Several times, I have contacted Snopes to tell them their fact-checks on pedophilia lack merit. Each time, I have told them that pedophilia is not the sexual abuse of a child, but the sexual attraction to children. Each time I see a new Snopes article discussing pedophilia, they keep making the same mistake. So, what follows will be my own fact-check of their most recent article, “Is LGBT Adding a ‘P’ for Pedosexual?”

First, Definitions And Why They Matter

I do not believe I need any kind of source to make the point that the sexual attraction to someone, and sexually harming that same someone or group of someones, are two separate ideas. Snopes appears to use pedophilia and sexual abuse interchangeably throughout their article, so I would like to take several quotations from their article and simply replace every instance of “pedophilia” with, “sexual attraction to children.” For brevity, I will skip the paragraphs that do not contain the word in question.

Ready?

Anti-gay activists continue to push the long-disproven idea that homosexuality and a sexual attraction to children are somehow connected, despite an utter lack of scientific proof. In December 2017, for instance, Facebook user Keya Hopkins shared an image purportedly showing a flyer in support of “LGBTP” rights, claiming that the “P” for stood for “Pedosexual”:

This is not a genuine flyer from an LGBT group, nor has any LGBT group condoned a sexual attraction to children, let alone announced that a “P” would be added to the acronym in order to show support for pedophiles.

Nor was it the last time a 4chan group tried this. A January 2017 thread titled “LGBTP General: Subversive Memesmithing Edition” laid out further plans to spread the idea that the LGBT community supports a sexual attraction to children:

To be clear, no LGBT organization has ever come out in favor of child molestation. Furthermore, this attempt to link homosexuality to a sexual attraction to children was rooted in bigotry, not statistics:

By now, I think you see my point: Confusing the sexual attraction to children, with the sexual abuse of them, makes no sense whatsoever.

The proper understanding of these words would roughly be as follows:

Pedophile: Someone with pedophilia, a sexual attraction to children.

Pedophilia: A sexual attraction to children.

Child molestation: The act of sexually abusing a child.

Child molester: Someone who engages in child molestation, the act of sexually abusing a child.

The Facts About Pedophilia And Its Connection With Child Molestation

A prestigious fact-checker like Snopes would do well to re-examine the facts of this issue, for no other reason than to avoid looking utterly foolish.

But what are the facts of this issue? Is there a basis for conflating the sexual abuse of children with the sexual attraction to children?

To date, the only major study that has ever been done to link the sexual abuse of children with the sexual attraction to children is from Gene Abel. In his study, Gene Abel surveyed 5,000 men, and for the purpose of his study, he defined pedophilia as the act of molesting a child, and the sexual attraction to them. Then he asked them questions, and from their responses, concluded that 95% of child molesters have pedophilia. Obviously, that causes problems.

By this point, I had made a few professional contacts on Twitter, so I asked them about the matter:

As you can see, their answer matched the articles I had previously read about (see here, here, here, and here): Most child molesters are not pedophilic.

In short, Gene Abel’s study is bunk that is contradicted by four studies and the statement of Dr. James Cantor.

In fact, Interpol released terminology guidelines last year, and one of their recommendations (page 86) was to call those who sexually abuse children and also have pedophilia “preferential offenders,” rather than “pedophiles.” Their reasoning is as follows (with three citations, seen in the guidelines themselves, removed for clarity):

“Paedophilia” or “paedophilic disorder” refers to a clinical diagnosis of a mental health condition. WHO defines the condition broadly as “a sexual preference for children, boys or girls or both, usually or prepubertal or early pubertal age”. According to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), paedophilic disorder is a part of a larger group of paraphilic disorders, characterised as a “persistent and intense atypical sexual arousal patterns that are accompanied by clinically significant distress or impairment”. The change in terminology from “paedophilia” or “paedophile” to “paedophilic disorder” in DSM-5 was intended to reflect the growing acceptance among mental health professionals that not all individuals who present with symptoms of paedophilic disorder are perpetrators of child sexual abuse or exploitation.

