Activists Defend Canceled ‘Minor-Attracted Persons’ Camp In Vermont Next To School
Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2024 12:54 am
See the full article here.After local outcry canceled a camp for “minor-attracted persons” set for last weekend in Vermont, several organizations are publicly defending those who declare a sexual attraction to children.
MAP Union, or MU, which represents itself as “an international organization representing the interests of minor-attracted people and their allies,” sent a statement to local reporter Guy Page protesting the camp cancelation as “bullying” and violence against “society’s most oppressed minority group.”
“While it is appropriate for law enforcement to investigate crimes when they occur, no-one should face legal sanctions for speaking freely about a sexual orientation they did not choose, nor for meeting up with others who have the same orientation,” a self-described MAP Union spokesperson, who called himself “Percy,” said in an email to Page he published Monday.
Bean noted “Percy” is “likely a pseudonym based on the 19th century English author of Mathilda, a novel about incest between a father and daughter.”
“Many MAPs have a legitimate fear of engaging with law enforcement, even in a progressive state like Vermont,” Percy claimed. “They are all too aware of the unwarranted arrests, sting operations and other injustices that other oppressed minority groups have historically faced and are wary of even law enforcement responses that claim to be supportive of First Amendment rights.”
“We do understand the alarm among local parents, but we are extremely unhappy about non-violent MAP community members being labeled as dangerous to children,” Brian Ribbon, a cofounder of MAP Union, said in a statement to The National Desk. “The idea that these people would for some reason try to attack children at the local school is outrageous and deeply offensive.”
Locals flooded the Marshfield, Vermont town council meeting on Sept. 17 over a now-deleted website advertising a three-night “MAP camp” where campers might be “distracted by a sexy minor.” At the meeting, say the minutes, Onion River Campground owner Stephanie Jacquelyn Rieke “assured people that Onion River Campground has never and will never hold a MAP meeting. She has not given her permission for this event. She has employed someone named Mythebe and they have shared their sexual preference with her in confidence, as a friend.”
The more than 100 meeting attendees on Zoom and approximately one dozen who attended in person expressed alarm that the camp would occur next to a public K-12 school and schoolchildren frequented the camp grounds during recess and after school. State police and Homeland Security officers visited the nearby Twinfield Union School in uniform and plain clothes in the days after the meeting, according to local news and school officials.
There are a lot of press sites covering this recently, and that shows awareness about our movement.