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But pedophiles and their lobbyists were not bad enough for some, so worse co-conspirators were proposed. While Reisman linked me to Hitler, a NewsCorridor columnist named Gregory J. Hand located me at the other end of the political spectrum, as a «bisexual Marxist Jewess,» apparently part of the international Jewish conspiracy that not only controls the banks and the press, but also is «promoting adult-child sex.» McCain's Concerned Women piece offered this bit of commentary: «A Google search reveals that [Levine] has described herself as a 'red-diaper baby'—that is, the child of Communist Party activists—and a socialist herself, who has written that she is 'allergic to religion.' Very interesting, but not a word of it in the New York Times or USA Today.» This revelation, along with the writer's insinuation that the press was covering it up, evoked a charming bit of nostalgia. The John Birch Society and Christian Crusade in the 1960s called the Republican Quaker founding president of SIECUS, Mary Calderone, and her colleagues «atheists» and «one-worlders,» a code word for communists. They also frequently pointed out how many sex educators and sexologists were Jews (who were also suspected of traitorous sentiments) and declared that together these people were softening up America's youth for conversion by the godless Reds. When the «red-diaper» comment came up at the end of a long phone interview, I broke the news to McCain: «I hate to tell you, Rob, but the Communist Party's position on sex was about as progressive as the Catholic Church's.»

Marginalization

The claim about Rind, Elders, SIECUS, and me is not only that we have a political agenda, but that it is a radical one held by a small minority. Even sympathetic reporters played up this alleged eccentricity. «Their theories are explosive,» read the blurb of an even-handed piece in the LA Times. « A handful of maverick[s]...» Don Feder in the Boston Herald repeated the claim that sex educators, and I as their fellow traveler (see Guilt by Association), are libertines and hedonists: «Levine thinks we interfere with the primary mission of sex educators - teaching kids that whatever feels good by definition is good.» Actually, sex-ed has always been an eminently moderate project, since its inception teaching kids to wait until marriage. Moreover, in survey after survey, upwards of 80 percent of American parents say they want comprehensive sexuality education of the kind Feder decries.

Another rhetorical tactic is to quote something that would sound reasonable to most people and call it perverted. Among «Levine's bizarre theories» that Knight kept invoking was the «theory» that children are sexual from birth and, left to their own devices, will probably engage in masturbation and sex play. This «bizarre theory» is explicitly accepted by every reputable developmental psychologist and anthropologist in the industrialized world and implicitly by most everyone else in the world.