Shadows Project is back online!

The next step towards the re-launch of Shadows Project (SP) has been made! 🎈🎉

You will still see a placeholder under its domain, but as of tonight there is a new one pointing to an archive. This archive is the old HTML page so that SP is accessible and visible again. Though there are some repairs that will gradually be done. But this is not yet the big update.

The most important change is hidden in the background: the Grav based version of SP, which Anton created in October 2023 and which Markus had modified as he saw fit, is now also back online (though hidden for now). This means that after the shutdown in June 2024 (see here and here) the actual revision can finally begin now! As the site — in its current state — is not yet ready for publication it will be reviewed and revised piece by piece in the next weeks/months. Therefore I could really use some volunteers both now and later, probably beginning in March/April at the latest: Right now for reviewing the content and later especially with translating the finished texts into a handful of languages. Please get in touch! But I also urgently ask for help for programming how the upload works. The old script can probably only be used for orientation and must be completely rewritten to take into account the past 11 years of technical development.

But what is the Shadows Project?

“Step Out of the Shadows” or Shadows Project is an art project inspired by the AIDS Memorial Quilt and the ‘First Words’¹ at Virtuous Pedophiles that Leon S. Kennedy and I started in 2014. The title refers to the fact that it aims to offer a way of stepping out of the shadows without leaving the protection of anonymity. The fact that some of us can do anonymized interviews or even be completely open is a blessing. But there are very few such people and so their stories will repeat themselves. It could lead to the impression of a small, closed group or lobby. Not everyone has the passion, creativity, time or energy to run a blog, get involved in debates or do other highly visible things. Many just want to live. However, some of them are still bothered by the invisibility to which pedophiles are condemned in society, and they want to be heard and seen somehow. To step out of the shadows. That's what SP is all about. As we wrote on the website:

Under the title Step out of the Shadows we want to start an art project made of contributions of many pedophiles from different countries. It is a long-term project and has the following key objectives:

• To show us as class of non-offending pedophiles, to reduce the stigma and to make clear that inclination does not equal offending or being a "timebomb"
• Providing the possibility to express ourselves in word and (if wanted) in art. The possibility, to express ourselves with all the burden and our feelings about discrimination and the resulting game of hide-and-seek most people with pedophil[ia] are forced to play not to lose friends, job and even family. And all this without even having offended, just because of the mere fact of their sexual urges! This causes an enormous psychological strain because we have to completely hide a very important part not to risk everything.
• To encourage other pedophiles not to offend by showing ourselves, showing that we are many, and showing that we do not even miss harming kids!

[…] The aim is to show: that is me! Not the stereotype huge parts of the society have in mind but friends, relatives, neighbours, children and grandchildren, partly even parents ourselves and not necessarily the worst […] Human beings with a life, with a story, with feelings, with ideas, dreams, hopes and fears, fantasies, artistic skills and peotry.

The central element is an online gallery, which is created from many short self-introductions of non-offending pedophiles from all over the world. With real names or under pseudonyms if you wish. So anyone and everyone can take part. Write what defines you, who you are, what you feel. If you want, you can additionally customize and and artistically design your page (practically an A4 sheet of paper).

Words, claims and elaborate texts by a few people can easily be ignored and dismissed as insincere. But try to do that with the art and the feelings of many.