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In the past, such stories were reproduced in right-wing publications and at public meetings, on radio and television. The Internet only multiplies the speed and reach of this dissemination. By June, 2002, a Google search for the term «Judith Levine abuse» yielded more than 7,400 matches, most resembling the second one on the screen: «BOUNDLESS — EXCUSING CHILD ABUSE... One of the apostles of this movement, Judith Levine...»

In an already combustible atmosphere of sexual panic, distortions and lies raise the temperature and throw in the match. Voil, a «firestorm of controversy.»

Guilt by Association, or Sexual McCarthyism

The charge against me was not only that I am an advocate of pedophilia, but that I am part of an organized and increasingly influential «pro-pedophile lobby,» whose aim is «normalizing» child abuse. One clue to my membership was that citation of Bruce Rind. Another was the author of the book's foreword, Joycelyn Elders. You may remember Elders' pro-pedophilic crime. She told an audience of sex educators that masturbation would be an appropriate topic of sex-ed classroom discussion; this inspired the Republican House of Representatives in 1994 to demand her resignation. Knight, on Concerned Women's Web site, described the events this way: «Elders was fired by Bill Clinton shortly after she began a campaign to teach children to masturbate.»

The pro-pedophile lobby allegedly has been around for a long time. In a U.S. News and World Report column rebuking me, John Leo recalled his own prescience in uncovering the conspiracy. «Back in 1981, an astute writer at Time magazine (that would be me) noticed that pro-pedophilia arguments were catching on among some sex researchers and counselors, [psychologist] Larry Constantine, [sex researchers] Wardell Pomeroy, and Alfred Kinsey,» he wrote, leading up to my own connections to the lobby. « Harmful to Minors has a foreword by former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, so don't say you weren't warned.» Washington Times writer Robert Stacy McCain contributed a catalogue of my «pedophile sources» to the Web site of Concerned Women. «Yes, Virginia,» he wrote. «There is a pedophile movement, and Judith Levine's book is part of it.»