Groups of pedophiles are attempting to be part of the LGBTI community.

A group known as MAPs (or Minor Attracted Persons, not to be confused with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) has been circulating its own version of the Pride flag.

Another term for ‘pedophile’

MAPs attempts to soften the idea of pedophilia by insisting it’s not wrong if there is no contact.

‘”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,”’ a passage on The Prevention Project about MAPs reads.

‘First, let’s be clear. “John” is not a child molester nor is he a sex offender. He has an attraction to children. He is also fervent about helping prevent child sexual abuse by speaking out against it and by showing his support of global child sexual abuse prevention programs on his social media. “John” deserves support as do others who have a minor attraction. After all, isolation and depression are known to increase one’s risk of doing something they might regret.

By the way, we have talked to “Janes” who are women who identify as anti-contact, non-offending pedophiles and like “John”, they have no desire to sexually harm children.’

Considering the long-standing trope that LGBTI people are rapists and/or child molesters, the fact those who actually have attraction to children are attempting to co-opt LGBTI spaces is disturbing.

Social media reactions

Many on social media are warning LGBTI people and allies to be wary of the MAPs flag during Pride season. Additionally, many also called out the problematic nature of using a term like ‘minor attracted persons’ to normalize pedophilia.

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

Anyway folks both of these flags are for MAPS aka pedophiles.

The first one is the lesbian flag and lemme just say lesbians you deserve so much better.

Watch out for these PEDOPHILE FLAGS pic.twitter.com/lvo2l53kIG — A mistake (@putstheheinhomo) June 30, 2018

A “MAP” is a “Minor Attracted Person.” Basically a pedophile. They go by lots of terms, like NOMAP and SOMAP and stuff like that, saying if they’re “non offending” or they ask for consent from the child, that it’s okay. They say “don’t use pedophile as an umbrella term” — Angel Star (@nastymusicpig) July 1, 2018

MAPs are not a thing.

“minor attracted person” ???? miss me with that bullshit, pedophilia is pedophilia. they are pedophiles. call them what they are. don’t use their destigmatized version of the word. pedophile. — # (@RidersOvRohan) July 1, 2018

i do not trust people who call pedophiles MAPs — Tempo (@TempoFunktron) July 2, 2018

Idk where this MAP culture on tumblr started but it needs to stop wtf Pedophile is not a sexuality stop admitting being proud to having sex with minors you are literally disgusting? ??? — hit it fergie (@cherryisaghost) July 1, 2018

MAPs are pedophiles

MAPs are pedophiles — Spencer Nguyen (@just_raito) July 7, 2018

This stupid fucking “Map” shit is pissing me off. It’s just a bunch of pedophiles trying to make people think there not bad uwu and pulling in people with pocd instead of encouraging people to go to therapy for intrusive thoughts and just honestly fuck you — [alarmed beeping] (@Vafertor) July 7, 2018

Can we stop sugar coating pedophiles by giving them acronyms like MAP (minor attracted person)

Pedophiles are pedophiles and should be called and treated as such

Yall wild asf for that one — sarahlouwho (@Sensationalsfx) July 7, 2018

If you’re a “MAP” (see: pedophile) stay the fuck away from me thanks — forest frog (@sulfidi) July 7, 2018

opinions that shouldnt be considered radical: – pedophiles are disgusting.

– sexualizing minors is disgusting.

– “maps” a.k.a. pedophiles will never be part of lgbtqia+ community as pedophilia is a paraphilia, not a sexual orientation anyway thanks for coming to my tedtalk — do sviDANYA (@lunaticsalt) July 5, 2018

Unless MAP stands for “murdering all pedophiles”, stop fucking calling them that. — things alex lost in the fire (@tellytings) July 2, 2018

maps are pedophiles. map is just another term for pedophile. they are pedophiles. do not be distracted by the term, they are pedophiles. call them pedophiles. — sunshine (@pussyxvulture) July 2, 2018

Offline and in the real world

This isn’t just happening online, either. A photo of drag kid Desmond Napoles was recently used on a flyer in Oregon, promoting a fake Pride event for pedophiles. The posters were allegedly distributed by a group called the National Association of Man-Boy Love (NAMBLA).

When Napoles and his family learned about his picture being featured on the flyer, they took to Instagram to urge people in Oregon to ‘tear them down immediately.’

UPDATE 28 July: Fact-checking website Snopes has concluded that this flag was a hoax. Not officially associated with MAPs or NAMBLA, it seems to have originated on Tumblr. It is unclear what the motivations behind the hoax were.