A trustee for a British charity that advocates for transgender children has resigned after it emerged he once gave a speech to a pedophile group or “minor-attracted persons” as he framed it.
Dr. Jacob Breslow handed his resignation to the Mermaids charity.
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The Times of London reports that Breslow gave at a presentation at a B4U-ACT conference. The group was founded by an ex-convict who served four years in prison for sexually assaulting children.
The group says it offers services and resources “for self-identified individuals … who are sexually attracted to children and desire such assistance.”
On his website, Breslow claims his research “brings together critical race, trans, feminist, queer, critical migration, and psychoanalytic theories to explore the role of childhood in shaping and challenging the disposability of young black life, the steadfastness of the gender binary, the queer life of children’s desires, and the precarious status of migrants.”
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He is currently a gender and sexuality prof at the London School of Economics.
In 2011, he said: “Allowing for a form of non-diagnosable minor attraction is exciting, as it potentially creates a sexual or political identity by which activists, scholars and clinicians can begin to better understand Minor Attracted Persons.”
He added: “This understanding may displace the stigma, fear and abjection that is naturalized as being attached to Minor Attracted Persons and may alter the terms by which non-normative sexualities are known.
“Furthermore, this paper argues that this distinction is potentially another step towards the complete re-thinking of paraphilias within the DSM – a step that follows historically and theoretically from the removal of homosexuality.”
Breslow released a statement following his resignation.
He said: “I unequivocally condemn child sexual abuse. My work is about protecting marginalized children and young people, not exposing them to harm.”
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Breslow said he believed the 2011 conference was about offering treatment for pedophiles along with better intervention to “prevent harm to children”.
He added that he cut ties to the group following the 2011 conference.
“I decided to resign as a Trustee of Mermaids as I did not want to distract from the good work the charity is doing to help transgender and gender-diverse children,” he said.
Recently, some activists and academics have tried to soften pedophilia’s image.
In August, a YouTube video went viral that featured sex therapist Miranda Galbreath appearing to defend “minor-attracted persons.”
“They are probably the most vilified population of folks in our culture,” Galbreath said in the video called “Let’s talk about minor-attracted persons”.
Another nutty professor lost their job at Old Dominion University in Virginia. Trans prof Dr. Allyn Walker attempted to normalize the phrase “minor-attracted persons.”
bhunter@postmedia.com
@HunterTOSun