracted community]]
*[[MAP Starting Guide]]

==External links==

*[https://map-wiki.com/index.php/Map_fediverse MAP Fediverse] - Wiki article. We are not responsible for the content of instances this article refers to and advise reviewers to conduct the necessary research before visiting them.
*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA joining instructions]]
*[https://wowana.me/blog/toward-a-healthier-federation.xht Toward a healthier federation] - Details (e.g.) Nil's anime.website.
*[https://wedistribute.org/2023/08/child-safety-fediverse/ Digesting the “Child Safety on Federated Social Media” Report ]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Censorship]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

Pediverse

2026-09-10T11:08:51Z

Jim Burton: /* Unknown */

__NOTOC__[[File:Pedi tree.png|thumb|Representation of the wider [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]] as a tree (late 2022)]]
The '''Pediverse''', (a portmanteau of "[[Pedophilia|pedophile]]" and "universe", deriving from the widely-used term "'''[[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]]'''") or '''Pedi''' for short, is an ensemble of [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|federated (i.e. interconnected) servers]] or services that are used by [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs and allies]] for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting. It is increasingly used by a wider group of [[Radqueer]]s, but widely blocked by the rest of the Fediverse.

While independently hosted, users on these servers can communicate with users on other servers, although one server owner may freely decide to block other servers, or promote particular servers to their userbase. On different servers (technically instances), pediverse users can create profiles on what are typically [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|open-source social media platforms]] modeled on popular social networks such as [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]]. These profiles are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more ''communication protocols'' that follow an open standard.

As an identity on the pediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities. In some cases, users can show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities, and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

==Pediverse as a concept==

The idea of a distinct pediverse community, and its realization, is a thing of the early 20s.

MAP social media servers had long existed on Mastodon (2019, according to our section on NNIA predecessors) by the time "Pediverse" came into use. It is not known when the exact term first came into use, but excluding misspellings of "fediverse", there are a few important dates per platform:

*21 Dec, 2022 on X<ref>[https://x.com/sikanomaly/status/1605667884562145281 "You know they wanted to call it the pediverse. Sounds better than Groomerville."]</ref> Mentioned with increasing velocity from later in 2023.
*10 Mar, 2023 on NewgonWiki (this article's creation).
*09 Oct, 2023 in a blog post by a server admin.<ref>[https://www.mapblog.xyz/?p=641 Joining & Changing the Pediverse]</ref>
*23 Jun, 2024 on Kiwifarms. Various "callouts" had by then referred to it as "Pediverse".
*18 Sept, 2025 for a massive expose by the YouTuber gone_fishinq.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnHmd9N2CdA (...) The Internet's Epstein Island]</ref>

It is highly likely that "Pediverse"/"Pedi" is a transmutation of "Fediverse" that fell into popular use following ironic use among [[Anti]]s and the publication of this article with said title.

===Safety===

Pediverse has presented a number of unique user-safety challenges. The vast bulk of Pediverse users do not seek illegal material, as there simply is no point using (relatively insecure) clear web applications to exchange this material, even if it were sought-after. However, some servers on the fringe of Pediverse have been known to pursue lax enforcement against violating material, particularly AI and drawn erotica, which to complicate matters, may be legal in some jurisdictions. It has therefore been the source of controversy, what servers are federated, or not federated by some of the better-used servers. This exact challenge, and the alleged "grooming" of users who may or may not be "roleplaying" or "identified" as minors (but often not minors ''de jure'') was the reason given for the closure of [[NNIA]], the largest Pediverse server. To make matters worse, the "closed" nature of most fediverse servers has fostered a false sense of security, with many users disclosing details that have been abused by hostile parties and used in doxing and callouts.

The user-operated/managed nature of Fediverse servers also poses another content-moderation challenge. This is the necessity for server admins and moderators to ''assess'' the content of neighboring servers, some of it posted in violation of server rules, and a portion thereof, legally violating. In effect, content moderators must view; "download" material to a cache, or use "private browsing" for any browsing activity that might risk coming in to contact with violating content, i.e. ''all'' browsing activity. This potential exposure of some users to violating content is (ironically) necessary to protect other users from violating content. Regular users may also come into contact with unmoderated violating content on feeds, without intending to do so, before it is reported and removed.

This "blurred line" between violating and nonviolating content, intentional and nonintentional exposure, minor and fake-minor user, plus the sheer number of servers involved, is the likely reason the FBI have been unable to progress an investigation into Pediverse, according to the popular [[anti]] Youtuber, gone_fishinq, who has published a three-hour video investigating various Pediverse personalities.

==Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance[[Ethos of Newgon#Official Guidance|⁽ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗʰᶦˢˀ⁾]]==

:''Readers are advised to conduct their own research on instance content and the legalities within their home jurisdiction before viewing these servers. We are not responsible for their content and do not share their names or addresses to facilitate sharing of content that may violate any law.''

MAPs have been proactive in setting up federated/decentralized communication platforms, because of well-founded fears centering on [[censorship]] and [[Vigilantism|harassment]], mental health and [[Validity Policing|validity policing]].

Front-ends/user interfaces include Mastodon, and Akkoma/Pleroma, but the information being shared remains the same regardless of what server you are accessing it from, and what software is being used on the server. Pediverse servers uniformly prohibit [[Child Pornography|CP]] sharing and other illegal activity within their own effective jurisdictions, and most build in contingencies for user jurisdictions.

All such servers permit communication with one another. A few exceptions exist, such as NNIA's defederation of Youjo, Yesmap and Childlove, and the Xelebre.com instance, which has blocked almost every Pediverse instance, despite claiming to be anti-censorship and pro-free-speech. Most recently, the closure of Nyaw and NNIA led users to rush to instances like Cottoncandy.cafe.

The better-known federated social (ActivityPub) instances are listed below underneath their advisory ratings. These ratings are to be read as a guide only, and the factors determining how an instance is rated by us, are in constant flux. Please inform us if things change.

===Generally considered safe===

Excluding NNIA, the first pediverse servers that were "built to last" began to come out in 2023, observing content-moderation standards that allowed them to avoid the suspension of domain properties - something that effectively killed an instance due to the way servers federated.

*'''MAPSupport.de (from Mar 2023, 350 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::The instance federates NNIA (below) and defederates Yesmap. It contains general MAP related content and has survived for a long time by imposing strict rules against erotica and fascism. The instance's owner has been investigated by their local police department after a false report, but no fictional pornography could be found on their hard drive. They have been criticised for falsely alleging that other instances are involved in the trading of pornography and malicious behaviour - this followed pressure from [[anti]]s who turned the site into an "anti-woke" meme on X.com.

::This instance had grown to be as large as NNIA by active number of user accounts (at the time of NNIA's closure).

*'''Fedi.yesmap.net (from Jan 2024, 45 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::[[Newgon]]-funded instance. Designed to have high levels of tolerance for freedom of speech, while completely excluding erotica, eye-candy/gooning, malicious sharing of personal information, illegal conduct and anti-MAP propaganda/disruption. It is thus intended to act as an "instance of last resort", providing sanctuary for those who have reservations about administrators on other instances, or who were not invited. Generally now used for main accounts of individuals with little interest in erotica looking for a sustainable instance.

::The concept underlying Yesmap's social, is that its domain has the highest levels of security, and its content has the lowest levels of liability. Therefore, when other instances go down, fediverse users will log in to their Yesmap account to view the entire Fediverse and receive updates concerning what the admins of those other instances intend to do. Yesmap will also serve as a repository for Fediverse users' more "meaningful" contributions, ensuring they are not lost for eternity.

*'''[[FreeSpeechTube]] (from Jun 2023, 140 MAU)'''

::A [[Wikipedia:PeerTube|Peertube]] instance with around 140 monthly active users. PeerTube is a network of servers devoted to the sharing and archiving of '''video content'''. Easy to register. Swedish law.

*'''Cottoncandy.cafe'''

::Akkoma instance that is relatively popular and established. Invite. Swedish law.

*'''Youjo (youjo.love, runs on modified Pleroma/Akkoma)'''

::An invite-only instance that is curated according to the owner's wishes, but pro-federation with respect to other servers. [[Pro-c]] predominates - the site was suspended and run as an unfederated private community for years following a misfortune with false reports and the domain registrar, leading to loss of domain.

::MAPs on other instances have criticized the admin of Youjo for platforming politically incorrect and extremist personalities, including donors - something she openly acknowledges as part of the instance's mode of operation in its previous form.

::As a social, Youjo is generally thought to run smoother than the Mastodon instances, which have suffered from loss of technical features. Other personal, invite-only instances do exist, and some host small cliques of friends. Youjo is one of the most popular examples of such an instance.

===Unknown===

*'''Numerous other servers'''

::Less information about reputation is available, and the servers are now constantly being replaced because registrars routinely suspend their domains. By signing up for servers with stricter rules against erotica, users can gain insight into what other servers might host or federate material which is legal in their jurisdiction.

===Extreme caution===

*'''Pawoo (runs on Mastodon)'''

::Described as *''adjacent'' to the Pediverse, this huge Mastodon instance is home to a large community of deviance fetishists ("Goons") who exchange masturbatory fictional material - most controversially on the topic of [[rape]]. Pawoo users are therefore often seen as stereotyped [[Teleiophilia|Teleiophiles]] or "normie" self-denying MAPs by users of "true" Pediverse instances who derogatorily refer to them as "''Pawooners''" (Pawoo + Gooners). Other pediverse users have attempted to convert Pawooners into self-aware MAPs.

::Has often had its domains suspended. Is often filtered by smaller instances due to the large amount of graphic material it contains. Mentioned here not as a promotion, but due to its fame and notoriety, and potentially for protection of other instances.

*'''[[NNIA]].space, NNIAS.net and NNIA.cc* (run on Mastodon and Soapbox respectively)'''

::Although MAP social networking sites had existed before it,<ref>NNIA's Map-Wiki offshoot [https://archive.is/9vg6I#selection-1099.0-1103.179 claims] there was an almost unknown instance that existed before it:

'''''"Phenomenal.masto.host'''. Launched in 2019 by an ex member of map Tumblr, this was the first known map Mastodon instance. It never gained publicity and was shut down by the admin after a couple of months."'' </ref> NNIA.space (created in May 2020) was the first true Pediverse social in the wider ''Fediverse''. NNIA runs on '''Mastodon''', and [[Anti-contact]] predominates, due to restrictions on contact debate/discourse. Putting aside the restrictions against contact debates, NNIA is home to a lot of identity discourse not seen elsewhere, with identities that could be seen as "more marginalized" and "less assimilated" being embraced. For example, following the earlier celebration of "[[Wikipedia:Zoosadism|Zoosadist]] Pride",<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Zoosadist_by_Lecter.png Zoosadist Pride Flag. Of note is the fact that the wiki has as many flags for Zoosadists as it does Zoosexuals]</ref> in 2023, a flag featuring hard candy<ref>Various flags: [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Aptomap_by_Lecter.png Aptomap], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Apto_by_Vile.png Apto], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necro_MAP_explained_by_Nyan_(Mewzyz_on_Twitter).png Necro MAP], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necropedozoo_by_Pappy.png Necropedozoo]</ref><ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Flags Flags for Over 1000 paraphilias, designed by NNIA members, including the "apto" (grooming) flags featuring hard candy.]</ref> was even created for individuals who are attracted to the idea of "grooming children" (while it is claimed these are genuine attempts at creating new identities, some disagree with this and suspect other motives). Nazi Fetish flags are among their other contributions.<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_fetish_by_Vinnie.png Nazi Fetish], and [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_kink_2_by_Death.png Nazi Kink]</ref> Defederation (i.e. censorship) of other MAPs for political/trivial reasons such as edgy humor makes the instance unsuitable for those accustomed to an unfiltered internet, or prone to political incorrectness.

::In 2025, NNIA announced its broadest-sweeping crackdown on non-conforming expression, with all individuals involved in [[pro-c]] organizing (anywhere) or sharing of child erotica asked to migrate away from NNIA. Numerous servers, including those opposed to the sharing of erotica, were also to be defederated due to pro-c opinions. After facing criticism, it was decided that all federating parts of NNIA would be shut down, possibly with permanent effect, leaving the self-contained NNIA.cc server in operation.

::Users should be '''cautioned''' that prominent administrators and users of NNIA have been implicated in [[Special Article: Anti-c MAP Tumblr, Twitter and Fediverse - Material for Character Analysis|doxing]].

===Defunct===

*'''Nyaw.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Appeared for around a week or two after Cutiepaws disappeared.

*'''Cutiepaws.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Successor to Puppyspace.org, a previous and similar instance. This was a large instance by the time admin decided it was too much work to keep running. A grace period was given to allow account migration.

*'''RQD2.net (runs on Lemmy)'''

::[[Alternative Initialism|Radqueer/Inclusionist]] instance that had some restrictions against uncivil conduct, while being more serious about limiting trolls and malicious actors than other instances. It ran on Lemmy, at the time an untested front-end, and new frontier in fediverse. The creator of this instance had stated they would not carry out discriminatory actions against users regardless of whether they are [[pro-c]] or [[anti-contact]]. Maintaining it became too much of a chore, and it had problems with some unregulated content.

*'''Oddballs.online'''

::A famous instance run by Ezra, and the subject of doxxing and YouTube videos. It was home to anti, neutral and pro-c MAPs among others and contained a high proportion of ironic, fiction and art posting.

::Shut down after prolonged DDoS attack.

*'''Lolison (.network .top, various domains runs on Pleroma)'''

::A large and multi-faceted instance, said to have its own forum and other projects.

*'''Childlove - (runs on Mangane, all domains suspended)'''

::Created as a Soapbox instance by Yesmap server members in October 2023, but independent of Yesmap.net and [[PCMA]], this was an anti-censorship instance that did not disable members for political opinions of any kind, and grew to 1000+ members within 2 weeks of opening. This was after concerns emerged re. doxxing and malicious conduct on other instances, and shortly before Youjo's domain was suspended for unrelated reasons, leading to an influx of refugees. Rules similar to Youjo.love, but open application (no invite required).

::Has faced minor controversy concerning two openly-identified Nazi members - although they were eventually banned for harassment or disappeared/left the instance voluntarily for alternatives including one server notorious for hosting Nazi MAPs. Has sometimes been criticized and ridiculed because of its administrators' "absolutist" view of borderline images featuring minors as a freedom of speech issue. It is held that this instance has no responsibility toward users in jurisdictions other than host country, Luxembourg, which has rather lax laws. Following the suspension of the .space domain by Namesilo, an .su alternative launched in November 2023 but was suspended.

::Another reincarnation appeared briefly in 2024 and 2025. Other instances often defederate childlove's new domains because of its content.

*'''Freak.university (runs on Mastodon, social currently unavailable)'''

::Similar to NNIA (above), with less restrictions on discourse. According to them, their userbase ''"includes paraphiles, the mentally ill, queer folk, transX folk, and people with any other non-normative or heavily stigmatized identity."'' Was relatively easy to join, and was known as the place some NNIA users take advantage of the more relaxed rules.

::There was varied debate in the community relating to this instance's toleration/amplification of malicious conduct. In 2023, following a leadership crisis in the community, FU administration did after some time take definitive action against two leading NNIA personalities for malicious behavior against other MAPs.

::One concern within the community related to the administrator's personal situation, which some believed made her instance vulnerable to law enforcement infiltration. There has, however, been no known fallout from this situation thus far.

::Parts of the site are slowly returning in 2024.

==Real-time chat==

Numerous servers host [[Wikipedia:Matrix (protocol)|Matrix accounts]] and promote lists of rooms with varying degrees of openness to MAPs. '''Yesmap.net''' (funded by us) was one such example, promoting an activist workgroup called [[Help:Joining_PCMA_chat|PCMA]], which links up with various others. Since Yesmap left the Matrix scene, some of the remaining servers are '''midov.pl''', '''needsmo.re''' '''crypted.cafe'''. Some users opt for the standard Matrix.org account, although Matrix.org has sometimes arbitrarily blocked access to legally nonviolating MAP servers.

==See also==

*[[Minor attracted community]]
*[[MAP Starting Guide]]

==External links==

*[https://map-wiki.com/index.php/Map_fediverse MAP Fediverse] - Wiki article. We are not responsible for the content of instances this article refers to and advise reviewers to conduct the necessary research before visiting them.
*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA joining instructions]]
*[https://wowana.me/blog/toward-a-healthier-federation.xht Toward a healthier federation] - Details (e.g.) Nil's anime.website.
*[https://wedistribute.org/2023/08/child-safety-fediverse/ Digesting the “Child Safety on Federated Social Media” Report ]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Censorship]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

Pediverse

2026-09-10T11:08:24Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__[[File:Pedi tree.png|thumb|Representation of the wider [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]] as a tree (late 2022)]]
The '''Pediverse''', (a portmanteau of "[[Pedophilia|pedophile]]" and "universe", deriving from the widely-used term "'''[[Wikipedia:Fediverse|Fediverse]]'''") or '''Pedi''' for short, is an ensemble of [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|federated (i.e. interconnected) servers]] or services that are used by [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs and allies]] for web publishing (i.e. social networking, microblogging, blogging, or websites) and file hosting. It is increasingly used by a wider group of [[Radqueer]]s, but widely blocked by the rest of the Fediverse.

