Websites such as the Daily Caller and “ Attitude” picked up on this alleged “MAPs Pride Flag” and reported that pedophiles were “rebranding” themselves as “Minor Attracted Persons” in an attempt to be accepted by the LGBT community: If you happen to see this flag on any Social Media Profile or someone using the term MAP in their bio, please REPORT the Pedophile running that account. This is a Minor Attracted Person (MAP) (polished term for pedophile) flag. When pictures of this “MAP flag” began circulating on Facebook, the posts typically included messages warning other social media users to be wary of anyone displaying this flag: This picture does not represent a “MAPs Pride Flag.” Rather, the image was created as part of a troll experiment on Tumblr. In December 2017, for instance, internet trolls spread a false rumor that the letter “P,” representing “pedosexual,” was being added to the initialism LGBT (for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender”).Īn eerily similar rumor was spread via social media in June 2018 in the form of an image purportedly showing a “MAPs (Minor-Attracted Persons) Pride Flag” supposedly created for Gay Pride Month:
A number of fear-mongering campaigns over the years have attempted to link pedophilia to the LGBTQ community, despite an utter lack of scientific proof of any such connection.
