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Originally Posted by shinerbock
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is true or that even if it were gay people should be punished or treated like child molestors. I think we all agree that child molestors generally have an attraction to abnormally young people and this is unnatural. According to them, and the medical community I believe, they can't help it. So what then, would we say to people who claim that like people attracted to children, people attracted to the same sex also have a mental disorder. Is the fact that child molestors hurt the innocent, or those who can't make wise decisions, the reasoning for it being a disorder? Or is it that they are attracted to abnormally young people? What if someone had feelings of attraction towards children, but resisted it, is that still a disorder? If so, how would you respond to those who believe being gay is a mental "disorder"? If they are both innate things they cannot choose, what makes a normal but semi-rare attraction, while the other is a mental disorder?
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I don't have an answer to your question about how to respond to people who think being gay is a "disorder". However, I wanted to say that for many sexual offenders, it is about more than just attraction. It is also a power/control issue, where they violate those that are vulnerable (smaller than them, weaker than them, easily scared/kept quiet by threats of harm to their families, easily manipulated into believing either that it's what little girls/boys are supposed to do with dad/uncle/neighbor/etc. or into believing that they *the child* are sinning/doing something so despicable that everyone will hate them if they told). I definitely think that people who prey on children should not be considered as being on the same plane as statutory rape, provided that it's between two teenagers and not a 40-year old man and a teenage (because in that case, they are not on the same level of maturity development and it leaves the door open to the teenager being preyed upon)