While independently hosted, users on these servers can communicate with users on other servers, although one server owner may freely decide to block other servers, or promote particular servers to their userbase. On different servers (technically instances), pediverse users can create profiles on what are typically [[Wikipedia:Fediverse|open-source social media platforms]] modeled on popular social networks such as [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]]. These profiles are able to communicate over the boundaries of the instances because the software running on the servers supports one or more ''communication protocols'' that follow an open standard.

As an identity on the pediverse, users are able to post text and other media, or to follow posts by other identities. In some cases, users can show or share data (video, audio, text, and other files) publicly or to a selected group of identities, and allow other identities to edit other users' data (such as a calendar or an address book).

==Pediverse as a concept==

The idea of a distinct pediverse community, and its realization, is a thing of the early 20s.

MAP social media servers had long existed on Mastodon (2019, according to our section on NNIA predecessors) by the time "Pediverse" came into use. It is not known when the exact term first came into use, but excluding misspellings of "fediverse", there are a few important dates per platform:

*21 Dec, 2022 on X<ref>[https://x.com/sikanomaly/status/1605667884562145281 "You know they wanted to call it the pediverse. Sounds better than Groomerville."]</ref> Mentioned with increasing velocity from later in 2023.
*10 Mar, 2023 on NewgonWiki (this article's creation).
*09 Oct, 2023 in a blog post by a server admin.<ref>[https://www.mapblog.xyz/?p=641 Joining & Changing the Pediverse]</ref>
*23 Jun, 2024 on Kiwifarms. Various "callouts" had by then referred to it as "Pediverse".
*18 Sept, 2025 for a massive expose by the YouTuber gone_fishinq.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnHmd9N2CdA (...) The Internet's Epstein Island]</ref>

It is highly likely that "Pediverse"/"Pedi" is a transmutation of "Fediverse" that fell into popular use following ironic use among [[Anti]]s and the publication of this article with said title.

===Safety===

Pediverse has presented a number of unique user-safety challenges. The vast bulk of Pediverse users do not seek illegal material, as there simply is no point using (relatively insecure) clear web applications to exchange this material, even if it were sought-after. However, some servers on the fringe of Pediverse have been known to pursue lax enforcement against violating material, particularly AI and drawn erotica, which to complicate matters, may be legal in some jurisdictions. It has therefore been the source of controversy, what servers are federated, or not federated by some of the better-used servers. This exact challenge, and the alleged "grooming" of users who may or may not be "roleplaying" or "identified" as minors (but often not minors ''de jure'') was the reason given for the closure of [[NNIA]], the largest Pediverse server. To make matters worse, the "closed" nature of most fediverse servers has fostered a false sense of security, with many users disclosing details that have been abused by hostile parties and used in doxing and callouts.

The user-operated/managed nature of Fediverse servers also poses another content-moderation challenge. This is the necessity for server admins and moderators to ''assess'' the content of neighboring servers, some of it posted in violation of server rules, and a portion thereof, legally violating. In effect, content moderators must view; "download" material to a cache, or use "private browsing" for any browsing activity that might risk coming in to contact with violating content, i.e. ''all'' browsing activity. This potential exposure of some users to violating content is (ironically) necessary to protect other users from violating content. Regular users may also come into contact with unmoderated violating content on feeds, without intending to do so, before it is reported and removed.

This "blurred line" between violating and nonviolating content, intentional and nonintentional exposure, minor and fake-minor user, plus the sheer number of servers involved, is the likely reason the FBI have been unable to progress an investigation into Pediverse, according to the popular [[anti]] Youtuber, gone_fishinq, who has published a three-hour video investigating various Pediverse personalities.

==Pediverse socials and our Official Guidance[[Ethos of Newgon#Official Guidance|⁽ᵂʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ ᵗʰᶦˢˀ⁾]]==

:''Readers are advised to conduct their own research on instance content and the legalities within their home jurisdiction before viewing these servers. We are not responsible for their content and do not share their names or addresses to facilitate sharing of content that may violate any law.''

MAPs have been proactive in setting up federated/decentralized communication platforms, because of well-founded fears centering on [[censorship]] and [[Vigilantism|harassment]], mental health and [[Validity Policing|validity policing]].

Front-ends/user interfaces include Mastodon, and Akkoma/Pleroma, but the information being shared remains the same regardless of what server you are accessing it from, and what software is being used on the server. Pediverse servers uniformly prohibit [[Child Pornography|CP]] sharing and other illegal activity within their own effective jurisdictions, and most build in contingencies for user jurisdictions.

All such servers permit communication with one another. A few exceptions exist, such as NNIA's defederation of Youjo, Yesmap and Childlove, and the Xelebre.com instance, which has blocked almost every Pediverse instance, despite claiming to be anti-censorship and pro-free-speech. Most recently, the closure of Nyaw and NNIA led users to rush to instances like Cottoncandy.cafe.

The better-known federated social (ActivityPub) instances are listed below underneath their advisory ratings. These ratings are to be read as a guide only, and the factors determining how an instance is rated by us, are in constant flux. Please inform us if things change.

===Generally considered safe===

Excluding NNIA, the first pediverse servers that were "built to last" began to come out in 2023, observing content-moderation standards that allowed them to avoid the suspension of domain properties - something that effectively killed an instance due to the way servers federated.

*'''MAPSupport.de (from Mar 2023, 350 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::The instance federates NNIA (below) and defederates Yesmap. It contains general MAP related content and has survived for a long time by imposing strict rules against erotica and fascism. The instance's owner has been investigated by their local police department after a false report, but no fictional pornography could be found on their hard drive. They have been criticised for falsely alleging that other instances are involved in the trading of pornography and malicious behaviour - this followed pressure from [[anti]]s who turned the site into an "anti-woke" meme on X.com.

::This instance had grown to be as large as NNIA by active number of user accounts (at the time of NNIA's closure).

*'''Fedi.yesmap.net (from Jan 2024, 45 MAU, runs on Mastodon)'''

::[[Newgon]]-funded instance. Designed to have high levels of tolerance for freedom of speech, while completely excluding erotica, eye-candy/gooning, malicious sharing of personal information, illegal conduct and anti-MAP propaganda/disruption. It is thus intended to act as an "instance of last resort", providing sanctuary for those who have reservations about administrators on other instances, or who were not invited. Generally now used for main accounts of individuals with little interest in erotica looking for a sustainable instance.

::The concept underlying Yesmap's social, is that its domain has the highest levels of security, and its content has the lowest levels of liability. Therefore, when other instances go down, fediverse users will log in to their Yesmap account to view the entire Fediverse and receive updates concerning what the admins of those other instances intend to do. Yesmap will also serve as a repository for Fediverse users' more "meaningful" contributions, ensuring they are not lost for eternity.

*'''[[FreeSpeechTube]] (from Jun 2023, 140 MAU)'''

::A [[Wikipedia:PeerTube|Peertube]] instance with around 140 monthly active users. PeerTube is a network of servers devoted to the sharing and archiving of '''video content'''. Easy to register. Swedish law.

*'''Cottoncandy.cafe'''

::Akkoma instance that is relatively popular and established. Invite. Swedish law.

===Unknown===

*'''Youjo (youjo.love, runs on modified Pleroma/Akkoma)'''

::An invite-only instance that is curated according to the owner's wishes, but pro-federation with respect to other servers. [[Pro-c]] predominates - the site was suspended and run as an unfederated private community for years following a misfortune with false reports and the domain registrar, leading to loss of domain.

::MAPs on other instances have criticized the admin of Youjo for platforming politically incorrect and extremist personalities, including donors - something she openly acknowledges as part of the instance's mode of operation in its previous form.

::As a social, Youjo is generally thought to run smoother than the Mastodon instances, which have suffered from loss of technical features. Other personal, invite-only instances do exist, and some host small cliques of friends. Youjo is one of the most popular examples of such an instance.

*'''Numerous other servers'''

::Less information about reputation is available, and the servers are now constantly being replaced because registrars routinely suspend their domains. By signing up for servers with stricter rules against erotica, users can gain insight into what other servers might host or federate material which is legal in their jurisdiction.

===Extreme caution===

*'''Pawoo (runs on Mastodon)'''

::Described as *''adjacent'' to the Pediverse, this huge Mastodon instance is home to a large community of deviance fetishists ("Goons") who exchange masturbatory fictional material - most controversially on the topic of [[rape]]. Pawoo users are therefore often seen as stereotyped [[Teleiophilia|Teleiophiles]] or "normie" self-denying MAPs by users of "true" Pediverse instances who derogatorily refer to them as "''Pawooners''" (Pawoo + Gooners). Other pediverse users have attempted to convert Pawooners into self-aware MAPs.

::Has often had its domains suspended. Is often filtered by smaller instances due to the large amount of graphic material it contains. Mentioned here not as a promotion, but due to its fame and notoriety, and potentially for protection of other instances.

*'''[[NNIA]].space, NNIAS.net and NNIA.cc* (run on Mastodon and Soapbox respectively)'''

::Although MAP social networking sites had existed before it,<ref>NNIA's Map-Wiki offshoot [https://archive.is/9vg6I#selection-1099.0-1103.179 claims] there was an almost unknown instance that existed before it:

'''''"Phenomenal.masto.host'''. Launched in 2019 by an ex member of map Tumblr, this was the first known map Mastodon instance. It never gained publicity and was shut down by the admin after a couple of months."'' </ref> NNIA.space (created in May 2020) was the first true Pediverse social in the wider ''Fediverse''. NNIA runs on '''Mastodon''', and [[Anti-contact]] predominates, due to restrictions on contact debate/discourse. Putting aside the restrictions against contact debates, NNIA is home to a lot of identity discourse not seen elsewhere, with identities that could be seen as "more marginalized" and "less assimilated" being embraced. For example, following the earlier celebration of "[[Wikipedia:Zoosadism|Zoosadist]] Pride",<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Zoosadist_by_Lecter.png Zoosadist Pride Flag. Of note is the fact that the wiki has as many flags for Zoosadists as it does Zoosexuals]</ref> in 2023, a flag featuring hard candy<ref>Various flags: [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Aptomap_by_Lecter.png Aptomap], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Apto_by_Vile.png Apto], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necro_MAP_explained_by_Nyan_(Mewzyz_on_Twitter).png Necro MAP], [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Necropedozoo_by_Pappy.png Necropedozoo]</ref><ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/Category:Flags Flags for Over 1000 paraphilias, designed by NNIA members, including the "apto" (grooming) flags featuring hard candy.]</ref> was even created for individuals who are attracted to the idea of "grooming children" (while it is claimed these are genuine attempts at creating new identities, some disagree with this and suspect other motives). Nazi Fetish flags are among their other contributions.<ref>[https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_fetish_by_Vinnie.png Nazi Fetish], and [https://paraflags-wiki.org/index.php/File:Nazi_kink_2_by_Death.png Nazi Kink]</ref> Defederation (i.e. censorship) of other MAPs for political/trivial reasons such as edgy humor makes the instance unsuitable for those accustomed to an unfiltered internet, or prone to political incorrectness.

::In 2025, NNIA announced its broadest-sweeping crackdown on non-conforming expression, with all individuals involved in [[pro-c]] organizing (anywhere) or sharing of child erotica asked to migrate away from NNIA. Numerous servers, including those opposed to the sharing of erotica, were also to be defederated due to pro-c opinions. After facing criticism, it was decided that all federating parts of NNIA would be shut down, possibly with permanent effect, leaving the self-contained NNIA.cc server in operation.

::Users should be '''cautioned''' that prominent administrators and users of NNIA have been implicated in [[Special Article: Anti-c MAP Tumblr, Twitter and Fediverse - Material for Character Analysis|doxing]].

===Defunct===

*'''Nyaw.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Appeared for around a week or two after Cutiepaws disappeared.

*'''Cutiepaws.org (runs on Sharkey)'''

::Successor to Puppyspace.org, a previous and similar instance. This was a large instance by the time admin decided it was too much work to keep running. A grace period was given to allow account migration.

*'''RQD2.net (runs on Lemmy)'''

::[[Alternative Initialism|Radqueer/Inclusionist]] instance that had some restrictions against uncivil conduct, while being more serious about limiting trolls and malicious actors than other instances. It ran on Lemmy, at the time an untested front-end, and new frontier in fediverse. The creator of this instance had stated they would not carry out discriminatory actions against users regardless of whether they are [[pro-c]] or [[anti-contact]]. Maintaining it became too much of a chore, and it had problems with some unregulated content.

*'''Oddballs.online'''

::A famous instance run by Ezra, and the subject of doxxing and YouTube videos. It was home to anti, neutral and pro-c MAPs among others and contained a high proportion of ironic, fiction and art posting.

::Shut down after prolonged DDoS attack.

*'''Lolison (.network .top, various domains runs on Pleroma)'''

::A large and multi-faceted instance, said to have its own forum and other projects.

*'''Childlove - (runs on Mangane, all domains suspended)'''

::Created as a Soapbox instance by Yesmap server members in October 2023, but independent of Yesmap.net and [[PCMA]], this was an anti-censorship instance that did not disable members for political opinions of any kind, and grew to 1000+ members within 2 weeks of opening. This was after concerns emerged re. doxxing and malicious conduct on other instances, and shortly before Youjo's domain was suspended for unrelated reasons, leading to an influx of refugees. Rules similar to Youjo.love, but open application (no invite required).

::Has faced minor controversy concerning two openly-identified Nazi members - although they were eventually banned for harassment or disappeared/left the instance voluntarily for alternatives including one server notorious for hosting Nazi MAPs. Has sometimes been criticized and ridiculed because of its administrators' "absolutist" view of borderline images featuring minors as a freedom of speech issue. It is held that this instance has no responsibility toward users in jurisdictions other than host country, Luxembourg, which has rather lax laws. Following the suspension of the .space domain by Namesilo, an .su alternative launched in November 2023 but was suspended.

::Another reincarnation appeared briefly in 2024 and 2025. Other instances often defederate childlove's new domains because of its content.

*'''Freak.university (runs on Mastodon, social currently unavailable)'''

::Similar to NNIA (above), with less restrictions on discourse. According to them, their userbase ''"includes paraphiles, the mentally ill, queer folk, transX folk, and people with any other non-normative or heavily stigmatized identity."'' Was relatively easy to join, and was known as the place some NNIA users take advantage of the more relaxed rules.

::There was varied debate in the community relating to this instance's toleration/amplification of malicious conduct. In 2023, following a leadership crisis in the community, FU administration did after some time take definitive action against two leading NNIA personalities for malicious behavior against other MAPs.

::One concern within the community related to the administrator's personal situation, which some believed made her instance vulnerable to law enforcement infiltration. There has, however, been no known fallout from this situation thus far.

::Parts of the site are slowly returning in 2024.

==Real-time chat==

Numerous servers host [[Wikipedia:Matrix (protocol)|Matrix accounts]] and promote lists of rooms with varying degrees of openness to MAPs. '''Yesmap.net''' (funded by us) was one such example, promoting an activist workgroup called [[Help:Joining_PCMA_chat|PCMA]], which links up with various others. Since Yesmap left the Matrix scene, some of the remaining servers are '''midov.pl''', '''needsmo.re''' '''crypted.cafe'''. Some users opt for the standard Matrix.org account, although Matrix.org has sometimes arbitrarily blocked access to legally nonviolating MAP servers.

==See also==

*[[Minor attracted community]]
*[[MAP Starting Guide]]

==External links==

*[https://map-wiki.com/index.php/Map_fediverse MAP Fediverse] - Wiki article. We are not responsible for the content of instances this article refers to and advise reviewers to conduct the necessary research before visiting them.
*[[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA joining instructions]]
*[https://wowana.me/blog/toward-a-healthier-federation.xht Toward a healthier federation] - Details (e.g.) Nil's anime.website.
*[https://wedistribute.org/2023/08/child-safety-fediverse/ Digesting the “Child Safety on Federated Social Media” Report ]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Censorship]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

Preventionism

2026-09-10T10:28:18Z

Jim Burton: /* Liberal media are generally approving of primary prevention */

__NOTOC__
[[File:Klausbeier.png|thumb|Klaus Beier - Sexologist, ''Project Dunkelfeld''<ref>[https://undark.org/2021/06/07/radical-and-controversial-treatment-for-pedophilia/ In-depth look at Beier and his project]</ref>]]
CSA '''Preventionism''', sometimes referred to as (CSA) '''primary prevention''' with respect to [[Minor Attracted Person|MAPs]], is a philosophy within medicine, the mental health industry and public institutions, in which targeted interventions are made to pre-empt and prevent [[Child Sexual Abuse]].<ref>[https://tnf13stories.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/a-primary-prevention-advocates-rant-2/ TNF: Rant on primary Prevention]</ref>

Germany, with an already low [[Age of consent]] of 14, and large, state funded prevention projects, is seen as the "petri dish" for primary prevention of offending among pedohebephilic men. The most famous example of German preventionism is ''[[Wikipedia:Prevention Project Dunkelfeld|Prevention Project Dunkelfeld]]''.

