Progressives Take Heed: Rock, Paper, “Conservative Smear Machine” Won’t Cover Jennings, Hay, NAMBLA Controversy

Yesterday we published two separate posts on Obama “Safe Schools” Czar Kevin Jennings, Henry Hay, and NAMBLA.

In our post, Obama Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings, Henry Hay, and NAMBLA: Jennings Faces Scrutiny over Purported Speech Praising Hay, we wrote where questions had been raised as to whether Jennings knew of Henry Hay’s ties to NAMBLA before Jennings allegedly praised Hay in a 1997 speech, calling Hay an “inspiration”. We also linked to credible info which showed gay activist Henry Hay giving speeches at NAMBLA events as well as participating in NAMBLA marches.

In our second post, Kevin Jennings, NAMBLA: Media Matters WRONG on Kevin Jennings, NAMBLA, we responded to an article written by Media Matters claiming the Kevin Jennings story was the product of the “conservative smear machine” attempting to link “Progressives” such as Jennings by “drawing shady guilt-by-association connections”. Media Matter then claimed there was no “proof” Henry Hay was a “member” of NAMBLA, Hay had “written a statement in 1994 that he wasn’t a member”, and that, there was no mention in Hay’s obituary that Hay was a member of NAMBLA.

Media Matters wrote that Jennings admired Hay as the founding father the “first Gay Rights Group”. Period. End of case. We’ve proved our point, nothing more to see, now move along….

Media Matter’s highly-idiotic assertion that Hay wasn’t a member of NAMBLA based upon the “proof” of Hay’s obituary-if this is going to be the “standard of proof in ascertaining whether someone was a member of NAMBLA, NAMBLA members must be silently cheering Media Matters-how many obituaries can you recall containing the deceased’s membership in NAMBLA?

Another point to ponder, whether someone would publicly acknowledge a NAMBLA membership?

Aside from whether Hay was an actual member of NAMBLA there’s more than enough evidence that Hay, in not an actual member, was a very vocal supporter of NAMBLA and who participated in NAMBLA meetings and marches. Proof which we outlined in the two posts we published yesterday. Even so, that was yesterday, and as a conservative “smear machine” the weary “never rest”. We’ve discovered the text of 1994 speech Hay gave to NAMBLA members, an assertion from NAMBLA founder, David Thorstad, that Hay “was a vocal and courageous supporter of NAMBLA” and that since Hay’s death, “many of the assimilationists in the gay and lesbian movement, including its most prominent organizations, have already sought to erase that part of his radicalism (not to mention his Communist roots and vocal critiques of their own accommodationist approach to the powers that be)”.

Media Matters could and most likely would argue that any assertions by the founder of NAMBLA would be suspect. Even so, there’s the pesky matter of corroborating evidence that cannot be “dismissed” such as photos, texts of speeches Hay’s gave to NAMBLA, as well as a NAMBLA book which Hay wrote a “blurb”-see Zombietime. Even so, statements made by NAMBLA founder David Thorstad, as well as Hay’s “support” are corroborated by other, verifiable sources. Sources which confirm Hay’s participation in supporting NAMBLA during a very turbulent period for ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association. When ILGA purged NAMBA from its ranks after the United Nations voted to cut its funding. An event that occurred in 1994, and which, by 1997, Kevin Jennings, as a gay activist, should have been aware of.

First up, more proof of Hay’s association with NAMBLA. The source: an article published online by…. NAMBLA. The subject of the article: the text of a speech given by Hays to NAMBLA members in 1994. In his speech, Hay made this assertion: The International Lesbian and Gay Organization was “instituted” and “developed” by NAMBLA in the 1970’s. Also in Hay’s speech, how “times had changed” for gay groups and the “steps” NAMBLA needed to take in order to be “cutting edge”.

Henry Hay:

“The early seventies were a time for rage. The late seventies were a time for wide-open experimentation. NAMBLA participated in instituting and developing the International Lesbian and Gay Association during this period. The eighties were to have been a time for growth and change, developing ourselves and firming up contributions we’d always dreamed to introduce to the mainstream society around us. Changes would be in the social mainstream as our contributions began to interact. But, as is so often the case with the best-laid plans of mice, we had overlooked taking reckon of our host, the Reagan administration, the slimy creature of finance capital and the world economy.”

Hay spoke about “growth and change” in “all groups” in the gay community, a community, which if you read the text of his speech, included NAMBLA:

Growth and change indeed has taken place in the eighties and nineties—but on the cutting edge of the gay and lesbian community, to its everlasting honor, and not in the hetero mainstream, to its everlasting shame. By far, gays’ and lesbians’ greatest strides were in the dimensions of gay consciousness and in our breathtaking discoveries in the richness and diversity of gay spirit. It is in the realm of gay spirit where all the groups comprising the gay and lesbian community currently are being challenged to take great leaps, to expand their self-visions and potential horizons.

