This report, published in April 2025, was written and compiled by the MAP Mental Health and Human Rights Study Group, a working group consisting of ten therapists, researchers, and minor-attracted people. The group was formed in November of 2023 as a result of a discussion at a monthly meeting of B4U-ACT’s Dialog on Therapy.
Over the next several months the group solicited stories from MAPs, clinicians who work with them, and scholars who study their lives about injustices they face within the mental health system and academia. After collecting these stories, the group developed this document to educate professionals and the public about these injustices and the widespread impacts they have.
Our hope is that this document provides insight into the unique challenges and stigma facing people attracted to children and adolescents and the professionals who work with this population, and becomes a foundation for future work to address the systemic and structural restrictions which produce these issues.
B4U-ACT also wishes to express our deep gratitude to the minor-attracted people, mental health professionals, and researchers who shared their experiences of injustices, discrimination, harassment and other mistreatment over the course of the project. This report would not have been possible without you.
