A Professor's Writings About Pederasty Enraged Students. So They Protested at His Home. - The Chronicle of Higher Education

"The target of Monday night’s protest was Thomas K. Hubbard, who has written about “pederasty” — sexual relationships between adult men and teen boys in some cultures, including Ancient Greece. Hubbard, who has described such activities as “learning experiences” in those cultures, has been branded by critics as an apologist for pedophilia....

In a written statement on Tuesday, Hubbard, 63, said he has never been charged with a crime or sexual harassment in 40 years of teaching and that he is not “personally oriented to underage youth.”

“It is no more valid to conclude that scholars who work on sex-offender policy and the relevance of cross-cultural evidence are themselves sex offenders than to think that advocates of drug decriminalization are themselves drug abusers or that advocates of criminal justice reform are criminals,” he wrote. “Such simplistic thinking chills serious debate and research on vital public-policy issues.”

Hubbard elaborated on his views in a question-and-answer document emailed to The Chronicle, in which he said he doesn’t write about pedophilia. He said he has written about “pederasty,” which he defined as a different custom involving “romantic courtship of adolescent males” practiced in diverse historical cultures. “How teen sexuality should be regulated and how legal violations should be punished are legitimate areas of research and debate among scholars and public-policy professionals,” he wrote...."