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Anti-LGBT Activist Explores Pedophilia Myth With Disgraced Far-Right Provocateur

An anti-LGBT, Catholic YouTube show interviewed far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, a gay man who spent time in the spotlight thanks to the election of Donald Trump but . During the show he repeated the long-circulated lie about a link between pedophilia and homosexuality.

Yiannopoulos appeared Jan. 16 on 鈥淢ic鈥檇 Up,鈥 hosted by Michael Voris, who also heads the show鈥檚 parent organization, Church Militant, an ultra-orthodox Catholic propaganda ministry that pushes an anti-LGBT agenda. On the episode entitled the two discussed Yiannopoulos鈥檚 new book, Diabolical: How Pope Francis Has Betrayed Clerical Abuse Victims Like Me 鈥 and Why He Has To Go, which he released last October.

When Voris brought up the book鈥檚 chapter titled 鈥淢ake the Vatican Straight Again,鈥 Yiannopoulos had this to say about the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church: 鈥淚t鈥檚 quite clear, I think it鈥檚 beyond question, that this is not just a systematic failing of governments or human resources. This is a gay problem. This is a gay disease.鈥

He continued to claim that pedophilia and homosexuality are linked, saying: 鈥淭he left cannot bear to have [this] pointed out. It鈥檚 not that gays are more likely to be into kids, but it is the other way around 鈥 pedophiles are much more likely to be homosexual.鈥

Voris, who 聽he had homosexual relationships in the past, asked Yiannopoulos: 鈥淲hy do you think that is? Why does the left, like, consider that, you know, taboo? 鈥 They [the left] cannot talk about homosexual men lusting after 14-year-old boys? Why?鈥

鈥淲hen you look at the interrelations between all of these deviant sexualities, you realize that some of these things come from the same origins and they鈥檙e nurture, not nature,鈥 Yiannopoulos responded.

The anti-LGBT right consistently links pedophilia to homosexuality 鈥 a 聽颅鈥 as a way to demonize LGBT people and drive anti-LGBT policy. The American Psychological Association 聽publicly that children are not more likely to be molested by LGBT people.

Since the latest sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Church emerged last year, Voris and Church Militant blamed homosexuality in the church as the culprit and railed against Pope Francis. The sexual abuse allegations that broke last summer 聽to undermine the Pope at the hands of the more conservative wing of the Catholic Church.

A November 2018 Washington Post article 聽Church Militant adopted the abuse scandal as a cause last summer when sexual misconduct allegations about former American cardinal Theodore McCarrick shifted their focus. Many top clergy in Rome and the U.S. are alleged to have known of rumors that McCarrick was harassing male seminarians, which merges with Voris鈥檚 and his followers鈥 beliefs that a cabal of gay top clergy is at the core of the church division.

Fordham University theologian Jason Steidl refers to this hardline, anti-LGBT segment of the Catholic Church as the 鈥淐atholic alt-right.鈥 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 seen anything like this before,鈥 , and he thinks they鈥檙e part of a bigger cultural movement. 鈥淭hese people have hitched their wagons to Trump鈥檚 presidency, to his tactics.鈥

Voris has rejected the 鈥渁lt-right鈥 label, although bringing Yiannopoulos onto one of his shows demonstrates that he鈥檚 willing to provide a platform for it, especially since Yiannopoulos鈥檚 book supports Church Militant鈥檚 anti-Pope and anti-LGBT campaigns, which may also explain why a man who identifies as gay and Catholic agreed to appear on an anti-LGBT Catholic platform.

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