Suffering?

So, back to the post I was going to write before I was interrupted by K's good news earlier. It began to brew listening to the radio news yesterday morning, when a phrase I've ranted about before, and which doesn't irritate me any less than it ever did, despite its now depressing familiarity - 'convicted paedophile' - surfaced in a report. Whether it's due to lazy 'journalism' or deliberate demonisation I don't know, but, for the umpteenth time, you can't be convicted of being attracted to those below the arbitrary 'age of consent', you can only be convicted of acting on those attractions. Being a paedophile (or a hebephile, as I'll freely admit as a word to describe myself) isn't illegal, much as many might wish to convict merely on the basis of 'thoughtcrime'. Which leads on to another case I read about yesterday, of a man who was arrested in a 'sting'-type operation earlier this year, convicted of 'grooming' (another word I loathe) and sentenced to ten years in jail, despite the fact that he doesn't seem, by the report I read, of actually having laid a single inappropriate finger on a young person. The case and sentence would have been bad enough in themselves, but one particular quote, from one of the lawyers involved, really got up my nose. The man was, according to the legal eagle, 'suffering from paedophilia'. As if it was an illness, by implication, a mental illness. Well, from someone on this side of the fence, I can assure you that it isn't. It's a sexual orientation, just as much as good old vanilla heterosexuality, and no more susceptible to being 'treated'. If those of us with that particular orientation are 'suffering', it's through the attitudes of society, the assumption that we're amoral predators intent only on rape and violation, irrespective of any damage, physical or emotional, that might be caused to a young person in the process. Of course, there may well be some boy or girl lovers who are mentally ill, but, proportionately, I would be very surprised if they outnumber their sexually 'normal' counterparts. I can only speak for myself, but I can confidently state that I'm not mad, not bad, and not dangerous to know, even for the cutest boy. I am unhappy, though, to be tarred with the brush of unthinking prejudice.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B