==Controversy==

Primary prevention of CSA remains a controversial idea as it involves a dialogue with the [[Minor attracted community|MAP Community]], and efforts to reduce social [[Research: The Dangers of Stigma|stigma]]s, such as the supposition that all MAPs will inevitably "sexually assault children" and habitually deceive professionals as to their true intentions. Within Germany, there are also strong confidentiality protections against reporting of men, even those who are offending. The purgation of a highly detailed English [[Wikipedia_censorship_of_MAP_related_topics#Pedo_Wars_II_(2023_MAP_article_controversy)|Wikipedia]] article on the topic in 2023 is a good example of this controversy.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Primary_prevention_of_child_sexual_abuse&oldid=1153613334 Primary Prevention of CSA (old version)], [https://archive.is/qjnfy Primary Prevention of CSA (archive)] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Primary_prevention_of_child_sexual_abuse&oldid=1154985384 redirect]</ref>

The idea, when applied to pedophiles and hebephiles, is also controversial within the [[Minor attracted community|MAP Community]]. This is because preventionist philosophy appears to presuppose that attraction is the principal driver of behaviors. At the same time, we know that [[Research: Prevalence#Non-offending pedophiles|only a minority of child sexual offenders express preferential attractions to minors]], and this number [[Research: Offender characteristics|falls even further]] when one considers pedophilia alone. Preventionist philosophy has also been criticized as a totalizing blueprint for medical observation and control, fuelling undue suspicion. For example, Queer Theorists such as [[Richard Yuill]] and David Elliot<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1080/19361653.2012.627726 Yuill, R., & Elliot, D. (2012). Researching and Theorizing the “Age Taboo” on Intergenerational Sexualities. Journal of LGBT Youth, 9(1), 67–71.]</ref> have made such criticisms in response to [[Sarah Goode]].

Nevertheless, destigmatization of attraction to minors is one central tenet of preventionist philosophy, since MAPs have to be willing to come forward in making contact with a care provider. Preventionists will sometimes point out that their focus on self-aware MAPs owes to the willingness of such people to make contact with a therapist when compared for example, to a person who is inclined towards or at risk of [[Wikipedia:Situational offender|situational offending]].

===Liberal media are generally approving of primary prevention===

Mainstream and liberal media has shown a marked trend since around the 2010s to acknowledge pedophilia as a disorder or orientation and not a crime, under the proviso that pedophiles are "given help not to offend".<ref>[https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/child-sex-abuse-pedophile-treatment-1.7381743 CBC on MAPs and Prevention]</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-41213657 BBC on young, non offending MAPs]</ref><ref>[https://www.bbc.com/bbcthree/article/3216b48d-3195-4f67-8149-54586689ae3c Anon on their own pedophilic feelings]</ref><ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/can-paedophiles-be-good-people-we-flinch-but-there-are-varying-degrees-9616930.html Can paedophiles be good people? We flinch, but there are varying degrees]</ref><ref>[https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/news/why-language-matters/paedophile-problematic-caution NSPCC: Use "Paedophilia" with caution]</ref><ref>[https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3zk55/pedophilia-is-a-mental-health-issue-its-still-not-treated-as-one Pedophilia Is a Mental Health Issue. It's Still Not Treated as One (Vice)]</ref><ref>[https://doctor.ndtv.com/living-healthy/pedophilia-a-disorder-not-a-crime-1800175 Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not A Crime (NDTV)]</ref><ref>[https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-science-reveals-about-pedophilia What Science Reveals About Pedophilia (Daily Beast)]</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/06/opinion/pedophilia-a-disorder-not-a-crime.html Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime (NYT)]</ref><ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/i-pedophile/278921/ I, Pedophile]</ref><ref>[https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/what-can-be-done-about-pedophilia/279024/ What Can Be Done About...]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220614234847/https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fcomment%2F10948796%2FPaedophilia-is-natural-and-normal-for-males.html Telegraph article on the infamous Cambridge Conference]</ref><ref>[https://www.salon.com/2013/05/15/our_approach_to_pedophilia_isn%C2%B4t_working/ Our approach to pedophilia isn't working - Salon]</ref><ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20170108204925/http://www.salon.com/2015/09/21/im_a_pedophile_but_not_a_monster/ I’m a pedophile, but not a monster - [[Todd Nickerson]] in Salon], see also [https://web.archive.org/web/20160608101732/https://www.salon.com/2016/05/17/im_not_a_monster_a_pedophile_on_attraction_love_and_a_life_of_loneliness/ this interview in Salon]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20161115005205/https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/424373/salons-much-maligned-pedophilia-piece-charles-c-w-cooke National Review defends Salon's Nickerson piece]</ref><ref>[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3244065/I-m-pedophile-not-monster-Man-writes-confronting-essay-asking-Americans-understand-different-pedophiles-child-molesters.html Mail Online sympathetic piece from Right-Wing tabloid]</ref><ref>[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4095294/I-m-normal-guy-just-fancy-six-year-old-girls-Virtuous-paedophile-aroused-girls-aged-13-doesn-t-act-impulses-reveals-British-wife-stood-him.html I'm a normal guy. I just fancy six-year-olds] - another bizarre DM piece</ref><ref>[https://www.vice.com/en/article/8qgzpx/a-child-rape-victim-on-why-society-should-be-more-empathetic-to-pedophiles Vice - A Child Rape Victim on Why Society Should Be More Empathetic to Pedophiles]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20220615001055/https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Flife-style%2Fhealth-and-families%2Fpaedophilia-causes-not-a-choice-fate-claims-leading-scientist-a7629786.html Independent: Paedophilia is 'fate, not a choice', leading scientist (Klaus Beier) claims]</ref>

While the support (in principle) remains, publicity has deteriorated somewhat since the first term of Donald Trump as US President, as demonstrated by the lesser number of stories citing [[Virtuous Pedophiles]].

==Primary prevention targeting children: American schools==
[[File:Extremeantic.png|thumb|Extreme [[anti-contact]] point of view from a German Preventionist MAP on [[pediverse]] in 2023]]
Minors have often been targeted with primary prevention programs, particularly within the American context in the 1980s and 90s. However, more recently, these efforts have been modernized and integrated into broader child safety efforts, sex and relationships curricula. As early as 1992, German scholars were already highly critical of the American "child targeting" approach to prevention in schools, and did not recommend it for use in their own country.<ref>[[Media:Franke et al.pdf|How Preventive Are Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Programs? A Critique of School-Based Prevention Models in the United States. Journal of Sex Research (Germany) Vol. 5, Issue 1 (41-55) (March 1992)]]</ref>

==A problem with preventionism ==
What researchers say about primary prevention approaches.

*'''Schmidt, A. F., & Niehaus, S. (2022). [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-022-02377-6 Outpatient Therapists’ Perspectives on Working with Persons Who Are Sexually Interested in Minors Archives of Sexual Behavior], DOI: 10.1007/s10508-022-02377-6'''
*:“This exemplifies the–at least partly–diverging therapeutic foci between therapists and patients as therapists seem to prioritize sexual behavior regulation issues and sexual offense prevention, whereas MAPs experience problems with psychological well-being and stigmatization issues as more crucial (B4U-ACT, 2011; Levenson & Grady, 2019a). This divergence in therapeutic foci is likely among the reasons reason why MAPs are reluctant to seek professional help or report dissatisfaction with it (Levenson & Grady, 2019a).”

::“In summary, our results further corroborate that MAPs’ reported fears of being stigmatized by (mental) health professionals are not unfounded (B4U-ACT, 2011; Levenson & Grady, 2019a).” [...] “In order to increase the chances of this underserved clientele finding access to professional help to deal with their considerable burden of psychological distress (Lawrence & Willis, 2021), particularly outpatient therapists who yet refuse to work with MAPs as well as future therapists in training should be made aware of [https://www.b4uact.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Psychotherapy-for-MAPs-2020.pdf the principles outlined in B4U-ACT (2020)], Jahnke (2018a), and Levenson et al. (2020) who recommend guidelines to decrease stigmatization of MAPs and increase professional certainty and competences in therapeutically working with them.

*'''Stephens, S., McPhail, I. V., Heasman, A., & Moss, S. (2021). [https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-25590-001 Mandatory reporting and clinician decision-making when a client discloses sexual interest in children.] ''Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement'', 53(3), 263–273.'''
::"Many individuals with sexual interest in children express a desire for mental health services but represent an underserved client population. An identified barrier to service provision is mandatory reporting legislation. [...] [S]tigma towards people with sexual interest in children was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting. Clinicians were more likely to indicate that they would report the hypothetical client was viewing child sexual exploitation material and/or had access to children."

==Groups who advocate for primary prevention==

*[[Prostasia Foundation]]
*[[Virtuous Pedophiles]]
*'''Troubled Desire''' - I.e. outreach arm of the German ''[[Wikipedia:Prevention Project Dunkelfeld|Prevention Project Dunkelfeld]]''.

==See also==

*[[NOMAP]]
*[[Anti-contact]]
*[[Allyn Walker]] - Arguably the most famous preventionist.
*[[Sarah Goode]] - Early preventionist.
*[[Klaus Beier]] - German preventionist.

==External links==

===Sourced primers from a preventionist perspective===

*[https://archive.is/qjnfy CSA primary prevention] - The censored Wikipedia article in full
*[https://prostasia.org/blog/primary-prevention-basics/ Primary Prevention] - Dry as bones primer from a known MAP Author

===Opinion===

*[https://time.com/6253908/america-child-sex-abuse-prevention/ Time Magazine on American CSA Prevention]

===Organizations and websites===

*[https://end-the-stigma.com/ End The Stigma]
*[https://thepword.net/ The P Word]
*[https://www.helpwantedprevention.org/ Help Wanted] - Preventionist initiative of Johns Hopkins
*[https://asapinternational.org ASAP International] - Founded by a [[Minor Attracted Person]]
*[https://troubled-desire.com/en/ Troubled Desire]
*[https://suh-ev.de/ Schicksal und Herausforderung], and [https://wir-sind-auch-menschen.de/ Wir sind pädophile Menschen] - German
*[https://theglobalpreventionproject.org/ Global Prevention Project] - Candice Christiansen is a sex-addiction therapist who serves on the United Nations Human Trafficking Task Force
*[https://www.csaprimaryprevention.org/ CSA Primary Prevention]
*[https://shadowsproject.net/en Shadows Project]

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: Academic]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]]
[[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research: Victimology and other Pseudoscience]]
[[Category:Mental Health Industry]][[Category:History & Events: German]][[Category:History & Events: 2000s]]

Michael Seto

2026-09-10T02:25:40Z

Jim Burton:

{{Template:Ac}}'''[[wikipedia: Michael_C._Seto| Michael Chikong Seto]]''' is a Canadian clinical and forensic psychologist and sexologist, best known for empirical work on [[pedophilia]], [[hebephilia]]/[[chronophilia]]s, [[Child Sexual Abuse|sexual offending against children]], online child sexual exploitation material offending, risk assessment, and prevention. He is associated with the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group and the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research; his Google Scholar profile lists more than 25,000 citations, which makes him one of the most influential contemporary researchers in this area.<ref>[https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=359wSlQAAAAJ&hl=en Michael Seto's Google scholar profile]</ref>

Despite his focus on [[preventionism]], Seto's wider influence on the perception of pedophilia is arguably rather humanistic. He consistently develops an understanding of pedophilia as a sexual orientation, one that is as stable and unchangeable as other orientations. This has important clinical implications, including the recognition that conversion therapy is ineffective and harmful. His research is also aimed at distinguishing different levels of risk for offending and identifying different risk factors, thereby destigmatizing the attraction itself. His findings suggest that online offenses, illegal pornographic material, and contact offenses are categories associated with different levels of risk. Moreover, he studies not only the sexual component, but also the component of romantic love in the experiences of people attracted to children and adolescents.

Seto's work on chronophilias and [[paraphilia]] is generally uncritical towards the taxonomic approach and novel attempts at labeling.

== Selected works ==
*Seto, M. C. (2012). “[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22218786/ Is Pedophilia a Sexual Orientation?]” ''Archives of Sexual Behavior.''
*Seto, M. C. (2009). “[https://disno.ch/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/81-Seto-Pedophilia.pdf Pedophilia].” ''Annual Review of Clinical Psychology''.
*Seto, M. C. (2019). [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1079063217720919 The Motivation-Facilitation Model of Sexual Offending]. ''Sexual Abuse.''
*Seto, M. C., Hanson, R. K., & Babchishin, K. M. (2011). [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21173158/ Contact sexual offending by men with online sexual offenses]. ''Sexual Abuse.''
*Seto, M. C., Wood, J. M., Babchishin, K. M., & Flynn, S. (2012). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230591027_Online_Solicitation_Offenders_Are_Different_From_Child_Pornography_Offenders_and_Lower_Risk_Contact_Sexual_Offenders Online solicitation offenders are different from child pornography offenders and lower risk contact sexual offenders.] ''Law and Human Behavior.''
*Martijn, F. M., Babchishin, K. M., Pullman, L. E., & Seto, M. C. (2020). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/339418816_Sexual_Attraction_and_Falling_in_Love_in_Persons_with_Pedohebephilia Sexual attraction and falling in love in persons with pedohebephilia.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior.''
*Seto, M. C. (2017). [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27549306/ The puzzle of male chronophilias.] ''Archives of Sexual Behavior.''
*Levitan, J. and Seto, M. C. (2025) "[https://doi.org/10.3138/cjhs-2025-0012 Understanding romantic attraction to children through exploration of its patterns, components, and correlates]" ''The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality''

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research on "Child Molesters"]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Canadian]][[Category:People: Academics]]

Greek Love Through The Ages

2026-09-08T13:17:32Z

Jim Burton:

[[File:AC2012.jpg|thumb|2012 paperback edition of ''Alexander's Choice'']]
'''Greek Love Through The Ages''' ('''greek-love.com''') is a website that collects and republishes multiple historical accounts of [[pederasty|pederastic]] relationships throughout the world ("greek" refers to a "model" of pederasty far from always observed). Literature is presented via a collapsible index, in a geographically, and to some extent, temporally organized manner. It can be described as an expanded ethnological and historical anthology, or collection of literature, with imagery added to reflect as close as possible, boys or [[boylove|boy-love]] from the time and place depicted.

Published by the pseudonymous author, Edmund Marlowe, an [[Wikipedia:Eton College|Old Etonian]] and a married man,<ref>[https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/old-etonian-s-steamy-novel-is-too-hot-for-alumni-association-to-handle-8796127.html ''Standard'' article on ''Alexander's Choice'']</ref> the site gives precedence to historical accounts from writers such as [[Parker Rossman]] and [[Edward Brongersma]], while also recommending summary efforts by more recent writers such as [[Bruce Rind]]. The site also has sections on fiction, drama, poetry and humor related to pederasty.

==Alexander's Choice==

The author himself<ref>[https://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B00AR9OODI?_encoding=UTF8&node=266239&offset=0&pageSize=12&searchAlias=stripbooks&sort=author-sidecar-rank&page=1&langFilter=default#formatSelectorHeader Amazon for Edmund Marlowe]</ref> published (among many others) the 2012 novel, ''Alexander's Choice'',<ref>[https://greek-love.com/index.php/alexanders-choice-pederasty/about Alexander's Choice on Greek Love Throughout The Ages - with media acclaim]</ref> about a teenage boy's homosexual love affairs at Eton. The book was met with critical acclaim in the mainstream press.

Upon the book's publishing, it soon became obvious that its author was familiar with operations at the famous school (and by extension, its many secrets). As a result, even establishment media such as the ''Daily Mail'' were left with no choice but to praise it:

<blockquote>''Eton's homoerotic whodunnit! ''[...]'' The 422-page potboiler is being hailed as the Etonian version of Fifty Shades Of Grey. Instead of heterosexual bondage, Marlowe’s oeuvre concentrates on the homoerotic friendship between a pupil and a new housemaster. ''[...]'' "It’s quite clear from descriptions of the school and nicknames for things that whoever wrote it was with us at school," he says. "And there is a great guessing game going on trying identify who the people in the book might be in real life."''<ref>[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2297288/Pippa-Middleton-dropped-book-agent-Duchess-Cambridges-sister-parts-ways-literary-guru.html Daily Mail review of ''Alexander's Choice'']</ref></blockquote>

In a bizarre juxtaposition, the book was criticized by a ''QX Magazine'' (Establishment Gay Press) reviewer, in what appeared to be a broad-daylight attempt at [[Rainbow Revisionism]]. This led to a backlash in the sites' comment section.<ref>[https://www.qxmagazine.com/2013/07/alexanders-choice/ QX Magazine review of ''Alexander's Choice''], [https://web.archive.org/web/20240520131446/https://www.qxmagazine.com/2021/07/alexanders-choice-by-edmund-marlowe-review/ archived with responses]</ref>

==External links==

*[https://greek-love.com/ Site index] - Photographic content may vary in legality according to jurisdiction and interpretation of statutes.
*[https://www.boywiki.org/en/Alexander%27s_Choice_(book) Alexander's Choice] - BoyWiki, on the book, the author and his various works (linked via the expanding box template at the bottom of the article).

