I’m flabbergasted by a report where pedophiles claim to deserve special rights, on par with gay rights. Sorry, folks. But there’s a mighty big difference between you and the rest of society.
The article that has be pissed off is in the Greeley Gazette. It leads with this:
Using the same tactics used by “gay” rights activists, pedophiles have begun to seek similar status arguing their desire for children is a sexual orientation no different than heterosexual or homosexuals.
Critics of the homosexual lifestyle have long claimed that once it became acceptable to identify homosexuality as simply an “alternative lifestyle” or sexual orientation, logically nothing would be off limits. “Gay” advocates have taken offense at such a position insisting this would never happen. However, psychiatrists are now beginning to advocate redefining pedophilia in the same way homosexuality was redefined several years ago.
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. A group of psychiatrists with B4U-Act recently held a symposium proposing a new definition of pedophilia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders of the APA.
B4U-Act calls pedophiles “minor-attracted people.” The organization’s website states its purpose is to, “help mental health professionals learn more about attraction to minors and to consider the effects of stereotyping, stigma and fear.”
In 1998 The APA issued a report claiming “that the ‘negative potential’ of adult sex with children was ‘overstated’ and that ‘the vast majority of both men and women reported no negative sexual effects from childhood sexual abuse experiences.”
Wow. Fucking wow.
I’ve written before about how pedophiles are not beyond redemption and forgiveness for their actions, and how, as someone with a mental illness and addictions, I can somewhat relate to them as not wanting to be the way they are.
That’s where it ends.
Let’s start with the comparison to gays. I know many homosexuals and am related to several. They would never allow their instincts to take them to a place where they sexually harm someone else, especially children. In fact, if these relatives ever got their hands on a child molester, they would probably burn the person alive.
At the very end of the day, most of us are afflicted with mental imperfections. In my case, it’s OCD and addictive behavior. In someone else’s case, the problem is an excessive temper or a strong streak of narcissism.
Homosexuality is more complicated. I don’t see that as a mental defect. It’s just the way a person’s sexuality develops. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with them.
Whatever the case is, though, there are people who act on their darker impulses and destroy other lives in the process. It’s the rage-aholic who crosses the line to murder. And it’s the pedophile who touches a child.
We all have a choice: We can have bad urges and act on them, or we can learn self control. If we make an awful choice that hurts someone else, we have to pay the price. Commit evil and you give up your rights.
Everyone does have a shot at redemption, in my opinion. As humans, we can choose to forgive, especially when someone commits evil. But only God can decide if your soul is worth saving.
As for the rest of us, we have to protect our children. That means locking pedophiles away.
The thing about pedophiles and sociopaths is that they don’t stop harming others … it’s one thing to harm yourself … totally different case when one harms children, in numbers of 200-400 … child sexual abuse is a life sentence – as one never fully recovers from it. A survivor can be fully functioning but there is always that … it happened to me aspect.
I think I saw all I need to see of that article in the Greeley Gazette from those quotes around the word ‘gay’. And I agree 100% with you.
Also, more people should read the report cited before vilifying it. First, it’s a meta-analysis, which means it’s not new research but rather an analysis of already-existing research. Second, their conclusion wasn’t “child abuse is good!” but rather that the results of their study might be explained by the fact that “child sexual abuse” isn’t a very well-defined concept; is it “child sexual abuse” if a 16-yr old girl willingly has sex with her 19-yr old boyfriend? One of their conclusions is that better defining the term CSA would go a long way toward seeing scientific results that more closely align with our understanding of the consequences of child sexual abuse.
“I’ve written before about how pedophiles are not beyond redemption and forgiveness for their actions, and how, as someone with a mental illness and addictions, I can somewhat relate to them as not wanting to be the way they are.”
For what actions? What actions do you mean? For what actions do they need “redemption”?
“They would never allow their instincts to take them to a place where they sexually harm someone else, especially children. In fact, if these relatives ever got their hands on a child molester, they would probably burn the person alive.”
Most pedophiles are exactly the same. Just because you are a pedophiles doesnt mean you are a bad person, just that you have a different sexual orientation. If you are attracted to children that doesnt mean you want to hurt them. Doesnt mean you support child abuse. Thats horrid and most pedophiles detest child abuse.
Why? Because they are human beings just like anyone else and having a different sexual orientation that they didnt want doesnt mean they suddenly become “monsters”.
“Homosexuality is more complicated. I don’t see that as a mental defect. It’s just the way a person’s sexuality develops. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with them.”
Well, the exact same thing could be say about pedophilia. Most pedophiles found about their sexual orientation when they are 12, 13, 14. Have you even bothered to read the b4uact.org site?
I specially recomend you:
http://www.b4uact.org/science/survey/01.htm
http://www.b4uact.org/facts.htm
“As for the rest of us, we have to protect our children. That means locking pedophiles away.”
I agree with the first sentence but the second is ridiculous. Locking pedophiles FOR WHAT? For having a different sexual orientation? Even if they are excellent human beings and havent hurt anyone?
