Branyan & Child Rape

First I have to say Mr. Branyan continues sending emails. Now with links to paedophilia texts. He’s evidently a much more disturbed individual than I’d previously imagined. The regularity of his online hate speech should have been a clue he’s someone in profound psychological, perhaps even psychiatric, distress. Hate can act on the brain in ways similar to drug addiction.

The obvious problem with Mr. Branyan’s misleading statements is that in civilised societies we have the concept of consent. It’s a moral concept and it’s also a legal concept. Consent is the difference between a person entering your house as a guest, or trespassing. It’s the difference between someone borrowing your car or a thief stealing it. It’s the difference between consensual sexual relations and rape. But most importantly in regards to his comment is that every civilised country without exception has established that children are not capable of making major life decisions. Children cannot drink, drive, enter legal contracts, join the military, or consent to sexual activity.

When Mr. Branyan says the world’s doors are open to paedophilia because of homosexuality, he’s promoting the rape of children; Because children are not capable of consent. To say the two things are the same is to set aside the fundamental factors that separate legality and illegality in sexual activity: age and consent.

This variety of narrative is exceptionally dangerous because the vast majority of LGBT people lead decent, respectable lives. We go to school, we work, we fall in love, we have friends and family. We pay taxes. We get up every day and we do our best to make our way through this life without hurting anyone. Just like everyone else. So when our sexual orientation is put on the same level as heinous criminal activity – we are being demeaned and dehumanised. We are being wrongfully accused of activity that causes harm to our fellow citizens. By creating this false narrative, people like Mr. Branyan are damaging society. They’re damaging real lives. The result is often violence, sometimes death. In Brazil alone an LGBT person is murdered for being LGBT every 16 hours. Decapitations, stonings and other forms of extreme violence are not uncommon. The people in the picture below were all victims of murders last year.