The new age of consent

Eric spent half a year in jail for having had sex with a 16 year old. His case shows how a new EU directive has made Europe's old age of consent laws obsolete.

In the summer of 2014, Eric (name changed) met a new friend, Janek (name changed), on a beach in Estonia. Janek was aged 16 and a half. Eric was just over 40. They started hanging out together, which resulted in oral sex on three occasions (Eric sucking off Janek). Eric is a law-abiding citizen - he would not be able to work in his profession if he was previously sentenced. He has always been active in gay rights issues. Being from Eastern Europe, he has followed the fight for gay rights in the former Eastern Bloc up close. In Estonia, gay sex became legal in 1995, and in 2001 the age of consent for gay sex was lowered to the same age as that for straight sex, namely 14. [...]

The new laws are based on EU directive 2011/93/EU "on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography", which replaced an old framework decision. [...]

The wave of new sex legislation that Eric became a victim of is called "child protection", but results in classic homophobia, as is evident from Eric's story. Strip the case of labels as "child" or "hypersexual" and see it for what it is - a man thrown in jail for having a sexual relation with another man - and it shows striking similarities to the situation pre gay liberation.

It is no news that relaxed laws on homosexuality go hand in hand with strengthened "youth protection". It should therefor come as no surprise that the current LGBT triumph in the West causes ever more extreme countermeasures. But as long as the protected children were real children, these laws at least had an ounce of credibility. What we're seeing now is the virtual increasing of Europe's various ages of consent to a [an] universal 18 years level through a few judicial "tips and tricks". This backlash of human rights deserves to be brought to light, no least by the LGBT movement, since gay men, as always, are the ones most targeted.

source: Article 'The new age of consent' by Karl Andersson; The Lover, issue 01, October 2015