Bill Andriette is an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and pro-pedophile activist.

Biography

Andriette was the Art-Director for the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term i ...

periodical ''Baltimore Outloud'', and was previously the Features Editor of ''The Guide'', a gay travel and entertainment magazine published in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

. As of 1996, he was the spokesman of the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA). In an interview in ''

The Boston Phoenix ''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the ''Portland Phoenix'' a ...

'' in 1996, Andriette said, "I realized I was gay when I was 12". He joined NAMBLA when he was 15 years old, and by the age of 17 he was a member of the Steering Committee. For six years he was the editor of the ''NAMBLA Bulletin''. He expressed differences with some earlier NAMBLA directors' views regarding legalization of what is now considered to be

statutory rape In common law jurisdictions, statutory rape is nonforcible sexual activity in which one of the individuals is below the age of consent (the age required to legally consent to the behavior). Although it usually refers to adults engaging in sexual ...

, finding room for compromise with government and societal concerns. He expressed frustration that the

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , ...

movement had ostracized NAMBLA, because he regarded the moral condemnation of

pedophiles Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...

as a "reactionary ideology which the gay movement has happily adopted to burnish its own particular identity category". During the 1993 International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) controversy, he defended NAMBLA's membership in ILGA, and to a greater extent NAMBLA's place in the gay rights movement, by claiming that the main tradition' of homosexuality" is consistent with supporting the abolition of laws prohibiting statutory rape. He appeared in the 1994 documentary about NAMBLA, '' Chicken Hawk: Men Who Love Boys'', in which he described how his work with NAMBLA provided an outlet for his sexual attraction to prepubescent young boys below the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally cla ...

. In 2008, he was a runner up for a Sex Positive Journalism Award (Sexies) for an article which appeared in ''The Guide'': "Tipping-Point for Gay Sex?"

Selected writings

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References

External links

*
"Another Moral Panic"
from the ''Subversity'' series. Daniel Tsang interviews Bill Andriette on

KUCI KUCI (88.9 FM) is a college radio station broadcasting a variety format. Licensed to Irvine, California, United States, the station serves the Orange County area. The station is currently owned by Regents of the University of California and is ...

radio June 15, 1999
Press release
{{DEFAULTSORT:Andriette, Bill 1965 births 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American male journalists Cornell University alumni American gay writers American LGBT journalists American LGBT rights activists Living people Pedophile advocacy Journalists from Boston 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American LGBT people