Here I would suggest that NAMBLA’s recent affronts from the likes of ILGA’s national board and other similar respectables be taken into account. The climate of gay consciousness has changed since the rip-roaring weeks and months of July ‘69 through July ‘74. Many of the forward-moving groups have upped the quality of their perceptions and expanded the parameters of their horizons. In this period, my beloved Radical Faeries moved to perceive that our lovely and beautiful sexuality is the gateway to spirit. Perhaps NAMBLA might consider expanding its parameters also.

Since the NAMBLA speech is copyrighted, follow the link to read the text of Hay’s speech that followed this paragraph. If you don’t want to link to NAMBLA, we’ve copied the last paragraph, the paragraph were Hay stated his “purpose” for the speech, of NAMBLA “devising a fresh decor” for NAMBLA’s “1990’s parameters”, the “cutting edge of gay spirit”, the “truly shining path to live for”, in a world where “hetero hysteria” is “clearly out of control”:

“It is my purpose today, in this brief discourse, to lay out for your delection these ingredients, which you might find engaging in devising a fresh decor for your 1990s parameters, ones that might infer delightful hidden approaches to gay spirit. The image of the older devotee being totally responsible for the shining boy Apollo, whose inspirational shaping is within his spirit care, the modern-day equivalent of the immortal pair of the older-younger lovers of the Theban Band, each nonpossessively challenging the other to grow and develop to his finest potential, continues to embody, in my view, the responsible cutting edge of gay spirit, a truly shining path to live for. In today’s frightening world where the hysteria of the hetero world is clearly out of control, we all of us need more of such hand holds to steady our courses.”

According to NAMBLA founder David Thorstad, Henry Hay gave speeches at NAMBLA meetings in “New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles” in the 1980’s, as well as New York in 1994-the above quotes of Hay’s were from the New York speech given June, 1994, at Stonewall 25, the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

According to Thorstad, Hay was a “vocal and courageous supporter of NAMBLA” where, after his death in 2002, “many of the assimilationists in the gay and lesbian movement, including its most prominent organizations, have already sought to erase that part of his radicalism (not to mention his Communist roots and vocal critiques of their own accommodationist approach to the powers that be)”.

According to Thorstad, Hay’s ties to NAMBLA, as well as Hay’s Communist “roots”, were busy being erased by gay advocate groups by the time of Hay’s death.

Thorstad noted that in 1975, as President of New York’s Gay Alliance, the group had received a letter from Hay who currently lived in Taos, New Mexico. Thorstad’s account gives a “snapshot” of Hay’s “fall from grace” from Mattachine, whom Hay had founded in 1950:

When I was president of New York’s Gay Activists Alliance in 1975, we received a letter from Harry from Taos, where he was then living, in which he expounded his ideas, with lots of capital letters and, to me, rather strange formulations. I was excited, because I hadn’t realized that he was still alive, since he had remained largely silent so far as gay issues were concerned since he was driven out of Mattachine for his radicalism. So when I met him in 1983, I prepared a lavish turkey dinner for him, John, and Katherine.

Background on David Thorstad:

“Another of the early leaders of the “gay rights” movement was David Thorstad, also a self-identified pederast. Thorstad was president of the Gay Activist Alliance (Stop Promoting Homo-
sexuality Hawaii Newsletter, November, 1994:6), one of the larg-est of the groups which formed in New York in the wake of the Stonewall riot. The GAA invented “the strategy of ‘zapping’ politicians,” writes Marotta, “that would later become [its]trademark… [they] had learned that homosexuals could infiltrate political gatherings and make themselves heard through sheer brashness” (Marotta: 137). The GAA also developed the strategy of using these “carefully staged confrontations” to force politicians to enact “anti-discrimination” policies.”

More info on Thorstad as one of the founders of NAMBLA as well as evidence of Hay’s support of NAMBLA in 1986 and 1994:

Thorstad, along with Reeves and others, later went on to form the North American Man/Boy Love Association in Boston in 1978 (NAMBLA Bulletin, September, 1992:2). NAMBLA, which is
the largest “pederast rights” organization in the country, cloaks its agenda in rhetoric about concern for the rights of children to have “sexual freedom.” (Pascal:49). In recent years NAMBLA has come under attack by some elements of the “gay rights” alliance, who have tried to exclude the group from some of the higher profile media events. But this has evoked a violent response from its defenders. When NAMBLA was denied a role in the 1986 Los Angeles “Gay Pride Parade,” marcher Harry Hay donned a sweatshirt printed with the legend, “NAMBLA Walks With Me.” Timmons writes that Hay, “[c]ould not contain his outrage” that NAMBLA was excluded (Timmons:296). More recently, as reported in the NAMBLA Bulletin, Hay was a featured speaker at NAMBLA’s annual membership conference, June 24-25, 1994:

[Hel gave an inspiring talk about reclaiming for
the 1990's the spirit of homoerotic sharing and love
from various ancient Greek traditions of pederasty.
A remarkably balanced and sensitive account of
the conference appeared in the August 23 Advo-
cate from a writer who was invited to attend
(NAMBLA Bulletin, September, 1994:3).

