A weekend escape for “Minor Attracted Persons” (MAPs) in rural Vermont has attracted strident public criticism. The chosen location and theme for the three-day event – a wooded campground with hiking trails near a local pre-K through 12th-grade public school – has elevated an already controversial issue into closer scrutiny. Though MAP may soon be added as the latest letter (M?) in the sexual orientation alphabet, not all citizens are eager to drink this particular soup.
Vermont’s event, rumored to be held at the Onion River Campground in Plainville, is slated for September 19-22. The (now-removed) promotion materials promised a haven for MAPs to be free of prejudice and shame:
It’s a time for MAPs and MAP allies to get together in person in a beautiful, natural setting, at a campground whose owners and staff are fully MAP affirming and where MAPs can speak freely. Where we can be ourselves, find solidarity and support from each other, and enjoy each other’s company. Most of all, it’s a time for us to feel fully accepted as we are and for us to feel pride in who we are.
This event is predominantly created as a safe space for MAPs, including BIPOC MAPs, LGBTQ+ MAPs, Butch-Femme MAPs, Older MAPs, and MAPs with disabilities, as well as MAP allies/advocates — you’re all welcome here!
An understandable question for the public is whether this retreat is a celebration of pedophilic desires, or an effort to seek therapy and healing for those who suffer from this mental condition. Merriam-Webster defines pedophilia as “a psychiatric disorder in which an adult has sexual fantasies about or engages in sexual acts with a prepubescent child”; Brittanica similarly describes the term as including both thought and action: “in conventional usage, a psychosexual disorder, generally affecting adults, characterized by sexual interest in prepubescent children or attempts to engage in sexual acts with prepubescent children.” Psychology Today states “Pedophilia is defined as recurrent and intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children—generally age 13 years or younger—over a period of at least six months. Pedophiles are more often men and can be attracted to either or both sexes.”
Advocates for MAPs seek to bifurcate perverse thought from abominable action, and portray pedophiles as victims of unbidden thoughts who are guiltless unless they act. B4U-ACT, an MAP advocacy group referenced in Vermont’s MAP Camp materials, claims “no person should be denied their dignity and humanity because of feelings of attraction that they did not choose. Some experts have estimated that 0.5% to 7% of all males are attracted to minors, although there is no solid research to confirm this.” Speculation does not serve well when the stakes are so very high. But the old adage “Hate the sin, not the sinner” seems apropos – yet Minor Attracted People are demanding that society affirm the sin.
Victim families and communities are tormented by the actions of what are often serial child predators, and Vermont’s MAP Camp certainly appears to celebrate the condition as something to privately revel and “feel pride” in.
In either blatant insensitivity to the community or flagrant unintended irony the MAP Camp’s “Risks, Rules, and Requirements” page includes as “common camping risks” the threat of “exposure to pedophiles and other weirdos”; “common travel risks” include “Having to sit next to a normie on a long bus, train, or plane ride”; “common risks with MAP Camp meals” include “volunteers of disgusting pedophiles (who hopefully wash their disgusting hands)”; and “common risks with hiking and other outdoor activities” include “tripping because you were distracted by a sexy minor instead of watching where you were going, [and]… no sexy children around to look at (a common problem when hiking).
Nearby parents might be forgiven for concerns that the risks cringingly posted by the event sponsors themselves as the enjoyable pleasures of pedo-hiking might spill out of the woods and into the nearby schoolyard. Weekend activities include “Dirty Bingo” and “discussions about MAP politics,” and the campground “is staffed by several big, burly, MAP-affirming men.”
As far as protection for wayward children who might unwittingly wander into these Hansel & Gretel MAP woods, the event eschews police involvement:
Leading police to the campground for any reason during MAP Camp is prohibited. MAP Camp is committed to protecting MAPs from the harm they frequently experience by individuals or systemically in our society, and a police officer is an extremely dangerous threat to the physical safety of any nearby Black or Brown MAPs.
- Unfortunately there is nothing we can do to stop the campground or other campers from calling the police.
Americans – even those unashamedly lusting for prepubescent children – have the right to free speech. However, Vermont’s trashy, perverse MAP Camp suggests sometimes it would be better for all if they just remained silent. Vermonters are always welcoming to leaf peepers in the autumn; not so much for child peepers, in any season.
