Zombie: “In fact, I have been unable to find information about any NAMBLA conference which Harry Hay didn’t attend.”
–From ZombieTime, Memo to Kevin Jennings: Your reputation is on the line

MEDIA MATTERS: “Harry Hay Was NEVER A Member Of NAMBLA”

Pity poor Media Matters, the Left’s “watch dog” that acts like an attack dog.

The left wing political group has jumped into the fray to defend the honor of “Safe Schools” Czar Kevin Jennings: MM has labeled information that has emerged about Jennings and his praise of NAMBLA promoter Harry Hay (whom Jennings said “inspired me”) as a “smear”.

From Smear: Kevin Jennings Praised A Member Of NAMBLA:

The conservative smear machine, still attempting to damage progressives by drawing shady guilt-by-association connections, is trying to link Kevin Jennings, the head of the Department of Education’s Office of Safe & Drug Free Schools, to the North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). It’s no surprise that upon examining the facts, no such connection exists.

The poorly-sourced article continues, first labeling revelations about Jennings as a “smear” which MM helpfully corrects with its version of the “truth”.

Smear: Kevin Jennings Praised A Member Of NAMBLA
TRUTH
Jennings Admired Harry Hay For Founding The First Gay Rights Group… That’s It
Harry Hay Was NEVER A Member Of NAMBLA

The second contention is especially interesting. One wonders how Media Matters obtained this information, as NAMBLA, understandably, doesn’t make its membership publicly available.

Photojournalist Zombie, at ZombieTime, has more than a few pictures–as well as other documentation–that Media Matters may want to check out before committing too much to this fight.

Zombie: “I don’t know what it takes to be considered “in NAMBLA” or a “NAMBLA member,” but someone who makes appearances at and gives speeches at every known NAMBLA conference, and who speaks out publicly in NAMBLA’s defense, and who writes blurbs for NAMBLA books, would seem to be a likely candidate.”

Zombie also hints that there is much more to come if Jennings doesn’t publicly disavow NAMBLA.

From Memo to Kevin Jennings: Your reputation is on the line:

According to a NAMBLA Web page called “A Quest for Knowledge: HARRY HAY at NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 1983,” Hay wrote the promotional blurb for a NAMBLA book:

The episode is documented in the book, A Witchhunt Foiled: The FBI vs. NAMBLA (New York: NAMBLA, 1985), for which Harry wrote a promotional blurb.

Then, on the same page, after recounting his own early man/boy experiences (as the boy half of the equation), Hay goes on to make the most astonishing statement:

I also would like to say at this point that it seems to me that in the gay community the people who should be running interference for NAMBLA are the parents and friends of gays. Because if the parents and friends of gays are truly friends of gays, they would know from their gay kids that the relationship with an older man is precisely what thirteen-, fourteen-, and fifteen-year-old kids need more than anything else in the world. And they would be welcoming this, and welcoming the opportunity for young gay kids to have the kind of experience that they would need.

Kevin Jennings, we know you do not support this kind of statement, and you are not “inspired” by the kind of activism Harry Hay exhibits here. For the good of the gay community, PLEASE condemn this publicly and emphatically.

[ABOVE Harry Hay at 1984 NAMBLA Conference. Hay is seated far right at table. PIC and Captions below from Zombietime]
[Source link for this image: nambla.org - Youth Views and Issues]
(also here: nambla.org – HARRY HAY San Francisco, 1984)

Zombie has pix of Hay at NAMBLA conferences, marching with NAMBLA in parades and speaking at NAMBLA events. Zombie: “In fact, I have been unable to find information about any NAMBLA conference which Harry Hay didn’t attend.”

There is much, much more at Zombie Time. An update at her website concludes with this UPDATE:

Oh dear. Looks like Kevin Jennings edited and co-wrote a book called Becoming Visible about the history of gay activism in which there is an entire chapter about Harry Hay! It is partly searchable on Amazon: Click here for a link to the Amazon “Peek Inside” feature for the book, and scroll to its table of contents.

Against this avalanche of evidence that Henry Hay was a member of NAMBLA, Media Matters offers a 1994 statement from Hays: “I am not a member of NAMBLA, nor would it ever have been my inclination to be one.”

MM also offers up, as evidence that Hays wasn’t a NAMBLA member–obituaries? We’ll let that one slide–without debating the point of how many people would consider mentioning a deceased’s NAMBLA membership in an obituary.

Kevin Jennings has done some good deeds in his day. But he’s also done some ill-considered ones. They may not be considered ill-considered if Jennings were a private citizen, perhaps–but Jenning is “Safe Schools” Czar, not a private citizen.

All political appointees have to answer questions and, as a political appointee, Jennings has to answer these questions in his past. Many parents, as well as non-parents, would likely be interested in the truth of the matter.

And no amount of damage control, no amount of labeling of documented information as “smears”, and no amount of name-calling from Media Matters will change that.

For a media “watch dog”, you’d think they’d watch a little more carefully what they label as “smears”.
Maybe if they spent less effort on attacking and more on watching and checking, they’d be better at what they’re supposed to be doing.

by Mondo Frazier
images: DBKP file; Zombietime