Friday, June 22, 2007

A Paul Cameron supporter emails me

I wasn't going to post today but something happened that I just couldn't pass up commenting on.

A person who is obviously a supporter of discredited researcher Paul Cameron contacted me today. He sent me two emails. The most interesting of the two is the second:

Ha, 'lies of paul cameron'. Another response to your comment on Box Turtle Bulliten, maybe you should actually read the study, instead of believing (or making up) unfounded and brief statements by 'gay' controlled organizations.

I don't know who this person is (I have my guesses) but I do want to address his or her claim.

Apparently according to him, Paul Cameron's research has been discredited due to "unfounded" statments by "gay controlled organizations."

Oh really?

Let's take a look at these "gay controlled organizations:"

“(Cameron) misrepresents my fi ndings 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.” - A. Nicholas Groth, 1984



“Given what I now know, I believe there are fl aws with Paul Cameron’s study. One cannot extrapolate from his methodology and say that the average male homosexual life span is 43 years.”— former Secretary of Education and author of The Book of Virtues William Bennett, the New Republic, February 23, 1998

On December 2, 1983, the American Psychological Association sent Paul Cameron a letter informing him that he had been dropped from membership. Early in 1984, all members of the American Psychological Association received official written notice that “Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists” by the APA Board of Directors.In 1985, the American Sociological Association (ASA) adopted a resolution which asserted that “Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism” and noted that “Dr. Paul Cameron has repeatedly campaigned for the abrogation of the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, substantiating his call on the basis of his distorted interpretation of this research.”

The American Sociological Association officially and publicly states that Paul Cameron is not a sociologist, and condemns his consistent misrepresentation of sociological research. Information on this action and a copy of the report by the Committee on the Status of Homosexuals in Sociology, “The Paul Cameron Case,” is to be published in Footnotes, and be sent to the officers of all regional and state sociological associations and to the Canadian Sociological Association with a request that they alert their members to Cameron’s frequent lecture and media appearances.

In 2005, the Boston Globe spotlighted Cameron in an article entitled Beliefs Drive Research Agenda of New Think Tanks. According to the article, when the Traditional Values Coalition was asked about Cameron, the organization responded by allegedly removing all references to Cameron from its web page. A spokesperson for the organization, Daniella Lopez, said the research had been placed on the web page by mistake.

Cameron and Cameron’s report on “life expectancy” in homosexuals vs heterosexuals is severely methodologically flawed. . . The authors should know, and as PhD’s they presumably do, that this report has little to do with science. It is hard to escape the idea that non-scientific motifs have driven the authors to make this report public. The methodological flaws are of such a grave nature that no decent peer-reviewed scientific journal should let it pass for publication. - Morten Frisch, Danish epidemiologist, April 2007

"We do not support the work of Paul Cameron nor desire to use flawed research"- Alan Chambers, Exodus International, April 26, 2007

I linked only the Alan Chambers comment but if anyone wants the links to other ones, email me.

My point is this: different people from different ideologies and backgrounds have all condemned Paul Cameron's "research."

The only conspiracy that exists is solely in the mind of Mr. Cameron and those guillible enough to support his lies.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been left comments on my blog as well on my entry about the Family Research Institute. This just started the other day. I think it is one of the Camerons. This person usually sends messages under 'anonymous' and claims to live in New England. However, all of a sudden someone named 'subue' started leaving messages. A quick Google search of that name came up with one big clue--'subue' is the name for someone at Typekey whose name is Cam. Short for Cameron? Who knows, but it is highly suspicious. This person claims he is not related to the FRI.

After I asked them who they were, the messages started back as 'anonymous.' This person also referred me to Stephen Bennett Ministries. Ugh.

BlackTsunami said...

Hey Kevin,

I saw your post about the messages on your site and wanted to comment but couldnt since im not a member of live space.

It's really weird. Box Turtle Bulletin has been getting them to.

I think it could be one of the Camerons also. It's interesting how he chooses to respond. The person referred me to Cameron's pages.

Anonymous said...

Hey!
I think it is pretty easy to join live space to leave comments (although some comments are anonymous, so maybe Microsoft has changed the rules?). I've had to join numerous blog programs to leave comments!
Anyway, I think it is one of the Camerons as well. Like you, I heard someone was leaving comments at ExGayWatch and BTB. Maybe the Camerons are running out of research material (since they have been kicking that dead horse of a study from 20 years ago around ever since!). Which just made me think--I wonder if we are some kind of a study that they are doing? It seems strange that all of a sudden a number of us are getting messages! :)

Anonymous said...

McEwen,

I was talking about the NHSDA study, so technically it's not Cameron's study, though since the CDC/NHSDA has refused to this day to publish the sexuality finding of their survey, Cameron and Co. went ahead and published their analysis in '05.

I recomend the following document by Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. detailing how mental health associations misrepresent science, as well as his "Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth" to fully understand the nature of these organizations...

http://www.narth.com/docs/TheTrojanCouchSatinover.pdf

I need not rebut for the umpteenth time the APA's alleged "expulsion" of Cameron, however in concern to his recent study, for something to be "severely methodologically flawed", it would have to be, um, severely methodologically flawed. While since social science is messy almost any criticism would be valid, the empiricist principal is more important that perfection of research (as, I'm sure you would admit, is the case with almost any study) - it's called admitting variables, didn't you ever do that in your Earth Science class papers? Unless, of course, it's "severely methodologically flawed", which, um, it's not.

Though I must admit, the foreign ad hominem by Frish was beautiful...

BlackTsunami said...

I made it clear on another web page and in my upcoming book that Cameron used the NSHDA study to reach a conclusion about the gay community that was not valid. I know this because the CDC went on record saying so.

I won't even talk about the NARTH paper because I made my point about NARTH in an earlier post.

I also notice that you honed in on the APA controversy but did not address the other rebukes and censures that Cameron received.

More groups and people besides the APA consider Cameron to be a bad researcher. Care to address them?

Anonymous said...

Mhm. Why was it "not valid"?

BlackTsunami said...

"Karen Hunter, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the government agency has ''never conducted a study of criminal activity among homosexuals versus heterosexuals. If we have never done a study, we would not be able to suppress it." - Beliefs Drive Research Agenda of New Think Tanks
Michael Kranish, Boston Globe, July 31, 2005

Now it seems that Cameron is trying to use the same study to claim that gays have a short life span. This is also not valid.