erty, I have the right to take photographs of anyone or anyth<strong>in</strong>g. .. I'm consider<strong>in</strong>g tak<strong>in</strong>g protection along <strong>in</strong> the form of a baseball bat next time I visit the beach... Anyone who attacks naturist photographers is break<strong>in</strong>g the law, and we have the right to defend ourselves and our property. S<strong>in</strong>ce it has been traditional to <strong>in</strong>clude young people <strong>in</strong> nudist activities, we must also fight the <strong>in</strong>sanity of child-pornography laws. Nude children are not obscene!" Long after I had turned my "Bandonis" file over to police, I learned from <strong>in</strong>vestigator Robert Gately that "Robert Bandonis" was yet another of Warmer's aliases, with a post office box only miles away <strong>in</strong>Trexlertown. <strong>The</strong> Innocents and the Guilty- Three years after my tip set off an <strong>in</strong>vestigation, the Kutztown police entered W<strong>in</strong>ner's house. <strong>The</strong>y couldn't believe what they found. It took them four days, around the clock, to search the debris—stacked floor to ceil<strong>in</strong>g—conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g vast amounts of pornography and file-size boxes packed with nudist child pornography <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g Nudist Angels, Lolli Pops, and Little Nudists; six Polaroids of a baby boy; two sexually explicit photographs of a nude boy at a beach believed to be Sandy Hook; and over a hundred black-and-white photographs show<strong>in</strong>g nude children <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> sadism, masturbation, fellatio, and vag<strong>in</strong>al penetration by objects. Wanner also had boxes full of homemade pornographic videos. <strong>On</strong>e documents his repeated rapes of a mentally impaired thirteen-year-old girl he had hired ostensibly as a "housekeeper." <strong>The</strong> girl was described by Gately <strong>in</strong> the arrest warrant as "so mentally deficient that such person is <strong>in</strong>capable of consent." Accord<strong>in</strong>g to newspaper accounts she was forced to have sex with Wanner one to three times a week. She said she did so because she was "afraid of him." Her eleven-yearold sister, whom Wanner was also charged with sexually abus<strong>in</strong>g, told police Wanner had them look at pornography on five occasions. Another video documents Wanner masturbat<strong>in</strong>g and <strong>in</strong>volved <strong>in</strong> sexual activity with cats. As early as 1983, there had been an abuse report filed aga<strong>in</strong>st Wanner, though he was not convicted, for molest<strong>in</strong>g two prepubescent children—one who had cerebral palsy— while work<strong>in</strong>g for an agency that provided child care. In May 1990, at an Allentown cl<strong>in</strong>ic where Wanner went for kidney dialysis, police were called after a nurse compla<strong>in</strong>ed that Wanner and another man—anti-circumcision advocate Paul Zimmer—had <strong>in</strong> their possession nude photos of male <strong>in</strong>fants and toddlers. When police arrived at the scene they found the photographs, NAMBLA materials, and a copy of <strong>The</strong> Event. <strong>The</strong>re was also a claim by a boy <strong>in</strong> 1990 that Wanner had attempted to lure him away from a swimm<strong>in</strong>g pool, though no charges were ever filed. Like other pedophiles, Joe Wanner had been sexually exploit<strong>in</strong>g children a long time before he was apprehended. It was one of the happiest days of my life when Robert Gately—the Kutztown cop who dedicated himself to the undercover work—took Wanner off the street. <strong>On</strong> January 8, 1994, Wanner, <strong>in</strong> a plea barga<strong>in</strong>, pled guilty to five counts of "sexual abuse of children," three counts of "<strong>in</strong>voluntary deviate sexual <strong>in</strong>tercourse," two counts of "sexual abuse of children for film<strong>in</strong>g sex acts," and one count of "<strong>in</strong>decent assault." At his sentenc<strong>in</strong>g he expressed no empathy for his victims, and no remorse for the harm he had caused others. Wanner was ordered <strong>in</strong>carcerated for 10 to 30 years at the State Correctional Institution at Rock<strong>view</strong>. In June 1993, accord<strong>in</strong>g to a local newspaper, Wanner was slugged <strong>in</strong> the eye by a twenty-year-old. In prisons, men like Wanner are often contemptuously referred to as "short eyes" by fellow <strong>in</strong>mates who—unlike a lot of liberals—don't have much tolerance for pedophiles. Tenacious Fem<strong>in</strong>ism on the Case It took me years to obta<strong>in</strong> enough <strong>in</strong><strong>format</strong>ion to get clear about how