Pedophilia Officially Classified as Sexual Orientation

You can't make a person's thoughts/personal fantasies illegal. Some people are attracted to children, and no amount of therapy or counseling is going to change that. With that said, I'm 100% positive that it will always be illegal to have sex with children in the U.S.

Agreed, that is why there is an Age of Consent.

I don't believe any state allows those under the age of 12 (kids) to have sex with those 16 and older, at least not lawfully.

And pedophiles are 16 or older.

@capaho: That wouldn't prove that pedophilia is illegal though.

You're forgetting that one doesn't have to actually commit any crime to fit the definition of "pedophile" they simply have to fit 2 criteria.
1.) Is over the age of 16.
2.) Is attracted to prepubescent children.

If someone were over 16, and attracted to children, they would be a pedophile, regardless of if they've committed a crime or not.

This confusion of your probably is why you could not understand my previous statement.

The APA issued a statement to the press on Thursday, saying it had acted in "error," and clarifying that the only difference in how pedophilia is referred to from the last DSM is that "the disorder name was changed from 'pedophilia' to 'pedophilic disorder'" in order to "maintain consistency with the chapter’s other disorder listings."

and thus "Pedophilic disorder", is what you're saying is horrible and illegal (and we're agreeing with).

However Pedophilia includes those who do not practice.

I believe it's a behavioral disorder in need of treatment and jails are ineffective in that regard. It's far better for pedophiles to receive professional counseling so they can at least have a better chance at controlling their behavior rather than languishing in jail, which usually just makes any problem worse. The penal system in the US has done an extremely poor job of rehabilitating people. I would prefer to see someone go to jail only if they represented an immediate threat to the well-being of children. In general, jail should be the last place that anyone has to go if their chances of recovery are better elsewhere, unless they represent such a threat to others that jail is necessary to prevent them from causing more harm.

@Nibroc420: I agree that pedophilia as a state of being is not illegal, but I don't see the distinction between pedophilia and pedophilic disorder as the active phase of pedophilia as being of particular relevance to anyone other than clinicians. I also haven't seen any actual documentation to the effect that pedophilia has been removed as a disorder by the APA because the term is still used in the statements that I read and I don't see how pedophilia, even as merely a state of being, could be anything other than dysfunctional as children are not appropriate sex objects for adults. It seems to me that pedophilia is not a particularly desirable state to be in for an adult, thus seeking counseling would seem to be an appropriate course of action, and that would preclude pedophilia from being exempted from having any diagnostic significance.

@thegerg: I said that pedophilia as a state of being is not illegal, I did not agree that pedophilia is not illegal because the APA's refined definition is a distinction that I don't make. I don't know where the line is between pedophilia and pedophilic disorder in relation to when a pedophile might cross it, so it's an irrelevant distinction in practical terms. Its significance is entirely clinical. My concern in this discussion is that some of you are trying to justify it, and that is simply not a notion that I can accept. Why are you so personally invested in presenting pedophilia as something that is not illegal? You seem to be advocating for it.