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  • 2018-07-14 (xsd:date)
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  • Does This Image Represent a 'MAPs Pride Flag'? (en)
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  • A number of fear-mongering campaigns over the years have attempted to link pedophilia to the LGBTQ community, despite an utter lack of scientific proof of any such connection. In December 2017, for instance, internet trolls spread a false rumor that the letter P, representing pedosexual, was being added to the initialism LGBT (for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender). An eerily similar rumor was spread via social media in June 2018 in the form of an image purportedly showing a MAPs (Minor-Attracted Persons) Pride Flag supposedly created for Gay Pride Month: This picture does not represent a MAPs Pride Flag. Rather, the image was created as part of a troll experiment on Tumblr. When pictures of this MAP flag began circulating on Facebook, the posts typically included messages warning other social media users to be wary of anyone displaying this flag: Websites such as the Daily Caller and Attitude picked up on this alleged MAPs Pride Flag and reported that pedophiles were rebranding themselves as Minor Attracted Persons in an attempt to be accepted by the LGBT community: Pedophiles did not coin the term minor attracted persons (or MAPS) to rebrand themselves in 2018 in order to gain entry to the LGBT community. Organizations such as B4UAct have been using the term minor attracted persons for years to refer to adults who experience feelings of preferential sexual attraction to children or adolescents under the age of consent. The Prevention Project, an organization that helps minor-attracted persons find professional treatment, explicitly denied that the term MAPs was an attempt to rebrand pedophiles. Rather, they explained that this term was preferred as a broader reference that could accurately encompass hebephiles, pedophiles, and ephebephiles: We also found no evidence that this flag originated in earnest as a MAPs Pride Flag. We reached out to the Prevention Project, who told us they had never heard of this pride flag: We’re experts in treating MAPs who have zero desire to harm anyone but want support to deal with the stigma of being a pedophile, hebophile or ephebephile. MAPs encompass these 3 terms. None of the MAPs we know (we know a lot) have talked about this [flag]. This alleged MAPs Pride Flag appears to have originated on the Tumblr page Don't Mistake Our Geography on 13 June 2018, where it was posted with a brief explanation about what the colors in the flag supposedly symbolized to NOMAPS (Non-Offending Minor Attracted Persons) and an acknowledgement that the pride flag had just been created out of whole cloth: At the time this Pride flag image was originally posted, the Tumblr page operated under a banner in support of MAPs and included a tagline claiming that the author was possibly a MAP and definitely a supporter. However, the title of this page was later changed to Y'all need a therapist, not a community, and the tagline was altered to read Not an anti, not an ally, just a training psychologist with some fucking sense. Here's a look at how the page was changed. The top image shows the Tumblr page as it was in mid-June, while it was claiming to be a MAP ally; the bottom image shows the page at the time of this writing, after it was revealed that the flag was bogus: Although we don't know the motivations of this Tumblr user, it should be noted that the person claimed to be a CSA (child sexual assault) victim. Pedophiles are not rebranding themselves as MAPs to gain entry to the LGBT community, nor did they release an official MAPs Pride Flag. As we noted in our article about the homophobic and false rumor that a P for pedosexual was being added to the initialism LGBT, no link has been established between pedophilia and homosexuality: (en)
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