Roger Moody
Roger Moody (Born circa. 1940 - Died June, 2022) was a British socialist and civil libertarian MAP author, social worker, political theorist and activist for various left-wing causes. These causes included labor/worker's rights, the rights of indigenous peoples and mining communities, nuclear disarmament and an opposition to war, and the right of mutually willing sexual expression for sexual minorities, including MAPs and young people. Moody was an "out"/open pedophile during the 1970s, before this previously obscure psychiatric term became widely known in Britain and heavily demonized/stigmatized in the 1980s (Basannavar, 2019).[1] Moody became the co-editor of the longstanding pacifist magazine Peace News (founded in 1933), publishing a short book through Word is Out/Peace News entitled "Indecent Assault" (1980). Structured like a diary, Indecent Assault gives Moody's reflections during the proceedings of a legal case brought against him, which alleged 4 counts of sexual touching (known legally as "indecent/sexual assault") and 1 count of attempted anal sex ("attempted buggery") with a 10-year-old male. Moody was acquitted in April 1979.[2] Moody died peacefully in his home in late May or early July, 2022.
Moody published articles on MAP issues such as "How to Make Paedophilia Acceptable" (1984) and "Man/Boy Love and the Left" (1981), which we archive and summarize here while providing a fuller bibliography at the end of this page.
A 2022 obituary explains Moody's non-MAP focused activism.[3] According to the obituary, Moody "was born in Bristol in the 1940s [...] active in the peace movement and, along with his friend Jan Roberts, set up CIMRA (Colonialism and Indigenous Minorities Research and Action) to stimulate support for indigenous land rights struggles across the world." Moody was "centrally involved" in the "Mines and Communities network," established in 2001 to share information on mining, with Moody's focus being on Asia-Pacific mining. "In 2019," the author reports, "Mines and Communities was awarded the UK-based Gandhi Foundation's prestigious Peace Prize, largely because of Roger's work on mining in India."
"For many years, Roger cared for his older brother Peter, who had Down's Syndrome [...and] died in 1998 [...] Roger and Peter wrote a book about their life together, called Half Left. (Peter would usually reply to the question, "Are you all right Pete?" with the quip, "No, I'm half left.") Roger actively promoted the rights and welfare of people with Down's Syndrome, and much of his passion for solidarity with those who are different from expected social norms sprang from his love and respect for his older brother. [...] Roger wrote many, many articles and books. Among his major books on mining are Plunder! (a history of RTZ to 1991), The Gulliver File (an encyclopedic history of world mining companies to 1992), Into the Unknown Regions (about submarine disposal), The Risks We Run (about mining political risk insurance), and Rocks and Hard Places: The Globalization of Mining.
Roger accumulated a number of aliases during his writing career, notably Digby Knight and Mogador. Friends in India loved to call him Rajah Moody. Over the last two decades, he usually wrote under the banner of Nostromo Research, named for the character in Joseph Conrad's novel of the same name."
A lengthy discussion of Moody's life is provided by , who claims Moody was a graduate from the University of Edinburgh, and alleges that Moody was offered a character reference from
Writings on pedophilia and youth sexuality
Since Moody is known to have used pseudonyms, we archive and summarize/quote Moody's writings on intergenerational sexuality that are written without a pen-name.
- “Bunking off is not the crime” Letter from Roger Moody, Islington Gazette, 23 May 1991 p.8
Bibliography of Moody's MAP-related writings.
- Peadophile Politics, PIE Newsletter No. 8 - autumn 1975 [Photographed and readable here. A shorter version of this article appeared in Gay Left No. 2 (Spring 1976)]
- When the law goes below the waterline, Roger Moody, Letters to the Editor, The Guardian, 1 August 1983
- 'Not so menacing a magazine' Roger Moody, Letters to the Editor, The Guardian, 4 May 1984