Pedophilia’s Current Makeover
There is hardly anything the sexual revolution has imagined that has not gained general acceptance by liberally minded folks. The only rule that under girds their sexual ethic is consent. As long as two or more adults fully consent, it gets two-thumbs up from sex revolutionaries. This is what we call a minimalist ethic.
This is why pedophilia is the last hold-out to not have received a cheery green light. Children cannot properly consent. And besides, adults attracted to children are just creepy. But one group is seeking to change that perception.
They held a “professional conference” in an undisclosed location in Ohio just days ago. One of the first things this group did was land on a new name for pedophiles. The old one just had too much bad baggage associated with it for some reason. So, the new make-over is Minor Attracted Persons or MAPs for short.
Never mind that MAPs are nearly all men. “Persons” seems like a broader, more protected class, an essential move in winning favor and protection to your side
The group’s primary stated goals for this recent “Demystifying and Thriving” conference were:
- Increase competence and cultural humility in providing affirming, compassionate care for MAPs.
- Recognize the different levels of stigma and bias and their effects on MAPs and providers.
- Identify and discuss approaches that promote wellness and thriving among MAPs.
This is all an effort to depathologized the pedophilic person, frame them as victims of “stigma” and have the larger society develop some sense of compassion for such people. After all, the organizers explain, “all people should recognize that no one chooses to be attracted to children.” They are just born that way, right? Lady Gaga has already told us all about that. What is more, academic sources tell us pedophilia is “a type of sexual orientation in men.” A “sexual age orientation.” How can you blame someone for something nature gave them, right?
The organization’s leaders claim, “Vilifying [MAPs] for their feelings is unjust and harmful; it forces them into lives of secrecy and prevents them from getting help when needed, ultimately putting children at risk.” Yes, it’s all about the children … and the adults who are sexually attracted to them.
This is not their first effort. The group’s 2019 Workshop in Baltimore was focused on “Compassionate and Informed Approaches for Supporting Minor-Attracted People.”
If all this seems like they are borrowing a page from the rhetorical and political successes of the movement to mainstream homosexuality and transgenderism, it is not your imagination.
A scholarly review from 2024 examining the creation and use of the term “Minor Attracted Persons” notes similarities borrowed from homosexuality’s playbook: “MAPs scholarship presents pedophiles as an oppressed sexual minority subject to undue discrimination and oppression.” The review notes unapprovingly, “This framing draws, implicitly and explicitly, on controversial comparisons between pedophilia and same-sex attraction.”
The Australian scholars authoring this review also warn of “strong claims in the MAPs literature that the stigmatization of sexual interest in children is the primary driver of child sexual abuse, and thus sexual interest in children should be socially and culturally normalized.”
Be warned. These authors explain, “‘MAPs’ is part of the nomenclature of contemporary pro-pedophile movements seeking social and legal rights for those with a sexual interest in children and is not a neutral or scientific synonym for pedophile.”
Christina Buttons, an investigative reporter for the Manhattan Institute, wrote recently on this slippery makeover of those sexually attracted to our children. She warns that progressive activists like this “are recasting pedophilic attraction as something to be accepted rather than contained.” She adds, “In doing so, they risk collapsing critical moral distinctions and shifting the focus away from the safety and well-being of children – the population most in need of protection.”
Buttons is correct. This is a very deceptive and disturbing effort that everyone who cares for children and social safety should be mindful of and never fall for.
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