PETER TATCHELL, RAPE APOLOGY, AND 'CONSENT'

Dear Readers,

I hope you're all doing well during what is probably the worst year in the living memory for many people. I hope everyone who reads this - even those who don't like me and/or I don't like - are looking after yourselves and your mental and physical well being as best you can. Personally I've found my salvation in dog walking and running, but each to their own.

Anyway, on today's subject, I was recently brought to the attention of Peter Tatchell, a post from 2015 recently doing its rounds. Now, I'm not one for cancel culture, I am all for reasonable criticism to an unreasonable or unjustifiable thing, like, y'know, making excuses for abuse and rape. This is beyond idiots confiscating sombreros for "cUltURaL aPProPrIAtIoN", this is a whole new world of shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekrR1e6JyOU 3:52-4:31

*Trigger warning for abuse apologism, and I get pretty foul-mouthed here as you will soon see why.*

Film maker Derek Jarman, who sadly has died, he told me that when he was about 50, when he was nine years old. 

For anybody who doesn't know who Derek Jarman was - I had to look him up myself - he was a film director and gay rights activist who made the movie 'Carvaggio' in 1986 with Dexter Fletcher, Tilda Swinton, Robbie Coltrane and Sean Bean. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and lived up to 1994. Now, this is word of mouth from a third party so it's of course hard to fully verify, and of course Jarman is no longer alive to defend himself, but what is really concerning is Tatchell's response to it.

He said it was his choice. 

In that case, sounds like Jarman manipulated him into believing it to be so, and bear in mind Tatchell is taking the word of an alleged child rapist that "Oh he thought it was OK so it's all fine and dandy".

He said it wasn’t pressured or manipulated, he said he had no regrets about that sexual experience,.. 

A lot of survivors believe that, including children, a belief that they carry into adulthood unfortunately, and Tatchell is irresponsibly and dangerously upholding the concept that children can consent to sex. Wrong, Tatchell - children don't understand sex so even if they "consent" as you say, they cannot fully consent to sex under the age of consent. It's there for a fucking reason!

..so my view is ‘that’s what he’s saying, it’s his personal view as an adult mature man looking back on his childhood.’ If he says that, who am I or you to dispute it? 

Now I accept that most sex involving young people is abusive and wrong. 

Thank God for that! Tatchell actually has a smidgen of basic moral standards! I was soooo worried for a moment! 

His view is perhaps exceptional 

No fucking shit.

but it’s not a view that should be dismissed and denied. 

Yes it fucking is! When I realised the gravity of my own abuse, it was someone else pointing it out to me that brought that revelation onto me! Other survivors are the same, and the result is emotional pain and floods of tears, but it's worth it in the end to expel the "demons" out of your soul, after such a horrible and traumatic experience.

If an adult person looks back on an early sexual experience and says they consented to it, 

Because they're in denial.

they were not pressured, 

So they and/or the rapist said.

they were not harmed, 

There's no such thing as a child being unharmed by having sex with an adult.

they had no regrets or complaint, I think we should do the honest thing and accept their viewpoint.

How about no? Tatchell? You fucking idiot. 

Just to clarify, my own experience was that though my own abusive experiences were unpleasant, I did get feelings of physical enjoyment out of them, so I assumed that I'd wanted it, something my own abuser told me, and she made me believe it. I really thought that otherwise, I'd be the only boy ever to be sexually abused by a girl in the world. Similarly, this poor fellow that Tatchell is referring to, is clearly in the same sense of denial. Maybe they think they're gay when they're not, or they don't want to admit that what happened to them was rape. Who knows?

When the realisation hit me, I mentally collapsed like a pack of cards and couldn't stop crying, not until I'd consulted my doctor, and gone into therapy for a few months. Now it's over, I can read the situation differently, and I understand what happened to me was wrong.

If the same has happened to you, it was wrong. 

If an adult touches you in private areas when you're a child it's wrong.

If an adult has sexual intercourse with you when you're a child it's wrong.

If an adult exposes themselves or show themselves to you carrying out sexual activities deliberately then it's wrong.

Man or woman, doesn't matter. On every level, it's wrong.

You're completely blameless if you've agreed to it and thought you were consenting to an adult carrying out sexual activities with a child, and if the adult has convinced you that you wanted it, they've been manipulating you. You are in no way to blame and it is 100% not your fault.

It is always, and every time, the adult's fault.

Tatchell fails to understand this. What Tatchell is doing is taking not just the mind of a boy manipulated by a sexual predator, but by the predator as well. It is disgusting, it's unforgivable, it's unacceptable, and while most people can see that, unfortunately, Tatchell can't. If he's not an abuser himself at worst, he's an utter idiot and moral coward at best.

Sincerely,

The Invisible Man