This is horrifying, sickening, and dangerous. Think it could never happen? Think of what you would have said if, fifty years ago, someone had told you that gay marriage would be legalized.

After nearly three decades of failed relationships and emotional discontent, Lindsay Ashford has finally found himself.

Since he was a child, Ashford has always had a deep attraction to young girls but never acted on his urges or knew they had a name.

It wasn't until five years ago, at the age of 30, that Ashford realized why his brief marriage and his countless flings across the United States and Europe always ended the same.

Ashford is a pedophile.

For most of his life, he has buried his emotions and masked his long-secreted attraction. It wasn't until recently that Ashford decided to throw off the shackles of pedophilia and shed light on what he says is a misunderstood "sexual orientation." Last year, he became perhaps one of the first pedophiles in the world to put his name and face on a Web site to publicly profess his love for children.

"I am tired of being forced into the shadows by society," Ashford said recently in an e-mail interview. "I have committed no crime, therefore there is no good reason that I should have to hide myself. As long as pedophiles continue to hide, there is no chance of them ever being accepted."

People like this, in my humble opinion, ought to be burned at the stake.