This flag has nothing to do with the LGBTQ+ community, despite right-wing claims

Content Warning: This article includes references to child sexual abuse and sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.

If you’ve seen online images of the flag pictured below, chances whoever posted will claim it’s an LGBTQ+ Pride standard – but that’s a lie.

In reality, it represents a corner of the internet intent on appropriating LGBTQ+ culture, activism and rhetoric to promote paedophilia and child sexual abuse.

Created in 2018 by a Tumblr user whose account has since been deleted, the flag represents minor-attracted persons (MAPs), a fringe group intent on trying to make paedophilia acceptable by claiming it is a section of the LGBTQ+ umbrella.

MAPs also refer to themselves as NOMAPs, or non-offending minor-attracted persons, a sub-section of the group that expresses an attraction to underage children while denying ever committing the sexual abuse of a child.

The pink and blue parts of the flag, the user wrote, represent “NOMAPs attracted to young boys [and] young girls,” while the inner yellow and white stripes are meant to indicate “childhood and general attraction to minors, regardless of their gender” and “innocence and unwillingness to offend”.

Before the account was deleted, the creator of the flag changed their name to “y’all need a therapist, not a community” and claimed to be a victim of child sexual abuse.

Where does the term minor-attracted person come from?

The term NOMAP proliferated in fringe forums across the internet in the late 2010s.

While the number of self-proclaimed NOMAPs remains small, the term could still be found online.

NOMAPs with any kind of public presence were quickly condemned, particularly by LGBTQ+ people who deplored the appropriation of queer culture in an effort to promote paedophilia.

However, the term became even more notorious in 2016, with right-wing groups on message boards, including 4chan, claiming that queer people widely supported NOMAPs, even alleging that the LGBTQ+ acronym was now “LGBTP,” with “P” standing for “pedosexual”.

The claim adds to numerous homophobic conspiracy theories that try to brand LGBTQ+ people predators and “groomers.”

An article from the fact-checking organisation Snopes in 2016 highlighted that no LGBTQ+ organisation has ever promoted or shown support for paedophilia or child molestation. Attempts to connect the queer community to such behaviour “were themselves often linked to bigotry”.

The claim was picked up in 2018 by right-wing media publication The Daily Caller, which alleged that paedophiles “seek to be a part of the LGBT+ community, even going so far as to make a flag for Gay Pride month”.

The hoax was spread by grass-root far-right groups, many of which began claiming that a new version of the Progress Pride flag featured NOMAP colours.

This was also debunked by Snopes, in a report two years ago, which read: “There is no evidence the colours on widely used Pride flags represent minor-attracted persons. The white, blue and pink on modern Pride flags represent the transgender community.”

Snopes also highlighted a 2019 AFP interview with an anonymous self-proclaimed MAP, who said the flag wasn’t “universally accepted” but was common among NOMAP groups.

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