the liberal community had deserted survivors of sexual abuse, how sexual liberals' <strong>in</strong>terests conflicted with the true liberation of women and children, and how the naturist agenda clashed with the fem<strong>in</strong>ist one. That's when I became disillusioned and stopped work<strong>in</strong>g with the national naturist movement. Until they recognize and acknowledge the child-abuse problem they have <strong>in</strong> their ranks, stop cover<strong>in</strong>g up for pedophiles and publish<strong>in</strong>g their propaganda—until they identify abusers to their general membership and aggressively turn abusive men over to the police—I will work actively aga<strong>in</strong>st them, just as I work aga<strong>in</strong>st pornographers and other sexual predators. Pedophiles use naturist magaz<strong>in</strong>es as coffee-table porn the way heterosexual men use Playboy. Sexualized photos are used to promote sales of naturist publications, even though objectification negates the very concept of healthy body acceptance. <strong>The</strong> <strong>in</strong>nocence of smil<strong>in</strong>g children along with the sexual availability of women are used to promote naturism to the general public, even though the movement is made up primarily of adult men. <strong>The</strong> sexual and commercial <strong>in</strong>terests of naturist publishers and photographers often make them allies—philosophically and legally—with child abusers, pedophiles, and pornographers. With the help of a good friend, I f<strong>in</strong>ally figured out it was these guys who belonged <strong>in</strong> jail—not me, and I stopped focus<strong>in</strong>g so much on civil disobedience. My protests, which began <strong>in</strong> 1981 with me remov<strong>in</strong>g my shirt, led to my refusal <strong>in</strong> 1987 to remove my clothes atTNS cloth<strong>in</strong>g-optional events. A year later I was fired. Baxandall put his reasons for fir<strong>in</strong>g me <strong>in</strong> writ<strong>in</strong>g: my cont<strong>in</strong>ued work aga<strong>in</strong>st TNS (which went on the last year I was employed), my tenacious radical fem<strong>in</strong>ist politics, and my refusal to recruit more women <strong>in</strong>to naturism. Lately I spend more time at my computer than at any nude beach. Word of my work is gett<strong>in</strong>g out, and now people send me leads and reports. Today my files <strong>in</strong>clude over 50 men who operate or who have operated with<strong>in</strong> the nudist/naturist movement, and who have been convicted on child pornography, molestation, and/or rape charges. Among them are members of nudist and naturist organizations, photographers, nudist camp owners, nude-beach organizers, and other leaders <strong>in</strong> the movement. <strong>The</strong>re are many more who are suspected. Several of these men, <strong>in</strong> addition to Wanner, have been arrested because of my network<strong>in</strong>g with local law enforcement and/or postal <strong>in</strong>spectors <strong>in</strong> their areas. I expect that others will be arrested <strong>in</strong> the next few years. • Mfefei Craft is publisher and editor of'the ICONoclast, a newsletter that exposes connections between the nudist/naturist movement and the exploitation of children and women. To support Craft's work or for subscription <strong>in</strong><strong>format</strong>ion, write to her c/o N.O.P.E. (Naturists and Nudists Oppos<strong>in</strong>g Pornographic Exploitation), P.O. Box 2085, Rancho Cordova, CA 95741-2085. 20 ON THE ISSUES WINTER 1995
<strong>The</strong> Big Chill Corporate war chest puts the freeze on sex discrim<strong>in</strong>ation awards. Legal secretary Rena Weeks was astonished when a jury awarded her $7.1 million dollars for be<strong>in</strong>g forced to endure the grop<strong>in</strong>gs of Mart<strong>in</strong> Greenste<strong>in</strong>, a partner at the world's largest law firm, Chicago-based Baker & McKenzie. Weeks and her lawyer had sought only $3.5 million. But several jurors, assess<strong>in</strong>g the firm's net profit of $65 million, felt that ten percent of the company's capital was a fitt<strong>in</strong>g penalty. <strong>The</strong> high jury award made national headl<strong>in</strong>es <strong>in</strong> September 1994. But there's likely to be much less publicity later on when the appeals judge, <strong>in</strong>evitably, cuts the award down to someth<strong>in</strong>g that won't make much of a difference to the company's bottom l<strong>in</strong>e and leaves Weeks feel<strong>in</strong>g cheated. In 1991, for example, Texaco got a wake-up call about sex discrim<strong>in</strong>ation from a jury that awarded Janella Mart<strong>in</strong>, a credit supervisor, $5.3 million <strong>in</strong> lost wages and $15 BY MARLENE C. PITURRO ON THE ISSUES WINTER 1995 21