<p class="p1"><span class="s1">A group of Chicago residents is up in arms (like they should be) about a scheduled play titled, &#8220;A Virtuous Pedophile&rdquo; at the upcoming Chicago Fringe Festival.</span><span class="s1"> ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">This play is one of the 50 being put on at the festival that is running until September 10, but it&#8217;s arguably the most controversial. The play questions if pedophiles who don&rsquo;t act on their sick urges deserve sympathy.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The play&rsquo;s description is equally as contentious as the title. &#8220;Can liberals accept that pedophilia is a legitimate sexuality?&#8221; writes the description.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">20+ residents in the Northwest Chicago will be protesting the play this Sunday at 7:45 pm outside of the Gift Theater. The protest has been posted on the Facebook page &ldquo;Residents Against Upzoning at 5150 N. Northwest Highway&rdquo; with almost 1,000 followers.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">&#8220;Neighbors will be gathering outside of the theater to show support for victims of pedophilia and sexual abuse,&#8221; said Patrick Gamboney, Jefferson Park resident ;said in a statement. &#8220;The goal is voice our opposition to fest organizers and our elected leaders that this &#8216;art&#8217; ;is not welcome in Jefferson Park or anywhere in our community.&#8221; ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The festival is known for promoting outside-of-the-box plays which are selected through a lottery system.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The actor and playwright Sean Neely defends the play claiming that it doesn&rsquo;t advocate pedophilia or sexual abuse. The play focuses on an online community of pedophiles who choose to not act on their inappropriate feelings.</span><span class="s1"> ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The play is based on the real online community, &ldquo;VirPed.&rdquo; One of the &ldquo;non-offending pedophiles&rdquo; who is publicly part of the online group is Todd Nickerson.</span><span class="s1"> ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">&#8216;I am a pedophile. I&#8217;m not a monster. I have the attraction but I don&#8217;t act on it. I have never ever sexually abused a child and I never will. I do not look at child porn, I never will. I obey the laws, I respect the laws, I respect society&#8217;s position on this. I understand it and agree with it,&rdquo; said Nickerson to <em>Barcroft TV</em> late last year.</span><span class="s1"> ; ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">Yet, he is advocating tolerance.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The playwright Neely has said he isn&rsquo;t a pedophile and has a track record of putting on wildly proactive shows. He has portrayed both a white supremacist and a serial rapist in past shows.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">&#8220;The majority of these people are in no danger of offending, but they&#8217;re quietly suffering because there&#8217;s no open door to ask for help without being shunned,&#8221; said Neely, who is also a father of two. &#8220;So for me personally, I thought there&#8217;s no better forum than the theater to talk about this in a matter-of-fact way.&#8221;</span><span class="s1"> ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">He defends his work as &#8220;an effort to explore crimes from the perspective of the perpetrator, instead of the victim, which is what a lot of theater does. It&#8217;s an exercise in empathy and an experiment in belief.&#8221;</span><span class="s1"> ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">The Chicago Fringe Festival Director Anne Cauley also supports keeping the play in the festival.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">&#8220;We do not allow illegal activity in our festival, but that doesn&#8217;t mean illegal behavior can&#8217;t be represented in our shows,&#8221; said Cauley. &#8220;The arts for all time have been exploring uncomfortable situations. You don&#8217;t look at &#8216;Game of Thrones&#8217; ;and say &#8216;That must mean HBO condones rape.'&#8221;</span><span class="s1"> ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">However, the local protesters want the festival to remove the play and will be encouraging a boycott of the entire festival.</span></p>
<p class="p2"><span class="s1">&ldquo;We need the Chicago Fringe Festival and Ald. John Arena to ensure that survivors of sexual assault feel safe in our community,&#8221; said Gamboney. &#8220;We cannot condone or support pedophilia, this artist or the fest that is hosting him, in any way.&#8221; ;</span></p>
<p class="p2"><strong>Author&rsquo;s note:</strong> Pedophiles don&#8217;t deserve sympathy. This isn&#8217;t a sexual preference it&#8217;s a psychological condition and a crime. This play is attempting to &#8220;normalize&#8221; pedophilia and the residents in Chicago have a right to be upset. We are now more concerned for the children in Chicago.</p>
<p class="p2"><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:</strong> This is certainly disgusting. Where&#8217;s the outcry in the mainstream media? Remember pedophilia is <strong>ALWAYS RAPE</strong> and always a crime. A child can never give consent for sex.</p>
<p class="p2">These people are preaching tolerance for pedophiles. Sometimes you have to be intolerant, especially when the lives and well-being of children are at stake.</p>