The Museum of Sex (called MoSex) opened on September 23 in New York City. After investigating the museum, we concluded that the a more apt name would be Museum of Smut (MoSmut).
      Not for nothing did the New York State Board of Regents refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the establishment, saying that its name made “a mockery of museums.” We pointed out to the press that many of those who are either featured as heroes by the museum, or are in one way or another associated with it, exhibit pathological characteristics. Consider the following.
      Heroes include white racists (Margaret Sanger and Victoria Woodhull) and an advocate of man-boy sex (Al Goldstein). The historian advisory board includes a defender of sadomasochism (George Chauncey), an author who glamorizes prostitutes (Patricia Cline Cohen), a professor who argues that transvestites and “street queens” are pioneers (Martin Duberman), a scholar who has been implicated in research that gave pregnant women male hormones without their knowledge (June Reinisch) and a writer hailed as a “lesbian matriarch” (Joan Nestle).
      Those listed as “Friends” of the museum include pornographers (Betty Dodson, Candida Royalle, Annie Sprinkle and Veronica Vera), an ex-priest turned sexologist (Robert Francoeur), a minister who maintains that swinging is “family-forming behavior” (Ted McIlvenna) and an author whose understanding of the cultural corruption of Weimar Germany still allows him to defend decadence (Mel Gordon).
      In his remarks to the media, William Donohue said: “If the museum’s officials were honest, they would include a death chamber that would acknowledge all the wretched diseases that promiscuity has caused. And they would give due recognition to the role that promiscuity has played in creating poverty (it’s called illegitimacy).”
      Instead, Donohue commented, we can look for the museum to celebrate public sex. He instructed the media to see the museum’s website and click on “1001 Nights,” the map of Manhattan and then Rockefeller Center. By doing so they can learn of the virtues of gays having sex in public.
      In short, Donohue concluded, “the museum celebrates smut as sex, hence the name MoSmut.
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