Harmeet Dhillon Takes Interest in Conference to ‘Affirm’ MAPs Funded by Charity – Twitchy

You know by now that the radical LGBTQ activists have been trying to normalize pedophilia as just another sexual orientation. They now call pedophiles MAPs, or minor-attracted persons. This weekend, they’re holding a convention in Ohio to teach how to become “empowered to work confidently and affirmingly with MAPs.

Ngo scoop: An “affirming” conference for “MAPs” (minor-attracted person, i.e., p—dophile) is taking place in Ohio on May 2–4. The conference states its goal is to teach how to become “empowered to work confidently and affirmingly with MAPs.”

The event’s speakers are woke leftist… pic.twitter.com/WTwRmWCLI6

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) May 3, 2025

… academics. The conference is run by B4U-ACT, a registered Maryland-based charity.

Ngo announced that it was not a scoop and credited Christina Buttons, who posted this:

A pro-pedophile group is training mental health providers to implement “affirmative MAP therapy”—a framework explicitly modeled on LGBT-affirmative therapy, aimed at affirming pedophiles’ attraction to minors and integrating that attraction into their identity. pic.twitter.com/tbNIVW6jPS

— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) May 2, 2025

B4U-Act, a group founded by a social worker and convicted child sex offender, advances a radically different approach. They believe that “reconditioning methods” or sex-drive-reducing drugs are harmful—drawing comparisons to conversion therapy for homosexuality.

— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) May 2, 2025

B4U-Act, a group founded by a social worker and convicted child sex offender, advances a radically different approach. They believe that “reconditioning methods” or sex-drive-reducing drugs are harmful—drawing comparisons to conversion therapy for homosexuality.

— Christina Buttons (@buttonslives) May 2, 2025

She writes for the City Journal:

Recommended

An alarming new movement insists that sexual attraction to minors is not a psychiatric disorder to be managed but an identity to be affirmed. Leading this effort is B4U-ACT, a Maryland-based organization founded in 2003 to support pedophiles, or as they call them, “Minor-Attracted Persons” (MAPs). From May 2 through May 4, 2025, the group will host a conference in Ohio to train mental-health providers in “affirmative MAP therapy,” which seeks to help clients accept their “age of attraction” as an intrinsic and valid part of their identity. This approach abandons clinicians’ traditional risk-management focus when treating pedophiles and raises serious concerns about public safety.

…

Founded by social worker Russell Dick and convicted child sex offender Michael Melsheimer, B4U-ACT includes pedophiles in its working group and invokes the activist slogan “nothing about us without us,” arguing that pedophiles should help shape therapeutic models. Though the group states on its website that it does not endorse sexual contact between adults and minors, individuals familiar with B4U-ACT note that its language around consent is worryingly ambiguous, allegedly referring to so-called “willing” children.

Affirmative MAP therapy, the alternative treatment model that B4U-ACT promotes, encourages individuals to integrate their attraction to minors into their sense of self. The group argues that “one’s attraction to minors is often an important part of an MAP’s identity, in some cases being the most important aspect of their sexual identity.” Their therapeutic approach draws from LGBT-affirmative psychotherapy, which “treats sexual feelings as innate, unchangeable, and subject to personal acceptance.” B4U-ACT also borrows from American Psychological Association guidelines on “sexual minorities,” encouraging “acceptance of one’s age of attraction.”

WHAT

— Gays Against Groomers (@againstgrmrs) May 3, 2025

Andy Ngo’s post caught the attention of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice Harmeet Dhillon, who took an interest in the Maryland-based charity, B4U-ACT, organizing the conference.