Вредно для несовершеннолетних

Selective quotation, exaggeration, and outright lies are time-honored tactics of the Right. Judith Reisman has long circulated the calumny that Alfred Kinsey conducted sexual experiments on infants at his institute; she offers no substantiation. Focus on the Family routinely refers to sex-ed curricula as «pornography.» For decades, sex-ed opponents have broadcast rumors of teachers disrobing in the classroom and children molding genitals out of clay. In Talk About Sex , sociologist Janice M. Irvine calls these «depravity narratives,» tales that strain credibility one by one, but in great enough numbers stir suspicion that something like them must be true. Would I actually molest my niece and nephew? A listener might dismiss that insinuation as too extreme. But a person like me who wrote a book like that might do something almost as bad—such as condoning molestation.

In the past, such stories were reproduced in right-wing publications and at public meetings, on radio and television. The Internet only multiplies the speed and reach of this dissemination. By June, 2002, a Google search for the term «Judith Levine abuse» yielded more than 7,400 matches, most resembling the second one on the screen: «BOUNDLESS — EXCUSING CHILD ABUSE... One of the apostles of this movement, Judith Levine...»

In an already combustible atmosphere of sexual panic, distortions and lies raise the temperature and throw in the match. Voil, a «firestorm of controversy.»

Guilt by Association, or Sexual McCarthyism

The charge against me was not only that I am an advocate of pedophilia, but that I am part of an organized and increasingly influential «pro-pedophile lobby,» whose aim is «normalizing» child abuse. One clue to my membership was that citation of Bruce Rind. Another was the author of the book's foreword, Joycelyn Elders. You may remember Elders' pro-pedophilic crime. She told an audience of sex educators that masturbation would be an appropriate topic of sex-ed classroom discussion; this inspired the Republican House of Representatives in 1994 to demand her resignation. Knight, on Concerned Women's Web site, described the events this way: «Elders was fired by Bill Clinton shortly after she began a campaign to teach children to masturbate.»

The pro-pedophile lobby allegedly has been around for a long time. In a U.S. News and World Report column rebuking me, John Leo recalled his own prescience in uncovering the conspiracy. «Back in 1981, an astute writer at Time magazine (that would be me) noticed that pro-pedophilia arguments were catching on among some sex researchers and counselors, [psychologist] Larry Constantine, [sex researchers] Wardell Pomeroy, and Alfred Kinsey,» he wrote, leading up to my own connections to the lobby. « Harmful to Minors has a foreword by former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, so don't say you weren't warned.» Washington Times writer Robert Stacy McCain contributed a catalogue of my «pedophile sources» to the Web site of Concerned Women. «Yes, Virginia,» he wrote. «There is a pedophile movement, and Judith Levine's book is part of it.»

But pedophiles and their lobbyists were not bad enough for some, so worse co-conspirators were proposed. While Reisman linked me to Hitler, a NewsCorridor columnist named Gregory J. Hand located me at the other end of the political spectrum, as a «bisexual Marxist Jewess,» apparently part of the international Jewish conspiracy that not only controls the banks and the press, but also is «promoting adult-child sex.» McCain's Concerned Women piece offered this bit of commentary: «A Google search reveals that [Levine] has described herself as a 'red-diaper baby'—that is, the child of Communist Party activists—and a socialist herself, who has written that she is 'allergic to religion.' Very interesting, but not a word of it in the New York Times or USA Today.» This revelation, along with the writer's insinuation that the press was covering it up, evoked a charming bit of nostalgia. The John Birch Society and Christian Crusade in the 1960s called the Republican Quaker founding president of SIECUS, Mary Calderone, and her colleagues «atheists» and «one-worlders,» a code word for communists. They also frequently pointed out how many sex educators and sexologists were Jews (who were also suspected of traitorous sentiments) and declared that together these people were softening up America's youth for conversion by the godless Reds. When the «red-diaper» comment came up at the end of a long phone interview, I broke the news to McCain: «I hate to tell you, Rob, but the Communist Party's position on sex was about as progressive as the Catholic Church's.»

Marginalization