...just don't know how we LGBT+ people are compared to or accused of being pedophiles constantly.
It's at the root of the book ban controversy, and often behind the massive push for homeschooling. They think that "sexuality" means sexual activity, so every LGBT+ teacher is suspect, and so is every age-appropriate curriculum that teaches about "sex ed," even if it has nothing to do with sexual activity. In reality, "sexuality" means all forms of human attraction, not just sexual.
And then there's guilt by association. They think that if we're "perverted" in even the most innocent of ways, then that means we must be more seriously perverted further down, as in being a danger of preying upon children. It's also a variation on the old trope that LGBT+ people "recruit," when nothing could be further from the truth. Personally, I had inklings I was different from as far back as I can remember, and I didn't fully realize I was gay until I was 19 and in college. Never knowing anyone else until then who was gay didn't stop me from being gay -- it only delayed my self-realization, and I wouldn't engage in any sort of same-sex sexual activity until a year and a half later. That REALLY confused my relatives: they couldn't fathom how I could know I was gay even though I'd never had sex with anyone. 32 years later, my same-sex marriage has outlasted all of theirs! Yet still, somehow, I'm the one who's persona non grata. And online, whenever I hold homophobes and transphobes to facts instead of conspiracy theories, I get accused (baselessly) of being a pedophile. They really have no idea I'm infinitely more likely to be attracted to a kid's dad than anyone who's underage or even a young adult. Simply speaking, I'm a grown man who's attracted exclusively to other grown men. The accusation is so off-target from my actual sexual preferences as to be laughable in the extreme. But I digress.
The problem is that the accusation of pedophilia against LGBT+ people has very real negative potential consequences. We need to disassociate the idea of pedophilia from legitimate sexual orientation and gender identity, because even a quasi-plausible accusation of pedophilia could cost a LGBT+ person their life or lifelihood. Scientific studies have shown that the overwhelming majority of pedophiles are heterosexual (not to put down heterosexuals).
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