Paedophile Information Exchange
The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was a British pro-paedophile activist group, founded in October 1974 and officially disbanded in 1984. It is documented in LGBT history because of its attempts to infiltrate gay rights organisations during the 1970s — attempts that were ultimately rejected by the mainstream gay rights movement.
Background
PIE was founded at a time when the age of consent for homosexual activity in the UK was 21 — considerably higher than the heterosexual age of consent — meaning gay rights organisations were actively campaigning against discriminatory age of consent laws. Pro-paedophile activists attempted to exploit this campaign, falsely conflating the case for an equal age of consent with their own agenda of abolishing the age of consent entirely [1].
Activities
In 1975, 23-year-old Keith Hose became chairman of PIE. The group's stated aim was "to alleviate [the] suffering of many adults and children" by campaigning to abolish the age of consent, thus legalising sex between adults and children [2]. Hose's attendance at the 1975 annual conference of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) in Sheffield, at which he made a speech on paedophilia, was covered at length in The Guardian.
The Paedophile Action for Liberation (PAL), a related group, was based at 78 Railton Road, Brixton, before relocating to Vauxhall [3].
A leaflet distributed by the Gay Activists Alliance at the CHE Conference in 1979 supported paedophilia [4], and the Gay Youth Movement also publicly supported it at this time.
Rejection and disbandment
Gay rights organisations ultimately rejected and condemned PIE's attempts at infiltration. The Campaign for Homosexual Equality and the Gay Liberation Front both distanced themselves from the group. PIE was officially disbanded in 1984, partly as a result of increased legal pressure and partly due to its rejection by the mainstream gay rights movement.
Historical context
The historical conflation of homosexuality with paedophilia was — and remains — a central homophobic trope, used to discredit LGBT people and the broader campaign for equal rights. PIE's presence at the fringes of some early gay rights spaces was exploited by opponents of gay equality and does not reflect the values or aims of the LGBT community.
The BBC Radio 4 series In Dark Corners, presented by Alex Renton, examined how advocates of paedophilia attempted to infiltrate the gay rights movement during this period [5].
References
- ↑ The age of consent for homosexuals was reduced to 18 in 1994 and equalised at 16 in 2001.
- ↑ Wolmar, Christian (27 February 2014). "Looking back to the great British paedophile infiltration campaign of the 1970s." The Independent.
- ↑ Gay News issue 66 'PAL Plans' and issue 71 reporting move to Vauxhall.
- ↑ Caged Anger: the Prosecutions of Paedophiles. A double-sided A4 leaflet published by the London Gay Activists Alliance, in LSE HCA HCA/Ephemera/1079.
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00272c5
