Many thanks to the two psychologists who confirmed what 98% of the people in this group felt about pedophilia.

Feelings are not the same as science. Go back a few years and the overwhelming majority of the medical community felt that homosexuality was an illness. Go back a number of decades and the overwhelming majority of the medical community felt that masturbation caused all sorts of physical and mental afflictions. In the days of slavery, the psychiatric literature was filled with fancy sounding names for the "abnormal desire for freedom" on the part of Blacks along with suggested "treatments".

Any negative consequences of consensual pedophile relationships need to be determined by peer reviewed population based research. Right now, such real research is overwhelmingly on the side of the pedophiles, with the opposition having to resort to carefully picked case studies and public opinion polls in place of solid scientific evidence.

To the NAMBLA people: Just stay away. You're not winning any converts here.

This battle is not a quest for converts. Whether the majority of American adults support sexual autonomy for minors is not the issue here. No one in the history of the world has ever won their freedom by begging for it on their knees before their oppressors.

When young people get tired enough of living like second class citizens in their own country, they will incentivize appropriate changes in the existing social order. Once that is done, the personal opinions of psychologists, parents, and other interlopers will no longer matter. Young people will finally be able to act in their own enlightened self-interest independent of needing permission from some adult with a power and control agenda.

Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $

mpd@netcom.com $ via Finger. $