Just as homosexuals are the best qualified to interpret and explain what homosexuality is like, so man/boy lovers are the most qualified to explain what our relationships are like. Ours is a struggle to speak the truth. There will be some who do not wish to be confused by the facts. But others will refuse to put on the blinders offered in the name of traditional morality, respectability, or feminism.

Behind the opposition to man/boy love—whether from the political right or from feminists—is fear. Fear of upsetting neatly arranged applecarts, fear of the power of sexuality and the desire for freedom of sexual expression, fear of vulnerability in the face of mounting right-wing and religious fanaticism, fear of changing social and sexual mores, fear of the unknown. But fear is not a reliable guide to developing a strategy for the liberation of the oppressed.

As a group that favors sexual freedom, NAMBLA should support women in their desire for freedom from male domination. The liberation of sex, and the liberation of children, are inconceivable without the liberation of women from centuries of oppression and male domination. The fact that boy-love is regarded by many people as a “disorganizing” factor in traditional social arrangements should not blind us to the fact that women themselves cannot be free until children are free, until boy-love is free. NAMBLA opposes all forms of adult domination of young people, and champions their right to be treated as full human beings, not as mere chattel to be disposed of as the family and the state see fit. [Emphasis added]