The average person doesn't consider pedophilia to be a sexual orientation. If pedophilia is included as a sexual orientation it can cause backlash to laws intended to end discrimination based on sexual orientation. The gay community, which Cantor is a part of, is especially threatened by this. So it's understandable why Cantor framed his statement that way. The salient point is that Cantor stated it is a sexual orientation unequivocally when he is a renowned expert on the issue. I'm not a huge fan of Cantor's end game so to speak, but the fact remains that his end game is better than what we have now. So Cantor is still useful to us for the time being. Better to have him as an ally then to just run off all of our would be supporters because they don't tell us everything we want to hear right off the bat.