A plural-pronoun-using transgender college professor in Virginia is giving his employers headaches after asserting that it’s not immoral for adults to have sexual attraction to little children.
The headaches have gotten so bad that Allyn Walker, a biological male, has been placed on administrative leave, according to The New York Post. Walker teaches sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion University, and made the jaw-dropping comment while discussing “minor-attracted persons” and pedophilia during a Nov. 8 video interview with a San Francisco-based child protection group called the Prostasia Foundation.
Walker authored a book called A Long Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity, and during the interview argued for using the term “Minor-Attracted People” instead of “pedophile,” which he finds too pejorative.
Walker’s school was forced to place the instructor on administrative leave on Nov. 16.
“Reactions to Dr. Walker’s research and book have led to concerns for their safety and that of the campus,” said a statement from the school, immediately adopting the posture of victim of raging extremists. “Furthermore, the controversy over Dr. Walker’s research has disrupted the campus and community environment and is interfering with the institution’s mission of teaching and learning.”
“I want to state in the strongest terms possible that child sexual abuse is morally wrong and has no place in our society,” ODU President Brian Hemphill said in another statement, just to clear things up. “This is a challenging time for our University, but I am confident that we will come together and move forward as a Monarch family,” he added hopefully.
“From my perspective, there is no morality or immorality attached to attraction to anyone because no one can control who they’re attracted to at all,” Walker has said. “In other words, it’s not who we’re attracted to that’s either OK or not OK. It’s our behaviors in responding to that attraction that are either OK or not OK.”
His book and statements have nonetheless brought accusations of trying to normalize pedophilia.
