An academic conference was sponsored in Baltimore this month in which a handful of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals want to normalize pedophilia and take it out of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as a mental health disorder. The manual is being revised in the next few years and is the “bible” of mental health diagnosis.

The conference brochure states that the meeting would examine “ways in which minor-attracted persons [pedophiles] can be involved in the DSM 5 revision process and how the popular perceptions of pedophiles can be reframed to encourage tolerance.” The conference was sponsored by B4U-ACT, a group of pro-pedophile mental health professionals and sympathetic activists.

You can read the highlights of the conference from a press release provided by child advocates Matt Barber, Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action, and Dr. Judith Reisman, a visiting law professor at Liberty University School of Law here. They attended and wrote a first hand report and I appreciate the summary.

This makes me sick to my stomach!This is clearly driven by political activism and not by science, research or a moral code. It is important for professionals like myself to take a strong stand against such a change and continue to defend the rights and mental health of children.

Here are a few of the “highlights” of the conference according to Matt Barber:

1) Adults wanting to have sex with children is normal. What planet do these people come from to hold such a sick notion.

2) The “cultural baggage” of wrongfulness is a concern. As it should be! This is wrong any way you spin it.

3) In our culture, sex is taken too seriously. The opposite is true. In our culture, sex isn’t taken seriously enough. The harm of violation, the pain of betrayal and the abuse of millions should not be minimized.

4) The majority of pedophiles are gentle and rational. So being gentle and rational while you violate a child makes it OK? Those who have been sexually abused by gentle abusers were still violated and abused.

I can’t go on because this thinking is so pathological! It is so wrong and makes my blood boil!

But you need to be aware of this small but persistent movement. We need to protect our children, not assault and abuse them.These voices do NOT represent the majority of mental health providers and should be silenced and sent to treatment!