Pedophile Activist Who Disrupted Wikipedia Conference Was Member of Influential Advocacy Group

By Genevieve Gluck

A self-identified pedophile who was arrested after storming on stage wielding a gun during a Wikipedia conference in New York was also an active participant in a forum that has influenced academic literature. Connor Weston, 27, from Dayton, Ohio, attended the gathering of hundreds of Wikipedia editors which was held October 16 to 19 at Union Square’s Civic Hall, where he ran up onto the stage and pointed a loaded gun at his head.

Local media The New York Post reports that Weston declared, “I’m a non-contact pedophile. I want to kill myself,” before he was tackled by staffers, disarmed, and taken into custody.

While at the event Weston wore a flag designed by members of the online “minor-attracted persons,” or MAP, community. The blue, yellow, and pink flag was draped over his shoulders while a sign around his neck read, “ANTI-CONTACT NON-OFFENDING PEDOPHILE.”

Reduxx has learned that Weston had been active in an online forum dedicated to promoting the concept of a “non-offending pedophile.” In September 2024, Weston became a member of the Virtuous Pedophiles (VirPed) community, where he remained mostly quiet, until a few months ago.

Virtuous Pedophiles (VirPed) is a group founded in 2012 that purports to seek the de-stigmatization of pedophilia in order to facilitate “harm prevention and personal support.” Members acknowledge that they have a sexual attraction to children, but claim to want lead normal productive lives without abusing children. The group has repeatedly claimed they have a “commitment to non-offending” and position themselves as a resource for journalists, academics, and public education on pedophilia.

In July, Weston began to ask questions to the community related to safety concerns, and started a discussion thread titled “What happened to Todd Nickerson that I should be afraid of?”

Nickerson had already been a pro-pedophilia advocate for over a decade when he joined VirPed in 2014 and became a prominent spokesperson. In 2015, Salon published an opinion piece by Nickerson titled, “I’m a Pedophile, But Not A Monster.” The publication appears to have deleted the article after facing backlash.

Weston’s question initially asked other forum participants if Nickerson had been “murdered,” presumably due to his quiet exit from pro-pedophile activism. When group members inquired as to why Weston believed Nickerson had been killed, he quoted statements that had been made by a forum administrator, RaccoonDad, who identifies himself as a Lead Tech Admin & MSC Liaison.

“People have been actively attacked and killed for being non-offending pedophiles, look at Todd or anyone who’s been publicly outed,” RaccoonDad is quoted as saying in Weston’s post. “Todd was stalked and harassed… Every time you say, ‘I’m a non-offending MAP,’ everyone who isn’t the small percentage of people who get us will hear that and think you are saying: ‘I rape children, or will rape children, or watch child porn or just am someone who’s evil and will do something bad,’ and they are going to act based on that [caricature] of you, not how you actually are.”

Weston responded: “Yes, I know that. That is what I am trying to change. Also, I call myself a pedophile, not a MAP.”

Apparently spurred on by RaccoonDad’s replies, Weston wrote shortly after: “This made me so mad that I rode my bike downtown and held up my ‘ANTI-CONTACT NON-OFFENDING PEDOPHILE’ banner at a crossroads until my arms got tired. Thank you for giving me the push to finally do that. I’ll need to go to Lowe’s [hardware store] and assemble some rigid backing for it so I can stay out there longer.”

As evidenced by a post and photo shared by Weston on his X account, he would go on to assemble a stand for the banner, which he again displayed publicly on at least one other occasion prior to pulling out a gun at the Wikipedia conference this month. Weston’s X account also demonstrates he was frequently interacting with “loli” content on the platform – a style of Japanese animation featuring highly sexualized depictions of young girls.

Disturbingly, the tagline on Weston’s VirPed profile reads: “A cowed little mouse. Tail between your legs. Silent and subservient. You take your beatings.”

As reports of Weston’s actions have circulated, VirPed members have commented sympathetically and expressed concerns for his safety.

