Milo Yiannopoulos, homosexuality and pedophilia

The career of fringe-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos imploded last weekend.

The former Brietbart News editor was scheduled to speak at an annual gathering of the American conservative grassroots, called CPAC. But then, another conservative group shared some of Yiannopoulos's old comments which appeared to endorse pedophilia, and his invitation to speak was rescinded.

Book publisher Simon and Schuster subsequently cancelled their book deal with Yiannopoulos, and he resigned from his position as an editor of Brietbart News.

Yiannopoulos was an unlikely hero in far-right conservative circles, being British and openly gay. However, he loudly criticized muslims, the media, liberals, and feminists.

To German Lopez, a staff writer at Vox, the fall of Milo has a downside: it may resurrect an old myth that homosexuality is related to pedophilia.

"This myth, which Milo kind of brought up by making these pro-pedophilia comments as a gay man, this myth goes back decades. You can look at old American public service announcements that promote it, telling kids to stay out of bathrooms or not linger in bathrooms too long because gay men might try to do horrible things to you. So it goes back decades and decades, and it was used to demonize gay men as sexual predators."

Lopez cites research by UC Davis social psychologist Gregory Herek who, based on his research into the myth,  concludes it is false.

The empirical research does not show that gay or bisexual men are any more likely than heterosexual men to molest children. This is not to argue that homosexual and bisexual men never molest children. But there is no scientific basis for asserting that they are more likely than heterosexual men to do so. And, as explained above, many child molesters cannot be characterized as having an adult sexual orientation at all; they are fixated on children.- Gregory Herek, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Psychology, UC Davis

To Lopez, as American attitudes toward homosexuality changed, that myth was nearly extinguished. However, because of Yiannopoulos's profile, he worries it will now return. 

"Personally, as someone who is a gay journalist, this myth - I know firsthand - it has been really harmful to gay people. When I talk to LGBTQ activists and just LGBTQ people, it's something they still bring up. In fact, it's something we see now with transgender people here in the States... at least for gay people, we thought it had gone away, this idea that gay men are sexual predators and pedophiles, we really thought it was going away, but this might bring it back and I've certainly seem some chatter in far right conservative circles that does show that it's still around."

After resigning from Breitbart News following criticism, Yiannopoulos released the following statement: