London’s Metropolitan Police have announced that they are partnering with LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, who has a lengthy history of lobbying for removing age of consent laws entirely.
Tatchell even contributed to a book defending sex with children curated by Warren Middleton, former vice-chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).
The Metropolitan Police posted a video on Twitter explaining that they are working with Tatchell and the Peter Tatchell Foundation to “build trust and confidence” in order to “encourage more LGBT+ people to come forward to report hate crimes, domestic violence and sexual assaults.”
"We are listening to London’s LGBT+ communities, our Community Liaison Officers are a core part of that. We welcome support from @PT_Foundation and others as we look forward to building a new Met for London, one all Londoners can be proud of and in which they can have confidence," the department wrote in a follow up tweet. ‘Dedicated officers build trust and confidence that will encourage more LGBT+ people to come forward to report hate crime, domestic violence and sexual assaults.'
We welcome @PeterTatchell @PT_Foundation’s support for restoring LGBT+ Community Liaison Officers.
Read more 🧵⬇ pic.twitter.com/skxdFHhW33
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 26, 2023
Social media users were quick to point out Tatchell's beliefs. Really? Someone needs firing over this. pic.twitter.com/g1BtX3huwi
— Graham Linehan (@Glinner) June 26, 2023
"Several of my friends, gay and straight, male and female, had sex with adults from the ages of nine to 13. None feel they were abused. All say it was their concious choice and gave them great joy," Tatchell wrote in a letter printed in the Guardian in 1997. "While it may be impossible to condone paedophilia, it is time society acknowledged that not all sex with children is unwanted, abusive, and harmful." British LGBT Activist Peter Tatchell in this clip thinks a “9 year old can consent to sex with a 50 year old man.”
Justifying the unjustifiable.
A child is never accountable, and can’t know at 9 years old.
The 50 year old? An unethical, immoral, sick pedophile. PERIOD. pic.twitter.com/b5YIBMUQdg
— LionHearted (@LionHearted76) April 11, 2023
Reduxx reports, "In 1986, Tatchell contributed to a chapter of a book compiled by Warren Middleton, former vice-chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), entitled 'Radical perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex, and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People.' PIE, which for a decade advocated for adult-minor sexual relationships to be decriminalized and called for abolishing the age of consent, was disbanded in 1984, and several prominent members were arrested for child sexual abuse offenses."
"In Tatchell’s chapter of the book, he argued that laws criminalizing adults for sexually abusing children do more harm than the abuse itself. Other chapters in the book covered child pornography and prostitution, incest and 'how to make paedophilia more acceptable.' He later tried to distance himself from this book by claiming he was 'conned' into contributing. However, at the time, Tatchell praised the book in a review he penned for The Communist Party of Great Britain."
Tatchell wrote, “Society would remove a lot of fear, anxiety and depression if, instead of repressing children’s sexuality, it acknowledged the fact that many children have sexual desires at an early age and accordingly educated children, so they are able to make free, informed and responsible decisions about when and with whom they have sex.”
The outlet pointed out that Tatchell had also published an interview with a 14-year-old boy, during which they discussed how the child began having sex with adult men when he was 12. "The interview was republished in 2007 by IPCE, a Dutch padophile publication," Reduxx noted.
In the interview, Tatchell asked the young boy, who became involved with child prostitution while in the foster care system, what he thought of child sexual abusers.
“It depends on what kind of pedophiles…," the child replied. "Those who have sex with little kids should be strung up by the bollocks. The pedophiles I knew always asked me if I wanted sex. They didn’t pressure me. If you consent to having sex with a pedophile, it’s fine. If you don’t, it’s not."
“Any man who has sex with Lee could face a maximum sentence of 10 years for kissing, touching, sucking or wanking, and life imprisonment for anal sex,” Tatchell stated in the interview, which he used to argue that the age of consent should at least be lowered to 14.
Tatchell also published a piece in The Guardian in 2009, titled “Don’t criminalise young sex.”
In the opinion piece, he argued, “I believe the time has come for a calm, rational reassessment of the age at which young people should be lawfully entitled to have sex. We need this debate because the current age of consent of 16 ignores reality.”
