Pedophilia Next ‘Rights’ Battle?

Suddenly, talk of pedophilia is everywhere — and don’t expect it to go away anytime soon.

With Pope Francis touring America this week for the first time, liberal news organizations are using the visit to rekindle stories about pedophilia in the church. A Boston Glode headline this week read: “Pope Francis, the church sex abuse scandal is not over.”

Meanwhile, a shocking story has emerged from Afghanistan, with the New York Times reporting that American military forces “looked the other way as powerful Afghans raped boys with impunity.”

As usual, the White House doesn’t know a thing.

The sudden discussion of one of society’s greatest taboos features a bizarre dichotomy. In the case of Afghan pedophilia, the White House and other government agencies express anger, and demand action.

“I don’t know what the policy is and I don’t know, if there is a policy, how long the president has been aware of it,” Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.

But there’s more.

“I’m a pedophile, but not a monster,” read a story Monday on Salon.com. A self-described pedophile declares he merely has an “alternate sexuality,” and people should be “understanding and supportive.”

And there’s the odd tale of another self-professed pedophile and the celebrities, progressives and academics who are defending him-her. A leak from an online chat room describes how the transsexual identifies as a pedophile and condoned consensual sexual acts between adults and children as young as 6 years old.

The slew of stories comes not long after Subway spokesman Jared Foley reached a plea deal that can see him jailed from five to 12 years for sexual relations with at least two teenage girls.

The sudden discussion of one of society’s greatest taboos features a bizarre dichotomy. In the case of Afghan pedophilia, the White House and other government agencies express anger, and demand action.

Some say they were told by commanders to look the other way when there were reports of boys being raped by high-level Afghan officers.

“The United States is deeply concerned about the safety and welfare of Afghan boys who may be exploited by members of the Afghan national security and defense forces,” Earnest said. “This form of sexual exploitation violates Afghan law and Afghanistan’s international obligations.”

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, called the rapes “abhorrent” and told the Times, “I can just tell you that there is nothing that would preclude any military member from making reports about human rights violations to their chain of command.”

But that’s not so, according to soldiers in the field. Some say they were told by commanders to look the other way when there were reports of boys being raped by high-level Afghan officers, and in the newspaper’s first story, a soldier said he could hear screaming but did nothing because “we’re not allowed to do anything about it.”

There is also continued outrage over the long-running sex scandal in the Catholic Church, and liberal media is using the pope’s visit to re-air stories — or cast new allegations. The Daily Kos, run by a former aide to Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton, headlined a story this week with “The Catholic Church is using South America to hide their pedophile priests.”

“If Pope Francis is not serious about this, then he is not worth the praise we are all heaping on him,” the article concluded.

“Some researchers surmise that pedophilia can be traced back to genetics. Others believe the cause is congenital, and still others that it’s environmental,” he writes. And in conclusion, he says pedophiles just need understanding.

And the Globe took some shots at the pope, saying the pope has vowed to oust pedophile priests but has so far fallen short on the pledge.

“This otherwise forthright pope should acknowledge the gap between his promise and his policy. ‘There is absolutely no place in ministry for those who abuse minors,’ he said this February. Until church law is changed, this is not true,” the paper wrote in its opinion section.

Meanwhile, something less predictable is happening on the other side of the debate — as if there really is another side. In his “I’m a pedophile, but not a monster” article for Salon, author Todd Nickerson details how he is compelled to have sex with children, but has so far battled back the urge.

He writes that he was born with the “most unfortunate of sexual orientations,” calling it a “curse of the first order,” and describes how he is powerless to rid himself of the desire to have sex with children. While he describes an incident in which a relative touched his privates, Nickerson says it’s not always abuse that turns a person into a pedophile.

“It’s really all we ask of you. Treat us like people with a massive handicap we must overcome, not as a monster. If we are going to make it in the world without offending, we need your help,” he wrote.

“Some researchers surmise that pedophilia can be traced back to genetics. Others believe the cause is congenital, and still others that it’s environmental,” he writes. And in conclusion, he says pedophiles just need understanding.

“It’s really all we ask of you. Treat us like people with a massive handicap we must overcome, not as a monster. If we are going to make it in the world without offending, we need your help,” he wrote.

The odd piece on the liberal website had some charging that the Left is trying to mainstream pedophilia, having won victories on gay marriage and transgender acceptance, following the Caitlyn Jenner story.

“The psychiatric community, media and advocates all worked to mainstream homosexuality as something normal and ‘being born this way’ during its path to majority public acceptance. Pedophiles and their advocates will now attempt to take the same route,” newstalkflorida.com said Monday in a post.

“Salon’s OpEd marks an opening salvo in tying a myriad of sexual preferences to ‘hard wiring’ …. The Left continues to find new lows to mainstream into society,” the site wrote.

Last, a progressive activist is being defended after claiming to be a “pedophile” and defending white nationalism. Sarah Nyberg, a transsexual formerly known as Nicholas Nyberg, “openly fantasized about sex play with underage girls . . . and shared pictures which others referred to as child porn,” Breitbart News reported.

A slew of progressives came to Nyberg’s defense, with British comedy writer Graham Linehan, behind the hit show “The IT Crowd,” writing on Twitter: “Their new tactic is smearing their enemies as paedophiles ….”