In other words, the World Health Organization, the DSM-5, and mental health professionals agree that those with pedophilia are not the same as sexual abusers.

What Do Pedophiles Say?

That is a very interesting question. There are essentially three groups of pedophiles: Those that are unknown to the world at large (they have not disclosed their attraction, and suffer in silence), those who are “anti-contact” (they do not wish to harm children and believe it is wrong to act on their attractions), and those who are “pro-contact” (they wish society would accept that not all sexual activity between children and adults causes harm and think that some of that activity should be legal).

I used to be part of the first group, and then I sought help from professionals and I identify with the second group. While the third group certainly exists, as Snopes rightly points out, the recent group “Heart Progress” and the so-called movement to include being sexual with children in the LGBT movement is nothing more than a bunch of trolls running a smear campaign. Trolls are loud, and sometimes (as was the case with NAMBLA), the pro-contact pedophiles are very vocal.

In other words, there is no unified position that pedophiles have. Most, like me, still believe that being sexual with a child is wrong under any circumstance, whether that is directly with a child, or with child sexual abuse images (child pornography). So, the idea that pedophiles themselves want civil rights to be sexual with children is a mixed bag: It is mostly false, given the pedophiles I interact with, and my own beliefs. In fact, I have a website to educate people on how sexual abuse can be prevented before it can happen.

In Summary…

In summary, there is in fact scientific evidence (as outlined here) that links homosexuality and pedophilia: Both are sexual attractions. As I have covered elsewhere (and here), pedophilia is a sexual orientation directed at children, in that it is a sexual attraction that cannot be changed and persists over a long period of time.

While Snopes is correct in pointing out there is no link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, or a significant prevalence among homosexuals to also have pedophilia, and they are also correct to point out that the recent posts from Heart Progress are actually from trolls running a smear campaign… Snopes is not correct to equate child sexual abuse and pedophilia as the same thing, and they must update their articles tagged “pedophilia” to reflect this reality.

The post Fact-Checking Snopes’ Fact-Check On Pedophilia appeared first on Pedophiles About Pedophilia.

You even see “interview with a pedophile” and junk like that, and most of the time, they are talking about a convicted child rapist, not someone with pedophilia, a sexual attraction to children. Most of the time you hear about pedophilia and pedophiles, it is a news story abusing these two terms horrendously to discuss child sexual abuse and those who abuse. Minor attraction is clearer, but when I correct people about this issue, I get flak for it. Think about why that is. Think hard.

Why does it matter? Who cares? Well, I think you should care, and I think it makes all the difference in the world to about 5-10% of the population and for children.

Can you let me explain why? Can I illustrate this for you?

What Is Minor Attraction?

Do you know what being heterosexual is like? Statistically, this is likely, so I will roll with this, though if you are LGBTQ+ or whatever, then you can apply what I am about to say for your situation as well, but it is easier for this illustration to just go with one example. Sorry.

If you are a man, are you attracted to every woman you see? If you are a woman, are you attracted to every man you see? Of course not. If you are a man, can you be sexually attracted to a woman… but not romantically or emotionally interested? Can you be romantically attracted, but not sexually? Of course you can. Did you choose to be attracted to men or women? Of course not, it just developed during childhood and puberty, and this is how it ends up for most people: A man likes women, and women like men. No urge to rape. No urge to harm, though you might have some fantasies around that, you still know it would be wrong to act out.

Well, minor attraction takes what you usually experience towards men or women, and they feel that towards a child. It was never something they chose, it just happened. There are children that are drop-dead cute, there are children that are easy to gravitate towards, but at the end of the day… those with minor attraction cannot do anything about their attraction, especially if they are only attracted to children (which is not common, from what we know, though more study is needed). Minor attracted people are attracted to certain ages and not others, and that varies from person to person. Not every child is attractive, not every minor attracted person is only attracted to children.

Why Does That Matter?

Well, think of the implications here. If you have an attraction you know you can never act on… One that everyone hates and does not understand… One that automatically makes you a risk to children in the eyes of most…

…where does that leave you?

Monster!

