Did I molest someone? Pure-O

When I was younger, around 14 I think, I was sharing a bed with my nephew who is 6 years younger and I touched his penis and put his hand on my penis. As far as I remember it was a one time thing with no pre meditation or malicious or sexual intent. I didn't think much of it till I got older and started comparing myself to people like Josh duggar or Lena Dunham (who molested siblings when they were younger). I'm terrified I committed molestation and I'm terrified I'm a bad person because of it. Today my therapist assured me yet again that I didn't commit any crimes that it was curiosity and she also confirmed that I suffer from OCD since childhood and now have Pure-O. I'm still afraid I did a terrible thing though

What you did was wrong, but you were still a kid yourself. I don't think it is so useful to start making comparisons. Every person and every action is individual.

If anything ever comes up from this, I think you need to be ready to be accountable and face the consequences. But, I think more likely is that you will be the only one to remember what you did. Learning to life with what you did is hard, but it is possible. You can definitely have some compassion for your 14-year-old self who was ignorant and did something stupid and regrettable, though not out of maliciousness.

With Josh Duggar, his behaviour was part of a pattern of abuse that lasted until he was 18. Generally the law (and society) are going to come down harder on an 18-year-old (or even 16 or 17-year-old) than they are children who are younger than that. Honestly, I think a lot of the outrage and disgust over the Duggar case was that he had positioned himself as an emblem of family values and had grotesquely and unfairly accused homosexuals and trans* individuals of exactly the behaviour he himself can committed.

Personally, I think the Lena Dunham case is more complex in that it is hard to be sure from her autobiography whether she was still bribing her sister for kisses etc. into her teenage years. I think she made what she did seem even worse by the cavalier, almost jokey way she described it. Again, she often positions herself as an advocate for victims, so I think the hypocrisy was what a lot of people were responding to.

You are not being hypocritical, you are trying to be honest and accountable. Also what you did was not part of a greater pattern of behaviour as with Dunham or Duggar. You are not the same.