What a Strange Time to Be a Child

By: Marilyn M. Singleton,    

M.D., J.D.

(Letter to the Editor)

  Cultures and societies progress, generally in a more civil, moral, ethical direction. Look at our evolution from practices in ancient Greece. Several hundred years ago B.C., Greek elites openly participated in pederasty, meaning “boy love.” This was a relationship between an older male and an adolescent youth. This was done under the guise of the older man educating and mentoring the chosen boy. In return, the man felt young and beautiful. Indeed, homosexual love between adult men was ridiculed. Man-boy love was celebrated. Greek soldiers were accompanied into battle by young boys who served as their sexual partners and sleeping companions. They rewarded the boys by teaching them martial arts. But did this practice survive? No. Our military has both hetero- and homosexual members but they are adult equals, not a mentor-mentee relationship.

  Arguably, morality is in the eye of the beholder. However, some truths are universal. One such truth is that children are fragile and need protection. This is why Unicef, Save the Children, Child Fund, and Gays Against Groomers champion the principle that every child has the right to live free from exploitation and abuse.

See more in this weeks Boone County Journal