Pedophile acceptance movements appear to be gaining traction as some academics are taking up the cause of advancing the rights of “minor attracted people.”
Pedophile acceptance movements appear to be gaining traction as some academics are taking up the cause of advancing the rights of “minor attracted people.”
On Jan. 19, Dr. Skye Stephens of St. Mary’s University in Halifax posted a tweet calling on people to participate in a survey looking at the public perceptions of “those with a sexual interest in children and those who have sexually offended.”
At the time of its discovery by The Post Millennial, the tweet had primarily been retweeted and “liked” by other academics and individuals with “MAP” (minor attracted person, ie: pedophile) in their Twitter handles or bios. Even in the small sample available via the archived tweet in the Wayback Machine, one user who “liked” the tweet was using the handle “Mx. PDFphile.”
Another, Sheila van den Heuvel-Collins, is a former blog editor at Prostasia, a 503c IRS tax-exempt organization previously exposed by The Post Millennial for engaging in disturbing, pro-pedophile activity.
In December, Heuvel-Collins tweeted a holiday message which issued Christmas wishes to nepiophiles (those with a sexual attraction to babies and infants), pedophiles (those with a sexual attraction to prepubescent children), and hebephiles (those with a sexual attraction to pubescents), condemning another Twitter user for “virtue-signalling” by excluding pedophiles from his Christmas message.
After Dr. Skye Stephens’ survey was retweeted by Post Millennial contributors Ian Miles Cheong and Anna Slatz, drawing in a larger sample of pedophile-critical participants, Dr. Stephens deleted her tweet, suggesting she was not interested in a broad range of perspectives on pedophilia.
Dr. Stephens did not respond to a request for comment.
But the investigation had just begun.
In Stephens’ initial tweet, she had cited the handle of her colleague, Kailey Roche, as a co-supervisor of the undergraduate psychology student who drafted the survey. Roche holds a Master’s in Forensic Psychology, and is currently at St. Mary’s University researching “stigma reduction for MAPs.”
Scrolling through Roche’s feed, a number of concerning tweets are apparent. Roche retweets and promotes B4U-Act a number of times, an organization previously covered by The Post Millennial for its disturbing history.
Roche had not responded to requests for comment by the time of publication.
B4U-Act was founded in 2003 by convicted child sex offender Michael Melsheimer, who had spent a number of years in Thailand before taking a position at the YMCA where he ultimately raped a teenage boy.
On pedophile forum Boychat, Melsheimer revealed that his intentions behind creating B4U-Act was to succeed where the National Association of Man-Boy Love (NAMBLA) had failed in gaining the mainstream acceptance of pedophilia.
Boychat users were skeptical, criticizing Melsheimer for calling the organization “B4U-Act,” concerned Melsheimer would be attempting to rehabilitate or otherwise prevent sexual contact with minors. Melsheimer quickly put those concerns to rest.
In fact, the name “B4U-Act” is aimed at healthcare professionals, who are counselled by the organization to consider the consequences that will come to the pedophile if reported to police or their communities.
Melsheimer sought input from his own therapist, Dr. Fred Berlin, when establishing B4U-Act.
A sexologist at John Hopkins Hospital Berlin worked carefully to find a legal loophole which enabled him to not have to report active child molestation and child sex crimes to the police if admitted to him by a patient. This is widely believed to have led to the horrific sexual assault of a teenaged rape victim staying at the hospital, housed with a dangerous sexual offender Berlin was “treating.” John Hopkins Hospital was ultimately sued by the girl, and severed all ties with Berlin in 1992.
B4U-Act regularly holds workshops and conferences, including one workshop devoted to the topic of “de-stigmatizing language” regarding pedophiles and pedophilia entitled, “How Do We Talk About It? Developing a Language for Discussing Attraction to Minors.” Dr. Fred Berlin has given keynote addresses at some of B4U-Act’s conferences.
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B4U-Act regularly employs and invites convicted and “non-offending” pedophiles to speak at its workshops, describing them as “courageous, heart-opening, and powerful.” Their Know the Facts page begins by suggesting that “most” adults have an attraction to children or prepubescent adolescents. Both the “Stories of Hope” and “Being a MAP” sections are populated by a man named Richard Kramer, who is a registered sex offender in the State of Wisconsin.
Like the organization Sheila van den Heuvel-Collins works with, Prostasia, B4U-Act classifies pedophilia as a “sexuality” and has actively worked to have any sexual attraction to minors removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistic’s Manual (DSM).
In 2014, a B4U-Act newsletter was issued which was excitedly uploaded to pedophile forum BoyChat discussing changes in the DSM-5 which treated pedophilia more similarly to homosexuality, and “acknowledged that the sexual attraction to children did not constitute a disorder.” As B4U-Act currently seeks primarily to inform therapists, this is particularly dangerous. In its Guide for Therapists, B4U-Act encourages those counselling pedophiles to take an “LGBT affirmative psychotherapy approach,” and treat “minor-attracted person’s sexuality” as “innate, unchangeable, and subject to personal acceptance.”
B4U-Act has recently begun partnering with universities and academics to distribute its pro-pedophile propaganda. Kailey Roche of St. Mary’s University appears to be just one of many unwittingly endorsing its cause.
On B4U-Act’s Twitter, multiple university studies are listed seeking “Minor Attracted Persons” (MAPs) for research participation. Some are even being held in direct collaboration with B4U-Act.
The Post Millennial found Nicole Jordan was currently a child care coordinator in Maine. She did not immediately respond to requests for comment through her employer.
The University of British Columbia was also hosting a study in collaboration with B4U-Act. Dr. Jan Cioe stated he had never attended any of B4U-Act’s workshops, and directed us to Crystal Mundy, the supervised Ph.D. student he stated was primarily conducting the research.
Upon reaching out to Crystal Mundy, she asked to “first discuss the perspective the article is taking” before agreeing to answer any questions. When informed about B4U-Act and its history, she declined any further comment.
EDIT: Sheila van den Heuvel-Collins is no longer the blog editor at Prostasia, and the article has been updated to reflect this.
