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B4U-ACT sent the e-mail letter below to all members of the DSM Paraphilias Subworkgroup and leading officials of the DSM Task Force, inviting them to come and speak at its upcoming symposium. B4U-ACT suggested this as a way to restart the conversation begun the previous summer with a conference call between DSM officials and B4U-ACT, and thereby take steps “to ensure not only that the DSM is founded in sound science, but also that it does not engender stigma or diminish availability of care, and takes valid patient input into account.”

No reply was received.

Subject: B4U-ACT Symposium on Pedophilia and the DSM
From: Howard Kline
To: Ray Blanchard, Martin Kafka, Richard Krueger, Niklas Langstrom, Kenneth Zucker, David Kupfer, Darrel Regier, William Narrow
CC: Richard Kramer, Russell Dick, Irving M. Binik, Lori A. Brotto, Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis, Jack Drescher, Cynthia Graham, Heino F. L. Meyer-Bahlburg, Friedemann Pfäfflin, Robert Taylor Segraves
Date: Tue, 03 May 2011 23:50:21

To Dr. Ray Blanchard, members of Paraphilias Subworkgroup, and APA DSM Task Force officials

Dear Gentlemen:

On August 17, B4U-ACT will hold a symposium on “Pedophilia, Minor-Attracted Persons, and the DSM: Issues and Controversies.” All of you have received the call for proposals for this event, which is also available at www.b4uact.org/callforproposals.htm. The purpose of this e-mail is to reach out to you with a special invitation to participate.

The symposium will be a collaborative exchange of ideas among researchers, scholars, clinicians, and minor-attracted people from a variety of disciplines and with a variety of views. We wish to have all views reflected as accurately and fairly as possible. As such, it would be beneficial to have Dr. Blanchard, other members of the Paraphilias Subworkgroup, and/or other representatives of the DSM Task Force present the perspective under review by the APA on these issues. We would like to have at least two DSM-5 representatives speaking at the symposium in order to ensure that your views are well and accurately represented and that the discussion is fair and meaningful. If none or only one of you is available on the date of the symposium, we’d be interested in your recommendation of others who could speak on your behalf.

There is an important reason for the APA to participate in this symposium. Seven of the recipients of this e-mail took part in a conference call with representatives of B4U-ACT in June 2010. Promises were made of specific follow-up by the APA after that call, however none of that follow-up took place despite numerous attempts by B4U-ACT to obtain it. We are reaching back out to you now in an attempt to restart the conversation. We know how busy you are and understand how various pressures on your time may have interrupted your follow-through last summer. However, we also trust that you are committed to “the best interests of patients and those actually or potentially making use of mental health services” [APA Bylaws] and to enabling care to be provided “with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights” [AMA Ethics]. Therefore, we trust that you want to take all reasonable steps to ensure not only that the DSM is founded in sound science, but also that it does not engender stigma or diminish availability of care, and takes valid patient input into account. These objectives are the key focus areas of the symposium.

If none of you is able to participate in the symposium, and if there is no one else to nominate to represent you, then we urge you to delegate one of you to speak with us about an alternative course of action to resume the conversation started with the conference call last summer.

While this is a matter of professionalism for you, for us it is a matter both of professionalism and of life and limb. Legions of minor-attracted people are suffering daily and reporting inability to find compassionate and respectful mental health services. Most are left to cope by themselves, and some fail. Too many, including many teenagers who find themselves attracted to younger children, take their own lives, or try to. We trust that such outcomes are as unsatisfactory to the APA as they are to us. Please work with us to find solutions that properly diagnose disorder and support its appropriate treatment. Please come and speak at our symposium or get back to us about other ways to get our conversation back on track.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Howard Kline
Science Director
B4U-ACT, Inc.
www.b4uact.org