And what, exactly, is there "between" legalization and criminalization, Ethan?

Reduced penalties and prosecutorial discretion, for starters. And more broadly, sympathy and acceptance for those who do not act sexually with children.

You can have moderately nuanced views, but if you favor societal contentions that youths must not have their rights, and are unable to handle those rights, and wouldn't want those rights in the first place, then that is predominantly mainstream thinking.

Those are grand generalities. There are different answers for different rights, and since age is a continuum, in practice it is about where to draw lines. I would tend to favor easier emancipation procedures than are typically in place today. I think it's ridiculous to punish teens for distributing selfies. I don't even make any grand pronouncements about kids being unable to consent to sex -- though I think it's good policy for adults to know they might face criminal charges for sex with someone much younger. I am certainly opposed to making kids feel bad about their sexual experiences with adults if they don't come to that themselves.

If the litmus test is whether adults can know they are legally in the clear when having sex with a willing young teen, then I'm on the mainstream side -- but it seems no accident how that one particular right is of such importance to many pedophiles.

Many of those individuals have more than conservative enough thinking, and you have only "gotten through" to them because they are good for media sites that have to deal with sponsors, and they can therefore get away with their "sympathetic" views for pedophilia and hebephilia as a result.

Did you mistype something? I have no idea what you're talking about.

Do they take heat from some quarters for their more liberal views? Yes. But they do it anyway.

As for your and Edward's rebuttal, as I said on Tom's blog, it boils down to their not agreeing with the pro-legalization view. And as I said over there, I had already said that.

Yeah, you don't like them. But they like us, and that's what we were talking about.