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LGBTQ+ and... Paedophilia?

Should we be categorising paedophiles under the same umbrella as the LGBTQ+ community?

By Richard ThoughtPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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I recently read an Independent Article about self-proclaimed paedophile Todd Nickerson defending his right to paedophilic thoughts and comparing it to sexual orientation—which, as a gay man, deeply offended me and my love. I wanted to delve deeper into this topic and share some of my thoughts.

I ask that you remember I aim to explore a collection of thoughts surrounding this topic. I have my own opinions that I will embed in this blog, but I will be exploring the thoughts of other individuals.

Where did this all come from?

According to an article in The Independent, the discussion began when a criminal psychologist opened a discussion page and was asked by a user "can paedophiles change?" to which the anonymous, yet verified, users replied:

I believe Paedophilic Disorder is a sexual orientation with an individual that are attracted to child features. In other words, an individual with paedophilia has the same ingrained attraction that a heterosexual female may feel towards a male, or a homosexual feels towards their same gender.

The expert continues his thoughts by stating that sexuality is more of a spectrum than a finite category, which by my standards I have to agree. The idea of being just being heterosexual, bisexual, or gay is an illiberal thought.

But, here is my issue, although I deeply agree that the construction of sexuality has roots in psychology, trauma, socialisation, and also lives on a spectrum from golden straight to a golden gay.

However, what I do not agree with is that paedophilia falls under the same category. If we are following the scale at the top of this post, which was first published in 1948 by Alfred Kinsley, it visualises the idea that your sexual preference falls within the spectrum (note that this specific spectrum doesn't acknowledge asexuality). Also, note that the spectrum doesn't mention the age and its relation to sexuality.

Before we discuss why classing paedophiles alongside LGBTQ+ community is deeply offensive and not even in the politically correct way, just downright offensive to my community, we need to understand the definition of paedophilia and homosexuality.

  • Paedophilia—Is a psychiatric disorder in which an older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children.
  • Homosexuality—The sexual attraction of the tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex.
  • Heterosexuality—Sexual attraction or sexual behaviour between persons of the opposite sex or gender

It's important to notice to similarities between paedophilia, homosexuality, and heterosexuality definitions—all include "sexual attraction to." However, this is where we really need to break it down.

I understand that paedophilia relates to a sexual preference—however, there is a key factor that differs the three: both heterosexual and homosexual acts are between consenting individuals. The thoughts of a paedophile and act of a molester are acts between an adult and a vulnerable, innocent, and unconsenting child. There is no happiness formed from paedophilic acts and/or thoughts and the same cannot be said for the latter two. The idea of love is a celebration, happiness, safety, and security and I beg for you to argue how this resonates in paedophilic "community" (I use the term community loosely, the paedophile lacks all traits of a healthy community, I use it simply for a collective term).

I felt I needed another viewpoint—my heart is very close to this subject and is close to my family's heart—therefore I asked on my Twitter for people;s opinions and got a wonderfully inquisitive response from @StageNStyle:

I’ve watched a few documentaries that have certainly opened by eyes. We make the argument that "you can’t choose who you’re attracted to" when talking about being gay, but then say it doesn’t count when people say it about their attractions to children.I don’t think it should be part of LGBT because it would mean that we were accepting/"fighting" for it to be accepted. There are people that admit to have these feelings but never act on them and they must feel as isolated as a gay man may have 50 years ago? Thinking out loud..?

I thought this was a fantastic response and really got me thinking about my thoughts towards this topic. But more so, reinforced the idea that we shouldn't be categorising Paedophiles under the same umbrella as our LGBTQ+ community. Our community is a celebration of love and acceptance. Our generations past fought for our equality and we are fighting for our acceptance—the same cannot be said for the paedophilic 'community'.

Whilst writing this blog post, I got more into how paedophiles are more of a psychotic disorder or mental health, but my hypocrisy whilst writing it made me delete it, as again, I am struggling with my own mental wellbeing and still felt the same offence in comparing it to mental health as LGBTQ+. I am not educated enough on this subject due to it being so close to my heart. Can the same be said for us all?

This is why I feel our thoughts are important and need to be shared. I am interested in the human thought and would love to hear your thoughts on this subject so please, send me your thoughts.

I thank you for taking your time to read my first blog post, I am no expert nor am I trying to change anyone's minds - I am simply sharing my thoughts and maybe spark a thought in your mind. I am a deeply opinionated person and throughout my life, I have come to understand the importance of listening, really listening. I am not trying to cause controversy. I only wanted to share my thought.

humanity
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About the Creator

Richard Thought

I'm a 23-year-old, gay, independent who has an opinion on everything but is an expert on nothing.

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