Gilt is stripped from Saint Peter Tatchell's halo

Last year, though, Peter [Tatchell] was spinning a very different yarn. In an interview with the Irish online news platform GRIPT, he denied that he had ever had any association with Warren Middleton, and claims to have been deceived over the contents of the book, which was published in 1986 as The Betrayal of Youth. In an unedited Q & A with GRIPT interviewer Gary Kavanagh, he was asked, "When did you become aware that Mr Middleton was heavily involved with PIE?" He responded, "Several years later, when the book was published. I was enraged, appalled and felt conned." How had he allowed this to happen? This is what he told Kavanagh:

The request to write for The Betrayal of Youth was in about 1981 or 1982. It was made by phone call and I was given an address to post it to. I do not remember who asked me to write the chapter or the address to which I sent it. No mention was made of PIE or paedophilia when I was asked to write my chapter. Paedophiles are devious. They knew I would not write for a PIE book, so I was told it was a book about child welfare and rights... I would not have agreed to write anything for that dreadful, nauseating book.

The central claim here - that he was deceived as to the nature of the book and found it "nauseating" when it was published, is untrue. I cannot be certain it is a deliberate fabrication: this was all a long time ago, and the brain damage inflicted on Peter may have affected his memory. But just ask yourself, how likely is it that in the midst of all the dirty tricks against him in Bermondsey he would be so naïve and unguarded as to entrust his writing on a highly controversial topic to the tender mercies of someone he did not know, on the basis of a phone call? And that he would send it to a random address that meant nothing to him - not a known publishing house - without even keeping that address on file? No, it is Peter Tatchell who deceives us here, unwittingly or not, rather than Warren Middleton. You may judge for yourself shortly when I unveil the evidence below.

I too contributed a chapter to the book. Kavanagh asked Peter if he had ever met me. He replied, "I never met Tom O'Carroll and would never want to. I condemn all that he stands for. His views are disgusting." But if my views are disgusting, so were his back in the day: we were saying much the same things! We had radical ideas in common. Again, you may soon judge for yourself.

Warren is not a well man these days, sadly. I imagine he would like to put the record straight but I know he would not be up to the hassle of dealing with the media. In any case, it would be all too easy for Peter to brush aside his recollection of events as false, along with mine and others. What cannot be dismissed so easily, though, is a document of unimpeachable authenticity, archived in the British Library, which utterly contradicts Peter's repeated denials that he was "appalled" by The Betrayal of Youth when it came out, or that he found it "nauseating". As Heretic TOC can now exclusively reveal, he actually gave the book a favourable review! See photo below. This was published in the 13 June 1987 edition of 7 Days, the newsletter of the British Communist Party at that time. Under the heading "Radical thoughts on consent", he wrote:

When Warren Middleton recently compiled his book on children's sexual rights, to which I made a brief contribution, he found it impossible to get a publisher. They were all too nervous. So he had to publish it himself. Even now, only a few bookshops - notably Gay's The Word in London - have had the courage to stock it. Indeed, I am only writing this review because it seems that no one else is willing to risk association with this taboo subject. Under Middleton's editorship, The Betrayal of Youth presents a diverse collection of essays by 16 different authors who offer a 'radical perspective' on the history, sociology, politics and ethics of 'childhood sexuality, inter-generational sex, and the social oppression of children and young people'. All the authors oppose coercive and exploitative child sexual abuse, and want both children, and adults, to be protected from forced, involuntary sexual acts by the laws covering rape and sexual assault. However, they also argue that consenting, victimless sexual relationships between younger and older people should not be penalised by the law, especially where the relationship is of a tender and caring nature.... In presenting these arguments, The Betrayal of Youth speaks coolly, clearly and radically about a subject which has far too long been shrouded in emotional hysteria and adult chauvinism.

Does he sound appalled by the book? Is he nauseated by this volume that clearly, in his own description, yokes "childhood sexuality" with "intergenerational sex"? We may think not. But when he spoke of "intergenerational sex", could he have meant twenty-somethings with sixty-somethings? Again, such a reading is impossible in this context: the book was clearly about child-adult relationships, not adult-adult ones. [...]

Why, one has to wonder, has this man of outstanding physical courage been so shrill and panicky in running away from his own past? If his reputation matters to him more even than his life, that is no bad thing in itself. What makes it so is his frankly contemptible and cowardly resort to smearing radical former friends, along with his wider smear that "paedophiles are devious" - a hate-speech trope as odious and poisonous as "the grasping Jew". Such libels against paedophiles are sadly all too familiar these days, but one hopes for better from a putatively principled, high-minded individual. His descent to the rhetoric of the gutter is hugely disappointing, and does far more damage to his reputation for integrity than any radical beliefs about childhood sexual expression.

It would be important to say all this, I believe, even if it were simply a matter of defending my friend Warren and myself against unjust attack. But the significance of Peter's treachery goes much further. In order to get himself off the hook he has shamefully resorted to insulting, demeaning, and dehumanizing child-attracted adults in general. Allowing hate-speech to go unchallenged is what drives cultures towards the ever greater oppression of unpopular minorities, and ultimately even their extermination. There is no reason to suppose paedophiles are exempt. Accordingly, when facts are available with which to make a vigorous, rigorous challenge, as in this case, it is our duty to do so.

source: Article 'Gilt is stripped from Saint Peter's halo' by Tom O'Carroll; heretictoc.com/2021/06/21/gilt-is-stripped-from-saint-peters-halo/; Heretic TOC; 21 June 2021