NAMBLA protester pickets Center, Pride

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By 7:30 p.m. on May 14, when the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Pride Committee meeting began, North American Man/Boy Love Association member Fred B. [edit] had already been picking for close to seven hours. B., who was refused booth space by the Pride committee, now spends an average of eight hours a day pacing back and forth outside of the Cleveland Lesbian-Gay Community Service Center. He holds signs which read "Sexual Freedom For All Not Just Gay People," and, "Gay Pride '90 Will Not Give a Table to the North American Man/Boy Love Association. What Pride?"

B. began picketing shortly after Pride's decision, on April 30, to exclude NAMBLA from operating a table during the June 16 celebration. He was informed by letter that, "due to the extreme controversy surrounding the North American Man/Boy Love Association, it has been decided by committee vote that we cannot accept your check and permit you to participate." The controversy stems from the fact that NAMBLA is an organization which supports, among other things, those individuals who engage in "inter-generational" sex. According to NAMBLA's constitution and positions, the organization calls for the abolishment of age-of-consent laws, and laws which limit freedom of expression, including child pornography laws.

"The North American Man/Boy Love Association is an organization founded in response to the extreme oppression of men and boys involved in consensual sexual and other relationships with each other." NAMBLA defines man/boy love as, "a loving relationship between a boy, usually 12 to 17 but sometimes younger, and a man 18 or older."

source: Article 'NAMBLA protester pickets Center, Pride' by Faith Klasek; Gay People's chronic, Volume 5, Issue 12; June 1990