The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
University prize for human rights activist Tatchell
Controversy flares over campaigner’s letter about sex and children
Controversial campaigner Peter Tatchell is to be honoured by Abertay University in its winter graduations.
The Australian-born Brit regularly leads campaigns against alleged human rights abuses worldwide.
Recently, he successfully lobbied the UK Government to allow same-sex marriage and helped to win royal pardons for gay and bisexual men convicted of consenting adult same-sex acts under historical anti-gay laws.
However, he was this week caught up in controversy after a 1997 letter he sent to The Guardian suggested sex with children may not always be “unwanted, abusive or harmful”.
In a response in The Sun newspaper, the 66-year-old said the book he was referring to was not “a paedophile handbook” but written by psychologists and anthropologists.
He also made clear he “opposes adults having sex with children”.
He will be among more than 200 graduates attending Dundee’s Caird Hall on Friday November 23.
Abertay University principal Nigel Seaton said: “Peter Tatchell has campaigned tirelessly for human rights, and for LGBT+ rights in particular. Peter is an inspiration to the Abertay community.”
A world-leading scientist, Scottish rugby union doctor, and journalist are among Dundee University’s honorary graduates this week.
Professor Bob Michell and Scottish Rugby Union chief medical officer Dr James Robson will be honoured in the Thursday morning and afternoon ceremonies respectively.
Foreign correspondent Christina Lamb will be recognised on Friday.
They will join well over 1,000 undergraduate and post-graduate students when the winter graduation ceremonies take place at Caird Hall.
The Friday ceremony will be the first presided over by Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the university’s newly-installed chancellor.
It will also be the final graduation ceremony for Professor Sir Pete Downes, who is retires from being principal and vice-chancellor.
On Thursday, students from the Schools of Education and Social Work, Life Sciences and Science and Engineering will receive their awards from 10am.
The 2.30pm ceremony will be for graduands of the Schools of Humanities and Social Sciences and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design.
The third ceremony, for students of the Schools of Nursing and Health Sciences, Dentistry and Medicine, will take place at 10am on Friday.