I get intrusive thoughts about lots of things but I don't actually want to do them so I feel like using intrusive thoughts to defend MAPs (who do want to have sex with kids even if they wouldn't act on it ) perpetuates the wrong idea that people always want to do the things their intrusive thoughts are about.

When I talk about how this shit is splashing on people with intrusive thoughts, it’s not in service of somebody else.

See if you can follow: If you demonize people for thoughts rather than actions, or equate thought to action, you are saying that people must maintain perfect control of their brains at all times. If they have a Bad Thought, regardless of whether they have any control over it, that makes them a monster who deserves to die.

This splashes on literally all mentally ill people (you know, people whose brains are outside of our control and hurting us), but particularly on people with intrusive thoughts.

Again, we’d like to point out: We have a girlfriend who has intrusive thoughts. These thoughts have nothing to do with pedophilia at all. And as a child, this shit nearly killed her. Because it convinced her that she was an irredeemable monster who would inevitably hurt people she cared about.

Regardless of your position in the discourse around CSA, this is a bad policy that splashes on all sorts of unintended targets and does real, tangible harm to them.

People should not be made suicidal because they cannot control their brains perfectly. I cannot believe this is remotely controversial.

(I’m leaving aside the whole “there’s no such thing as an unwanted attraction” thing because that’s a whole other can of worms, but it too is an ugly one that splashes on unintended targets.)