When faced with certain opprobrium, not many
have the courage to proclaim who they truly
are. Allen Ginsberg, the celebrated American
poet, was just the person to not give a damn.
He certainly knew that it would not gain him
many friends when he publicly revealed that he
was a member of NAMBLA. This is what he said:
Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics,
witchhunting for profit, humorlessness,
vanity, anger and ignorance ... I'm a member
of NAMBLA because I love boys too —
everybody does, who has a little humanity
Allen Ginsberg died on April 5, 1997. The
anniversary of his death is an opportunity to
remind the world of his courage and adherence
to humanistic principles. This does not
require us to duplicate what is already on Wikipedia .
Though Wikipedia does not shy away from
mentioning Ginsberg's association with NAMBLA,
in a misguided attempt to show balance it
includes a comment by Andrea Dworkin who
dismisses his decency and humanitarianism by
calling him a pedophile — a term that is now
replacing Hitler and Nazism as the preferred
way of destroying an individual's worth.
Click here to read Wikipedia's
account.
Ginsberg did not just make a statement
defending NAMBLA. He also devoted a day
presenting poetry and song at the New York
City NAMBLA 1989 conference. We provide below
a short video clip of the presentation.
The brief clip is of the end of his
presentation after his harmonium accompanied
singing and applause. It was chosen to also
show his playful side at the end of the clip.
We hope to eventually be able to make the
entire presentation available.
Attempt to Cancel (Erase)
Ginsberg
Cancel culture is alive and well in our
country, and there is no shortage of
pusillanimous individuals who will bend to it.
Mural painter Timothy Smith apparently is one
of those who succumbed to the pressure to
erase Allen Ginsberg from his Hermosa Beach
mural. Should he still consider himself a
creative artist if his art is at the whim of
those who will dictate to him?
The old Soviet Union, with policies at the
time seen as evil by schoolchildren and adults
alike, had brought cancel culture to
unprecedented heights. The Soviets did not
have digital methods of erasing disfavored
Party members from official photos. But they
did not need Photoshop because their
photographic experts were superlative in their
analog techniques. Timothy Smith's
chicken-hearted low-tech action only needed a
paint roller.
It is doubtful that Ginsberg would have cared
personally, but this cowardly action certainly
went against his strong feelings on free
speech.
The National Coalition Against Censorship
(NCAC)
statement condemning this latest
exhibition of cancel culture is worth reading.
Personal reminiscences:
After Etan Patz disappeared in 1979, and by
early 1983, the FBI and the New York City
police cooked up a scheme to pin the blame on
NAMBLA. The papers were full of front-page
headlines asking if NAMBLA had kidnapped the
boy. Out of the blue, I got a phone call from
Allen Ginsberg wanting to discuss the
accusations. I had never met or spoken to
Allen prior to that. During our conversation,
he offered to let us use a statement by him in
a book I was compiling about the case, A
Witchhunt Foiled: The FBI vs. NAMBLA.
Here is his statement about the attacks in
Time that I included in the book:
"This struck me on first reading as a precise
characterization of Time's own assault
on the American mind and body politic. The
obsessive self-righteousness of this slick
news magazine's judgment glares most sinister
in the light of Time's own tendency to
manipulate readers' minds through disturbed
reporting — such as its story on NAMBLA — not
to speak of Time's peddling of local
drugs (cigarettes and alcohol) for advertising
revenue. Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics,
witchhunting for profit, humorlessness,
vanity, anger and ignorance, obvious pack
journalism. New York Times and Time
magazine on the subject have been obnoxiously
hypocritical. I'm a member of NAMBLA because I
love boys too — everybody does who has a
little humanity."
Allen never made pretenses and was always
true to his pacifist beliefs. When we (NAMBLA)
had asked the New York Gay Community Center
for space for Allen's performance at an event
during our national conference, the Center
refused to permit it. So we got a venue off
Broadway, in a loft. After Allen's
performance, I told him that I thought we
should organize a sit-in at the community
center to protest its discriminatory denial,
but his response was: "That would be bad
karma." Allen was being true to his Buddhist
beliefs.
— David Thorstad
[David Thorstad is a longtime gay activist,
one of the founders of NAMBLA and has edited
several volumes of Allen Ginsberg's journals.]
* * *
Before Allen Ginsberg spoke at the
conference, a handful of us went out to have
lunch with him. I was most impressed by
Ginsberg's humility and inquisitiveness. As we
all talked, I got the sense that he'd voiced
support for NAMBLA more from gut instinct than
any detailed analysis of the group's
positions. Ginsberg peppered us with
questions, showing real interest and curiosity
about this group of comrades who'd gone
curiously out on a limb in defense of
pederasty.
[The writer is a long time NAMBLA activist]
* * *
I remember the advent of the Beat Poets and
their unconventional ideas, but I must confess
that I was, except for one thing, always quite
conventional and to this day have never quite
understood poetry. I first saw Allen Ginsberg
when homosexuality was still considered a
disease and did not realize at the time that
the ponytailed man with him was his life
partner.
The occasion was Ginsberg being invited by a
kid's camp run by the New Jersey YMWHA (Young
Men and Women Hebrew Association). He had been
invited to speak to the older campers and the
counselors. I remember that ponytail guy
following behind him like a puppy dog. I do
not remember what Ginsberg talked about.
Perhaps he read some poetry and spoke of his
philosophy. Notwithstanding the liberal
sixties and the liberal philosophy of the
camp, Ginsberg presented nothing controversial
in the view of the straight laced guy I then
was.
But in retrospect, that visit now tells me
something special about Allen Ginsberg. At the
time of the invite, he had long been a
celebrated American Poet. His appearance at a
children's camp had absolutely no publicity
angle or motive for aggrandizement. There were
no reporters, no cameras, no publicists. He
had accepted the invitation for the pure
pleasure of sharing his thoughts and poetry.
Ginsberg's humility and decency were genuine.
Perhaps, many years later, he saw in NAMBLA an
organization that, as he did, did not fear
opprobrium from an uncomprehending society.
— Peter Herman
* * *
On September 27, 2019 Eric Tazelaar published
the
following piece. His observations,
independently made, shows us the consistency
of the qualities everyone who met Allen
Ginsberg saw in him.
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