How do you exist and support a community when you know a lot of people in it only want to cause harm? I want to support the paraphilia movement, but I (and others I know) were repeatedly, terribly abused (sexually and otherwise) from our childhood to teen years by people who proudly identified as paedophiles. One of my abusers is even active in the community on Tumblr, now labeling themselves as “anti-contact”. It’s scary, and I don’t know how I can support others without putting myself at risk of relapse, flashbacks, etc.

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More abusers exist at higher rates outside of our community. I’m sorry that you’ve been harmed so greatly but the people more likely to abuse kids are the ones who don’t debate with each other or even personally question how to ethically treat and love children with the children’s perspectives in mind. The answer isn’t with the defacto oppressors of children. Pedophiles should be youthlib though

It sounds played out but it’s just true that people will use political beliefs as a shield to be abusive with anything. My community is of people who truly love kids, so people may use that as a tool to gain trust of kids. I don’t support those people. It isn’t the attraction tho

I want kids to have rights and to be treated with respect, as well as for people with attractions to not be persecuted on the basis of their attractions. It’s correct to me and that’s what I support. However you absolutely should prioritize your mental health and peace and not force yourself to be integrated with the community or doing activism if your trauma makes it difficult. It’s okay to not engage even without the trauma. I appreciate that you’d like to be supportive despite what happened to you. We’ll keep trying to weed out the abusers for you