May 01, 2015 11:39 AM UTC

Vice Chair of Colorado Republican Party: "We stand at the top of a very slippery slope"

• 7 Comments
• by: Jason Salzman

Friday Update: Right Wing Watch picked up this story here.

——

On Facebook Saturday, Derrick Wilburn, who’s Vice Chair of the Colorado Republican Party, linked to a New York Times opinion article suggesting that pedophilia may have “neurological origins” and may not be “a choice.” The piece suggests ways to treat people with pedophilia to stop them from molesting children.

Wilburn posted the following comment about the article on the American Conservatives of Color Facebook page:

Wilburn: And here we go. I have discussed many times in the past how we stand at the top of a very slippery slope. The LBGT community itself readily admits that “marriage is just the beginning.” The “I was born this way” label is one they apply to any and every form of sexual behavior – multiple partners, cross-dressing, beastialty, you name it. Including pedophilia. “I’ can’t help it, I was born this way. I’ve just always been sexually attracted to children.” This reasoning is the doorway to acceptance. Why should we have laws & punishments in place for people who have/had no control of the way they’re wired? It’s not fair. It’s discriminatory. Yadda.

It’s coming, folks. Just as sure as the sun rises in the east, it is coming.

I called Wilburn to confirm that he was comparing gays to people with pedophilia:

Wilburn: “I wasn’t saying the two are comparable,” he said. “What I’m saying is, as a society, we are moving in the direction of, ‘how I believe I was born makes my behavior normative and therefore acceptable.’ We have to be very careful. At what point do we, as a society draw a line, or is there no line? I try to post stuff more as a topic of conversation than as my personal viewpoints, though of course I do have my views. If you read it like that, it’s really just more, this is something we need to talk about. “People are already saying, ‘Look, I was born with a genetic disposition to sexual attraction toward other men,’ if I’m a male. ‘That’s just how I was born.’ Okay, I’m not going to make that a point of dispute or argument. But then what do we do when someone ways, ‘I was borwith a propensity toward being attracted to children. I was born with a propensity toward being attracted to German Shepherds’.’

To me, by trotting out the slippery-slope argument, Wilburn is actually comparing pedophilia (described as a mental illness in the article posted) to a healthy form of sexual behavoir. The two are not on the same slope! They’re on different mountains.

Here are a few of the comments on Wilburn’s Facebook post:

Jim Maerk Pandora’s box was opened with society’s approval of Homosexuals as a special class of people and now, the Demons are coming!

Emily Cantrell It seems like you are saying homosexuality and pedophilia are the same. Two things: 1)Those are not the same. And 2)Being hateful to gay people is going to lose us the election in 2016 so quit it!

Nick Bosco Did anyone actually read the article? Nowhere in it was there any suggestion, or even allusion, that child molesters should not be punished “because they can’t help it”.

Jeffrey Hickey And this is why liberals have as much power as they do; you conservatives prove them right every time you open your ignorant, bigoted mouths. Equating Homosexuality to Pedophilia and Bestiality is just pure and utter ignorance

Trish Mann Herbert Wow, comparing Pedophilia to homosexuality is ridiculous. One is between two consenting adults the other is preying on children who have no choice. You are relying on fear to perpetuate your idealolgy

Carla Salomone Rowland Then there should be no punishment for murderers because they can’t help them selves…they were born with a disorder..right?