B4U-ACT
B4U-ACT is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Baltimore that works to prevent child sexual abuse by providing resources and treatment for pedophiles.
Background
B4U-ACT was founded in 2003 by Russell Dick and Michael Melsheimer. Melsheimer was a former YMCA director that served four years in a federal prison for aggravated sexual assault involving children and Dick a former director of social work of the Springfield Hospital Center.B4U-ACT claims their aim is to provide mental health resources and conduct research. Since 2021, the organization has published a quarterly journal collecting reviews of their current research.
As of 2008, the organization had approximately 25 members.
In 2009, the now-inactive blog Absolute Zero United, which opposed pedophilia, reported that Michael Melsheimer was active on the forum BoyChat after founding B4U-Act. According to the blog, he dismissed concerns raised by other participants about the organization’s mission statement and argued that the National Association of Man-Boy Love had failed to achieve broader acceptance. He suggested that presenting B4U-Act as oriented toward “prevention” could attract greater public sympathy.
Screenshots published by Absolute Zero United show Melsheimer stating that B4U-Act had received approval from NAMBLA’s founders. In one exchange, a user challenged him about B4U-Act’s stated goal of “eliminating offending,” asking, “How much offending do you think you eliminated ?”. Melsheimer replied: “The term child molester is not in the B4U-Act lexicon. We do have in our lexicon the term minor attracted person. B4U-Act wants to work with any minor attracted person that seeks us out.”. When pressed further about a 2007 report describing prevention as part of the group’s purpose, he responded that the statement was “part of our history” but “no longer relevant,” adding that the site had changed in December 2008 to remove references to prevention.
During the development of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, B4U-ACT criticized the proposal of the American Psychiatric Association's Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders Work Group regarding the inclusion of hebephilia as a subtype of pedophilia in the DSM-5.
In October 2022, Jacob Breslow, a member of the transgender charity group Mermaids resigned from office after it was reported that he had spoken at a 2011 event organized by B4U-ACT.