Professor removed from campus for writing and talking about people who have sexual attraction to minors

Old Dominion University put a professor [Allyn Walker] who studies pedophilia on administrative leave this week.... [...]

In the interview [by the Prostasia Foundation], Walker advocated calling those who are attracted to minors "MAPs," or "minor-attracted people," because that is a term that non-offender advocacy and support groups prefer over "pedophile" or other terms. "A lot of people, when they hear the term 'pedophile,' they automatically assume that means a sex offender, and that isn't true, and that can lead to a lot of misconceptions about attractions toward minors," Walker told Prostasia. [...]

In a separate statement, [Brian O.] Hemphill [President of Old Dominion University] said, "Many individuals have shared with me the view that the phrase 'minor-attracted people' is inappropriate and should not be utilized as a euphemism for behavior that is illegal, morally unacceptable and profoundly damaging. It is important to call pedophilia what it is. As a father, I am troubled by this narrative and its potential consequences for my children and that of future generations." [...]

Many adults, after all, resist their sexual impulses; adults who might prefer having multiple sexual partners, or who fantasize about multiple sexual partners, nonetheless remain faithful to their spouses. Many adults who are deeply attracted to someone with whom they know they shouldn't be sexually involved resist such temptations. Many priests or monks or nuns who have normal sexual interests in others resist that attraction because they believe that abstinence from sex is part of their religious calling. Perhaps this is possible for adults who are attracted to children (I certainly hope it is). Perhaps it's not. But only being open to seriously studying this, including in ways that morally condemn only people who act on their attraction and not those who merely feel the attraction, can help us figure that out. [...]

I should note that even advocacy of legalizing such sex is likewise protected by academic freedom principles. But from what I have seen, Prof. Walker does not advocate this.

source: Article 'Professor Removed from Campus for Writing and Talking About People Who Have Sexual Attraction to Minors' by Eugene Volokh; reason.com/volokh/2021/11/18/professor-removed-from-campus-for-writing-and-talking-about-people-who-have-sexual-attraction-to-minors/printer/; Reason.com; 18 November 2021