I'm sorry the squabbling over such things continues, but regrettably, as the fight for emancipation marches on, missteps by our community continue to occur. And those who want things to change for the better sometimes cannot overlook the missteps that may have very severe consequences for our community, lest what progress we have made get knocked back by a very serious setback. Setbacks, unfortunately, are one of the many obstacles that all oppressed groups have had to account for on the long winding road towards progress.

Further, we remain a diverse group of individuals who have different outlooks and solutions towards dealing with various problems facing the community. It would be wonderful if we could stand united on all things, but in many cases, our general attraction base may be the only thing we have in common with each other. That alone does not guarantee harmony of purpose and agreement on tactics. We remain, above all else, human beings.

And yes, we do indeed need a major cultural shift, but we may be a ways away from that right now. There is no way to fully predict when such a major shift will occur. The youth liberation movement has to progress further and enter the mainstream. That hasn't happened yet, but it is on its way, reflected by the greater visibility of the movement on social media and the lowering of the voting age to 16 in various U.S. municipalities and the fight to lower it in others. It will eventually get there, but who soon depends on a lot of factors, including the lack of some other major unforeseen setback. Puritanical movements like that SJW nonsense that is currently demonizing men, fostering a witch-hunt on male sexuality, and glorifying misandry is also a factor to consider right now, and it's definitely slowing our overall progress. Since the AoC laws have largely been anti-male at their core, the SJW situation bodes bad for us by proxy. But there is a major blowback against that movement now, so it no longer operates virtually unopposed. And that blowback is not limited by any means to people on the Right.

As for getting our foot in the door on the heels of the the gay rights movement of the '70s, that was one of those horribly tragic setbacks for us, as we actually did get a foot in the door during that decade, with PIE in the U.K. being respected by liberal organizations at the time, including many gay rights orgs. The birth of NAMBLA towards the end of that decade in North America was thanks to the work of BLer's alongside the radical gay rights movement of the era.

Unfortunately, after that, the 1980s happened. Due to the slew of moral panics and conservative takeover of government in the West (starting in the U.S. and U.K.), along with the explosive growth of many political movements and media outlets that profited immensely off of the moral panics (e.g., the explosive growth of "radical/third wave feminism" -- with "feminism" serving as a misnomer for organized misandrists that were the forerunners of today's SJW movement -- and trash TV, respectively), our foot in the door got kicked out and the door slammed shut behind it. The youth rights movement was knocked back into the water for almost two decades, and NAMBLA was virtually rendered stillborn, going from a respectable offshoot of the general radical gay movement to something that has alternated as a horrific aberration and a dark cultural joke.

On top of that, the gay rights movement only facilitated its survival and continued progress by dropping its previous radical stances--which included acceptance of youth liberation and intergenerational romance--and adopted its ongoing rigid assimilationist agenda, designed to integrate itself into the existing power structures of society rather than fighting to create new paradigms. This included the embracing of the nuclear family unit and monoamory as "standard" for the whole LGBT community, and a strong swing to the conservative side regarding youth sexuality in lockstep with the Left in general. Of course, the AIDS panic of the 1980s was another setback, not only for the health and safety of the gay community, but also from a political standpoint, regarding how it helped spur the gay community on towards a more conservative outlook with sexuality and relationships.

As for how I keep up hope despite everything? It's as simple as this, my friend: I consider the alternative.

It's great to see you back, and even though I know things are still disheartening and it's incredibly frustrating how long significant progress takes, I'm still glad we have each other to help one another bear the burden of being a MAP in today's day and age. The more of us lending our shoulders and insights, the better for the community in general!