Six in six months

A few days ago Lailani Muniz became at least the sixth man who has been celebrated by institutions as inspirational because he pretends to be a woman, to be arrested for child sexual abuse offences in less than six months.

Here is a rundown of those men. There’s only three criteria to be an entrant on this list. You have to:

1. Be a man who pretends to be a woman

2. Have received significant praise and / or publicity for doing this. Typically this has involved profiles in the media, invitations to speak at universities, receiving awards from politicians and / or being showcased at LGBT events. Most have then used that fame to promote their careers, which typically involved working with children.

3. Been arrested for sex offences involving young people between May 1, 2022 and October 31, 2022.

1. Lailani Muniz

Muniz has received significant attention simply for saying he is transgender and for being HIV positive.

He has appeared in a VICE documentary, and was profiled by EDGE Network, an online gay news outlet. Earlier this year, he was honoured by Bronx Borough president Vanessa Gibson at an LGBT pride flag raising ceremony at the Bronx County Courthouse. Gibson presented Muniz with a certificate of merit.

With such public support behind him, he became the chief operations officer for the New York Transgender Bodybuilding Federation and worked for at least three centres where he 'aided people in gender affirming surgeries.' He has also been a spokesperson for health insurance organisation Amida Care.

Last month Muniz thought he was texting a 14 year old boy about sex, and sent him a picture of himself with what appeared to be an erection.

He then arranged to meet the boy, telling him to bring a condom, only to be arrested as he'd been caught in a paedophile sting operation.

2. Diana Elizabeth Guevara

In 2017, Guevara, a former police officer, was featured in both print news and television reports that promoted the benefits of ‘gender affirming’ medical interventions via the LGBTQ Clinic at the University of Miami. In one article in the Miami Herald, Guevara said his breast augmentation was a 'life-changing' experience.

Following a tip-off, this summer he was arrested after it had emerged that he'd sent multiple explicit photos and videos on social media to children between the ages of 12 and 17, and had had sexual relations with at least three children.

One child had been sent a video by Guevara of himself stripping, a second victim reported that he was sexually abused after he visited Guevara’s home to play video games, a third boy, who was 14 at the time, told investigators that Guevara had sexual contact with him on four occasions in 2021.

3. Celeste Rivasplata

In 2019, Rivasplata was featured on multiple Peruvian television programs, promoting self ID, and he has won Miss Transgender Peru twice, as well as Miss International Peru in 2021.

This summer he was arrested after reportedly trafficking people into the sex trade, making some of them veritable slaves in red light districts. The identities of the victims have not been revealed but press reports said they were ‘young’.

4. Carlos Arturo Aparicio Hernandez

Hernandez's story of gender identity ‘discrimination’ was featured in The New York Times in 2018, and he served on the board of directors of the Asociacion Aspidh Acoiris Trans, an activist organisation in El Salvador, which saw him attend events such as the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica, where he lobbied for self ID.

He also gave a speech at the Council for Global Equality and another at the University of Southern California.

This May, he was charged with 16 felony charges related to the sexual abuse and extortion of a 15-year-old boy, including six counts of forcible sodomy, after he'd befriended him on Facebook, pretending to be a teenage girl.

5. Andrew Duncan / Rachel Rear

Duncan was showcased at Newcastle Pride in 2016 and Drag World London in 2019, as ‘Miss Rachel Rear,’ and was awarded ‘Best in Show’ at Newcastle Drag Idol in 2017.

In October he appeared in court facing multiple counts related to 17 pieces of child sexual abuse materials he was found with.

6. Brice Patric Ryschon Williams

Williams, another drag queen, performed at the Pride Festival of Central Pennsylvania and seemed to work in collaboration with the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center. He was also a featured speaker at GLO Harrisburg, which bills itself as a 'safe space' for LGBTQ youth.

Williams was this summer charged with 25 counts of child sexual abuse.

In addition to these stories, it emerged this summer that Raequan ‘Rae’ Rollins, who has been featured by CNN, Pink News and The New York Times, and was jailed for a violent robbery, had been abusing inmates and staff in a women’s jail, Patricia Elaine Trimble, a convicted child rapist, has been profiled in Vice and has been offering his ‘expertise’ to policymakers on the issue of transgender inmate rights and Eric Rohman, who found some fame as a trans activist because he spoke at school board meetings calling for more gender ideology in the classroom, has been arrested for child sex offences. Plus, earlier this year a man who raped a three-year-old girl, and is not allowed within 1,000 feet of a school in New York, was presented with a ‘community hero award’ because he now says he identifies as a woman, and Rachel Queen Burton, a man who has generated a large social media following because he pretends to be a women, was also arrested for child sex offences.

Most people instinctively know that where there is one paraphilia, such as cross-dressing, there are likely to be others, like paedophilia. We must never forget to trust our instincts. Neither should we forget the role some academic institutions and parts of the media have played in persuading us to ignore them.