More from Thorgard on Hay, NAMBLA, and the push to expell NAMBLA from International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) in 1994:

From then on, I considered him a friend. I was lucky to have spent more time with him than I could have hoped for, yet far less than I would have liked—at Phil Willkie’s Wisconsin cabin and his St. Paul apartment; at the Stonewall 25 demonstration in New York in 1994, where Harry and John, as well as the late Jim Kepner (another early member of the Mattachine Society and a gay archivist) marched with the Spirit of Stonewall contingent that included NAMBLA; and at the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) conference in New York that same week, which expelled NAMBLA (despite Harry’s vocal protests and subsequent disgust) under pressure from U.S. Senator Jesse Helms, the Clinton administration, gay congressman Barney Frank, and the gay and lesbian assimilationist organizations; at his and John’s apartment in San Francisco; at a Faerie event in Stuyvesant Square Park in New York; at several NAMBLA conferences…

In Hay's 1994 NAMBLA speech, he addressed IGLA and stated:

"The early seventies were a time for rage. The late seventies were a time for wide-open experimentation. NAMBLA participated in instituting and developing the International Lesbian and Gay Association during this period."

What's interesting to note is ILGA's background and the involvement of "paedolphilia" groups and funding from the United Nations.

From EconomicExpert.com:

"In 1993, the ILGA was an organization of about 300 gay and lesbian organizations throughout the world, including NAMBLA, Martijn and other pederast/ pedophile groups, as well as gay and lesbian groups that had pederast/pedophile sub-groups.

In the summer of 1993, the International Lesbian and Gay Association gained consultative status in the United Nations, as a Non-Governmental-Organization, joining 3,000 orgs throughout the world.

In October of 1993, pressure from American right-wing groups and politicians began to be exerted on ILGA to kick out its pedophile organization members. The US Mission to the UN asked ILGA to "disassociate itself from NAMBLA and other affiliate organizations" whose "objectives are not consonant with the UN's human rights activities".

In November of 1993, the executive committee declared that ILGA "condems pedophilia", contrary to some past resolutions on the matter, and asked NAMBLA, Martijn, and Project Truth to resign voluntarily from ILGA. None of the groups agreed to do so. On the 15th of November , NAMBLA issued a press release reaffirming its membership in ILGA.

In January 1994, the American Senate, on the motion of the right-wing senator Jesse Helms, unanimously decided that the USA had to withhold funds of more than 118 million dollars due to the UN and its sub-organizations unless the President of the USA could certify to the Congress by 30 September 1994 that no agency of the United Nations 'grants any official status, accreditation or recognition to any organization which promotes, condones or seeks the legalization of pedophilia or which includes as a subsidiary or member any such organization'. (From the VSG release)

On June 23, 1994, at the Annual Conference, NAMBLA, Martijn and Project Truth were expelled from ILGA, on the motion of the executive committee, and it was decided that 'groups or associations whose predominant aim is to support or promote pedophilia are incompatible with the future development of ILGA'.

Mentioned in the subsequent protests against NAMBLA's ouster from the ILGA: Henry Hay.

"On the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the event that sparked the contemporary gay and lesbian movement, the NAMBLA Bulletin was released in a brown paper format to rally support for NAMBLA and so-called "boy love" organizations within the gay community. Due to the pressures facing NAMBLA, its members organized a group called the Spirit of Stonewall (SOS), which gathered the endorsement of some figures and organizations in the gay movement. Despite threats of arrest, 50 NAMBLA members and 200 supporters, including Harry Hay, marched under the banner of SOS."

NAMBLA fired back at ILGA. Excerpt from a statement sent by NAMBLA's Roy Radow to the ILGA Secretariat:

NAMBLA has been a member of the International Lesbian and Gay Association for 10 years. 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. We are proud of our contributions in making ILGA a stronger voice for the international gay and lesbian movement and for sexual justice.

In spite of this proud history, four of ILGA's six secretariats, meeting in New York, November 5-7, have request NAMBLA to resign and stated that they will seek its expulsion by the general membership this summer unless it complies. This small administrative body individuals issued press releases on November 7 stating that ILGA "condemns pedophilia" and that NAMBLA's "political aims... are in direct contradiction" to those of ILGA. In particular, the statement cites NAMBLA's opposition to age-of-consent laws as a tool for protecting young people from sexual coercion.

