Recent indications are that the age of consent for gay men will be lowered to sixteen with the blessing of the New Labour government. This would bring it into line with the age of consent for heterosexuals and lesbians. Few European countries today make any legal distinctions between heterosexual and gay sex. In Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, "state partnerships" akin to marriage are available to same-sex couples. Advocates of such equality often talk of bringing Britain "into line" with mainland Europe. Traditionalists warn of moral decline and the threat of paedophilia....

Gay rights activist and theoretician Peter Tatchell argues that both conservative and liberal perceptions of sexuality are culturally narrow, and that the most important questions are those which few dare to ask. The opinions he expresses here are entirely his own.

The Sex Offenders Act (1997), passed in the dying days of the Major government, with Labour support, was trumpeted as a crackdown on paedophiles. On top of their sentence, convicted offenders are now compelled to register their addresses with the police for a period of between five years to life.

Few people realise that under this act a 20 year old man who has consenting gay sex with a 17 year old man is categorised as a dangerous sex criminal, on a par with men who rape children. The 20 year old will be required to notify his address to the police for at least five years, and be kept under surveillance.

Different rules apply to heterosexuals. A 20 year old straight man who is convicted of sex with a 17 year old girl is not deemed to be a danger, and will not have to register with the police.

These contradictory notions of what constitutes child sex abuse are downright scary. previously, with the Indecency with Children Act (1960), a child was defined as someone below the age of 14. The Sex Offenders Act of 1990 changes that. It raises the age at which sexual offences are considered abusive and introduces a two-tier definition: straight sex is deemed to be child abuse if it involves a person under 16, whereas gay sex is classed as abusive if either of the partners is under 18. This surreptitious, de facto redefinition of what constitutes child molestation, creating a double-standard based on a person's sexual orientation, is a curious and alarming innovation.

There is something else very odd about the Sex Offenders Act. It makes no distinction between consensual and coercive sexual relations : a man in a loving gay relationship with a teenaged boy is lumped together with men who physically force infant girls to give them oral sex.

Isn't it also bizarre that the special 'child protection' penalty of police registration applies to adults who have sex with youngsters, but not to those who murder or mutilate them? Paedophiles have to register, child killers don't!

The Sex Offenders Act epitomises society's muddled, knee-jerk reactions to a range of behaviour that is often inappropriately demonised as child sex abuse. The issue is much more complex, as Joseph Geraci explains eloquently in his book, Dares to Speak.* This is the latest in a series of trail-blazing books about young people's sexuality published by GMP [formerly Gay Men's Press]. The pioneers of gay publishing in Britain, for eighteen years GMP have fearlessly tackled issues that others regard as too hot to handle.

GMP's recent novels on young sex included Mike Seabrook's Unnatural Relations (gay lovers, aged 15 and 19, have their happiness shattered when the older youth is prosecuted for under-age sex); Rudi van Dantzig's For a Lost Soldier (the relationship between an 11 year old boy and a Canadian soldier in the Netherlands during World War II), and Jospeh Garaci's Loving Sander (a photographic scholar faces an awkward dilemma when the young son of a colleague seeks sexual intimacy). While I do not agree with every point made in this book, Dares to Speak is an outstanding collection of essays by psychologists, historians and anthropologists, offering a much needed rational, informed perspective on sexual bonds between younger and older people. Boy-love was, they point out, venerated by all the great civilisations. Greek and Islamic writers idealised pederasty. Samurai regarded it as noble and manly. the boys were not coerced or harmed. They were loved.

Abusive, exploitative relationships are indefensible. but Dares to Speak documents many examples of societies where consenting inter-generational sex is considered normal, acceptable, beneficial and enjoyable by old and young alike. Professor Gilbert Herdt points to the Samba tribe of Papua New Guinea. From the ages of 7 to 15, all young boys have homosexual relations with older warriors as part of their rite of passage to manhood. Far from being damaged, Herdt says that boys regard sex with men as a pleasure and grow up to be happy, well-adjusted husbands and fathers.

A Dutch study by the psychologist Frits Bernard found no evidence of trauma or regret in adults who, as children, had freely chosen to have sex with older people. He noted that these forms of paedophile relationships were usually characterised by strong mutual affection and often continued well into adulthood, long after the sexual aspect had ended.

These facts are unpalatable. We find them difficult to accept. Nevertheless, as the Lutheran theologian Dr Ralph Underwager argues, while it may be impossible ever to condone paedophilia, we must face up to the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted, abusive and harmful.