Did the World Economic Forum declare that "pedophilia 'sexual orientation' must be added to LGBTQ+," as an article published by The People's Voice reported? No, that's not true: A representative of the international non-governmental organization told Lead Stories that "such claims are completely unfounded and do not reflect the values, goals, or activities of the World Economic Forum." A spokesperson for the nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD told Lead Stories that its representatives attended the most recent annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in January 2024 and confirmed that "no proclamation of this nature was made."
The claim originated in an article published by The People's Voice on March 31, 2024, titled, "WEF Declares Pedophilia 'Sexual Orientation' Must Be Added To LGBTQ+" (archived here). An introduction to the article read:
The LGBTQ+ rainbow community must add a P according to the World Economic Forum in Davos which has declared that pedophilia is an acceptable sexual orientation that deserves respect.
This is how the post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: The People's Voice screenshot captured Mon April 1 11:26:00 UTC 2024)
LGBTQ+ is an acronym that stands for "'lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer' with a '+' sign to recognize the limitless sexual orientations and gender identities used by members of our community," according to the Human Rights Campaign organization (archived here).
Yann Zopf (archived here), a spokesperson for the World Economic Forum (WEF), confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim is false. In an email to Lead Stories received on April 11, 2024, Zopf wrote:
... we can categorically state that the WEF has not made any proposals or statements to classify pedophilia as a 'sexual orientation' or to suggest the addition of a 'P' to the LGBTQ+ acronym. Such claims are completely unfounded and do not reflect the values, goals, or activities of the World Economic Forum.
The WEF's agenda and discussions are public and documented through official communications, publications and event proceedings. Lead Stories searched through all available press releases (archived here) and event proceedings (archived here) available through April 11, 2024. We found no evidence to support The People's Voice's claim that the letter "P" will be added to the acronym LGBTQ+.
A spokesperson for GLAAD (archived here), a nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy organization, told Lead Stories in an email received on April 11, 2024, that its representatives attended the most recent WEF annual meeting in Davos held January 15-19, 2024 (archived here), and participated in all LGBTQ programming.
"We can confirm no proclamation of this nature was made in Davos," wrote the spokesperson, adding that:
No LGBTQ organization has condoned pedophilia or advocated for a 'P' to be added to the acronym in support of pedophiles. There is a long-standing, homophobic and transphobic tactic of inaccurately comparing LGBTQ people to pedophiles and comparing being LGBTQ to pedophilia ...
The LGBTQ community does not embrace pedophilia, and 'LGBTP' is not an acronym used or supported by the LGBTQ community.
The People's Voice article also included a screenshot that appeared to show a post on X, formerly Twitter, made by WEF that read:
Hatred towards pedophiles is immoral and dangerous.
However, an advanced search (archived here) on X using the above keywords did not return any such post. The screenshot included in The People's Voice appears to be fake.
Furthermore, a search of the Google News index of thousands of reliable information sources using the keywords "WEF World Economic Forum P Pedophile LGBTQ+" (archived here) yielded no results to corroborate The People's Voice claim.
The People's Voice
The People's Voice has a lengthy record of publishing false stories in the past. It describes (archived here) itself as a resource "comprised of various web pages operated by Fact Checked Limited," but it has nothing to do with fact-checking.
As of this writing, its website contains a liability disclaimer (archived here), saying:
FACT CHECKED LIMITED AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE. TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, ALL SUCH INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS ARE PROVIDED 'AS IS' WITHOUT WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF ANY KIND.
Other Lead Stories articles debunking The People's Voice claims can be found here.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about the WEF can be read here.
When this was written, TECHARP (archived here) had reviewed the same claim.
