Austin students want professor fired for writings on age of consent; UT says it’s protected speech

For weeks, University of Texas students have been protesting against and asking school leaders to fire professors with histories of sexual misconduct.

Now, a group of students is calling for the removal of another faculty member they say is promoting harmful ideas about the age of consent and sexual relations with minors.

Thomas K. Hubbard, a professor of classics in UT’s College of Liberal Arts, has written extensively on relationships between adolescent boys and adult men, often using classic literature’s depictions of homosexual relationships to suggest changing age of consent laws and challenging modern norms about youth sexuality.

But some students say he has used his position as a UT professor to further a culture that hurts young boys.

In his academic writing, Hubbard describes physical relationships between men and young boys in ancient times as “proper learning experiences.” In one 2010 article published in the peer-reviewed journal, Thymos: Boyhood Studies, Hubbard examines sexual consent among adolescent males in antiquity, asking, “What can we learn from the Greeks?”

“Contemporary American legislation premised on children’s incapacity to ‘consent’ to sexual relations stems from outmoded gender constructions and ideological preoccupations of the late Victorian and Progressive Era,” Hubbard writes. “We should consider a different ‘age of consent’ for boys and girls.”

In the same publication, Hubbard called age of consent laws a “sad by-product” of a “naive and self-righteous era” and compared them to prohibition.

Hubbard rebukes the idea he writes about pedophilia. Instead, he says, he discusses the phenomenon of “pederasty,” which he described as the romantic courtship of adolescent males, usually 14 years or older with older men.

“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. Historical and cross-cultural evidence have a place in such discussions,” he said in an emailed statement.

READ: Hubbard’s Q&A on the issue.

Hubbard said the concerns are from a “small handful of students,” and “are not based on any careful examination of the full spectrum of my writings on the subject.”

Hubbard said he believes very strongly in informed consent.

“I have written many hundreds of pages on such topics, which you really need to examine carefully if you want to do responsible reporting,” he said. “You should not merely accept it on faith if some naive undergraduate student quotes something to you from an article they may not have even read fully or have the intellectual sophistication to understand.”

While the American-Statesman has not reviewed the entirety of Hubbard’s academic writings, it has read the article in question, in which Hubbard explores adolescent sexuality in ancient Greek and the origins of age of consent laws.

Some experts say many scholars who work on the history of sexuality in the ancient world do not subscribe to, condone or promote the practices they write about. Hubbard’s writings, while offensive to some students, do not violate any campus policy, according to the university, and therefore do not warrant any disciplinary action.

“The university condemns ideas or world views that exploit or harm individuals,” UT spokeswoman Shilpa Bakre said. “However, the study of controversial and even offensive ideas is protected by the First Amendment — as is the right of others to strongly disagree with and draw attention to those ideas. If someone is alleged to violate university policy or takes actions that threaten the safety of the campus community, the university will respond swiftly, investigating allegations thoroughly and imposing sanctions as warranted.”

Hubbard’s work is promoted in online communities that support and promote relationships between men and minor boys, such as the North American Man/Boy Love Association, or NAMbLA, a pedophile advocacy group. The organization published Hubbard’s book, “Greek Love Reconsidered,” in 2000 simultaneously with Wallace Hamilton Press.

Up until recently, Hubbard was listed as an associated individual on NAMbLA’s Wikipedia page. As of Tuesday, his name had been removed.

Hubbard told the Statesman his works were not “influenced by or sympathetic to NAMBLA’s radical position,” nor does he “endorse NAMBLA’s idiosyncratic approach to legal reform and do not share the sexual orientation of its members.”

One post on the site BoyChat.org, a website that describes itself as a forum for people who have “a particular affinity for pubescent and/or prepubescent boys,” describes Hubbard as “a great man — fearless on speaking out against today's phobic persecution of boylove.”

Sarah Blakemore, one of the students calling for Hubbard’s removal, took his classical mythology class this semester before learning about his writings on pederasty and dropping the course.

“I understand everyone has their own academic license, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for teachers at a public university to be promoting breaking the law,” Blakemore said. “Personally, if the world’s largest pedophile advocacy group endorsed my book, I would reconsider my life.”

Dr. Roy Lubit is a New York-based forensic child psychiatrist who has studied and treated child sexual abuse cases across the country. Lubit said children and adolescents are not able to consent.

“Serotonin levels drop during teen years and dopamine goes up, so now you have someone whose desires are magnified and whose self-control is down,” Lubit said. “And this is part of why teenagers tend to have tumultuous teenage years; they need adult guidance and adult protection from themselves, from their decisions.”

Hubbard’s expertise in classical texts does not make him an expert in child psychology, Lubit said: “I have evaluated and treated many, many people who have suffered child sexual abuse and the fact that it occurred in Greece 2,000 years ago doesn't mean that it’s not harmful.”

Universities often don’t have any jurisdiction over worldviews. Recently at Indiana University, business professor Eric Rasmusen was found to have used his social media accounts to disparage women, people of color and gay men.

An Indiana University leader called Rasmusen’s posts “vile and stupid” but said the school was forbidden under the First Amendment from firing him.

Jodie Shipper, a California-based higher education consultant, said free speech and academic freedom rules are critical at public universities.

“If we tightly control someone and what they can say in the classroom, we have to be prepared to think about the ramifications of all the other speech we might control and what that might look like,” Shipper said.

But just because a university can’t impose sanctions on a professor, doesn’t mean students or the general public can’t, Shipper said.

“Maybe the university isn’t firing him. But at some point, if no one is taking his classes, it may be that he is in a position where, due to attrition, there’s nothing for him to do,” Shipper said.

The students calling for Hubbard’s dismissal say they have joined other students protesting professors’ sexual misconduct and call themselves The Coalition Against Sexual Misconduct. The group is holding its fourth rally of the semester at 10 a.m. Friday at the UT Tower.