Nambla

[OrphanPip]

And you are right, homosexuality does not harm people. And neither does pedophilia. One's thoughts do no harm another person.

Yet, we must remove this from the land of ideal abstracts and think of it in practical terms. If someone suffers from a severe mental health disorder which makes them a potential danger to others, this should not be affirmed as merely a part of who they are, the issue has to be addressed in a way that prevents harm.

Reliable empirical data on paedophilia is hard to come by, as all we really have access to is convicted sex offenders. We can not be sure most paedophiles don't act on their desires, but how many people out there really never act on their desires in a moment of weakness.

Being a paedophile should not be a crime of itself, but it is dangerous to affirm such thoughts as if they were equivalent to desires that do not involve wanting to harm people. If someone has a persistent need to strangle blonde hookers, we wouldn't say that it was just the way they are as long as they haven't strangled any yet, I'd imagine we'd urge such people to seek immediate help. You want the paedophiles to be able to seek help without public stigma, but that's merely a pipe dream, and that is fine. That argument should not be couched in the same rhetoric of race and gay rights, the issues are not the same. The position of the paedophile is more equivalent to that of someone troubled with persistent violent tendencies. Choice is irrelevant, some people are merely dangerous and deserve to be stigmatized.

NAMBLA is particularly bad because it does not advocate for tolerance of paedophilia, but for the affirmation of paedophilic desires as socially legitimate.

All this though is merely an aside to the fact that in a liberal society we should tolerate free speech, and I still support the right for reprehensible organizations like NAMBLA to operate.