Radow pointed out "positions adopted by ILGA in the past decade", positions that belied the apparently concerted effort of ILGA to "distance" itself from NAMBLA in an attempt to seek the UN's ban on barring ILGA and thus, ending the UN's funding of the organization:

ILGA's current positions on man/boy love and pedophilia are
explicit:

-- In 1985, ILGA adopted a position on "Age of Consent/Paedophilia/Children's Rights" that urged member organizations to "lobby their governments to abolish the age of consent law" so long as there is "adequate protection for youth from being sexually abused without the age of consent law."

-- In 1986, ILGA adopted a position that says the group "supports the right of young people to sexual and social self-determination."

-- In 1988, ILGA declared "this conference recognizes that existing same-sex age-of-consent laws often operate to oppress and not to protect; that in many countries, existing laws on sexual coercion
and rules of evidence also often operate to oppress and not to protect; that therefore member organizations are urged to consider how best children, adolescents, and people of all ages can be
empowered and supported against both sexual coercion and sexual oppression and to work towards that end."

-- In 1990, ILGA "calls on all members to treat all sexual minorities with respect and to engage in constructive dialogue with them. In another position adopted that year, ILGA declared that it "supports the right of every individual, regardless of age, to explore and develop her or his sexuality."

What's interesting to note is that a current member of the ILGF is the American Federation of Teachers.

Here's a copy of the speech Kevin Jennings purportedly made in 1997 praising Henry Hay courtesy of ZombieTime:

“One of the people that’s always inspired me is Harry Hay, who started the first ongoing gay rights groups in America. In 1948, he tried to get people to join the Mattachine Society. It took him two years to find one other person who would join. Well, [in] 1993, Harry Hay marched with a million people in Washington, who thought he had a good idea 40 years before. Everybody thought Harry Hay was crazy in 1948, and they knew something about him which he apparently did not—they were right, he was crazy. You are all crazy. We are all crazy. All of us who are thinking this way are crazy, because you know what? Sane people keep the world the same [shitty] old way it is now. It’s the people who think, ‘No, I can envision a day when straight people say, “So what if you’re promoting homosexuality?”‘ Or straight kids say, ‘Hey, why don’t you and your boyfriend come over before you go to the prom and try on your tuxes on at my house?’ That if we believe that can happen, we can make it happen. The only thing that will stop us is our lack of faith that we can make it happen. That is our mission from this day forward. To not lose our faith, to not lose our belief that the world can, indeed, be a different place. And think how much can change in one lifetime if in Harry Hay’s one very short life, he saw change from not even one person willing to join him to a million people willing to travel to Washington to join him.“

Part of Media Matter’s “defense” of Kevin Jennings:

During A Conference In 1997, Jennings Praised Harry Hay For Founding America’s First Gay Rights Organization. According to the anti-gay “Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, while speaking at a conference in 1997 GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings said: “One of the people that’s always inspired me is Harry Hay, who started the first ongoing gay rights groups in America.

Media Matters never “fact-checked” whether Jennings gave the speech praising Hay. In fact, Media Matters never “disputed” Jennings gave the speech. Media Matters stated:

Jennings Admired Harry Hay For Founding The First Gay Rights Group… That’s It

We’d like to thank Media Matters for this statement, as, to date, Jennings has yet to confirm he gave the speech, nor made the statement “praising Hay”. It’s been stated here that Jennings “purportedly” made the statement and that Jennings should either state he never made the statement, and, if so, whether he was aware of Hay’s very public support of NAMBLA in 1994, three years before Jennings purportedly “praised” Hay.

There’s ample evidence Hay supported NAMBLA. One would have to call into question the motives as to why anyone, at this juncture, would attempt argue the opposite. Or whether the argument, that since Hay wasn’t a “member”, and merely a very vocal “supporter”, one can somehow “separate” Hay and NAMBLA?

One would also have to call into question as why it’s a “smear job” to ask the very pertinent questions of whether Obama’s “Safe Schools” Czar praised Hay, and if so, how the Czar was able to disassociate Hay from Hay’s ties to NAMBLA, The North American Man/Boy Love Association ?

As we noted in an earlier Jennings post, you could claim a “smear job” if Kevin Jennings were Obama’s “car” czar. He’s not, he’s in the role of Obama’s Safe Schools Czar, a job that deals with schools and kids. Claiming it’s a “conservative smear job” won’t fly. Not when the matter at hand deals directly with the welfare of our children, which Progressive media “sources” should respect, rather than counter with claims of “smear tactics”.

By LBG

Image – NAMBLA Protest March