Gay travel bloggers photos stolen by pro-paedophilia Twitter troll
Pexels
A gay couple who run a travel blog together have been the victim of a bizarre Twitter troll account that stole their photos and used them in posts advocating paedophilia.
NBC News reports that Karl Krause and Daan Colijn, who live in the Netherlands and run the website CoupleOfMen.com, started receiving emails from fans around Christmas Day telling them that their photos were being used to promote paedophilia.
The troll account – which just went by the name Alex – was created in December, and then started posting tweets promoting paedophilia.
The account then used photos of the couple, including one of the pair kissing in front of a rainbow flag.
In one tweet from the account, the troll said: “Pedophilia is a sexual orientation you bigots.”
Krause told NBC News that it was “frustrating to see someone misusing our image for political purposes.”
“We think it is important to support the gay community worldwide.”
– Couple of Men Travel
The couple’s website says they are “openly gay travellers” and that they are proud of who they are.
“We think it is important to support the gay community worldwide. Our profession is to collect authentic and gay-friendly proofed travel info which we then love to share through written, visual and social media content,” they continue.
The account was presumed to be real by some news outlets and commentators.
Attempts to link paedophilia and homosexuality
Conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec was among those who responded to the account. He said in a tweet: “They are actually trying to argue that paedophiles are an ‘oppressed minority’… many warned this day would come.”
This is not the first time that attempts have been made to link the LGBT+ community to paedophilia.
While the offensive concept has been repeatedly debunked, some people continue to attempt to link homosexuality and paedophilia.
Pexels
NBC News reports that various efforts to link paedophilia with homosexuality have been linked to online message board 4chan.
Among these was the creation of a fake rainbow flag for Pride month that was allegedly meant to include acceptance of paedophilia.
Worldwide issue
Meanwhile, the issue has also recently come up in France, where far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen was recently fined for his homophobic remarks.
In 2016, he claimed in a video that “paedophilia found its credentials […] in the exaltation of homosexuality.”
The issue also caused controversy in Northern Ireland recently when Lynette Burrows suggested that homosexuality and paedophilia were linked in a segment on BBC Radio Ulster last May.
In the segment, she said that a gay couple kissing was like “a man of 50 kissing a girl of 15.”
When asked if she was comparing homosexuality to paedopholia, she said: “One has been made illegal and the other hasn’t. That’s the difference. We have had a law imposed on us to make this accepted.”
