At 470 posts in, perhaps this question should have been asked earlier, but I'll ask it now: what sort of a thing is pedophilia? Is it a sexual preference or a sexual orientation? Is there some kind of moral difference between someone who self-identifies as a pedophile but chooses not to act on their preferences and someone who does act and is the concept of a celibate pedophile meaningful, (as the concept of a celibate heterosexual or a celibate homosexual is). There was a lot of talk about sex with babies earlier in the thread, so is the real problem people who want to, or actually do, have sex with very young children. There are quite wide differences in the
age of consent, and some jurisdictions do not have a fixed age but determine ability to give consent to be a function of sexual maturity, whilst others seem to have no lower age limit. So, behaviour could be considered pedophilia in some places but not in others - so is the morality of pedophilia variable with the context? Given the distinction that has already been made between writing about pedophilia and having sex with children, what is it, specifically, that is being condemned?