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]]
[[Category:Gay]][[Category:Prostitution]][[Category:Art]]
[[Category:Research]][[Category:Research on Minor Attraction]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]]
[[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: Academic]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]]
[[Category:History & Events: British]]

Michael Bailey

2026-09-08T11:11:22Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__ {{Template:Ac}} '''[[Wikipedia:J. Michael Bailey|J. Michael Bailey]]''' is an American psychologist and professor of psychology at Northwestern University, widely known for his research on human sexuality; joining said university in 1989. Much of his career has been devoted to scientifically difficult and socially controversial questions about the origins and expression of sexual orientation, sex differences in patterns of sexual arousal, and the biological and psychological bases of sexuality.<ref>[https://psychology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core/profiles/michael-bailey.html Northwestern University faculty profile]</ref><ref>[https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/JMichael-Bailey/research.html Bailey’s research page]</ref> His work has often faced ideological headwinds, hindering scientific progress in sex research. He detailed this in his 2023 chapter in ''"[[Ideological and Political Bias in Psychology]]"''.

== In relation to MAPs ==

Bailey's views on pedophilia are nuanced and have evolved over time. In 2011, he reviewed ''"[[Thomas_O'Carroll#Michael_Jackson’s_Dangerous_Liaisons|Michael Jackson's Dangerous Liaisons]]"'', noting that while the idea of harmless or beneficial pedophilic relationships is disturbing, there is a lack of scientific evidence supporting his visceral reactions. He acknowledged the author's arguments against his intuitions and found them compelling.<ref>[https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/JMichael-Bailey/articles/MJOCarrollReview.pdf Bailey, J. M. Bailey (2011). Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Liaisons. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40(6), 1329–1332. doi:10.1007/s10508-011-9842-1 ]</ref>

In his 2016 study, Bailey conducted an Internet survey of 1,102 men sexually attracted to children, examining their history of offenses related to child pornography and sexual contact. He found that most had no offenses, and that permissive attitudes or frequent fantasies weren't related to offenses.<ref>[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27732028/ Bailey, J. (2016). "An Internet study of men sexually attracted to children: Correlates of sexual offending against children," Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Oct 2016.]</ref>

Bailey has also contributed to the discussion on the nature of sexual orientation, considering pedophilia a sexual orientation, in his 2009 work <ref>Bailey, J. Michael (2009). "What is Sexual Orientation and Do Women Have One?," in Hope, Debra A. (ed.) Contemporary Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities, p. 50.
</ref>. Furthermore, in a 2009 blog post, Bailey compared hebephilia and pedophilia to normal sexual orientations, suggesting that individuals with these attractions can experience feelings of love and attachment towards children, similar to how heterosexuals bond with adults.<ref>[http://www.scientificblogging.com/j_michael_bailey/was_michael_jackson_pedophile Bailey, J. Michael (2009). "Was Michael Jackson A Pedophile?," scientificblogging.com, July 1.]</ref>

He has supported the destigmatization of pedophilia, as seen in his endorsement of [[Allyn Walker]], a scholar who advocated for this cause and was supported by Bailey and other professionals in the field. His work and views reflect a scientific approach to understanding and discussing pedophilia, emphasizing the importance of evidence over ideological bias.

== References ==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Anti-Pedophile culture]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]
[[Category:History & Events: American]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

Michael Bailey

2026-09-08T11:10:16Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__ {{Template:Ac}} '''[[Wikipedia:J. Michael Bailey|J. Michael Bailey]]''' is an American psychologist and professor of psychology at Northwestern University, widely known for his research on human sexuality; joining said university in 1989. Much of his career has been devoted to scientifically difficult and socially controversial questions about the origins and expression of sexual orientation, sex differences in patterns of sexual arousal, and the biological and psychological bases of sexuality.<ref>[https://psychology.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core/profiles/michael-bailey.html Northwestern University faculty profile]</ref><ref>[https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/JMichael-Bailey/research.html Bailey’s research page]</ref> His work has often faced ideological headwinds, hindering scientific progress in sex research. He detailed this in his 2023 chapter in ''"[[Ideological and Political Bias in Psychology]]"''.

== In relation to MAPs ==

Bailey's views on pedophilia are nuanced and have evolved over time. In 2011, he reviewed "[[Thomas_O'Carroll#Michael_Jackson’s_Dangerous_Liaisons|Michael Jackson's Dangerous Liaisons]]," noting that while the idea of harmless or beneficial pedophilic relationships is disturbing, there is a lack of scientific evidence supporting his visceral reactions. He acknowledged the author's arguments against his intuitions and found them compelling.<ref>[https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/JMichael-Bailey/articles/MJOCarrollReview.pdf Bailey, J. M. Bailey (2011). Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Liaisons. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40(6), 1329–1332. doi:10.1007/s10508-011-9842-1 ]</ref>

In his 2016 study, Bailey conducted an Internet survey of 1,102 men sexually attracted to children, examining their history of offenses related to child pornography and sexual contact. He found that most had no offenses, and that permissive attitudes or frequent fantasies weren't related to offenses.<ref>[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27732028/ Bailey, J. (2016). "An Internet study of men sexually attracted to children: Correlates of sexual offending against children," Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Oct 2016.]</ref>

Bailey has also contributed to the discussion on the nature of sexual orientation, considering pedophilia a sexual orientation, in his 2009 work <ref>Bailey, J. Michael (2009). "What is Sexual Orientation and Do Women Have One?," in Hope, Debra A. (ed.) Contemporary Perspectives on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identities, p. 50.
</ref>. Furthermore, in a 2009 blog post, Bailey compared hebephilia and pedophilia to normal sexual orientations, suggesting that individuals with these attractions can experience feelings of love and attachment towards children, similar to how heterosexuals bond with adults.<ref>[http://www.scientificblogging.com/j_michael_bailey/was_michael_jackson_pedophile Bailey, J. Michael (2009). "Was Michael Jackson A Pedophile?," scientificblogging.com, July 1.]</ref>

He has supported the destigmatization of pedophilia, as seen in his endorsement of [[Allyn Walker]], a scholar who advocated for this cause and was supported by Bailey and other professionals in the field. His work and views reflect a scientific approach to understanding and discussing pedophilia, emphasizing the importance of evidence over ideological bias.

== References ==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Anti-Pedophile culture]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Research]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]]
[[Category:History & Events: American]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]]

Template:Ac

2026-09-08T11:06:26Z

Jim Burton:

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[[Research|NewgonWiki Research Project]] 
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{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
! Academics (present)  
|-
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[[Steven Angelides|Angelides]], [[Helmut Graupner|Graupner]], [[Philip Tromovitch|Tromovitch]], [[Allyn Walker|Walker]] 
[[Charles Moser|Moser]], [[Karl Andersson|Andersson]], [[Judith Butler|Butler]], [[Jacob Breslow|Breslow]], [[Gayle Rubin|Rubin]] 
[[Stephen Kershnar|Kershnar]], [[Peter Singer|Singer]], [[Bruce Rind|Rind]], [[Diederik Janssen|Janssen]], [[Mark Smith|Smith]] 
[[Thomas Hubbard|Hubbard]], [[Hoko Horii|Horii]], [[Gilbert Herdt|Herdt]], [[Lee Edelman|Edelman]], [[Elizabeth Loftus|Loftus]] 
[[Rachel Hope Cleves|Cleves]], [[Nicholas Syrett|Syrett]], [[Leonardo Arce Vidal|Arce Vidal]], [[Bill Thompson|Thompson]] 
[[Slavoj Žižek|Žižek]], [[Theo Sandfort|Sandfort]], [[Kieran McCartan|McCartan]], [[Edmund White|White]] 
[[Simon Goldhill|Goldhill]], [[Juliette Rennes|Rennes]], [[Kerry Robinson|Robinson]], [[Kathryn Bond Stockton|Stockton]] 
[[Pierre Verdrager|Verdrager]], [[Michael Seto|Seto]], [[Michael Bailey|Bailey]] 
<hr>
[[Valerie Sinason|Sinason]], [[Gene Abel|Abel]], [[Alvin Malesky|Malesky]], [[David Finkelhor|Finkelhor]] 
|}

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
! Academics (inactive)  
|-
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[[Terry Leahy|Leahy]], [[Gary Dowsett|Dowsett]], [[Pat Sikes|Sikes]], [[Patrick Califia|Califia]], [[Frans Gieles|Gieles]] 
[[Richard Yuill|Yuill]], [[James Kincaid|Kincaid]], [[Camille Paglia|Paglia]], [[Thore Langfeldt|Langfeldt]] 
[[LeRoy G. Schultz|Schultz]], [[Walter L. Williams|Williams]], [[Rudiger Lautmann|Lautmann]] 
[[Marjan Sax|Sax]], [[Warren Farrell|Farrell]], [[Joel Best|Best]], [[Philip Jenkins|Jenkins]] 
[[Chin-Keung Li|C. K. Li]], [[Paul Okami|Okami]], [[Allie C. Kilpatrick|Kilpatrick]], [[Martin Dannecker|Dannecker]] 
[[Dean Durber|Durber]], [[Gunter Schmidt|Schmidt]], [[Stevi Jackson|Jackson]], [[Carolyn Cocca|Cocca]]
 
<hr>
[[Mary de Young|De Young]], [[Stephanie Dallam|Dallam]] 
|}

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
! Academics (historical)  
|-
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[[Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg|Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg]] 
[[Michel Foucault|Foucault]], [[Alfred Kinsey|Kinsey]], [[Hubert Kennedy|Kennedy]], [[William Percy|Percy]] 
[[David Sonenschein|Sonenschein]], [[Beatrice Faust|Faust]], [[Stephen Wayne Foster|Foster]], [[Donald Mader|Mader]] 
[[Gert Hekma|Hekma]], [[Floyd Martinson|Martinson]], [[Vern Bullough|Bullough]], [[Frits Bernard|Bernard]] 
[[Warren Johansson|Johansson]], [[Guy Hocquenghem|Hocquenghem]], [[John P. De Cecco|De Cecco]] 
[[René Schérer|Schérer]], [[Helmut Kentler|Kentler]], [[Volkmar Sigusch|Sigusch]], [[Michael C. Baurmann|Baurmann]] 
[[Sir Richard Burton|Burton]], [[Leonard Davis|Davis]], [[Katharina Rutschky|Rutschky]], [[Preben Hertoft|Hertoft]], [[Eberhard Schorsch|Schorsch]] 
[[Edward Brongersma|Brongersma]], [[Will H. L. Ogrinc|Ogrinc]], [[Ken Plummer|Plummer]], [[Jeffrey Weeks|Weeks]] 
[[John Money|Money]], [[Tony Duvert|Duvert]], [[Michael Ingram|Ingram]], [[Richard Green|Green]], [[Harris Mirkin|Mirkin]] 
[[William Simon|Simon]], [[John Gagnon|Gagnon]], [[Donald West|West]], [[Tom Reeves|Reeves]], [[Charles Shively|Shively]] 
[[David T. Evans|Evans]], [[John Holt|Holt]], [[Clarence Tripp|Tripp]], [[Paul D. Hardman|Hardman]], [[Wilhelm Reich|Reich]] 
[[Herman Musaph|Musaph]], [[Thomas Szasz|Szasz]], [[Lars Ullerstam|Ullerstam]], [[Joan Nestle|Nestle]] 
<hr>
[[Judianne Densen-Gerber|Densen-Gerber]], [[Judith Reisman|Reisman]], [[Charles Whitfield|Whitfield]], [[Paul Fink|Fink]] 
|}

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
! Related topics  
|-
|
[[Queer Theory]], [[Feminism]], [[Consent]] 
[[Minor-adult sex]], [[Child Sexual Abuse|CSA]], [[Paraphilia]] 
[[Sexceptionalism]], [[Sexualization]] 
[[Heteronormativity]], [[Transgender youth and attraction to minors|Trans youth]] 
[[Hebephilia]], [[Pedophilia]], [[Teleiophilia]] 
[[Censorship]], [[Chris Brand]], [[Moral panic]] 
[[Preventionism]], [[Minor Attracted Person]] 
[[Masturbation]], [[Inner child]], [[Child Sexual Behaviour Inventory|CSBI]] 
[[IICSA]], [[Child Pornography|CSAM]], [[Covert incest]] 
[[Pedophilia themed OCD|POCD]], [[Teen Dating Violence]] 
[[Repressed memory]], [[Anal wink]] 
[[Kent State Study]], [[Rind et al]], [[CSA Accommodation Syndrome|CSAAS]] 
[[COPINE Scale]], [[Cognitive distortion (pseudoscience)|Cognitive distortion]] 
[[Adolescence]], [[Abel screening]] 
[[Actuarial testing]], [[Penile Plethysmography|Plethysmography]] 
[[Erwin Schrodinger]], [[Carleton Gajdusek]] 
[[David Riegel]], [[Jordan Peterson]] 
[[Wikipedia censorship of MAP related topics|Wikipedia]], [[Sexual rites of passage|Rites of passage]] 
[[Medicalism]], [[Evolving capacity]] 
[[Nocebogenic harm]], [[Moral Recruitment]] 
[[Intrinsic harm]] 
|}

{| class="collapsible collapsed" style="background: inherit; width:100%;"
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[[Journal of Homosexuality|JoH]], [[Archives of Sexual Behavior|ASB]], [[Paidika]], [[Journal of Controversial Ideas|JCI]], [[Fund for Scientific Research of Sexuality|FSRS]] 
[[B4U-ACT]], [[Percy Foundation|PF]], [[Ipce]], [[AASECT]] 
<hr>
[[NARTH]], [[The Leadership Council|TLC]] 
[[Office of Justice Programs|OJP]], [[NSPCC]], [[American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children|ASPAC]] 
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MAPocalypse

2026-09-07T20:27:00Z

Jim Burton: /* 2026 */

__NOTOC__{{Template:Adj}}The '''"MAPocalypse"''' or in layman's terms, the '''normalization of pedophilia''' refers to a predicted series of events bringing about [[Wikipedia:Critical mass (sociodynamics)|critical mass]] for the acceptance of [[Minor Attracted Person|Minor Attracted People]] as a "valid" identity. It aligns as roughly the fourth stage of a repeating [[moral panic]] over young peoples' sexuality in western society.

Various prophecies of "pedophile" normalisation have been made since roughly the 1990s - usually starting off among "moral majority" conservatives, sometimes infecting liberal-progressive and professional circles in the form of paranoia concerning supposed MAP > LGBT entryism, "pedophilia advocacy" in the [[Rind et al|sciences]], and other strategies. These prophecies follow the pattern of long-standing fears centering on the "recruitment" of youths within the early Gay Movement.

The most commonly suggested time for this event is the 2020s, 2030s and following decades, in which MAPs are projected to become more visible in the mainstream media/public conscience, becoming a contentious topic in and of their own right. In some countries, parliamentarians occasionally support the right of minors to [[consent]] to sex, and to refuse it.<ref name="montero">[https://www.outono.net/elentir/2022/09/22/a-spanish-minister-says-children-can-have-sexual-relations-with-whoever-they-want/ Irene Montero, Spanish politician makes pro-consent type comments]</ref> Brazil and Peru are two South American countries in which there has been a largely unbroken general trend towards reducing the [[Age of Consent]].

