Pedophilia: The unwanted gate-crasher of the LGBTQ community

As Pride 2018 wrapped up, it brought forth an era of the sexual revolution with debates regarding ‘cross-generational sexual relations’, a phrase to re-brand pedophilia. The word alone leaves you with a heavy, sinking feeling in your stomach, and for good reason too.

 

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder where a person is sexually attracted to prepubescent children. One of the foremost contemporary sexual taboos, it’s been both condemned by law, and fetishized in the media, as immortalised in Lolita.

 

Sexual scandals involving minors, such as the Jeffrey Epstein fiasco, has led to massive public uproar, prompting laws against child sexual abuse to be strengthened worldwide. By examining the past of every such case, a more complex and sinister plot of cover-ups, blatant ignorance and malevolence can be seen.

 

First, pedophiles started making themselves publicly known and attempted to set up special-interest organizations. Other groups, particularly in the LGBTQ community, strongly opposed any solidarity between the two cultures.

 

Next, a variant of the iconic pride flag, bearing coloured stripes, was created to represent pedophiles as ‘pedosexual’, similar to any other orientation. This feeble, insidious attempt to normalize pedophilia received heavy backlash and was considered to be a act of defamation against the LGBTQ community. The debacle led to photos of the flag being shared on the social media platforms with a warning that read,

“ Minors beware: if you see this flag on someone’s profile, block them immediately. This flag is for minor-attracted people (MAP’s), aka pedophiles. They are not LGBTQ and are not welcomed to the community.” 

                                   LGBTQ groups widely denounced the “pedosexual” flag

What’s been gaining traction of-late is not only the magnitude of the insult to the LGBTQ community, but also the instant, intense disgust and moral righteousness it incited, with debates swinging towards the conclusion that minors must be protected in earnest, online and everywhere.

 

In 1993–1994, the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) lost its observer status because US conservative groups publicized the membership of two pedophile groups within it. The slow and shaky decline of the pro-pedophilia agenda had begun. 

 

Pedophiles shared a foolhardy concept, that the inclusion of ‘P’ in LGBTQ, synonymous with sexual liberation, would follow a trajectory consisting of several steps like any other fight for LGBTQ rights. Online social accounts bearing the (heavily ridiculed) flag were reported and taken down, interest groups for MAP’s were dissolved and any “pedosexual” who even tried to take a pro-pedophilia stance was shunned publicly.  This was a clear message for pedophiles from the otherwise inclusive LGBTQIA+ community: You are not welcome here.

 

This devious, dangerous movement, that tried to jump on the bandwagon of LGBT rights, collapsed in its entirety online. It only served to shed some long-overdue light on an outdated culture so thickly tinted with sadism and abuse.

Written by Ridhima Sharma for MTTN

Edited by Mihika Antonia Dean for MTTN

Featured image and artwork by Rohail Safdar

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