Ian Campbell Dunn was a Scottish gay rights and pro-paedophilia campaigner. He was founder of The Scottish Minorities Group and one of the first British gay rights organisations. He co-founded the controversial Paedophile Information Exchange and helped establish Britain's first gay newspaper, Gay News. Dunn also worked as the editor of Gay Scotland Magazine.
In January 1969 Dunn founded the Scottish Minorities Group, holding its inaugural meeting in his parent's house in Glasgow. His early activism was inspired by the fact that 1967 reforms in the law concerning gay sex only applied to England and Wales and thus gay sex continued to be illegal in Scotland. Dunn took a leading role in legalising gay sex in Scotland, and along with two other activists he took the case to the European Court of Human Rights. In 1980 the previous reforms of 1967 reforms were extended to cover Scotland. The Scottish Minorities Group later re-branded as Outright Scotland, with Dunn also running the organisation. in 1972 Dunn helped to launch Gay News, Britain's first gay newspaper. Along with Derek Ogg, in 1974 Dunn convened the International Gay Rights Congress in Edinburgh, which was the first post-war international conference of homosexual rights movements. The event gave rise to the International Lesbian & Gay Association. Dunn also established the Edinburgh Gay & Lesbian Community Centre in 1974 and he ran the Lavander Menace bookshop in Edinburgh in the 1980s. Dunn also co-presented a 1976 BBC television documentary on gay rights.
Dunn co-founded the Paedophile Information Exchange in 1974. The organisation campaigned to legalise sex between adults and children, and to promote acceptance and understanding of adults having sex with children, with Dunn considered to be an influential member of the campaign. A number of key PIE figures were jailed in 1984 and the group was closed down shortly afterwards. Dunn organised and advertised openly pro-paedophile meetings in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. He stated of the subject: “I am not one of those homosexuals who get cross or nervous when the subject of love between men and boys is raised.” He also allowed his home in Edinburgh to be used as the contact address for paedophile magazine Minor Problems.
Death and legacy
Dunn lived in Broughton, Edinburgh and died of a heart attack in the city on 10 March 1998. He was survived by his lover, Ross Watt. Dunn's funeral took place on 18 March 1998 at Mansfield Place Church, Edinburgh. A young man at the funeral claimed to have been raped by Dunn, and stated he was attending "to make sure he was dead". An inventory of his correspondence and papers is held at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, and in 2018 the library featured a display concerning his life and work. The display was later removed when the library was informed of Dunn's paedophile rights work by The Times newspaper. To honour Dunn, Pride Scotia established the Ian Dunn Memorial Award for Activism in 1998. Recipients of the award include MSPs Margaret Smith and Patrick Harvie. A room at the Glasgow LGBT Centre was named after Dunn.
