Pedophiles are rebranding themselves as “MAPs” or “Minor Attracted Persons” in an effort to gain acceptance and be included into the LGBT community, according to several reports from LGBT news sites.

According to Urban Dictionary, the blanket term MAP includes infantophiles (infants), pedophiles (pre-pubescent children), hebephiles (pubescent children), and ephebophiles (post-pubescent children). Some MAPs also refer to themselves as NOMAPs or “Non-Offending Minor Attracted Persons”.

These pedophiles seek to be a part of the LGBT+ community, even going so far as to make a “Pride” flag for Gay Pride Month.

PSA TO MINORS: IF YOU SEE THIS “””PRIDE””” FLAG ANYWHERE BE WARNED

this flag is for MAPs, which stands for minor attracted person(s)

THIS IS A FLAG FOR PEDOPHILES pic.twitter.com/agx2ryySqx — Fish! (@COMMUNIST_FISH) June 28, 2018

The “MAP/NOMAP community” tries to pull at people’s heartstrings by claiming that pedophiles are misunderstood marginalized people, and that as long as their attraction to children is not acted upon — or in some cases when they get permission from the child — that they should not be villainized.

Sites such as “The Prevention Project” claim to be aimed at helping children, posting quotes like the one below, reminiscent of testimonials of struggling gay youth, under headlines like “everyone needs support”.

“John” was suicidal. He had been bullied by trolls on social media for most of his life for being different. The bullies were primarily people who claimed, based on their religious beliefs, that “John” was going to hell and deserved to die. They described how they would kill him on his twitter page and people supported their hate. Desperate for help, John sought treatment for his shame, depression, and suicidality. Although he was scared to share about himself with a stranger, he felt desperate for help as he had NO desire to harm anyone, ever. Once he shared about his attraction to children, his therapist told him, “I don’t treat sex offenders.”

Many blogs exist on Tumblr showing support for MAPs, claiming that they should be a part of the LGBT community and attempting to create “safe spaces” for these “minor attracted persons”. The blog “Pedophiles about Pedophilia” also presents many sob stories of “marginalized” pedophiles in pretty pastel colors, claiming that they mean no harm and just want to be loved like everyone else as shown in such headlines as “Why Pedophilia And Pedophiles Are Not A Risk To Children”, “Growing Up A Pedophile” and “How I came out as an anti-contact pedophile to the woman I love”.

This name change seems to follow in the liberal trend of rebranding things by giving them more “politically correct” names, but is the next step really normalizing pedophilia?