Old Dominion University students have launched a petition to remove a female-to-male trans professor who promotes legalizing pedophilia.
Dr. Allyn Walker, who teaches sociology and criminal justice at ODU, sparked outrage by changing the terminology “pedophile” to MAPs: minor-attracted persons.
In a book titled A Long Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity, Walker argues that minor-attracted people are simply misunderstood.
Walker writes:
“A lot of people when they hear the term ‘pedophile’, they automatically assume that it means a sex offender, and that isn’t true. And it leads to a lot of misconceptions about attractions towards minors.”
Walker continued:
“From my perspective, there is no morality or immorality attached to attraction to anyone because no one can control who they’re attracted to at all. In other words, it’s not who we’re attracted to that’s either OK or not OK. It’s our behaviors in responding to that attraction that are either OK or not OK.”
Old Dominion University’s administration responded by distancing itself from Walker’s comments, but stopped short of removing the professor.
Alumni are outraged at the school’s response to the controversy.
A Change.org petition calling for the school to remove Walker has garnered nearly 3,000 signatures.
Mikiah Everett, an ODU alumnus, said she was “disgusted” by ODU’s decision.
“We do not need to change the ‘terminology’ for pedophiles,” Everett said.
“I am disgusted at their response to protect someone that is an advocate for pedophiles and affiliated with the organization Prostasia (a pedophilia advocate group under the guise of a children protection organization.) Dr. Walker has crossed a line and has dressed it up in academic jargon.”
Walker reacted to the outrage by saying, “I want to be clear: child sexual abuse is an inexcusable crime.”
Walker, who has interviewed child victims as part of research, said:
“As an assistant professor of sociology and criminal justice, the goal of my research is to prevent crime. I embarked on this research in hopes of gaining understanding of a group that, previously, has not been studied in order to identify ways to protect children.”