==Predictions past and present==

As the LGBT movement gained ground in the post-AIDS [[assimilationism|assimilationist]] struggles of the 80s and 90s, the right's focus moved away from recruitment of youth among the gay movement, to the threat of "pedophilia" - a "new evil" or "folk devil". This later infected the mainstream, as memories of [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|LGBT activism's history with MAPs]] faded. Predictions of a new dawn for the "normalization of pedophilia" among American Conservatives increased markedly in velocity from the mid-late 10s, as [[Virtuous Pedophiles]] gained exposure in the liberal media and pedophile conspiracy theories ushered in the culture wars of the Trump Era:

*'''1970s-90s:''' Various predictions from [[moral entrepreneur]]s such as [[Judith Reisman]] concerning the aims of the [[Alfred Kinsey|Kinsey]] Institute. "As early as 1977, author Judith A. Reisman says she learned of the existence of an "international academic pedophile movement" influenced by Kinsey's teachings."<ref name="come">[http://www.come-and-hear.com/editor/ca-wt-04-19-02/ Endorsement of adult-child sex on rise]</ref>
*"In '''1994''', as gay freedom was becoming a mainstream cause, the head of the right-leaning Rutherford Institute claimed that "the logical implication of American acceptance of homosexuality is the acceptance of pedophilia as simply another form of 'sexual orientation.'""<ref name="reason">[https://reason.com/2023/01/14/a-modern-history-of-groomer-politics/ Reason: A Modern History of 'Groomer' Politics]</ref>
*'''1995:''' ""I started saying seven years ago [in 1995] that there was a movement to make pedophilia an alternative lifestyle, and my colleagues looked at me like I was crazy," said Mrs. Reeves, who founded MASA after discovering that a relative had been sexually abused. "Here we are seven years later and that is exactly what's happening.""<ref name="come" />
*'''2002:''' "A trend toward normalizing pedophilia is the latest manifestation of a dangerous understanding of human sexuality that has become more prevalent over the last 30 years. That assertion was voiced by a leading analyst of cultural trends, Carson Holloway, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska, was reported by CNSNews.com July 11 from a Family Research Council symposium the previous day titled, “From Playboy to Pedophilia: How Adult Sexual Liberation Leads to Children’s Sexual Exploitation.”"<ref>[https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/pedophilia-to-be-next-result-of-sexual-permissiveness-prof-says/ Pedophilia to be next result of sexual permissiveness, prof says]</ref>
*'''2002:''' "Some people view children as the next sexual frontier" ([[Stephanie Dallam]], quoted in Washington Times<ref>[https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2002/apr/19/20020419-042059-4124r/ Washington Times quotes Stephanie Dallam RN]</ref>)
*'''2002:''' "Those making the case aren't just fringe groups, such as the North American Man-Boy Love Association, but a handful of academics at mainstream universities [...] several contend that minors are capable of agreeing to and even initiating sex with adults. These academics seek to change the language, moving away from "pedophilia," which often evokes a charged negative response.... In its place would be more neutral terms such as "intergenerational sex" or "adult-child sex.""<ref>[http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/joint_custody_studies.html Mark O'Keefe, Newhouse News Service, wrote in an article published March 26, 2002].</ref>
*"In '''2004''', with gay marriage a central issue in the year's elections, the head of Liberty Counsel wrote that "Once the same-sex marriage barrier is broken, a wide range of sexual [[paraphilia]] rights are sure to follow, including, but not limited to, pedophilia.""<ref name="reason" />
*'''2011:''' "Normalizing the "last taboo" Pedophilia - sex between adults and children - is the goal of a conference in Baltimore" (Beliefnet<ref>[https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/news/2011/08/academic-conference-seeks-to-normalize-pedophilia Beliefnet on B4U-ACT conference]</ref>)
*'''2011:''' "If another group of activists has their way, a behavior currently considered by American society to be both vile and criminal will one day join the ranks of homosexuality and trans-sexuality as just another accepted aspect of normal human sexual expression. The behavior in question: pedophilia"<ref>[https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/first-person-pedophilia-on-the-horizon/ FIRST-PERSON: Pedophilia on the horizon]</ref>
*'''2014:''' "Using the same tactics used by “gay” rights activists, pedophiles have begun to seek similar status arguing their desire for children is a sexual orientation no different than heterosexual or homosexuals."<ref>[https://www.eurochicago.com/2012/04/pedophiles-want-same-rights-as-homosexuals/ Jack Minor's piece] - originally published for ''Northern Colorado Gazette''</ref>
*'''2014:''' "Once considered taboo, psychologists are beginning to walk down the same path LGBT activists established more than 50 years ago, insisting that pedophilia is an inborn "sexual orientation," not a learned sexual behavior."<ref>[https://www.wnd.com/2014/01/pedophilia-the-next-sexual-rights-revolution/ WND: Pedophilia the next 'sexual-rights' revolution?]</ref>
*'''2015/6''': "What’s going to happen with that is that ultimately things like bestiality is going to be approved and especially pedophilia,” [...] “Because like I said, how the progressives are attacking these issues in multiple ways. I really predict that in the next few years even pedophilia is going to be more and more accepted because two things are happening. One, we are saying any sexual urge is valid. So pedophilia, why is that any different than any other form of love? Love is love, right?" (Jenna Ellis - Conservative Policy figurehead<ref>[https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/15/politics/jenna-ellis-kfile/ Jenna Ellis]</ref>)
*'''2019:''' "Pedophilia: The Next Frontier for Leftist Acceptance Ideology" (American ''Spectator''<ref>[https://spectator.org/pedophilia-the-next-frontier-for-leftist-acceptance-ideology/ American Spectator: Next frontier for leftist ideology]</ref>)
*'''2020:''' "Q-Anon and other Trump-aligned movements serve as a perfect foil to begin turning universal moral opposition to abusing kids into another controlled culture war conflict the right is bound to lose." (National Justice - anti-Jewish publisher<ref>[https://national-justice.com/opinion-and-analysis/authoritarians-and-jews-push-normalize-pedophilia Authoritarians and Jews: The Push to Normalize Pedophilia]</ref>)
*'''2023:''' "Everyone knows that pedophilia is the next deviant behavior the Left will seek to normalize. Everyone knows it’s coming. It’s the next progression from birth control to the sexual revolution to normalization of homosexuality to gay marriage to transgenderism. It’s pedophilia and then it’s bestiality after that."<ref>[https://thehayride.com/2023/04/what-marjorie-taylor-greene-did-to-the-democrats-yesterday-was-amazing/ The Hayride: What Marjorie Taylor Greene Did To The Democrats Yesterday Was Amazing]</ref>

==Realization of the panic from the late 10s==

In most years since 2021, multiple social and mainstream media-driven controversies have taken place in relation to the "normalization" of "pedophilia", or the fork towards ''Minor Attracted People''.

Early precedents such as the 1998-2001 [[Rind et al|Rind Report]] controversy, and 2015 [[Todd Nickerson|Salon articles]] had been seen prior to the 20s. More recent events detailed in [[grooming]] (including the massacre of 5 people) are also left out of our list, which focuses on examples where "normalization" of MAPs or "pedophilia" was the predominant concern. These gathered pace following the 2018 and 2019 [[MAP Flag]] controversies, and exploded in 2022, when "Minor Attracted Person" began to trend well ahead of the predominant 20th Century equivalent key-phrases such as [[NAMBLA]] on most social media:

===2019===

*In 2019, conservative christian news outlets ran the story of a LGBTQI California school curriculum that taught about [[Pederasty]] to 9th graders. The reaction was largely overblown, but set the tone for further controversies that were to take place, in that it invoked the normalization of "pedophilia" in an educational setting.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/california-pedophilia-school/ Snopes: Pederasty in the classroom?]</ref>
*This year was notable for the first "[[grooming|groomer libel]]" attacks against drag queen story hours. This trend was to continue in the 20s, but we exclude it from the following notes.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/07/protest-seeks-to-stop-us-libraries-supporting-drag-queen-story-hour The guardian: Groomer Libel]</ref>

===2020===

*Throughout the first half of 2020, social media was lit up with controversy surrounding the film ''[[The Trouble with Being Born]]'', which depicts a man's relationship with a prepubescent android girl who resembles his missing daughter. Similar controversy had been seen the year before, concerning a "love has no age" Snapchat filter.<ref>[https://bigleaguepolitics.com/snapchat-releases-love-has-no-age-photo-filter-for-pride-month/ Love Has No Age filter]</ref> Later in 2020, #CancelNetflix began to trend, in response to the movie ''[[Wikipedia:Cuties|Cuties]]'', now considered a timeless masterpiece of pedophilia normalization "rated fresh" with 87% on [[Wikipedia:Rotten Tomatoes|Rotten Tomatoes]], but slated on [[Wikipedia:IMDb|IMDb]].<ref>[http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/39816/ The Cuties Controversy: Prefiguration, ‘Sexualisation’, and the New Conspiracism]</ref>
*Later that year, [[Theo Sandfort]] is distanced by a New York Child Welfare agency after his (already well-publicized and freely available) research on "Pedophilia" (sic) is aired in the media.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/07/nyregion/nyc-foster-care-professor-pedophilia.html NY Times - Sandfort] [https://imprintnews.org/foster-care/new-york-foster-care-columbia-pedophilia-research/50287 Imprint News - Sandfort]</ref>

===2021===

*In April of this year, the [[ILGA]] was involved in a controversy over what was presented as renewed support for lowering [[Age of consent]] laws. Gript noted that it "signed a “Feminist Declaration” calling for the elimination of laws which limit the right of children as young as 10 to consent to sex".<ref>[https://gript.ie/allow-children-as-young-as-10-to-consent-to-sex-lgbt-ngo/ Allow children as young as 10 to consent to sex – LGBT NGO]</ref>
*In July 2021, '''[[San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus]]''' were involved in a gay-recruitment/[[grooming]] type controversy. Normalization of pedophilia was frequently invoked by their mainly conservative opponents. A further [[Monkey Mayhem Incident|controversy in the UK]] concerned a council's recruitment of a man in a rainbow monkey [[Child safety mascot|fursuit]] with an erect prosthetic phallus, in an attempt to educate children at a public library.
*In August of this year, Belgian poet [[Wikipedia:Delphine Lecompte|Delphine Lecompte]] made headlines when she made comments many said normalized pedophilia. According to a letter she wrote to a magazine, pedophiles were a "vulnerable, marginalized group that has been treated for years like sickly scum by the crowd of decent moralists." She also referred to the fact that "most pedophiles never commit pedophilic acts and that every human being is sometimes attracted to innocence and youth", fearing that a witch hunt against pedophiles could lead to more "pedophile excesses and child pornography, which we all want to avoid." She added "It seems wiser to me to learn to know and accept the pedophile. And to accept that pedophilia resides in each of us".<ref>See for the controversy, [https://www.standaard.be/binnenland/de-tien-nieuwsfeiten-van-de-dag/52924271.html De Standard] and [https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/societe/2021/08/12/elle-nuance-normalise-et-meme-excuse-la-pedophilie-la-poetesse-delphine-lecompte-au-centre-dune-vive-polemique-apres-des-declarations-sur-la-pedophilie-VUYIJWMCANGF3OFEAKQFQLA634/ La Libre].</ref>
*In late August 2021, '''Noah Berlatsky''' roused the ire of conservatives (Andy Ngo chiefly among them) and some liberals on social media, following his appointment as communications director at [[Prostasia Foundation]].<ref>[https://thepostmillennial.com/nbc-contributor-prostasia-normalizing-pedophilia Post Millennial]</ref>
*In November, 2021, '''[[Allyn Walker]]''' faced widespread social media and mainstream media outrage after participating in an interview with Prostasia, advocating for humane treatment for people with an attraction to minors, and using the term "[[Minor Attracted Person]]" to that effect.

===2022===

*In January 2022, the media outlet '''USA Today''' was the subject of their own social media controversy, following an article many conservatives felt attempted to "justify pedophilia".<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/media/usa-today-blasted-promoting-complicated-pedophilia-study FOX News: USA Today controversy], [https://fstube.net/w/cGeaX588heoYou6zAC3j68 see video]</ref>
*In February, 2022, '''[[Stephen Kershnar]]''' attracted wide opprobrium on social media after appearing to defend [[minor-adult sex]] as not being inherently wrong outside a moral framework. Regressive-conservative [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]] influencer, ''[[LibsofTikTok]]'' was particularly important in amplifying this story, although it appears that her target was himself a libertarian.
*In April of 2022, '''[[David Finkelhor]]''' was involved in a similar LibsofTikTok-enabled social media controversy over comments made during a video forum the previous month.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-hampshire-professor-dont-presume-pedophilic-acts-start-with-a-predatory-or-criminally-inclined-adult FOX on Finkelhor controversy]</ref>
*In June 2022, '''[[Nelson Maatman]]''' (a [[MAP Movement|MAP Activist]]) was arrested in Mexico, leading to widespread media and social media coverage. NGOs such as [[Operation Underground Railroad]] began to interact with the [[MAP Movement]].
*In July, the regressive feminist influencer and hoax artist "Posie Parker" claimed that she had been questioned by police about being "untoward about paedophiles" in a video. She was not arrested.<ref>[https://reduxx.info/uk-womens-rights-campaigner-visited-by-police-for-being-untoward-about-pedophiles/ Reduxx: Untoward about paediphiles]</ref>
*In August, 2022, '''[[Karl Andersson]]''' (a publisher and academic) was involved in a social media outrage with [[MAP visibility on Twitter|Twitter]] conservatives and radical feminists, surrounding a peer reviewed journal article, written for ''Qualitative Research''. This article concerned the topic of [[Lolicon|Shotacon]], or drawn images of [[boy]]s in sexual situations.
*Almost simultaneously, and as documented in [[Minor Attracted Person]], a controversy erupted surrounding a video made by '''Miranda Galbreath''', a licensed Sex Therapist who was attempting to challenge the [[Research: The Dangers of Stigma|stigma]] on MAPs (and using the term herself).
*Also in August, Radical Conservative [[Feminism|Feminists]] inspired a social media controversy centering on '''[[Virtuous Pedophiles]]''' and their newly-recruited social-media manager's claim to have been leaving written letters in UK libraries.<ref>[https://reduxx.info/pro-pedophile-organization-placing-propaganda-letters-in-uk-libraries/ Reduxx on Virped]</ref> This eventually led to the organization's banning from Twitter.
*In mid-September, 2022, as detailed in [[Minor Attracted Person]], the Texas High School Teacher '''Amber Parker''', went viral on social media after she was filmed appearing to defend the idea of "MAPs" (as opposed to pedophiles - see our [[Media:PR2.pdf|Press Release]] on the subject). This incident was amplified on Twitter by ''[[Gays Against Groomers]]'' (a conservative radical feminist front group), TX Governor Greg Abbott and Matthew Kolken among others. The comments were said by students, parents, Parker's husband and a school administrator to have been taken out of context. She was later fired from her job.
*In mid-September, London's Newham Council was slated on social media for allowing a leaflet advertising a [[queer]] hangout event for 9-25 year olds.<ref>[https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-london-news/london-council-blasted-after-asking-25015682 London council blasted after asking 9 year olds to 'hang out' with adult strangers]</ref>
*Again in mid-September, [[Wikipedia:R._Kelly_sexual_abuse_cases|stating a case for leniency]] in a sentencing memorandum, R Kelly's attorneys made several technical arguments about the Chicago federal case but admitted to repeated sexual encounters with the testifying victims when they were underage. Arguing for mitigation, the memorandum included a passage written by expert witness Dr. Renée Sorrentino arguing that Kelly is not a pedophile. Sorrentino was criticised in the media for publishing a paper in which he argued "Minor Attracted People" were a neglected population, a major search result in Google.<ref>[https://www.mdedge.com/psychiatry/article/242357/minor-attracted-persons-neglected-population MDEdge article by Sorrentino]</ref>
*In late September, Spanish parliamentarian, Irene Montero stated that children ''"have the right to know that they can love or have sexual relations with whoever they want. Based, yes, on consent"'', leading to outcry on social media. An AP fact check straightened out... not much at all by establishing that ''"Montero’s comments make clear that she said '''unwanted''' sexual contact between children and adults amounts to violence"''.<ref name="montero" /><ref>[https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-spain-women-abortion-sex-education-978822725682 Spanish official’s comments on sex education mischaracterized]</ref>
*In early October, 2022, '''[[Jacob Breslow]]''' appeared to survive a social media and mainstream media firestorm over positions advocated in his academic works and his position as a trustee of Mermaids, a charity for transgender youth. This included his use of the term "Minor Attracted Person", and even caught the attention of J.K. Rowling. He was officially exonerated but left his post under a year later.
*In late October, 2022, '''[[James Cantor]]''' was removed from the list of witnesses at a hearing on "gender-affirming care" for [[Transgender youth and attraction to minors|trans youth]]. The justification used (this time by liberals on Twitter) was his advocacy for pedophilia.<ref>[https://www.mediamatters.org/gays-against-groomers/florida-expert-formerly-slated-testify-favor-trans-health-care-ban-once Media Matters: James Cantor controversy]</ref>
*If the previous controversies weren't enough, in late November 2022, '''Balenciaga''' (a fashion brand owned by Kering) were caught in a further such rumpus following adverts that featured a BDSM-gear-festooned teddy bear and a small child, along with allusions to the relaxation of child pornography laws.<ref>[https://tmj.news/balenciagacampaign/ TMJ: Balenciaga - moral decay]</ref>
*In December of that year, French cartoonist '''Bastien Vivès''' faced a petition of 100,000 signatures calling on the prestigious Angoulême International Comics Festival to revoke his invitation to participate the gathering. Among the criticisms were "displaying incestuous and pedophile images and scenes" and the promotion of "[[rape culture]]". The festival announced that it was forced to cancel his appearance, citing "physical threats" online against Vivès that could put both the cartoonist and festival goers at risk, as reported by Le Figaro.<ref>[https://worldcrunch.com/culture-society/bastien-vives-cartoonist-pedophilia-incest Worldcrunch.com on the cancellation of Bastian Vives]. See also [https://www.liberation.fr/culture/accusations-contre-bastien-vives-le-festival-dangouleme-sous-pression-20221209_LPOJK6QEVJE2NFPQQFGY2SHXDM/ "Dessins de Bastien Vivès mis en cause : le Festival d'Angoulême sous pression". in ''Libération''], [https://www.francetvinfo.fr/culture/bd/festival-de-bd-d-angouleme/le-festival-de-bd-d-angouleme-annule-l-exposition-de-bastien-vives-accuse-de-promouvoir-la-pedopornographie-apres-des-menaces-contre-l-auteur_5543805.html "Le festival de BD d'Angoulême annule l'exposition de Bastien Vivès, accusé de promouvoir la pédopornographie, après des "menaces" contre l'auteur". in ''Franceinfo''], and [https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2022/12/14/le-festival-international-de-la-bande-dessinee-d-angouleme-annule-l-exposition-de-bastien-vives_6154430_3246.html "L'exposition de Bastien Vivès annulée par le Festival de la BD d'Angoulême pour raisons de « sécurité »". in ''Le Monde''.fr]. For background, see [https://www.actuabd.com/Le-cas-Vives Le cas Vivès]</ref> Much of the criticism was left-"progressive" slanted, focusing on the artist's supposedly reactionary background.
*Also in December, California Representative Katie Porter was accused of normalizing pedophilia as an "identity" in a context-devoid social media firestorm fanned by LibsOfTikTok, and bordering on a [["Pedophile Activism" hoaxes|hoax]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20221215183558/https://notthebee.com/article/california-democratic-rep-katie-porter-says-pedophilia-is-an-identity California Rep. Katie Porter says pedophilia is an "identity" 😑], and [https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N33613P/ U.S. Rep. Katie Porter did not say pedophilia was an ‘identity’]</ref>

