Is there any hope for pedophile advocacy in the Epstein Era? This is something that's been on my mind a lot lately.

For better and worse, pedophilia has become a mainstream issue, even in the time since I was growing up and starting to realize my own feelings. "Pedophile" is practically a household term these days. I've personally witnessed children calling perfect strangers they cross on the street pedophiles just for the way they look, or behave. I thought that maybe normalizing the concept, and flooding society with it, might help to dispel the fear and hatred it carries. And maybe that's true to a point. But it's still used as shorthand for evil. To whatever extent it's become an "accepted" reality, that's among a subset of the population that has a poor and deteriorating reputation. Certainly not who I would want to prop up as a model for the cause of our discriminated minority.

Enter the public discourse around the Epstein files, and the involvement of some prominent individuals on the world stage, including a now former prince, and a current president. How can we make it clear in no uncertain terms that we find the abuse and systematic exploitation of young girls abhorrent, as any rational person with a human heart would, WITHOUT contributing to the toxic narrative that anyone who finds underage girls attractive is a vile pervert with no moral conscience, a ticking time bomb of sadistic depravity that must be eradicated before it goes off and commits collateral damage against the most innocent of victims? It just feels like telling people right now that there's a difference between a pedophile's feelings and a child molester's actions is a pretty weak argument, and one that would pin a target on your chest besides.

I don't doubt that POTUS is a rapist. That demands condemnation, and he deserves punishment. But when people mention photos with half naked teenage girls, how am I supposed to pretend that sounds horrible on its face? By itself, it's not only NOT evidence of a crime, it's a situation I'd wager most of the male population of the world would LOVE to find themselves in. But more importantly, that doesn't make THEM despicable. The sexual feelings are one thing. The predatory behavior that some men engage in is another. But the only time this subject ever makes the news is when those two things go hand in hand, and it cements the relationship in people's minds.

Is there any hope for us right now? Is there a strategy we could be following? Or is the best thing we can do is go to ground and wait until the whole thing blows over, and the public is more receptive to a more nuanced view of intergenerational attraction, if that ever occurs? And in the meantime, is there a good way to address the population's legitimate concerns about what rich, powerful people do behind closed doors, without contributing to the pressures piled up against us? I think it shows that these feelings are actually not all that uncommon or unnatural, but what kind of reassurance does that provide when people still consider the feelings (and the people that hold them, no matter what little choice they have in the matter) despicable? I don't want to have to choose between backing horrible people for the legitimization of my private desires, versus doing the right thing at the cost of undermining the fight for acceptance of an underappreciated and overly maligned identity.