Hi,

just from the language roots I think both "pedophile" and "boy lover" are similar. It is the society that made the (bad) connotations especially for "pedos".

A pedo-phile from the Greek origin is one that has affection (phileo = to love, have affection) towards boys (pais = boy, lad). Later, "pais" was extended for all children, as revealed in words like pedagogic, pediatrician, etc. But originally it was related to boys.

So, boy love is just a modern expression for pedo-phile - and thus there is no difference in their meaning for myself. But the thing is, the society always equals pedophile with child raper, whereas most of them do not know the term boy lover. That is why we practically may use the latter more often.

Actually everyone should be a pedophile in the true sense of the word - having a (non-sexual) affection for children (including boys :-) One said, every teacher should be a government-examined pedo-phile, while he must not be pedo-sexual. That's the difference - welcome pedophiles, we won't rape any boy... (the ones who rape boys have no real love for them, they are child abusers but not pedo"philes"...)

So keep on loving,
~ Little Tree ~