I find the question you make on the title “Do Pedophiles Deserve Civil Rights?” in the same vein. Completely ridiculous. What, do you want to deprive people from their rights just because they have a different sexual orientation? Do you think that a person who has a different attraction doesnt deserve rights? Do you think that people should be deprived from their rights because of their sexuality?
Your comparison of pedophilia with an addiction is completely flawed. Pedophilia is a sexual orientation, the emotional and sexual attraction to children. It has nothing to do with an addiction, OCD or any other thing of the same kind. Is not defined by an act, or an impulse, or a compulsion. Its a sexual orientation.
My point is very simple: your sexual orientation doesnt define you. You cannot deprive people from their rights just because they are not heterosexual/homosexual. Its fascist to do so.
I suggest you actually reading the http://www.b4uact.org site instead of making ignorant claims.
There’s a bit of a miscommunication here, because I actually agree with your main point. My post is about those who HAVE acted on their impulses and damaged other lives. I have seen the site you included in your comment and admire the work being done. To be clear, I am not saying that everyone with minor-attraction be locked away. I’m saying that those who have crossed the line should be locked away because they have demonstrated that they can’t control themselves.
Having any sort of sexual relations with children is wrong always. I don’t care what your “orientation” is – it’s illegal, and more so it RUINS LIVES. The likelihood that a pedophile can control themselves is very low – instead of comparing pedophiles to gays … they should be comparing themselves to sociopaths … that is a MUCH better comparison because sociopaths ruin lives. Gays engage in mutually agreeable relationships where both adults agree on actions. Pedophiles VIOLATE children and their rights and their right to a safe future. This legislation is ONE MORE WAY to get more rights for people who are devoid of empathy and responsibility. I’m not buying it.
The point here is not sexual relations with children. The point here is not to demonize people based on their sexual orientation. You equate pedophiles with child molesters, which is obviously false . You compare people attracted to children with sociopaths. The thing is, that being born with a different sexual orientation (in this case, attraction to children) doesnt mean that the person in question is devoided of empathy, love and care for children*. For example, if a guy is heterosexual and likes women, that doesnt mean he hates women and wants to rape them. The same with pedophiles. Just because your sexual and romantic longings are towards children, doesnt mean you are monster devoided of any kind of sense of responsability and empathy. After all, no one CHOOSES to be a pedophile so even an excellent human being can be one.
*I want to add that neither sociopaths are. Sociopaths are different from psychopaths and the former do not lack of empathy and love towards others (http://www.sociopathworld.com/)
When we allowed sexual contact between men we threw open the gate to pedophilia as well. The main argument for homosexuality being more acceptable is a child can not give consent to sex but an adult man can. This line of argumentation will in future no longer hold up anymore in the face of newly introduced children’s rights. For example minors in California can consent to the administration of vaccines and in other jurisdictions children can seek divorce from their parents. It we pursue the notion of children’s rights in future further (and we will) and expand on these pecedents we can arrive one day where children can give consent to intergenerational sexual contact. This will happen incrementally with consent ‘rights’ ever increasing in scope and age limits dropping further and further. Essentially you will in parallel see the same acclimatization mechanisms in action that we used to force homosexuality into the mainstream. The very same arguments made for and against homosexuals hold true for pedophiles. I will concede that getting the public to accept pedophilia will be a lot harder than to accept homosexuality, meaning it will just take longer. However that may be we have many times in the past achieved the unthinkable and we will have our way with you again and again as we always do.
So what I get from what you guys are saying is that we are all born with different sexual orientations and whether we act on the or not defines us good or bad people, to the social norm.
Honestly i dont know how anyone can stand up for pedophiles rights like this. I dated a girl who was molested by her uncle, and she dealt with it actually pretty well, but she was still a head case, to say the least and honestly it got to the point where it was intolerable. Granted im not exactly guy of the year with some of the things ive lied to women about and what not. But still. Honestly anyone who says it has no lasting effects is a complete fool. Thats my personal experience with this whole shit situation.
I agree with you. Though I do see it as the mark of a mentally ill person, I believe that if you do the crime, you have to pay by spending your life behind bars. Forgiveness doesn’t mean freedom or absolution of one’s sins.
Commit an act of sexual assault on a child and you belong either in a life prison with NO parole, or on the underside of graveyard grass. Society should have absolutely NO tolerance for this kind of sick, demented perversion.
For goodness sake, learn to differentiate between pedophiles and child molesters!!!!
If you’re a pedaphile then you are sick in the head, and like a rabid dog who poses a serious threat to the children of our communities, should be put down as such…
You don’t have a “right” to impose that shit on anybody, especially children….if a pedophile ever touched one of my children, I would kill him (or her) myself…
Everybody deserves civil rights matter what u did nobody deserves to loose rights just because their criminal stats like if acussed your inocent until proven guily and every body deserves a defence so yeah you cant loose all your rights just because u a pervert