Great post, man! I agree with all of it, save for two points I would like to address here:

Research shows that many children, especially girls, who have sexual awakenings at the hands of an adult partner, have serious emotional problems later on in life. This, in my opinion, is caused by one of three things: the activity was not consensual, the pressure of having to keep the secret (and thus not have anyone with which to discuss her feelings), or the activity was discovered and her friend was skewered on the lance of injustice, while she was brainwashed into victim status.

Actually, I have seen much research that has contradicted this statement, and most girls who did not get caught in their sexual liasons with adult partners do not tend to suffer emotional problems "later in life"; this is as much junk science as was the "traumatic memory suppression" psycho-babble that was popular over a decade ago. Note again the studies quoted by Judith Levine in Harmful to Minors, those made by Sharon Thompson in Going All The Way, and the poll taken on AllAboutSex.com about two years ago (which was duly noted on GC), when the largest proportion of youths polled said that their mutually consensual sexual encounters with adults were positive; a tiny portion said those liasons were "positive, but caused problems," and I would surmise that this section of the poll was referring to instances when the participants were "found out." And the studies conducted by Sharon Thompson exclusively involved girls, it should be noted.

Now, I am NOT trying to suggest that, based upon the above, it's "okay" to break the law. The legal and social consequences of being "found out" are severe, and personally, though I am aware that some adults and youths will nevertheless elect to take the risks, I feel compelled to STRONGLY ADVISE against breaking the laws. The consequences for both if they are "found out" are too severe to warrent breaking those laws, which is precisely why I have never myself broken those laws. I would not viciously attack those who DID break the laws as being selfish and amoral individuals, but I would certainly give them a stern warning about the possible consequences that both may suffer (particularly regarding how careless some girls tend to be, especially with the infatuation many of them have for keeping detailed diaries and journals).

It is, as you say, a better tactic to fight for the kids' right to a sexual identity and to age-approriate sexual activity, as opposed to our right to have access to them.

I totally agree with the above statement, though I would question referring to "age-appropriate" activity, because that term is often utilized in a manner with greatly loaded and moralistic connotations by the detractors of both the MAA community and the YLM (e.g., "It's not age-appropriate for a 16 year old girl to be dressing like that!"). The term I would prefer to use is developmentally-appropriate sexual activity, because this has a more objective and clinical "flavor" to it. I fully agree that it's generally developmentally inappropriate, for mostly biological reasons, for a pre-pubesecent girl to engage in full penetrative intercourse, particularly with a much larger adult male. Pedophiles and prees could engage in mutually pleasurable 'sexual' activity that does not entail penetration, and in fact, most of the pedos I have met in this community do not have any real desire for penetrative sexual intercourse with prees, as adult/child sexual activity would most often NOT take the same form as adult/teen or adult/adult sexual activity (just as most of the emotional interaction would likewise necessarily take a different though no less valid form on most occasions).

In fact, though I am a hebephile, and I thus have "stronger" sexual desires than the typical pedophile with a near-exclusive AttB, and even though I would engage in intercourse with willing AG's if the law permitted it, I still tend to have "less" intense sexual desires than the average SAAA; as such, I would have no problem limiting the bulk of my sexual activity with AG's to outercourse if the law permitted it, though I'm not averse to interourse in any manner. In fact, since I've had no choice but to limit my sexual activity to adult women, I've actually had to adapt to their more "intense" sexual desires, which typically includes more intercourse than outercourse, even though I would prefer more of the latter than the former (unless the hypothetical AG I was with had different preferences, to which I would adapt).

It's good to see you posting again!! :)

Your friend,

--Dissident