I HOPE you will all join with me in sending Allyn Walker PhD best wishes as she starts an important new job this week. No, I am being ironic.
Walker has been hired by Johns Hopkins University’s Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). She will join the team as a postdoctoral fellow despite more than 15,000 people having signed a petition demanding she be removed from her previous post at Virginia’s Old Dominion University (ODU) in November on grounds of child protection. It is hard not to sympathise with their concerns.
Walker, who is female to male trans gender, had just published Long Dark Shadow: Minor Attracted People, a book which defends paedophiles and urges readers not to be so harsh in their judgment of them. It’s not their fault; their urges are innate and immutable – they cannot help themselves. In the future we should refer to paedophiles as ‘Minor Attracted Persons’ (MAPs) – because ‘it’s less stigmatising’.
Walker, 34, specialises in ‘mental health, court systems, queer criminology, and resilience to offending’. She advocates that paedophiles be given ‘help’ rather than condemnation and suggests that most MAPs ‘aren’t destined to act on their physical urges’. Child-like sex dolls should be made available to satisfy their urges.
While promoting the book, Walker also said: ‘A lot of people when they hear the word paedophile, they automatically assume that means sex offender. That isn’t true. And it leads to a lot of misconceptions about attractions toward minors . . . paedophiles don’t “choose” who to be attracted to. So it (paedophilia) shouldn’t be considered “immoral”.’
Suffice to say, Walker’s is not a widely accepted opinion and her publication caused outrage on Old Dominion’s campus with students accusing her of seeking to excuse paedophilia and of being an apologist for criminals. The university’s Trans Advisory Board called Walker’s argument ‘reprehensible’, damaging to the victims of paedophilia, and not reflective of the views of the wider trans community.
Old Dominion’s leadership originally defended Walker’s right to ‘academic freedom’ but the furore grew to a point where even they could not avoid acting – she was suspended (on full pay, of course). Her eventual ‘resignation’ took effect this month at the end of the academic year, Walker claiming that she had been stigmatised because of her trans gender.
When Johns Hopkins announced Walker’s arrival on Twitter, the appointment elicited significant negative comment from professionals working in the field of child protection. Michael Salter, a professor at the University of New South Wales and president-elect of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, tweeted: ‘To retain its ethical foundation, child sexual abuse prevention work has to be victim-centred. What is victim-centric about the claim that there is nothing wrong with being sexually attracted to children?’
Walker claims that her research is misrepresented. ‘My scholarship aims to prevent child sexual abuse. That research was mischaracterized by some in the media and online, partly on the basis of my trans identity. As a result, multiple threats were made against me.’ Like most Leftie woke activists, she casts herself as the victim – the plucky hero standing up for the oppressed and misunderstood minority.
Walker thanked ‘Old Dominion University for giving me the opportunity to teach and to conduct my research’, adding: ‘I am particularly grateful for the outpouring of support from many among the ODU community, as well as others in my research fields who have publicly affirmed the value of my work in advancing child safety.’ She is, no doubt, also thankful for the six months’ paid leave and the support she has been given in finding alternative employment.
In August 2021 a total of 917,771 people were registered as sex offenders in the US and its territories. In the UK, in May the same year, the National Crime Agency said there could be ‘between 550,000 and 850,000 people who pose varying forms of sexual risk to children’. In the same month, the Telegraph reported figures from the Ministry of Justice, obtained through a Freedom of Information Request, which showed 95,844 people on the sex offender register in England and Wales. The Scottish Sun reported 4,358 registered sex offenders in Scotland.
Remember the register covers only those who have been cautioned for, or convicted of sexual offences, so the actual number of offenders is likely to be much higher.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) annual Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates that in the year ending March 2020, 773,000 adults reported being victims of sexual assault. The extent of sex abuse on young people and children is notoriously difficult to measure owing to paedophile grooming, under-reporting and lack of action from police, social workers and the prosecuting services.
Be in no doubt, paedophiles are pushing their sad and sick agenda in increasingly subtle ways – dressing it up as human rights, democracy, global justice, sexual freedom, trans activism or LGBTQI+ equality. Twitter is infested with paedophiles calling themselves MAPs – the term now expanded to cover infantophilia or nepiophilia (sexual attraction to babies and toddlers); paedophilia (attraction to pre-pubescent children); and hebephilia (attraction to pubescent children and early adolescents).
Twitter’s policy states: ‘Discussions related to child exploitation or attraction to minors are permitted, provided they don’t glorify child sexual exploitation in any way.’ Thus, these deviants are being normalised by professional allies, Marxist academics, social media and woke activists such as Walker under the guise of child protection. Activists even suggest a ‘P’ should be added to the LGBTQI+ banner to ensure inclusivity.
There have been numerous previous attempts to legitimise paedophilia. In 1974, the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), campaigned for the age of consent to be lowered. It sought to remove obstacles to children’s ‘self-actualisation’ – it was affiliated with the National Council for Civil Liberties.
Do not be misled, such groups still exist; their vile agenda bolstered by gender confusion, woke activists and societal fragmentation.
