W2B-018 Flats - Consent-1.txt
matthew's column

"The Age of Consent is being used to show society's disapproval of our love"

The Age of Consent is there to protect our youth. Fair enough, in theory, but with reported cases of abuse rising, and the true levels unknown, certainly higher and probably terrifyingly so, it's obviously not a strong enough defence for our minors. There's no point in having consent laws without comprehensive education in schools to inform those whom the laws are meant to protect how those laws work, and what rights they give. Many of those who are abused as children would not have undergone as much pain, terror and misery, had they been taught at school what sex is and what abuse is, and how that law is there to protect them, no matter what the abuser is saying or doing to threaten and terrify them into silence.

Of course the guardians of youth and morality in our society are completely opposed to compulsory and comprehensive sex education in our schools. The idea of celibate nuns or monks teaching about love, safe sex and emotion in convents and religious schools is rather ridiculous.

In Britain the Age of Consent is unpopular amongst homosexuals because it enshrines anti-gay discrimination in law. The majority of Conservative and Labour MPs seem to believe that men between the ages of sixteen and eighteen are more susceptible to the approaches of men than women of the same age, despite the advice of the British Medical Association and many other experts. Beyond that, it shows Parliament's willingness to reject the pretence of the concept of equality in British law and allow the continuation of discrimination. It's natural that gay men and women should be annoyed at this - the Age of Consent over there is being used to show society's disapproval of our love, not to protect 'vulnerable' young men of seventeen.

How do the honourable elected members decide on suitable ages of majority anyway? The homosexual Age of Consent debate ignored expert advice on the best way to protect men between sixteen and eighteen, and to facilitate the distribution of safe-sex information to vulnerable gay men of that age. Instead they did what pleased their intolerant constituents and the tabloid press. In Ireland there is no common age of majority - marriage with one's parents'consent and cigarettes are available at sixteen, driving licenses and extra-marital sex at seventeen, and alcohol at eighteen. The law here seems confused at just when one becomes an adult - not because one is more ready for cigarettes at 16 than extra-marital sex, but because these laws are the results of political horse-trading and attempts to please special interest groups like drink and tobacco manufacturers, the medical profession, the church and homosexual and lesbian lobbying groups, and all the rest.

In a recent British survey, a link between sex education and higher ages of first experience and lower teenage pregnancies was shown, and this has been reaffirmed by countless other surveys. Holland has the lowest Age of Consent in western Europe, yet with comprehensive sex-education, the average age of first sexual experience is higher than in the UK, and teenage pregnancies are lower. Common sense says that giving our youths responsibility and education is the best way to protect them, and cotton-wool and ignorance are dangerous. We need comprehensive and compulsory sex education to protect our youth, and a common age of majority, now.
Matthew Wherry