“It is with regret that I report that our own, Connor, has had a mental health-related incident,” said one member, using the name SiennaFallow. “I want to expound my deepest hopes that he is in the care of people who will treat him like a human being, and perhaps help him in some way that we couldn’t? I do hope that when he is well again, he will return and talk to us about his experiences.”

“I would never do this or recommend it or condone it, but I don’t see any other way that you would ever get a story about us in the mainstream media without something like this. Sad but true,” said another user called Benjamin Harker.

Another participant, lostinage, who states that he “[adores] girls 5-13,” expressed concerns that law enforcement may investigate the forum as a result, saying, “I guess the FBI is going to comb through this site to see if we promote terrorism of any kind.”

As previously reported by Reduxx, a former VirPed director was allegedly recently arrested in Norway and charged with the rape of two children under the age of 14. The man, who has remained unnamed in Norwegian press but is known as “Charlie” online, was reportedly a primary school teacher in Rogaland and was arrested on July 9.

Charlie was released from police custody on August 13 and is awaiting trial, according to a co-director of the Virtuous Pedophiles (VirPed) group who calls himself Markus, and allegedly admitted to law enforcement that he had sexually abused a child “several years ago.”

Members of the Virtuous Pedophile forum have influenced academia and sexual abuse prevention organizations. VirPed leaders work with another influential pro-pedophile group known as B4U-Act, which hosts a yearly “MAP” conference.

This year’s “minor-attracted person” conference was held from May 2 to 4 in Ohio and was titled, “Demystifying and Thriving: Understanding MAPs and Fostering Fulfilling Lives.“

Goals for the conference included promoting “affirming, compassionate care for MAPs,” and continuing with a trend from previous years, professional social workers were encouraged to attend, with the promise of receiving Continuing Education Units (CEUs), which are credits earned by attending approved training, workshops, online courses, and other professional development activities.

Another director at VirPed, “Sammy Jenkis,” posted a public apology to the group in May stating that he had “violated” the “physical and personal boundaries” of a “young adult” at a “MAP community conference” hosted by B4U-Act.

“My actions after a party at the B4U-Act conference had me betray everything we stand for… a young adult was there, I was there, and I violated physical and personal boundaries. I ignored consent.”

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a UK-based child protection charity dedicated exclusively to preventing child sexual abuse praises the Virtuous Pedophile community on its official website, where the charity has given VirPed a rating of “pioneering.”

“The work of Virtuous Pedophiles has been supported by a range of professionals including academic researchers in the psychology field,” reads the charity’s statement, before linking to a series of testimonials posted on the VirPed website.

The group has also been covered positively in dozens of mainstream media outlets. In 2014, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offered them praise in a profile titled “Virtuous Pedophiles Group Gives Support Therapy Cannot.”

One notable academic endorsement of VirPed comes from Ray Blanchard, a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Blanchard has helped to devise protocols and guidelines used internationally via his work with the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM). Blanchard served on the DSM-4 Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders in the early 1990’s, and was again appointed to the DSM-5 Working Group on Gender and Sexual Identity Disorders.

Of VirPed, Blanchard said: “People do not choose to be attracted to children or adults any more than they choose to be attracted to males or females. Not all pedophiles are child molesters (or vice versa). Child molesters are defined by their acts; pedophiles are defined by their desires. There are pedophiles and hebephiles who never act on their sexual attraction towards children. They cannot be blamed for what they feel, and they should be supported for the constant self-restraint they must exercise in order to behave ethically.”

A 2021 academic paper examines the VirPed forum as a means of “gaining insight in to how some adults with a sexual attraction to children remain non-offending can help to inform future treatment or support strategies.” For the publication Preventing Child Sexual Abuse: Understanding the Phenomenon of Adults who are Sexually Attracted to Children, Heather Horn conducted surveys with anonymous members of the pro-pedophile forum.

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Genevieve Gluck
Genevieve Gluck
Genevieve is the Co-Founder of Reduxx, and the outlet's Chief Investigative Journalist with a focused interest in pornography, sexual predators, and fetish subcultures. She is the creator of the podcast Women's Voices, which features news commentary and interviews regarding women's rights.
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