Trustee of trans children's charity Mermaids resigns after his pedophile support group speech resurfaces
LEEDS, ENGLAND: A charity for transgender children in the UK was placed in a tough spot after a trustee on the board created controversy by resigning after a 2011 speech he had given to an organization promoting services to people sexually attracted to minors resurfaced. Dr Jacob Breslow handed his resignation to Mermaids, a nonprofit organization that "has been supporting transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families since 1995," as per the website.
Dr Jacob Breslow's controversy came to light when it was revealed that when he had been a graduate student in 2011, he had given a presentation at a conference in a Maryland-based company. Times of London reveals that Breslow made a speech at a conference with the Maryland-based B4U-ACT, accompany as co-founded in 2003 by Michael Melsheimer who later died in 2010. In his 2011 presentation before the B4U-ACT conference called 'Sexual Alignment: Critiquing Sexual Orientation, The Pedophile, and the DSM V', Breslow said, "Allowing for a form of non-diagnosable minor attraction is exciting, as it potentially creates a sexual or political identity by which activists, scholars, and clinicians can begin to better understand Minor Attracted Persons." Breslow's connection with a pedophile organization came to light.
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He continued, "This understanding may displace the stigma, fear, and abjection that is naturalized as being attached to Minor Attracted Persons and may alter the terms by which non-normative sexualities are known. Furthermore, this paper argues that this distinction is potentially another step towards the complete re-thinking of paraphilias within the DSM – a step that follows historically and theoretically from the removal of homosexuality." Breslow also serves as an associate professor of gender and sexuality at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). LSE claims on its website that, "Dr Jacob Breslow is currently on sabbatical leave until January 2023."
Who is Jacob Breslow?
Not much is known about Breslow but his personal website and LSE show that his primary area of research is on "contemporary U.S. social justice movements, and the ways in which the idea of childhood operates within and against them." He published a book in 2021 titled, 'Ambivalent Childhoods: Speculative Futures and the Psychic Life of the Child' with the University of Minnesota Press. His personal website states that his second line of research is on "transnational and local sexual politics, and the conceptual and lived effects of ameliorating sexual harms."
Following his resignation, Breslow said in a press statement, as per the Times, "I unequivocally condemn child sexual abuse. My work is about protecting marginalized children and young people, not exposing them to harm. It was my understanding in 2011 that B4U-ACT was an organization that promotes treatments to prevent offending by pedophiles. I believed at the time that the purpose of the conference was to enable better treatments and interventions that prevent harm to children. I would not have attended the symposium otherwise. I have not been affiliated with B4U-ACT since. I decided to resign as a Trustee of Mermaids as I did not want to distract from the good work the charity is doing to help transgender and gender-diverse children."
Mermaids said in a statement to BBC, "Mermaids has been made aware of Dr. Breslow's historical participation in a conference that is completely at odds with our values. Once notified we took swift and decisive action to investigate. Dr. Breslow tendered his notice on the same day. We will be reviewing our processes and procedures in light of this event to make them even more robust. Safeguarding is of the utmost importance to Mermaids and the safety of the young people we support is our highest priority."