===2023===

*In January 2023, '''Police Scotland''' and the '''European Union''' were hauled before the court of public opinion, after what appeared to be sympathetic use of the term "Minor Attracted Person" in official materials.<ref>[https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/world-news/minor-attracted-person-scandal-inside-28858264 Scottish Daily Express scandal re. EU, Police Scotland using "Minor Attracted Person"]</ref> Despite the "standard" nature of this outrage, the story, and response from Police Scotland were viewed around 10 million times on Twitter alone.
*A further controversy took place in Spain, concerning a TV series depicting an intergenerational relationship involving a 15-year-old girl. The ''Christian Lawyers Foundation'' insisted that the series be pulled.<ref>[https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253338/christian-lawyers-foundation-in-spain-demands-tv-series-promoting-pedophilia-be-pulled Christian Lawyers Foundation in Spain demands TV series promoting pedophilia be pulled]</ref>
*Throughout the preceding years, it has been a common taunt of Russian media and state officials, that "the west" is "normalizing pedophilia". In February 2023, President Vladimir Putin repeated these accusations in a rambling speech, one assumes, in a provocative attempt to force his opponents to defend initiatives such as the EU-funded 2PS project<ref>[https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/anger-eu-project-sees-police-28841534?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar Scottish DM - EU 2PS Project]</ref> and [[B4U-ACT]], that has at times received state funding.<ref>[https://thehill.com/newsletters/morning-report/3867443-the-hills-morning-report-biden-putin-frame-year-of-war-in-dueling-speeches/ Putin speech - The Hill]</ref>
*The Dutch '''Democratic Party''' (D66) and their youth wing, were embroiled in a further Feb 2023 controversy, when English-speaking social media users unearthed resolutions deemed to be sympathetic to "pedophiles".<ref>[https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/dutch-governing-party-advocates-accepting-pedophilia-and-teaching-it-in-schools/ Young Democrats: European Conservative]</ref>
*In March 2023, two students associated with the University of Chile ('''[[Leonardo_Arce_Vidal|Leonardo Arce Vidal]]'''<ref>[https://repositorio-uchile-cl.translate.goog/handle/2250/145147?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp#:~:text=La%20presente%20tesis%20es%20la,con%20voz%20o%20sujeto%20completo. Pedophiles and infants: folds and folds of desire (2016)]</ref> and [['''Mauricio Quiroz Muñoz''']]<ref>[https://repositorio-uchile-cl.translate.goog/handle/2250/179587?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp The pedagogue's denied wish: being a pedophile (2020)]</ref>) whose respective MA and BA theses problematized the figure of the pedophile and the notion of [[Intrinsic harm|intrinsic harm]] in relation to age-disparate sex, were (along with their supervisors) subject to university investigation. The familiar right-wing twitter storm had preceded and provoked these investigations, also leading to condemnation by university officials and organizations which speak on behalf of minors/youth. The university both condemned the works and pointed out the works were "''purely theoretical nature, which do not report intervention on human populations, and which, even taking into account how debatable their content turns out to be, met the requirements of the academic evaluation process''".<ref>[https://cooperativa-cl.translate.goog/noticias/pais/educacion/universidades/escandalo-por-tesis-pro-pedofilia-u-de-chile-investigara-eventuales/2022-12-26/203839.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp Cooperativa: Scandal for pro-pedophilia thesis: U. de Chile will investigate eventual responsibilities]</ref>
*In the same month, conservative pundits attempted but failed to generate enough attention to scandalize historian '''[[Rachel Hope Cleves]]''' for using "intergenerational sex" in her treatment of [[Norman Douglas]]. Social media conservatives were outraged at clips from a book-launch interview that had been in the public domain for 3 years.<ref>[https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/21/rachel-hope-cleves-pedophilia-historian-intergenerational-sex-rape-10-year-old-boy-abuse/ Rachel Hope-Cleves: Daily Caller]</ref>
*April's controversy centered on the [[United Nations|UN]],<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/un-backed-legal-recommendations-normalize-sex-minors-critics-say New UN-backed legal recommendations normalize sex with minors, outraged critics say]</ref> following the publication of new legal principles problematizing the idea that adolescents are inherently unable to [[consent]], including to sex. American conservatives reacted by circulating the theory that such opinions represent an attempt to "soften up" the public prior to the release of supposedly "damning" information concerning [[Jeffrey Epstein]]'s high-profile visitors.
*Later in April, a Twitter user posted another [[MAP Flag]] concept, causing outrage on [[Alice Day]]. The event made the mainstream media and drew Elon Musk's condemnation.<ref>[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12017643/Elon-Musk-suspends-Twitter-user-created-pedophile-flag.html Daily Mail on Zeeb's controversy]</ref><ref>[https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/twitter-user-pedophile-flag-account-suspended FOX on Zeeb's controversy]</ref><ref>[https://www.sportskeeda.com/mma/news-ex-ufc-fighter-rages-twitter-account-elon-musk-suspended-posting-pedophilia-flag UFC Fighter on Zeeb]</ref>
*Hysteria over MAPs hit a period of latency through the summer and fall of 2023, in part resulting from the failure of fringe conservatives to scandalize pro-MAP initiatives, research and advocacy, given the familiarity of the subject. Ngo did, however renew his war against Berlatsky, resulting in numerous hitpieces against the former [[Prostasia Foundation]] spokesman, following his negative review of [[Operation Underground Railroad]]'s ''Sound of Freedom'' film.<ref>[https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-pedophile-advocacy-group-spokesman-writes-bloomberg-hit-piece-on-sound-of-freedom Daily Wire: Berlatsky's Bloomberg Hit Piece]</ref>

===2024===

*In February 2024, X (Twitter) played host to a 3M+ impression conservative outrage thread concerning Google's AI Chatbot, its tolerance of pedophilia, and preference for the term ''[[Minor Attracted Person]]''.<ref>[https://nypost.com/2024/02/23/business/woke-google-gemini-refuses-to-say-pedophilia-is-wrong-after-diverse-historical-images-debacle-individuals-cannot-control-who-they-are-attracted-to/ NYP: ‘Woke’ Google Gemini refuses to say pedophilia is wrong after ‘diverse’ historical images debacle: ‘Individuals cannot control who they are attracted to’ ]</ref>
*In March, A Kentucky Democrat Senator, '''Karen Berg''', controversially suggested [[sex doll]]s styled to resemble children could help prevent pedophiles from abusing them, adding ''"there are what they call 'MAPS,' Minor Attracted Persons"''.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kentucky-dem-suggests-child-sex-dolls-protect-kids-pedophiles-gives-them-a-release Kentucky Dem suggests child sex dolls could protect kids from pedophiles: 'Gives them a release']</ref>
*In May, The City Council in Almería, Spain was criticized by conservative TV and social media personalities after launching a poster campaign on sexual consent. The campaign at one point featured a [[boy]], implying he could [[consent]] to sex by stating that he is able to say "no".<ref>[https://reduxx.info/if-he-says-no-its-not-sex-spanish-city-apologizes-for-pedophilic-sexual-consent-campaign/ “If He Says No, It’s Not Sex” : Spanish City Apologizes For “Pedophilic” Sexual Consent Campaign]</ref>
*2024 was a year in which various conservative political officials and media made strange claims about liberals, the LGBTQ+ community and their approach to MAPs. For example, Thomas Brough (Australia)<ref>[https://thewest.com.au/news/albany-advertiser/thomas-brough-who-claimed-minor-attracted-persons-part-of-lgbtq-community-wins-albany-lib-preselection-c-14505730 Thomas Brough, who claimed ‘minor-attracted’ persons part of LGBTQ+ community, wins Albany Lib preselection]</ref> and Dwayne Yunker (Oregon, US)<ref>[https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/01/gop-lawmaker-calls-lgbtq-people-pedophiles-says-pride-month-is-child-abuse/ GOP lawmaker calls LGBTQ+ people “pedophiles” & says Pride Month is “child abuse”]</ref> both made the LGBTQ+ MAP connection. The Daily Wire and other conservative media alleged that Democratic vice Presidential pick, Tim Walz "signed [a] bill stripping anti-pedophile language from Minnesota’s Human Rights Act".<ref>[https://www.dailywire.com/news/tim-walz-signed-bill-stripping-anti-pedophile-language-from-minnesotas-human-rights-act Tim Walz Signed Bill Stripping Anti-Pedophile Language From Minnesota’s Human Rights Act]</ref>
*By September 2024, news of [[MAP Camp]] (formerly a project of [[MEDAL]]) had spread to social media users, leading to outrage threads, and news coverage including The Spectator, Libs of TikTok and Andy Ngo.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20240918175058/https://www.timesargus.com/news/local/vsp-looking-into-possible-event-for-minor-attracted-persons/article_1742bcf8-753a-11ef-8fd9-e34b4898e965.html Times Argus - Police in Vermont looking into MAP Camp], [https://x.com/brainsturbator/status/1835667849697706315 thread by Brainsturbator], [https://x.com/brainsturbator/status/1836802888435179970 follow-up]. Later coverage by Libs of TikTok ([https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1836535078492737637 1], [https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1836823945259143476 2]) and local media ([https://www.komonews.com/news/nation-world/vermont-state-police-monitoring-campground-gathering-of-acutely-marginalized-pedophiles-minor-attracted-persons-map-camp 1], [https://vtdigger.org/2024/09/19/marshfield-erupts-after-learning-of-apparent-camping-event-advertised-for-minor-attracted-persons/ 2]). Conspiracy media connected to Vermont included a podcast and Turning Point USA: [https://vermontdailychronicle.com/cops-at-local-school-following-public-concern-over-map-a-k-a-pedophile-camp/comment-page-1/#comment-76783 1], [https://vermontdailychronicle.com/state-police-know-of-social-media-claims-about-vt-pedophile-map-gathering-this-weekend/ 2], [https://vermontdailychronicle.com/vermont-pedophile-camp-in-planning-stages-since-july/ 3], [https://fstube.net/w/vcGDPNCJ8FA1R7Vp7tcmyp 3], [https://fstube.net/w/caMb6hrCE2e7MDsFvm7FJs 4]. Following day saw attention from Prostasia's nemesis, Andy Ngo ([https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1837189153705926728 1], [https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1837177750722883749 2], [https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1837241058045923586 3]) and the [https://spectator.org/vermont-pedophile-weekend-retreat-draws-parental-ire/?utm_medium=twitter Spectator] (US). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEv5Cw-KUfI Vermont Daily Chronicle] Podcast. A later [https://cbsaustin.com/news/nation-world/pedophile-group-claims-oppression-over-vt-camp-gathering-outrage-deeply-offensive-vermont-minor-attracted-persons-marshfield-montpelier-burlington-new-england-pedophilia-map-union-gender article] mentioned [[Mu]]</ref>
*That same month, online educator, Dr Lindsey Doe had also drawn fire from Libs of TikTok, for a video in which she espoused the benefits of [[Virtuous Pedophiles]] to [[preventionism]] efforts against CSA. She was routinely mocked for her eye movements during the video.<ref>[https://fstube.net/w/fd67QRVUsyzaPQt5RCjL8V Her Sexplanations video], and the [https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1836877552121708642 X thread]</ref>
*In October, the use of "MAP" by another educator, Kerri Isham in British Columbia was highlighted throughout local and social media.<ref>[https://www.westernstandard.news/news/sexual-health-educator-slammed-for-referring-to-pedophiles-as-minor-attracted-persons-in-lecture-to-bc-grade-9ers/58713 Kerri Isham news article]</ref> Her use of the term was in fact highly condemnatory and intended to circulate common myths about people attracted to minors.
*November saw a [[Bluesky pedophilia controversy]] throughout social media, in which a liberal-slanted social network and Twitter/X competitor was slated as a haven for pedophiles, child pornography and self-identifying MAPs.

