why not just keep quiet?

## why not just keep quiet?

#### 1 August 2014
from celibate pedophiles

### ethan edwards

| We pedophiles do not disappear when you stop thinking about us. We're still here. Ethan Edwards is the co-founder of Virtuous Pedophiles. Blog posts reflect his personal views, and are not statements from the organization. In my previous post I suggested that it is very hard to tell people online that you are a celibate pedophile without getting a strong negative reaction. I speculated that when people hear you use the term, they assume you are up to no good. You can say forcefully or calmly that you are celibate, that you will always be celibate, that you have no desire to change any laws, and that you hate child molesters as much as they do. But it still doesn't do much good.I have occasionally run into people who do seem to take in the message but then reply, "So why are you saying this? Why don't you keep it to yourself and do something productive with your time instead of talking about such an unpleasant subject?" They can understand why a pedophile would try to drum up support for lower age of consent laws, and they would savagely condemn him and oust him from whatever conversation is going on. But otherwise, what's the point? We pedophiles do not disappear when you stop thinking about us. We're still here. We are hated so much that we keep our identities hidden. Since we must stay hidden, the only pedophiles you know are the criminals among us, and hatred of them is generalized to us all. It is a tightly closed, vicious circle. A new way to look at a celibate pedophile who announces himself online is that he is taking one small step to try to break that circle. The revelation may seem strange, coming out of the blue. But he is not just trying to stir up controversy or cause trouble. If enough pedophiles do start announcing themselves, it will become more accepted. He may not be asking for anything at all, just the willingness to be known and accepted. An anonymous environment is a place to start. People like to be known for who they truly are and not feel the need to keep a secret which is central to their self-concept. But of course there are some important changes a pedophile might want to society, starting with an ability to get psychological help without worrying about mandated reporting, and he might talk about some of those things. The groundwork for those changes is people at large coming to view celibate pedophiles as real people who aren't so very different from them. Celibate pedophiles do sometimes "come out" to friends and family. Sometimes it goes well and sometimes it does not. When it goes well it is still a secret shared within a very small group. But if attitudes started to soften a little, more could come out and they could come out to more people. Ordinary folks when conversing might realize that they both know a celibate pedophile. Perhaps at some point celibate pedophilia could be as accepted as being gay is today — which is of course still very far from ideal, but sounds like an unattainable dream to pedophiles. About the author: Ethan Edwards is a pseudonym. I am a pedophile, always celibate, and I have never seen child pornography. My attraction is strongest to girls around 4 years old, but I am also attracted to girls and women up through their 30s or beyond. Now in my late 60s, I'm divorced and living alone. I was married for over 10 years and was heavily involved with raising my 3 daughters. For most of my career I was a successful software engineer. I am very unusual for a pedophile in that I didn't realize that I was one until I was in my 50s—but it was there all along. I am angry that we all must remain silent or risk losing everything. That was my mindset when I co-founded Virtuous Pedophiles in 2012. I soon learned of the the terror of the typical pedophile who realizes as a teenager that his attraction isn't going to go away, who has nowhere to turn for help. The injustice I am most passionate about is the harsh legal penalties imposed on pedophiles who passively view illegal images of children. I stepped down from my role as a director of Virtuous Pedophiles early in 2024 and am delighted to pass the mantle on to a younger generation. This content was taken from Ethan's longstanding blog, Celibate Pedophiles. Some of the titles and taglines have been edited for their inclusion at thepword. You can see an earlier version of the blog at the wayback machine. |

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a minor pedophile reached out... into the wild west |  | the iwf: young teens |  | map advocate rusty
bly So I sought out people like me. I would go on those sketchy teen/tween chat rooms, explaining that I was a minor looking for someone to talk to. |  | ethan edwards 2 of 4. Looking at the issue of self-made images of teens in the light of IWF statements. |  | global prevention project Rusty and Candice talk about getting to know the truth about MAPs, dealing with trolls, the importance of education as a means of accurate suicide prevention especially among teen MAPs, and more!

a minor pedophile reached out... into the wild west bly So I sought out people like me. I would go on those sketchy teen/tween chat rooms, explaining that I was a minor looking for someone to talk to.
the iwf: young teens ethan edwards 2 of 4. Looking at the issue of self-made images of teens in the light of IWF statements.
map advocate rusty global prevention project Rusty and Candice talk about getting to know the truth about MAPs, dealing with trolls, the importance of education as a means of accurate suicide prevention especially among teen MAPs, and more!