Allen Ginsberg: poet, writer, artist, activist, teacher… and pedophile

(“The best minds of my generation” and all that)

When you think of the iconic Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg, what comes to mind? His poem, Howl? His appearance in a legendary Bob Dylan video? What about his omnipresence in a vast array of protests, marches, etc.? Or could it be the fact that Ginsburg — hero of radicals, outcasts, and rebels everywhere — was a member of North American Man/Boy Love Association, a.k.a. NAMBLA?

When confronted about this reality, the post-modern liberal hero at first hid his desires behind bogus platitudes. Ginsberg claimed:

“I became a member of NAMBLA ... as a matter of civil liberties. In the early 1980s, the FBI had conducted a campaign of entrapment and ‘dirty tricks’ against NAMBLA members just as they had against black and anti-war leaders in previous decades.”

If we are to take the widely revered wordsmith at face value, he saw the "rights" of men to abuse, assault, and rape children as being on par with those of activists risking arrest (or worse) to exercise their freedom of speech and expression.

In case you're naive enough (or twisted enough) to believe this "free speech" bullshit, please consider something else Ginsberg said — this time during a 1997 interview with The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review: 

“Everybody likes little kids. … Naked kids have been a staple of delight for centuries, for both parents and onlookers. So to label pedophilia as criminal is ridiculous.”

Then we have Deliberate Prose: Selected Essays 1952-1995, a book in which his publisher (HarperCollins) claims Ginsberg "gave voice to the moral conscience of the nation." A book in which the poet's "moral conscience" led him to announce: 

“Prepubescent boys and girls don’t have to be protected from big hairy you and me, they’ll get used to our lovemaking in 2 days provided the controlling adults will stop making those hysterical noises that make everything sexy sound like rape.”

I'll give you a few minutes to scrub yourself in a scalding hot shower before we revisit Ginsberg's proud standing as a member of NAMBLA. Take your time, I’ll wait.

This is not to say no one can’t choose to appreciate Ginsberg’s poetry while abhorring his heinous personal values. But this is to say that when assessing a cultural movement, it can be useful to examine its heroes and role models. 

In the 1990s, when Stanford University was considering paying Ginsberg for his manuscripts and memorabilia, the topic of NAMBLA came up as a possible obstacle. Stanford decided to pay Ginsberg over $2 million for his materials anyway.

"Attacks on NAMBLA stink of politics, witch hunting for profit, humorlessness, vanity, anger, and ignorance," Ginsberg once stated, before betraying his actual predatory motivations with this: 

"I'm a member of NAMBLA because I love boys too – everybody does who has a little humanity."

Clarity: That's not humanity, it's pedophilia. 

Conversely, to witness humanity at its finest, I offer this related memoir excerpt from Andrea Dworkin:

On the day of the bar mitzvah, newspapers reported in huge headlines that the Supreme Court had ruled child pornography illegal. I was thrilled. I knew that Allen [Ginsberg] would not be. I did think he was a civil libertarian. But in fact, he was a pedophile. He did not belong to the North American ManBoy Love Association out of some mad, abstract conviction that its voice had to be heard. He meant it. I take this from what Allen said directly to me, not from some inference I made. 

He was exceptionally aggressive about his right to fuck children and his constant pursuit of underage boys. I did everything I could to avoid Allen and to avoid conflict. This was my godson’s day. He did not need a political struggle to the death breaking out all over. Ginsberg would not leave me alone. He followed me everywhere I went from the lobby of the hotel through the whole reception, then during the dinner. He photographed me constantly with a vicious little camera he wore around his neck. 

He sat next to me and wanted to know details of sexual abuse I had suffered. A lovely woman, not knowing that his interest was entirely pornographic, told a terrible story of being molested by a neighbor. He ignored her. She had thought, “This is Allen Ginsberg, the great beat poet and a prince of empathy.” Wrong. 

Ginsberg told me that he had never met an intelligent person who had the ideas I did. I told him he didn’t get around enough. He pointed to the friends of my godson and said they were old enough to fuck. They were twelve and thirteen. He said that all sex was good, including forced sex. 

I am good at getting rid of men, strictly in the above-board sense. I couldn’t get rid of Allen. Finally, I had had it. Referring back to the Supreme Court’s decision banning child pornography he said, “The right wants to put me in jail.” I said, “Yes, they’re very sentimental; I’d kill you.” The next day he’d point at me in crowded rooms and screech, “She wants to put me in jail.” I’d say, “No, Allen, you still don’t get it. The right wants to put you in jail. I want you dead.” 

He told everyone his fucked-up version of the story (“You want to put me in jail”) for years. When he died, he stopped.

Whether the predators hide behind their fame, religion, ideology, or political party, they remain predators. It’s our task to see past the smokescreen and take action to protect the children — by any means necessary.