===2025===

*February 2025 featured a viral controversy in which Senator Jamie Pederson was said to have had comments taken out of context during a debate on parental rights. His insistence that laws protect girls' right to body autonomy at the age of 13 was presented as endorsement of reforms in attitudes towards MAPs on conservative social media.<ref>The controversy can be found on x. [https://web.archive.org/web/20250317135955/https://www.yakimaherald.com/wa-senator-sparks-fury-with-description-of-40-year-old-law-limiting-parental-rights/article_b8db893a-e8aa-11ef-b2ba-87a293d81bf3.html].</ref>
*Late March and April was the turn of NZ MP [[Wikipedia:Benjamin Doyle|Benjamin Doyle]] to face the wrath of conservatives, after concerns he was using a public Instagram account and pedophile "swirl symbols" to document his preparation of a trans child for anal sex. The witch-hunt had shades of McCarthyism about it, with the MP being presented in a similar manner to the earlier Zulock case in the US. Later that year, Doyle resigned, citing break-ins and threats to his safety following attention from other members of Parliament and right-wing online New Zealand conspiracy theorists/influencers.
*In late April, an X thread by the non-binary streamer and [[Anti]], Coffins gained many millions of views after "exposing" numerous spiral [[childlove]] symbols and supposed pedophile symbols/emoji codes. Viewers scarcely believed what they were seeing, although the graphics were from an actual MAP website, even if most were barely used.<ref>[https://x.com/CoffinsInBloom/status/1916161045380341977 Popular thread by Coffins]</ref>
*In May, a similar controversy dogged the annual conference of [[B4U-ACT]], with conservatives such as Andy Ngo amplifying a series of outraged takes.
*In June, long-time precious metals guru, Peter Schiff caused a controversy on X when he argued that Jeffrey Epstein was not a pedophile on the basis of his sexual activity with mature minors. He later pointed out that he had sex with such girls in his college years, and was accused of attempting to normalize pedophilia.<ref>[https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/1930818380862505347 Tweet of Peter Schiff]</ref>
*Later in June, legal scholar, Alan Dershowitz was made an example of by [[anti]]s on X/Twitter after criticising high ages of consent in a way that users thought betrayed a Jewish conspiracy to normalize "pedophilia". His legal defense of Jeffrey Epstein was raked over by those attempting to prove the conspiracy.<ref>[https://x.com/AlanDersh/status/1938766702554005893 Tweet of Dershowitz]</ref>
*In July, an almost 10-year old article from the BBC describing pedophilia from an anonymous first person perspective, resurfaced. Critics said it normalized pedophilia and justified de-funding the public broadcaster.<ref>[https://x.com/Basil_TGMD/status/1941555223018996122 Thread on BBC article]</ref>
*In August, over 15 million people on X alone, saw a hoax claim that Barack Obama displayed a [[BLogo]] in a video call.<ref>[https://x.com/JeniFurbabies/status/1956263692313784354 BLogo hoax thread]</ref>
*Also in August, there were numerous false claims US President Donald Trump intended to reduce the [[Age of Consent]] to 14 in all states. This was off the back of popular conspiracy theories about the President's less-enthusiastic posture towards the [[Jeffrey Epstein]] saga.<ref>[https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/12/trump-age-of-consent-marriage-14/ Trump Age of Consent conspiracy]</ref> An interesting development in 2025, was liberals' ironic use of the term "Minor Attracted Person" to describe Trump.
*In September, following his public assassination at an open-air debating event, various claims were circulated about the right-wing influencer and conspiracy theorist, [[Wikipedia:Charlie Kirk|Charlie Kirk]]. A list of negative character traits circulated by purportedly left-wing accounts led with the claim that he supported MAP rights, although this was based upon selective editing of a debate he took part in.<ref>[https://fstube.net/w/emkM1qhfjK8kzEp4vnUJkx The video of Charlie Kirk attempting devils-advocate defence of pedophilia]</ref> In reality, Kirk was an [[Media:CharliekirkMAP.png|avowed opponent]] of MAPs, and a major figure in the amplification of MAPs as a right-wing online meme. One person who falsely claimed responsibility for Kirk's shooting was eventually charged for [[child pornography]] offences following the seizure of his devices.<ref>[https://www.tmz.com/2025/09/16/charlie-kirk-utah-george-zinn-child-porn-charges/ Fake Charlie Kirk Shooter Slapped With Kiddie Porn Charges ... After Confessing to FBI]</ref> Left-wing "blue-anon" conspiracy accounts had that same month used the [[Bluesky pedophilia controversy|social platform, Bluesky]] to claim that President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein had been involved in buying and selling children at auctions. A large community had appeared, dedicated to discussing these ideas in the wake of media attention towards the "Epstein Files".
*In April of 2025, before a controversy surrounding the Directors of [[Virtuous Pedophiles|Virped]], non-committee Virped member Connor Weston began sharing videos online, outing himself as a [[NOMAP|non-offending anti-contact pedophile]].<ref>[https://fstube.net/w/76wh2cm3y9bhyjTZ3jEuS7 Possibly Weston's first video]</ref> In October, he stormed the stage of a [[Wikipedia censorship of MAP related topics|Wikipedia]] Convention with a revolver, which he pointed at his head, leading to widespread panic in the audience. Weston was subdued, arrested and charged with firearms related offenses, amid concerns about his mental health.<ref>[https://nypost.com/2025/10/17/us-news/nyc-wikipedia-conference-halted-when-non-offending-pedophile-storms-stage-points-gun-at-own-head/ NYC Wikipedia conference halted when ‘non-offending pedophile’ storms stage, points gun at own head], [https://reduxx.info/pedophile-activist-who-disrupted-wikipedia-conference-was-member-of-influential-advocacy-group/], [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/19/ohio-man-wikipedia-conference], [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/nyregion/wikipedia-conference-gunman.html], [https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/armed-man-upends-nyc-wikipedia-conference-rcna238250], [https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/10/17/gunman-waving-weapon-around-at-nyc-wikipedia-conference-nabbed/], [https://www.newsweek.com/nyc-wikipedia-conference-gun-threat-arrest-10897284], [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15204179/wikipedia-conference-gunman-volunteers-new-york.html], [https://dailycaller.com/2025/10/18/non-offending-pedophile-rainbow-flag-threatens-shoot-himself-wikipedia-conference-new-york-city/], [https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/wikipedia-contributors-block-armed-man-from-shooting-self/amp/], [https://local12.com/news/nation-world/ohio-wikipedia-conference-suicide-threat-gun-kill-himself-pedophile-non-offending-maps-minor-attracted-person-shooting-threatens-threatened-convention-event-stage-stormed-climbed-attack-arrest-arrested], [https://thepostmillennial.com/man-declares-himself-a-non-contact-pedophile-puts-gun-to-his-head-during-nyc-wikipedia-conference], [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gunman-arrested-storming-stage-nyc-wikipedia-conference_n_68f3c144e4b085924979a793]</ref> Notable aspects of this controversy were the unusually broad coverage it was given in the liberal media, and the relatively minimal attention it was given on right-wing social media. Prior to this event it had often been claimed (by liberals) that MAP Activism was a "hoax" or "psyop" - a case that was harder to make in the wake of such a desperate act.
*In November, influencers continued the process of recycling old material to claim there was a sustained effort to normalize pedophilia. For example, a [[B4U-ACT]] video featuring Alexandra Roth (a psychotherapist) and edited by LibsOfTikTok, amassed almost a million impressions.<ref>[https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1986837535608230017 Libs of TikTok - Alexandra Roth via B4U-ACT]</ref> Roth's segment went on to be featured in various media such as the Patriot Post, and a local radio station, adding to the anti-MAP meme stock.<ref>[https://wbt.com/1539171/the-tj-ritchie-show-minor-attracted-people/ The TJ Ritchie Show: Minor Attracted People], [https://patriotpost.us/videos/122689-the-debate-no-one-should-be-having-2025-11-13 The Debate No One Should Be Having], [https://www.rifttv.com/left-wing-academics-are-working-behind-the-scenes-to-normalize-pedophilia/ Rift TV]</ref>
*Throughout this year, Conservatives continued to make rabid and unhinged comments about Democrats, with Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Nancy Mace among the most prominent of them. In December, Anna Paulina Luna claimed that Scott Weiner was pursuing a bill to reclassify pedophiles as MAPs, a claim that was completely false, and seen by over a million people without community-note or fact-checking.<ref>[https://x.com/RepLuna/status/2002215164221739209 "Scott Weiner is a pedophile-protecting weirdo in the California State House currently pushing a bill to reclassify pedophiles as “minor attracted persons.”"]</ref>

===2026===

*In January, the potential of the MAP meme to generate viral publicity was again affirmed when the X account DelusionPosting sent 5 million viewers to the screencap of a [[PCMA]] account's meme-post.<ref>[https://x.com/DelusionPosting/status/2008946917904912740 Post by DelusionPosting]</ref> This was in fact, the [[:File:Riv.png|3-year-old Tweet of a suspended account (previously 2.2 million views)]]. DelusionPosting is a part-automated influencer account, already known for sharing outdated material. Since the original post had been made in 2023, PCMA had almost ceased its activity on the X network, and MAPs had found it almost impossible to hold down an account on any of the major platforms without being banned.
*In February, Elon Musk drew over 60M impressions on a tweet criticizing the New York Times for their historical coverage of [[Virtuous Pedophiles]] and pedophilia as a disorder/not a crime.<ref>[https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2026135632624652377 Tweet by Elon Musk]</ref>
*In April-May, [[Mu]] (and other MAP sites such as [[BoyChat]] and its French sub-forum) became the focus of an investigation by the citizen journalist, G Patrick.<ref>[https://www.gpatricksec.com/pedos-in-plain-site/ NAMBLA Was Just the Tip of the Iceberg], [https://www.gpatricksec.com/francerocks/ France Rocks], [https://forum.map-union.org/viewtopic.php?t=4520 Thread documenting the various updates to G Patrick's investigation]</ref> This resulted in multiple call-outs on Reddit, in which Mu and various sites sharing the same server were presented as a "pedophile ring" without any evidence of illegal activity. The response even provoked governmental censure in France (with media citing the High Commissioner for Children).<ref>[https://www.map-union.org/blog/press-release-france-has-no-right-to-call-us-pedocriminals Press Release: France has no right to call us 'pedocriminals']</ref> Attempts to remove the sites from the internet by lobbying providers were unsuccessful.
*In July, a tweet on X.com featuring the "[[:File:FCncb9dWUAMBHOW.png|Pedo Lives Matter]]" [[MAP Flag]] variant by [[Newgon]]'s Jim Burton (aka Jamal Ross) drew almost 2m impressions and angry responses alleging Jewish involvement in social engineering and psychological operations. The flag-graphic had been posted in a Discord server for the [[Wikipedia:Role-playing game|RPG]] ''Fate and Grand Order'', which features highly-popular [[Lolicon|loli]] characters. Reactions ignored the fact that most of the responses to the graphic had been negative as per [[Lolicon-MAP Equivalence Debate]],<ref>[https://x.com/Zufrieren_/status/2072563461951762759 Tweet by Zufrieren_]</ref> and reinforced the idea that Loli spaces were engaged in deliberate MAP normalization, or overwhelmed with pedophiles who would not "seek help". With the idea that pedophilia was being normalized now canon in some online communities, popular threads on X continued to focus on false targets such as the Democratic Party, and social network [[Bluesky pedophilia controversy|Bluesky]] (which continued to ban any such activity).<ref>[https://x.com/BROKENBRITAIN0/status/2066211496565129669 Thread again falsely linking Bluesky to MAPs]</ref><ref>[https://x.com/NormalGayPsych/status/2078509926738284919 Thread from questionable anonymous "gay" influencer which claims MAPs as part of a leftist agenda]</ref>
*In September, a recycled tweet by Genevieve Gluck of [[Reduxx Magazine]] generated considerable publicity (6M impressions)<ref>[/https://x.com/WomenReadWomen/status/2095410841319624714 Gluck re. Ally Kotetsu and Violet Rose]</ref> in relation to the former staff of [[Beyond the Plus]]. Respondents repeatedly suggested their activism, which had been going on for most of the decade, was a CIA psyop. Later that month, it was revealed by TMZ that a user of [[LifeLine]] was a prominent and iconic voiceover artist and radio presenter, drawing attention to the MAP Movement.

==Opinions among MAPs==

Predictions of significant social change have ranged from 5-50 years or so<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1579325.htm BoyChat thread documenting timescale for changes]</ref>. However, it is generally agreed that social indicators are pointing to a "fourth [[moral panic]]" taking place following similar scares in the Victorian and Postwar eras and then the 70s onward. The new panic, as we identified in 2021, appears to concern "normalization of pedophilia", and has snowballed since.

===Softening of liberal opposition towards minor attraction===

Since the late 00s, but particularly in the 20s, it has been observed that mainstream American Liberals are realizing child erotic symbolism and pedophile demonology can be used against them and their allies. The 2009 ''Hate Crimes Prevention Act'' is an often cited example in [[anti]]-pedophile conspiratorial circles. Democrats defeated an attempt by Republicans to exclude Pedophilia from the act. As Alcee Hastings famously put it:

<blockquote>''This bill addresses our resolve to end violence based on prejudice and to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability or all of these ‘philias’ and fetishes and ‘isms’ that were put forward need not live in fear because of who they are. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this rule.''<ref>[https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2009/07/16/hate-crimes-amendment-scheduled-for-vote-christian-groups-oppose-law-as-utter-evil/ Colorado Independent: Alcee Hastings - Hate Crimes Amendment]</ref></blockquote>

In 2023, Minnesota Democrats similarly pushed to have language excluding attraction to minors from anti discrimination laws altered.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/politics/transgender-minnesota-lawmaker-introduces-bill-removing-anti-pedophile-language-states-human-rights-act Fox article about the bill], and [https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/text.php?number=HF1655&version=1&session=ls93&session_year=2023&session_number=0 Minnesota bill]</ref>

===The tone of mainstream and conservative media===

The tone of conservative-identifying media is an important barometer, given that “liberal-progressive” corporations such as Google are arbiters of what is deemed to be acceptable conservatism. This control is exerted via algorithm changes and YouTube censorship for example. In gauging the tone of outlets such Glenn Beck’s YouTube-dependent ''TheBlaze'' network, we can see what Google deems to be the last bastion of acceptable conservatism in the Post-Trump era. In this case, when Beck’s (mainly very young) acolytes cover the familiar topic of [[Transgender youth and attraction to minors|trans children]], minors' exposure to sexual content, MAPs, or any form of “[[degeneracy]]”, the tone tends to be either laughter, mocking or disbelief as opposed to the sharp moral/religious condemnation typical of the old "moral majority". This might indicate an openness in Silicon Valley towards the idea of immersing wider culture in sexual taboo topics. The result of this would be general desensitisation towards gay and trans politics, clearing the ground for MAPs to be used as the next contentious pawns in a binary culture war. The perpetuation of culture wars to divide and distract, is a tried and tested long-term strategy of establishments engaged in financial malpractice and corruption. Potential scandals such as the deliberate pursuit of inflationary policies, have the potential to unite both sides of the political spectrum ''against'' power elites, and thus need to be shut down with distractions.

===MAPs' arguable progress in the "battle to prevent the battle"===

By percolating into mainstream and social media, the politics and terminology of MAPs set forth in the mid-late 00s, appears to have achieved basic visibility in the late 10s and onward. This has been described as a "part success" in what [[Harris Mirkin]] described as anti-MAP's "battle to prevent the battle".<ref>[https://sci-hub.se/10.1300/J082v37n02_01 Harris Mirkin PhD (1999): The Pattern of Sexual Politics, Journal of Homosexuality, 37:2, 1-24]</ref>

Panic has been seen inside [[assimilationism|assimilationist]] parts of the the LGBTQ+ community, spanning from a fear of engaging with MAPs, lest they attempt to [[Historical examples of LGBT-MAP unity|become part of their wider umbrella group again]]. MAP terminology is now widely visible in academia, and established culture war hobbyhorses such as the trans issue are starting to look tired, or are otherwise stimulating hot button MAP/Youth-Rights-adjacent themes such as a child’s right to choose hormone blockers or gender transition surgery.

At the same time, alternative-right trolls are pointing to the MAP topic as proof of moral relativism’s inevitable conclusion, and liberalism’s “next frontier”. Various alternative-right social media trolls have adopted the strategy of goading LGBTQ+ people to accept MAPs as the next persecuted minority – asserting it would only be consistent with their long-held principles. We have observed in-situ, some alternative-right trolls who are more thoroughly MAP-literate than some MAPs themselves!

==The coming years==

So, in summary, social conservatives and regressives have for a long time predicted the same kind of discursive shift for MAPs that took place around homosexuality in the postwar period. One possible implication of this theory, is that any publicity raising the awareness of MAPs (good or bad), might have a positive effect by accelerating this discursive breakout. For example, MAPs might benefit from posing as concerned citizens, distributing hysterical and implausible black propaganda leaflets and internet memes warning of MAP attempts to legitimize “child rape”. Similarly, they might benefit from having moles within the LGBTQ+ movement itself, circulating pro-MAP information from a purportedly pro-LGBTQ+ perspective, or simply asking peers for opinions on MAPs.

==Alternative names==

*'''P(a)edogeddon''' (probably coined in 2001 by the British satirist, Christopher Morris<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Morris_(satirist) Chris Morris]</ref>).
*'''MAPnarök''' - Rare, mentioned by a [[Help:Joining PCMA chat|PCMA]] user.
*'''[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=%23PedoSchwing2025 PedoSchwing2025]''' - See Urban Dictionary.
*'''PedoFloyd''' - A (cautionary) riff on James Lindsay's "Drag Floyd" notion, that forward motion from DQSH and push-back from anti-DQSH forces will lead, inevitably, to violence. [https://thecharliekirkshow.com/podcasts/the-charlie-kirk-show/dont-fall-for-drag-floyd-with-james-lindsay Don't fall for Drag Floyd!] James Lindsay and Charlie Kirk.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Gay]][[Category:Anti-Pedophile culture]][[Category:Hysteria]][[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Terminology: MAP]][[Category:History & Events]][[Category:History & Events: International]][[Category:History & Events: 2020s]]

List of people involved in controversies

2026-09-06T10:58:27Z

Jim Burton: /* Entertainment Industry, inc Elite Sports */

__NOTOC__
{{Template:Lists}}
This is a list, in drafting, of high-profile people in postindustrial society:

*'''Indicated''' as being [[Minor Attracted Person|Minor-attracted]] by the mainly western media and public controversy.
*Or ''otherwise'' involved in socially "inappropriate" controversies with (supposed) minors, or concerning (views on) attraction to minors, their accused exploiters or [[minor-adult sex]].

Individuals are listed here on the basis of both speculation and confirmed facts. Some efforts have been made to collect news articles on high profile accused, and [https://forum.map-union.org/viewtopic.php?t=3021 these] will include further examples not covered here. The lack of a comprehensive list of high-profile individuals in such cases is one major oversight of the online era that betrays the "unseriously serious" nature of the pedophile obsession.

Indeed, the best examples of these we have found are in fact politically motivated, e.g. lists of [[Republicans are the real pedophiles|"Republican Predators"]].

==Financial Elites and Royalty==

*[[Jeffrey Epstein]], and by extension friends and visitors such as Prince Andrew and others featured on this list.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqxynz2l0g2o Who is in the files]</ref>
:*'''Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor''', the former [[Prince Andrew]] (Duke of York) - High ranking British Royal accused of conducting a relationship with a 16-year old girl. In early May 2023, the United Kingdom Royal Family member Andrew, aged 63, was also made the subject of renewed national media attention, with multiple hostile dramatic documentaries shown on national television in the lead up to his older brother King Charles III's coronation. He remains vilified for accusations he denies, as well as his refusal to disavow his ever having met the now deceased [[Jeffrey Epstein]].
:*'''Bill Gates and Bill Clinton''', see above.
:*'''Donald Trump''', see above. Also by inference, e.g. various interviews inc with Howard Stern.<ref>[https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/08/politics/trump-on-howard-stern], [https://fstube.net/w/rrHmDMyJC3s425CHFh4T8M] , [https://fstube.net/w/qsD1RxJnmJi7oVRFKDzHjs], [https://fstube.net/w/3psjqizqnuLf7WhL2r2ghG]</ref>
:*'''Elon Musk'''
:*'''Richard Branson'''
:*'''Sarah Ferguson'''
:*'''Peter Mandelson'''
:*''' Steve Bannon'''
:*'''Miroslav Lajčák'''
:*'''Howard Lutnick'''
:*'''Larry Summers'''
:*'''Steve Tisch'''
:*'''Brett Ratner'''
:*'''Peter Attia'''
:*'''Casey Wasserman'''
:*'''Sergey Brin'''
:*'''Ehud Barak'''
:*'''Brad Karp'''
:*'''Deepak Chopra'''
:*'''Woody Allen'''

==Intellectual Elites and Thought Leaders==

*Erika Kirk.<ref>[https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/alleged-texts-between-erika-kirk-224522698.html Erika Kirk's alleged messages with a 15 year old]</ref>
*[[Noam Chomsky]] by association with Epstein above. By late April/early May 2023, the ''The Wall Street Journal'' reported that renown [[Communism|Anarchist/left-wing]] academic had, among many others, appeared on Epstein's personal calendar and met him multiple times after he was convicted and served a prison sentence for sex crime. Chomsky became the subject of large amounts of online and international media which, as detailed further in [[Noam Chomsky|our page on Chomsky]], discussed the revelation and Chomsky's comments in response. The physicist Lawrence Krauss suffered similar treatment due to his past relationship, and non-negative comments, about the Jeffrey Epstein he had known.
*[[Michel Foucault]] - Among a group of French gay intellectuals who supported [[Wikipedia:Age of consent reform|age of consent reforms]] in the 70s. Among these, he has undoubted star quality, is still an icon among the intelligentsia, and widely rumored to have engaged in a variety of sexual transgressions including sex with pubescent boys.
*[[Oscar Wilde]] - his celebrity both now and in his own day goes well-beyond his unusual status as a historical [[pederasty|pederast]] and gay hero.
*[[Hajo Ortil]] - Leader of adolescent Naturist groups still widely revered in German society, after openly disclosing his pederasty.
*[[Germaine Greer]], having written controversially on the aesthetic [[Boylove|appreciation]] of adolescent boys.

