Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Right-wing group: 'nasty, diseased' gays will ruin the military

Regarding the possible appeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, nothing puts the argument of this issue into a better perspective than the two following videos.

One is from a right-wing group called America's Survival. America's Survival is led by Cliff Kincaid, head of the right-wing group Accuracy In Media. Kincaid and AIM has a long history of smearing the gay community.

Earlier this year, AIM was forced to retract a story on its web page which inaccurately accused Obama appointee Kevin Jennings of being a pedophile.

And Kincaid is probably one of the only few people in this country who openly defends Uganda's anti-gay bill including the part about the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality."



Now listen to the testimony of Staff Sgt. Eric Alva, who was the first American to be wounded in war in Iraq. On March 21, 2003 Alva stepped on a landmine, sustaining heavy injuries to his leg:



In regards to the DADT repeal, whose corner should we be in? People like Alva, an openly gay man who sacrificed his body for this country . . . or people like Kincaid who has no problem stooping to the lowest common denominator, i.e. lies and fear stories?

The answer should be clear, but it never ceases to amaze me as to how so many folks tend to complicate a simple issue.

Related posts:

Family Research Council pushes bogus report supporting DADT


Cliff Kincaid's International Gay-Bashing

Cliff Kincaid: Outcry against Ugandan bill a conspiracy to save Kevin Jennings



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Minnesota Republicans allied with 'kill the gays' ministry? and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Minnesota Republicans In Bed With Punk-Rock ‘Kill The Gays’ Ministry - The personification of a HOT MESS!

FRC's senior fellow called for gays' exportation/criminalization. Yet *we're* the "radical' ones!?! -And the Family Research Council is caught in another distortion.

McCain laments effort to 'jam' through repeal of 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy - You ever notice the constant sexual images and semantics members of the right uses when opposing pro-lgbt legislation and the like?

African Newspaper Roundup: Homosexuality Not A Western Import, and Other “Horrors and Revulsions” - Let's not forget the struggles of our brothers and sisters in Africa . . . even if the American black community has.

Virginia Supreme Court to Gays: You Have No Employment Protections - This is why we need ENDA.





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Researchers and Physicians: The Religious Right Distorts Our LGBT Research!

In a recent issue of the Minneapolis City Pages, University of Minnesota professor Greg Remafedi has gone on record complaining that the American College of Pediatricians, a sham group camouflaging religious right distortions as legitimate research, distorted his work. The article reads:

When the University of Minnesota Medical School professor followed the links he was being sent, he was dismayed. A group called the American College of Pediatricians had sent a letter to more than 14,000 superintendents across the country, claiming that the best thing schools can do for students who come out of the closet is nothing at all: no support, no affirmation, no gay-straight alliance clubs on campus.

The letter, and the Facts About Youth website it pointed school officials to, was dense with footnotes citing scientific studies. Remafedi's research was at the top of the list.

The ACP argues that schools shouldn't support gay teens because they're probably just confused. "Most adolescents who experience same-sex attraction ... no longer experience such attractions at age 25," the letter says, citing a 1992 study by Remafedi.

Except that's not what Remafedi's research suggested at all. His work showed that kids who are confused about their sexuality eventually sort it out -- meaning many of them accept being gay.

The article also says that Remafedi wrote a letter to the ACPED's president, Dr. Tom Benton, requesting that his research be removed.

Benton refused to do so.

While Remafedi has voiced disenchantment over this new development, he should take solace in the fact that he is not the only physician or researcher who has had his or her work distorted by religious right groups and affiliates.

The organization Truth Wins Out has complied a listing of researchers, professors, and physicians who have complained about the distortion of their work pertaining to the LGBT community by the religious right.

They include:

University of Utah professor Lisa Diamond, who complained that NARTH (the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality), a group that also shares board members with the ACPED, distorted her research on sexual orientation.

Dr. Carol Gilligan, Professor of Education and Law at New York University, who complained that former Focus on the Family head James Dobson misrepresented her research to attack LGBT families.

Dr. Kyle Pruett, Ph.D., a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, who has also complained that Focus on the Family distorted his work.

Dr. Robert Spitzer, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, who has consistently complained that religious right groups distorted his study to claim that the LGBT orientation is easily changeable.

 Judith Stacey, Professor of Sociology at New York University, who has had to, on more than one occasion, cry foul over how religious right groups distorted her work on LGBT families.


There are still other examples, including:
  • National Institute of Health director Francis Collins, who rebuked the American College of Pediatricians for falsely claiming that he stated sexual orientation is not hardwired by DNA.

  • Six researchers of a 1997 Canadian study (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. Shaughnessy, Julio Montaner, and Martin T. Schehter), who complained in 2001 that religious right groups were distorting their work to claim that gay men have a short life span.

  • The authors of the book Unequal Opportunity: Health Disparities Affecting Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States (Professors Richard J. Wolitski, Ron Stall, and Ronald O. Valdiserri), who complained that their work was being distorted by Focus on the Family.

  • University College London professor Michael King, who complained that the American Family Association was distorting his work on depression and suicide in LGBT individuals.
Also, it is worth noting that just like in the case of Remafedi, many of these distortions have not been corrected. In fact, the distortion of Stacey's work, as well as that of the 1997 Canadian study, can still be found unchanged on several religious right web sites. One has to wonder how many other examples are out there. However, one thing is clear: as long as this issue falls under the radar, there will be many more cases of religious right groups distorting legitimate studies and thumbing their noses at calls to correct these distortions.  

Related posts:

Phony Medical Group Receives Numerous Rebukes for Inaccurate Anti-Gay Web Site


The American College of Pediatricians and the Laundering of Junk Science

The Christian Medical & Dental Associations - another group, another batch of lies

Religious right tries to smear the American Psychological Association

JONAH - Another ex-gay group pushing bad science

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