What Is A 'MAP'? The Controversial Term And Acronym, Explained

On June 1st, 2023, the start of the year's Pride Month, a Twitter user who started tweeting just two weeks prior caused the term "MAPs" to trend by saying, "Pride month is not just for Gays, Trans, and MAPs. No matter your color, creed, sexual orientation, or however you were born, be proud of who and what you are 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️."

Though unconfirmed, the account bears many signs of being a troll account intended to satirize left-wing Twitter posters. Since "@blunomatterwho" (whose profile picture is a very low-res photo of a man in glasses) started tweeting in May, it has tweeted numerous exaggeratedly "left" takes, mostly racking up replies and quote-tweets instead of likes.

Several users on the site have accused it of being a parody, and the "MAPs" post seems to be an attempt to fuel a conservative narrative that falsely ties LGBTQ people to pedophilia.

While some have taken the bait, others have suggested the use of "MAP" is a psyop intended to rile up conservative media and liberal posters — a psyop that has, to some extent, worked before.

What Is a MAP and NOMAP?

MAP is an acronym for "Minor Attracted Person." It is a clinical term that appears to have been first popularized by B4U Act, an organization of therapists and researchers who wish to provide mental health services to people who are sexually attracted to minors in order to prevent illegal activity, and is an umbrella term that encompasses pedophilia (attraction to pre-pubescent children), hebephilia (attraction to pubescent adolescents) and ephebophilia (attraction to mid-late adolescents).

The term NOMAP, also used in discussions about MAPs, means "Non-offending Minor Attracted Person."

Both B4U Act and the similar organization The Global Prevention Project have insisted the term MAPs is not an attempt to gloss over the serious crime of child sexual assault, but rather a clinical term used to discuss the range of sexual attraction to minors.

How Did The Term MAP Spread Online?

Online, the term began floating around Tumblr in 2016 in discussions about people who posted or appreciated lolicon art, becoming a topic of heated debate on the site, as several users voiced passionate opposition to MAPs.

There, accounts were dedicated to identifying MAPs on the platform in the name of discouraging minors from interacting with them.

In the summer of 2017, the term spilled out from Tumblr and into the broader culture. That August, conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong posted a disparaging tweet about how MAPs were attempting to become a part of the social justice movement.

Then in September, the BBC used the term in a discussion for MAPs who did not want to cause harm to children, and a month later, Urban Dictionary user "Your friendly old Spetznaz vet" uploaded a critical characterization of MAPs onto the site.

Are MAPs A Part Of The LGBTQ+ Community?

To put it plainly, the answer is no.

The attempt to tie Minor Attracted People to the LGBTQ+ community has been proven to be, at various times, a troll operation and a psyop. In 2016, 4chan psyop anons attempted to make an "LGBTP" graphic (the "P" stands for "Pedosexual") go viral on social media. Snopes then debunked the LGBTP graphic in December 2017.

The idea that MAPs were a part of the LGBTQ+ movement appears to stem largely from a June 2018 Tumblr post in which user "dont-mistake-our-geography" created a "Pride Flag" to represent MAPs. The post was used as evidence in sites such as the right-leaning Daily Caller to suggest MAPs were aligning themselves with the LGBTQ community.

The flag was later proven to be bogus after the user who created the flag admitted that the post was not made in earnest. They also changed their bio, which originally suggested they were a MAP themselves, to read, "Not an anti, not an ally, just a training psychologist with some f---ing sense." As before, Snopes debunked the MAP pride flag in 2018.

Despite this, many conservatives online and even some in the media continue to say "pedophiles" are "rebranding" as "MAPs" in order to gain social acceptance through the LGBTQ+ community.

How Do LGBTQ+ People Feel About MAPs?

The LGBTQ+ community online has, on the whole, vocally and thoroughly rejected MAPs. Queer publication Them has tracked the attempts to tie the LGTBQ movement to pedophilia through the use of terms like MAPs, and throughout social media, it is easy to find examples of LGBTQ+ people expressing vehement dislike for MAPs and making clear they are not welcome in the community.

In August 2018, a mod in Reddit's /r/LGBT made a post distancing the LGBT community from MAPs, stickying it to the top of the subreddit.

In 2016, a DeviantArt user who uses they/them pronouns posted a piece calling MAPs pedophiles. On June 1st, 2023, amidst the "@blunomatterwho" / MAPs controversy, a Twitter user who identifies as "Polyam/queer," made clear he believes the term MAP is a term for pedophiles.

Many other examples of queer people rejecting MAPs can be found whenever the term and controversy arise on social media.

In sum, "MAP" is an umbrella term created by clinical psychologists to refer to people attracted to minors, and it has never been accepted by the LGBTQ+ community, who have time and again vocally rejected any association with MAPs online.

For the full history of MAP / NOMAP, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's entry for even more information.