==Politics and Media==
[[File:Fakecarl.png|thumb|[[Wikipedia:Carl Benjamin|Carl Benjamin]] inspired this fake campaign poster, in his doomed election bid.]]
*Various attacks against former US President '''Joe Biden''' often referring to his intimate behavior around small children, including "sniffing") have been addressed by the mainstream media and rejected/found to be unproven by fact checkers. These include unproven allegations about the behavior of Joe Biden towards his daughter, Ashley when she was a minor - a diary allegedly noted “showers w/ my dad (probably not appropriate)”.<ref>[https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/aug/12/facebook-posts/fact-checking-pedophilia-attacks-against-joe-biden/ Say Joe Biden is a Pedophile]</ref><ref>[https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/project-veritas-james-okeefe-ashley-biden-diary.html Intelligencier: Will Ashley Biden’s Diary Take Down Project Veritas? After a decade of punking liberals with hidden-camera stings, James O’Keefe becomes the story]</ref><ref>[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ashley-biden-leaked-diary-accusation/ Biden Diary Fact Check]</ref>
*In 2023, controversy arose around '''Hissam Hussein Dehaini''', the Mayor of Araucaria, Brazil, aged 65, and a 16-year-old Teen beauty queen [[Kauane Rode Camargo]], who proudly shared photos of their marriage online. As discussed in [[Kauane_Rode_Camargo|our page on the bride]], the couple have responded to negative media attention by defending their relationship.
*[[Wikipedia:Elm Guest House hoax|Edward Heath]] - UK PM 1970-74. Allegations could not be proven.
*[[Wikipedia:Carl Benjamin|Carl Benjamin]] - Owing to comments he made about young people and sexual consent.<ref>[https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/17606504.ukips-carl-benjamin-claims-criticism-child-sex-comments-just-jealousy/ Swindon Advertiser] - Carl Benjamin, see also [https://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2018/09/ukip-paedophilia-promotion-exposed.html UKIP Paedophilia Promotion EXPOSED] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu4foj1_Ozo Carl Benjamin Pedophile Remarks Compilation]</ref>
*[[Tucker Carlson]],<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr1WnL070hc Media Matters: Tucker Carlson radio segments]</ref> among other conservative talking heads [[Republicans are the real pedophiles|identified by Media Matters]] in a rash of tit-for-tat accusations in the 2020s.
*[[Wikipedia:Frank Arkell|Frank Arkell]], a former Australian Mayor gruesomely murdered by Mark Valera, a homophobic [[anti]] who posed as a gay man and then attempted to justify his actions with a gay panic defense.<ref>[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/how-vicious-murder-unmasked-wollongong-paedophiles/9904280 Frank Arkell: How a vicious murder unmasked a city's darkest secrets]</ref>
*[[Mark Foley]], as per [[Wikipedia:Mark Foley scandal|Mark Foley scandal]].

==Entertainment Industry, inc Elite Sports==

*[[Roman Polanski]] and the [[Wikipedia:Roman Polanski sexual abuse case|massive controversy]] surrounding his sexual contact with Samantha Geimer (13). Famous public intellectual Gore Vidal said, "''I really don't give a fuck. Look, am I going to sit and weep every time a young hooker feels as though she's been taken advantage of?''"<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gore_Vidal#Polanski_rape_case Gore Vidal on Polanski].</ref> Dr. Ummni Khan (Carleton University, Canada) discussed Geimer's memoir [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl%3A_A_Life_in_the_Shadow_of_Roman_Polanski ''The Girl: Life in the Shadow of Roman Polanski''] (2013), writing that "many feminists -- who should have Geimer's back – have dismissed, distorted or ignored her perspective."<ref>[https://cfe.torontomu.ca/blog/2020/02/have-we-lost-plot-polanski Umni Khan, 'Have we Lost the Plot with Polanski?' ''Centre for Free Expression'' (Feb 19, 2020)].</ref>
*Celebrity Magician / Illusionist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Copperfield_(illusionist) David Copperfield].
*Various celebrities have been targeted by the UK's Channel 4, with dedicated legacy harassment documentaries made for each. These include the comedian [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Brand Russell Brand] ("Russell Brand: In Plain Sight"), the alternative/gothic musician [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Manson Marylin Manson] ("Manson Unmasked," 3 parts), and the actor [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Spacey Kevin Spacey] ("Spacey Unmasked").
*UK television presenter [https://heretictoc.com/2023/06/11/age-gap-angst-left-must-choose-or-lose/ Philip Schofield].
*[[Bill Cosby]] and his [[Wikipedia:Bill Cosby sexual assault cases|historical abuse allegations]].
*[[Wikipedia:Johnny Kitagawa|Johnny Kitagawa]] - Boy band mogul from [[Pederasty in Japanese culture|Japan]], said to have fellated many boys under his tutelage. Now subject to revisionist history by the BBC.<ref>[https://www.boychat.org/messages/1612221.htm BC list of research on Johnny Kitagawa]</ref> Since then, there have been attempts at nuanced reflection on his struggles, but his status as an abuser has not been questioned, as sadly, Japan is moving the way of American moral norms.<ref>[https://apjjf.org/2023/5/McNeill.html Johnny Kitagawa and the Code of Omerta in Japanese Entertainment. David McNeill]</ref>
*[[Wikipedia:Michael Jackson|Michael Jackson]] - All time great pop icon, believed by most people with the exclusion of a small number of superfans to be [[pedophilia|pedophilic]]. [[Thomas O'Carroll]] produced a well-researched book on him, and [[Essay:Michael Jackson: Secrets|one of our contributors wrote an essay in 2023]].
*The musician / rap artist [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_(musician) Drake] (following a "diss track")<ref>[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/drake-denies-predator-allegations-kendrick-lamar-diss-track-1235890667/ Drake Denies Predator Allegations in New Kendrick Lamar Diss Track: “I’ve Never Been With Anyone Underage”]</ref>
*American footballer, Tom Brady has been "called out" on more than one occasion, for "inappropriate" photographs and "acts" with his sons. This was, however put down to a misunderstanding on both occasions.<ref>[https://hollywoodunlocked.com/tom-brady-catches-backlash-after-posting-poolside-pictures-with-his-teenage-son-in-his-lap/ Tom Brady Catches Backlash After Posting Poolside Pictures With His Teenage Son In His Lap], [https://clutchpoints.com/buccaneers-news-tom-brady-roasted-for-questionable-photo-with-son Tom Brady roasted for questionable photo with son], and [https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/news/a47815/tom-brady-son-kiss/ Tom Brady Under Fire for "Long Kiss" on the Lips With 11-Year-Old Son]</ref>
*Michael Ian Black, following old tweets.<ref>[https://www.cracked.com/article_38747_michael-ian-black-welcomes-an-investigation-into-his-pedo-tweets.html Cracked: Michael Ian Black]</ref>
*David Bowie, Jimmy Page and Mick Jagger, owing to testimony of [[Wikipedia:Lori Mattix|Lori Mattix/Maddox]], one time underage groupie.
*Andreas Schjelderup - Norway Footballer for sharing a [[Child Pornography]] video when he was 19.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c986rez00jno Norway footballer facing conviction for sharing illegal video]</ref> Raul Asencio and others on similar grounds.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6128520/2025/02/11/raul-asencio-real-madrid-appeal-sex-tape-investigation/ Raul Asencio]</ref> Adam Johnson, Christoph Metzelder significant historical cases.
*[[Wikipedia:Scott Mills|Scott Mills]] - British DJ accused, without conclusive evidence, of gay sexual contact with a teenage boy when he was in his 20s.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwykq2lqjw7o BBC News article referencing Scott Mills allegations and some of the softened/humanizing noise surrounding it]</ref>
*Jim Thornton. In 2026, the [[LifeLine]] was the subject of a public controversy after it was discovered ''Wheel of Fortune'' announcer, Jim Thornton was a user, leading to his termination from the show.<ref>[https://pagesix.com/2026/09/04/celebrity-news/wheel-of-fortune-announcer-jim-thornton-fired-after-in-flight-pedophilia-chatroom-incident/ ‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton fired after in-flight pedophilia chatroom incident], [https://pagesix.com/2026/09/03/celebrity-news/photos-show-wheel-of-fortune-announcer-jim-thornton-in-alleged-pedophilia-chatroom-for-nearly-an-hour-on-plane/ Photos show ‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton in alleged pedophilia chatroom for nearly an hour on plane]</ref>

==See also==

*[[Systemic Sexual Harassment]] - All such people should be added to this list.

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: American]][[Category:People: British]][[Category:People: Unknown Nationality]][[Category:People: Deceased]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Popular Authors]][[Category:People: Media]][[Category: People: Historical minor-attracted figures]][[Category:People: Adult or Minor sexually attracted to or involved with the other]][[Category:People: Artists and Poets]][[Category:Lists and Special Articles]][[Category:History & Events: Moral controversies]][[Category:History & Events: Personal Scandals]]

LifeLine

2026-09-06T10:57:25Z

Jim Burton: /* External links */

__NOTOC__'''LifeLine''' is a [[Free Spirits]] resource aimed at giving support to [[boylove]]rs and [[girllove]]rs in difficult life situations by providing real-time chat and a message board with a supportive, confidential environment. More casual conversations also take place when no visitor in crisis is present.

In 2026, the chatroom was the subject of a public controversy after it was discovered ''Wheel of Fortune'' announcer, Jim Thornton was a user, leading to his termination from the show.<ref>[https://pagesix.com/2026/09/04/celebrity-news/wheel-of-fortune-announcer-jim-thornton-fired-after-in-flight-pedophilia-chatroom-incident/ ‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton fired after in-flight pedophilia chatroom incident], [https://pagesix.com/2026/09/03/celebrity-news/photos-show-wheel-of-fortune-announcer-jim-thornton-in-alleged-pedophilia-chatroom-for-nearly-an-hour-on-plane/ Photos show ‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton in alleged pedophilia chatroom for nearly an hour on plane]</ref>

==Organization==

LifeLine is run by a webmaster along with moderators who are called Volunteers (Vols). LifeLine Volunteers are selected from long-term visitors who have been helpful in the chat rooms and send in letters of application. Along with moderating the chat and messageboard, they also answer email and help decide and enforce resource policy.

===Real-time chat===

LifeLine's biggest draw is its real-time chat rooms. Chat is only open while a Volunteer is present to open and moderate the chat room. Volunteers are marked with an ear in the user list to symbolize that they are there to listen to visitors. Sometimes they are called "ears" by visitors.

Because chat is only available while a Vol is on duty, the LifeLine home page lists both scheduled times as well as off-schedule planned times. When chat is not available, visitors can post on the message board or send an email via the contact page or to lifeline@freespirits.org.

==History==

The origins of LifeLine can be traced back to the late 90s when Kabouter first made the suggestion that such a service was needed in the community. After a couple failed suicide attempts by BoyChat posters, Steve2Boys formed a group of posters in Fall 2000 and began working on a plan for a way to help suicidal boylovers. Progress moved slowly. Because LifeLine wanted to be a place for both boylovers and girllovers, as well as youth, it approached Free Spirits with the request for hosting without becoming an official Free Spirits resource. The request was granted, and LifeLine launched as an independent resource in September 2001. Just before LifeLine launched, Steve2Boys stepped down and Nelly became webmaster.

After a suicide by a beloved La Garçonnière poster in December 2004, kody was sucessful in assembling a French-language version of LifeLine in early 2005 It started as scheduled hours in the English chat room, but in January 2005 a French-only chat room was added, followed shortly after with a dedicated message board.

When LifeLine launched, it had a distinctive bright orange design with a little hand grasping the fingers of a larger hand. As the site grew and became more complex, it also became more difficult to navigate. A blue design with unified navigation and incorporating the two hands was designed by Hínandil and was unveiled at the start of the 2005 Free Spirits Fundraiser.

On May 25. 2006 it was officially announced that LifeLine joined the Free Spirits to become a Free Spirits resource.

==External links==

* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/ LifeLine] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/ (https link)]
* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/ LifeLine Message Board] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/ (https link)]
* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/messages/101586.htm Announcement of LifeLine joining Free Spirits] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/messages/101586.htm (https link)]
* [http://boywiki.org/en/LifeLine "LifeLine"] (Original BoyWiki Article)

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]]

==References==

LifeLine

2026-09-06T10:57:09Z

Jim Burton:

__NOTOC__'''LifeLine''' is a [[Free Spirits]] resource aimed at giving support to [[boylove]]rs and [[girllove]]rs in difficult life situations by providing real-time chat and a message board with a supportive, confidential environment. More casual conversations also take place when no visitor in crisis is present.

In 2026, the chatroom was the subject of a public controversy after it was discovered ''Wheel of Fortune'' announcer, Jim Thornton was a user, leading to his termination from the show.<ref>[https://pagesix.com/2026/09/04/celebrity-news/wheel-of-fortune-announcer-jim-thornton-fired-after-in-flight-pedophilia-chatroom-incident/ ‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton fired after in-flight pedophilia chatroom incident], [https://pagesix.com/2026/09/03/celebrity-news/photos-show-wheel-of-fortune-announcer-jim-thornton-in-alleged-pedophilia-chatroom-for-nearly-an-hour-on-plane/ Photos show ‘Wheel of Fortune’ announcer Jim Thornton in alleged pedophilia chatroom for nearly an hour on plane]</ref>

==Organization==

LifeLine is run by a webmaster along with moderators who are called Volunteers (Vols). LifeLine Volunteers are selected from long-term visitors who have been helpful in the chat rooms and send in letters of application. Along with moderating the chat and messageboard, they also answer email and help decide and enforce resource policy.

===Real-time chat===

LifeLine's biggest draw is its real-time chat rooms. Chat is only open while a Volunteer is present to open and moderate the chat room. Volunteers are marked with an ear in the user list to symbolize that they are there to listen to visitors. Sometimes they are called "ears" by visitors.

Because chat is only available while a Vol is on duty, the LifeLine home page lists both scheduled times as well as off-schedule planned times. When chat is not available, visitors can post on the message board or send an email via the contact page or to lifeline@freespirits.org.

==History==

The origins of LifeLine can be traced back to the late 90s when Kabouter first made the suggestion that such a service was needed in the community. After a couple failed suicide attempts by BoyChat posters, Steve2Boys formed a group of posters in Fall 2000 and began working on a plan for a way to help suicidal boylovers. Progress moved slowly. Because LifeLine wanted to be a place for both boylovers and girllovers, as well as youth, it approached Free Spirits with the request for hosting without becoming an official Free Spirits resource. The request was granted, and LifeLine launched as an independent resource in September 2001. Just before LifeLine launched, Steve2Boys stepped down and Nelly became webmaster.

After a suicide by a beloved La Garçonnière poster in December 2004, kody was sucessful in assembling a French-language version of LifeLine in early 2005 It started as scheduled hours in the English chat room, but in January 2005 a French-only chat room was added, followed shortly after with a dedicated message board.

When LifeLine launched, it had a distinctive bright orange design with a little hand grasping the fingers of a larger hand. As the site grew and became more complex, it also became more difficult to navigate. A blue design with unified navigation and incorporating the two hands was designed by Hínandil and was unveiled at the start of the 2005 Free Spirits Fundraiser.

On May 25. 2006 it was officially announced that LifeLine joined the Free Spirits to become a Free Spirits resource.

==External links==

* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/ LifeLine] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/ (https link)]
* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/ LifeLine Message Board] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/ (https link)]
* [http://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/messages/101586.htm Announcement of LifeLine joining Free Spirits] [https://lifeline.ivan.net/msgboard/messages/101586.htm (https link)]
* [http://boywiki.org/en/LifeLine "LifeLine"] (Original BoyWiki Article)

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:Cyber Activism]][[Category:Websites]][[Category:Websites: MAP]][[Category:Websites: Boylove]][[Category:Websites: Girllove]][[Category:Websites: Sympathetic]]