What exactly is a "headless monster?"
Peter LaBarbera shows us the way

I had no intention of posting today but I saw something that must be brought to everyone's attention.

Peter LaBarbera considers himself a "pro family" activist but it would seem that he is consumed with talking about what he feels is the worst in the gay community. Apparently he feels that negative images in the gay community are indicative of the entire community at large. This is much like how a member of the Ku Klux Klan would feel that any African-American who is a criminal is indicative of the Black community at large.

In Peter's zeal, he has created a site entitled "Americans for Truth." The name of the site is pretty ironic because truth is not what Peter is after.

A good friend of mine, Joe Brummer (his site is linked below) has demonstrated Peter's desire to stigmatize the gay community with propaganda.

On the site Americans for Truth, Peter features a piece written by Family Research Council member Timothy Dailey entitled Homosexuality and Child Abuse. This piece pushes the theory that gays molest children at a higher level because:

a. a majority of pedophiles are male

b. a majority of child molestation victims are male

Therefore, gay men are molesting children at a higher rate.

WRONG!

Now Joe deconstructs Dailey's lies perfectly with credible information but I want to get a little taste of this argument because of several facts that I want to make people aware of regarding Dailey's study.

In the first place, Dailey got into trouble for his study. Apparently, he distorted a legitimate study to come to his conclusion. You see, Dailey's theory has an unsavory beginning.

His theory that gay men molest children at high rate is not original. It was first thought of by a man by the name of Paul Cameron.

Many of us know about Cameron and his lies. He has been censored numerous times by medical organizations for misusing his colleagues' work.

One person whose work he misused was Dr. A. Nicholas Groth.

Groth, director of the Sex Offender Program at the Connecticut Department of Corrections, complained to the Nebraska Board of Examiners of Psychologists about Cameron’s usage of his work. Groth said:

“(Cameron) misrepresents my findings and distorts them to advance his homophobic views. I make a very clear distinction in my writing between pedophilia and homosexuality, noting that adult males who sexually victimize young boys are either pedophilic or heterosexual, and that in my research I have not found homosexual men turning away from adult partners to children. . . I consider this totally unprofessional behavior on the part of Dr. Cameron and I want to bring this to your attention. He disgraces his profession." - http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,010.htm

In 1978, Groth had interviewed 175 men who had been convicted of child molestation in Massachusetts. He found that none of them had an exclusively homosexual relationship. They were either exclusively heterosexual, a bisexual with a predominantly heterosexual orientation, or a fixated pedophile with no sexual interest in adults

Furthermore, Groth had said that homosexuality and pedophilia are not related:

"...(I)t is a faulty assumption that if an adult male selects a young boy as his victim, his sexual orientation is homosexual. We found that some (73, or 49%) offenders responded exclusively to children---boys, girls, or both---and showed no interest in adults or age-mates for sexual gratification. These men were pedophile in the true sense of the word.”

Now here is the connection between Dailey and Cameron's studies:

In 2002, Groth complained about Dailey's study for the same reason he complained about Cameron's work:

June 10, 2002
Timothy J. Dailey, Ph.D.
FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL
801 G Street N.W.
Washington, DC 2001
Dear Dr. Dailey:
On the web site www.frc.org you reference my work in your article on "Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse". I am writing you to object to my name and research being associated in any way, shape, or form to lend legitimacy to the views proposed in your paper.
If you are, in fact, familiar with my research, you must realize that my studies have indicated that homosexual males pose less risk of sexual harm to children (both male and female)--from both an absolute and a percentage incidence rate--than heterosexual males. Your statement that "the evidence indicates that disproportionate numbers of gay men seek adolescent males or boys as sexual partners" appears to come from the assumption that if an adult male is attracted to a male child, this adult male's sexual orientation is ipso facto homosexual.
Since your report, in my view, misrepresents the facts of what we know about this matter from scientific investigation, and does not indicate that my studies on this topic reach conclusions diametrically opposed to yours, I would appreciate your removing any reference to my work in your paper lest it appear to the reader that my research supports your views.
Yours truly,
A. Nicholas Groth, Ph.D.

http://www.hrc.org/Content/ContentGroups/News_Releases/20021/Researcher_Cited_in_Anti-Gay_Report_Criticizes_the_Study_as_Biased_and_Misleading.htm


What Peter LaBarbera did by repeating Dailey's study is repeat a "headless monster." A "headless monster" is a story or urban legend that, despite being constantly refuted, continues to be repeated as truth due to the prejudices of the person repeating it and the person or group he is repeating it to.

For shame Peter!

"Americans for Truth" my pinkie toe!