Peter Scott-Presland
Eric Presland, now known professionally as Peter Scott-Presland,[1][2][3] (born 1949) is a British gay writer and cabaret artist, and founder of the Homo Promos theater company.
In 1981, his chapter Whose power? Whose consent?, was published as an original contribution in the landmark text The Age Taboo: Gay Male Sexuality, Power and Consent, edited by Daniel Tsang. In 1986, he contributed a chapter to The Betrayal of Youth, edited by the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE's) Vice-Chair Warren Middleton. Presland states this "opened a polemic about the nature of consent", but "has been quoted extensively out of context on the internet by members of the Christian Right anxious to show that all gay men are paedophiles."[4]
His stories and plays sometimes feature consensual age-gap relationships, between people under 16 and older people over 18[5] - rendered under law as statutory rape or sexual assault regardless of the willingness or wishes of the sexual partners.
References
- ↑ He changed his name in the year 2000. As stated on his website: Footnote: Eric Presland changed his name to Peter Scott-Presland in 2000. This has made it difficult to identify references to him on the internet. On this site, all performances, scripts etc prior to 2000 are attributed to Eric Presland, later ones to Peter Scott-Presland.
- ↑ "Specifically, and most usefully from Peter Scott-Presland, formerly Eric Presland, who's been running the gay theatre group Homo Promos ever since 1988 - the year of Section 28" - Quoted from Interview with Tom Robinson part 4 - Glad To Be Gay.
- ↑ We can deduce further that Peter Scott-Presland is, in-fact, Eric Presland, by his own stated history of working with the Pub Theatre Company in Birmingham, England, which makes up part of the author description in his 1981 chapter for The Age Taboo.
- ↑ Quoted from the Homo Promos Website, including Footnote 1.
- ↑ See his description of his playStar Turn ("born on 9 January 1988 [...] the day of the first demonstration against the proposed Section 28"): "I needed a fictional offence more serious than a grope in a toilet; I came up with a relationship with a 15-year-old boy. I thought by locating the boy at that age, I would place the character on the cusp of audience sympathy. Some would regard it as paedophilia, and some wouldn't." The page links to the script for the play and a Youtube recording.