Minor Attracted Person (archive research)

Part of NewgonWiki's series on
minor-attracted identities

Category: Minor-attracted people

Template:MAI - This template

Since 2021, we have conducted research on the origins of the commonly used term "Minor Attracted Person" (MAP), after what appeared to be erroneous claims made by various sources in the mainstream media. The origin of the term as used today was confirmed as the now defunct MAP-run ATC/ANU blog in early 2007. This article details and sources this research project in chronological order.

It is commonly claimed that "MAP" is both novel and a "woke" codeword for pedophilia. The first two charges appear to be contradicted by the fact that the broader concept of being "Minor Attracted" can be traced back to 1998, where it was conceived by the Christian Journalist, Heather Peterson. Neither her, ANU, Richard Kramer nor any prominent person in B4U-Act are known to be followers of social-justice hyperorthodoxy (so-called wokism). The "pedocentrism" assumption appears to be challenged by the fact that the second person to use the full term "Minor Attracted Person" was a non-pedophile MAP who specified its inclusivity as his reason for using it at the time.^[1]

2001 as ground zero, but no takeoff

As noted by B4U-Act (founded in 2003) in their Twitter thread, in 2007 - they, some MAPs and academic authors had been using the similar term "Minor Attracted Adult" (MAA) for some time. This was after Heather Peterson (a Christian author/researcher who embedded herself in the BoyChat community) had coined MAA in 1998, using it repeatedly on her website in the following years.^[2]^[3]^[4] The Internet Archive also reveals solitary mentions of the term "Minor Attracted Person/MAP", "Minor Attracted Homosexual" and 'Minor Attracted Men" in the period after MAA started to be used.^[5]^[6]^[7] However, other than the occasional use of "minor attracted" and adoption of aforementioned "Minor Attracted Adult", there is an absence of archive evidence for the other specifier terms between 1998 and 2007. This is thought to be because the post-2006 brand of online youth MAP activism (second-wave MAP activism) was virtually nonexistent at that point.

2007 - full adoption as a discourse by ANU

In 2006/7, as the burgeoning MAP blogging movement got underway (primarily on blogger.com/blogspot), there were, as to be expected, further uses of the term "minor attraction" and "MAA". The first subsequent examples of "Minor Attracted Person" we can find were linked to the blog ATC/ANU^[8] in Jan and Feb 2007, with the blog-author also submitting the term to a Guardian debate, Slashdot and Scienceblogs.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13] This slow pivot from "Minor Attracted Adult" and the generic "minor attraction" (as evidenced by BC archives^[14]), to "Minor Attracted Person" was thought to be due to these bloggers' relatively young age (see gallery). For example, the most active authors on ANU were in their late teens, having experienced an attraction to minors before adulthood.^[15]^[16]^[17] In addition to this, the first authors to use the term "Minor Attracted Person" (BLueRibbon and Daniel Lievre) were pedophilic and ephebophilic respectively (see gallery), so the more inclusive term suited their writings.^[18]

On Jun 8, 2007, Newgon.com was founded (at that time a small website started by two censored bloggers, Daniel Lievre/Llort and Jillium - also of ANU), and the new term was visible in its ethos (belatedly captured on its blog arm, dated Jul 17).^[19] B4U-Act began to use the term on June 22, 2007, incorporating it into their own lexicon.^[20] It is likely they were aware of the new coinage by MAPs, and adopted it soon after. The late Michael Melsheimer (a MAP and founding member of B4U-Act), or prominent member Richard Kramer might have been somewhat responsible for popularizing the new language. Both individuals were in some kind of contact with the rest of the community (for example on BoyChat), and as documented earlier, Kramer had used "Minor Attracted Men" on MHAMic as early as 2001 - showing that he was flexible as to how the language should be used. Our predecessor, Newgon.com, created the first known dedicated article to define Minor Attracted People in September 2008 (see history).

Gallery of files

BoyChat in 2001 - First known, but unsuccessful suggestion of "MAP"
ANU Editors ages (as seen in early 2009)
BLueRibbon's Jan 26 2007 debate on The Guardian's comment section - in which he uses MAP twice
BLueRibbon's 10 Feb 2007 post on Slashdot (still live!). By this date, he had been censored on other platforms such as LiveJournal.^[21]
BLueRibbon's corresponding ANU post
BLueRibbon using MAP, Mar 12, 2007
He uses it again on ScienceBlogs - Mar 17, 2007
BLueRibbon 5 May 2007: Antis vs MAPs
Jim Burton - wiki warrior uses "Minor Attracted Activism" 9 May 2007
Daniel Lievre - delineates MAP from Pedophile May 26, 2007
Daniel Lievre - MAP in 1st Newgon Ethos
B4U-Act's Twitter account - with typo, but pointing out their adoption in Jun 2007
2021 explanation of the term by our Strategist