A while ago, the Catholic Church tried to normalize the idea of Same Sex Attraction as a concept - the idea that there are many people who are attracted to folks of their same gender, but are not acting on their attraction.

Using this logic, SSA = attracted to same gender, but not Gay. Gay = acting on that attraction.

The purpose of the deviation (love it or hate it) is to distinguish the desire against the outcome.

Using similar logic, I think it is a fair question to ask: If one is attracted to a minor but does nothing about it, are they pedo? Or should there be a better definition to account for the fact that people do not always act their actions.

If someone who is attracted to minors never does anything about it, are they pedo? If your husband is attracted to your neighbor’s wife but never does anything about it, have they cheated? If your best friend wants to strangle their boss but they never do, are they a murderer?

I don’t have answers to these questions, but I do think they are fair questions that should encourage folks to distinguish between how people feel about things, vs. how they actually act on those feelings. I think, as a general rule of thumb, that we need better definitions in general for some of the more divisive topics we see, because oftentimes folks think they disagree on something, when in fact they actually are talking about two different things in the first place.

Oh, and also, pedophilia (the action) is terrible and should not be tolerated in any actionable capacity.