Pedophilia Chic: The Normalization of Child Abuse

How does the unthinkable become thinkable? Through slow, persistent, and quiet change. At a time when abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia are becoming widely accepted, you might wonder: What's left that could possibly be called "unthinkable"? The answer: pedophilia, the sexual exploitation of children.

Most Americans view pedophilia as an abomination. But gay activists are now openly advocating it, calling it "inter-generational intimacy." As Mary Eberstadt writes in a provocative article in the Weekly Standard, the "social consensus against the sexual exploitation of children...is apparently eroding."

The process of erosion began at least 15 years ago, when academics began questioning the almost universal condemnation of pedophilia. Soon, filmmakers and advertisers joined in, giving us movies like "Lolita," depicting a sexual liaison between a 12-year-old girl and a 40-year-old man. More recently, advertisers like Calvin Klein have pushed the envelope, using child-like models in sexually explicit poses in billboards and advertising.

Most Americans didn't fully wake up to the danger until 1998. That's when the journal of the American Psychological Association published the results of a study that argued that sex between adults and children is not always harmful, and that so-called "willing encounters" should be relabeled as "adult- child sex."

The public was outraged. But, shockingly, mainline newspapers allowed homosexual activists to use their pages to attack, not the study, but people like Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who criticized it.

As one example, in National Journal, Jonathan Rauch wrote approvingly of the study and called the vote by Congress condemning it "faintly sinister."

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