Because of what I first mentioned, you know, that many, many news stories abuse the word “pedophile” to mean “sexual abuser” and “pedophilia” to mean “child sexual abuse,” what do you think minor attracted people find when they go online and try to hunt down information… when they finally figure out that they are attracted to children? Yeah, stories about people abusing children. What do you think that does? I mean, if you looked up the term “heterosexual” online, and all you found were news articles talking about how someone raped a woman… where would that leave you? Right, feeling like a monster, like you will inevitably hurt a woman if you are a man.

So, now what?

If you choose to tell someone, what is the first thing you are told?

You Can Never…

Yup, you are told that you can never be around children. You can never do that to a child because it would ruin their life. That you are a risk to kids, stay away from them, etc.

About that… most minor attracted people fully realize that they can never fulfill their desire in real life. They can never be sexually or romantically involved with a child. You do not need to even broach the subject- they just know. Telling them, “Well, you know you can never touch a kid, right?” Yeah, that is like telling someone with Celiac’s that they can never have gluten. Like, duh, dude.

Frankly, it is insulting to hear that.

What is more insulting is the insinuation that just because someone has such an attraction means they should always stay away from children… or they are at risk to rape a child. I mean, let us go back to that illustration. Do you need to be kept away from men or women for fear of raping them? You have a sexual, romantic, and emotional interest in men or women, with no desire to harm them. So why should we not apply the same logic?

You should stay away from women if you are a man, and from men if you are a woman, if minor attracted people must stay away from children. See where that leads? Yeah, okay, I think you get my point there.

Urges? Um… What?

If I am being honest… I hate the garbage people spout about urges. Everyone always talks about urges that we get towards children. It is baffling to me. Do heterosexuals get urges towards the opposite sex? If you are a heterosexual, is that how you would describe it? An urge? Or would you call it what it is- an attraction, a feeling?

But what happens to the teenager that does not know that pedophilia is really just a sexual attraction to children? What happens to the teenager that hears, time after time, that they are a risk to children, that they will rape a child, or if they have to face the suspicion that they already have? Have you ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecy? Not good, not good at all, and most people do not want to take any responsibility for the harm their words can cause.

The Way We Treat Minor Attracted People Is Appalling

I think that goes without saying at this point. As a society, we have backed minor attracted people into a corner where there are a handful of ways to get out of that corner: Suicide, telling someone, abusing a child, or crying loud enough for help until someone who knows the subject actually gives proper help (good luck with that). The options are not appealing, not at all. And they do not really help end child sexual abuse either.

Frankly, it is our response to pedophilia and to pedophiles, not their existence, that puts children at risk. That needs to change.

Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Means Having Empathy For Minor Attracted People

Yeah, it does, and if you have followed with me to this point, you know why. We misuse the word to mean someone who has raped a child, but that understanding is wrong. And that first starting point is exactly why we need to have the tiniest bit of empathy for minor attracted people. Forget the science and the research.

Minor attracted people are human beings just like you are, and just like you, they have the need to fit in and belong, yet there is something so fundamentally different that they cannot help but feel that they do not belong.

Just like anyone with mental illness feels that same difference, so does a minor attracted person.

That should tug at your heartstrings.

I Am A Minor Attracted Person

With all of that having been said… in case you did not yet know… I am a minor attracted person I have a sexual attraction to children, full stop. Most of my attraction is towards young boys, though I do have some attraction to men and even less towards young girls and to women. I am married to a man my age. I call myself bisexual in that regard. Maybe that is because I was abused, maybe not. I will tackle what I think about the origins of my attractions sometime later. But I can write stuff like this, because I know exactly what it means to be a minor attracted person. It means I have a sexual attraction to children that I can never change and never chose to have.

I advocate against sexual abuse because it is harmful. But I think a big part of preventing sexual abuse is addressing minor attraction properly so that we can be supported like the human beings we are, and not driven into a corner with a handful of ways out of that corner.

What do you think?

The post Why Minor Attracted People Are Not A Risk To Children appeared first on Pedophiles About Pedophilia.