Another naive so-called "pro family" activist needing to be exposed

This Monday, a conservative webpage published a perfect example of what the gay community needs to be fighting.

A freelance columnist, Marsha West, wrote what she probably felt to be a declaration of war against the forces of evil (Parents, Listen Up! - http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=17975)

Naturally we gays and lesbians were first on her list. Check out her first sentence:

"This is no longer a nation where kids can be kids anymore. The secular humanists have seen to that."

In a nutshell, it is the usual tripe about America being no longer a "moral nation, blah blah blah." But what is interesting is that she repeats a few pieces of anti-gay distortions that have made James Dobson and his ilk so powerful in the Republican Party.

Check out this tidbit:

Here’s a sobering statistic: The average life span for a “gay” man is in the mid 40s if AIDS fails to intervene, the late 30s-to-early-40s if it does. Does that sound like a healthy lifestyle? It boggles the mind to think that the high death rate among “gays” is being hidden from America’s kids on purpose. Children deserve to know the truth!

To paraphrase the late Ronald Reagan, there they go again.

Whenever members of the anti-gay industry and their supporters want to scare people of faith, they claim that gay men have short life spans.

That my friends, is a lie.

As a matter of fact, it will be my pleasure to make it the first lie of the anti-gay industry that I talk about in this blog.

In the first place, gay men do not have short life spans. When members of the anti-gay industry and their supporters make this claim, they generally point to one of two studies:

One study is by discredited "researcher" Paul Cameron. Cameron has no credibility amongst his colleagues because he has been censured on many occasions as well as dismissed from the APA in 1984 for distortion of his colleagues' work. - http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron_sheet.html

The second study is an Oxford/Canadian study that spoke purely on hypothetical terms. In 2001, the six original researchers went on record complaining that their work was being distorted by so-called "pro family" groups in order to demonize the gay community. - Gay Life Expectancy Revisited, International Journal of Epidemiology, http://ije.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/30/6/1499

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control have gone on record saying that they do not collect life span information on gay men. - www.washblade.com/print.cfm?content_id=5865

As it turns out, Ms. West's cite of the gay life span reeks of Cameron.

But this only scratches the surface.

One of Ms. West's links, the "Medical Downside of Homosexual Behavior," has numerous errors. It cites the study done by Robert Spitzer as proof that gays can change, but omits the fact that Spitzer has gone on record numerous times complaining about the misusage of his study by so-called "pro family" groups. - (www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/06/spitzer_says_fo.html
www.glaad.org/media/np_archive_detail.php?id=369)


"The Medical Downside of Homosexual Behavior" also distorts a study from the Netherlands. The journal claims that according to the study, mental problems in the gay community cannot be attributed to homophobia. This is a misdirection.

Conveniently omitted in the citation of the study is the fact that the researchers said:

It is unclear to what extent findings from this Dutch study can be generalized to other cultures or nations. Compared with other Western countries, the Dutch social climate toward homosexuality has long been and remains considerably more tolerant. To the extent that the level of social acceptance of homosexuality induces differences in mental health status in relation to homosexuality, the observed differences might be greater in other Western countries than in the Netherlands.

With all due respect to Ms. West, she is a perfect example of well meaning people of faith allowing their egos to blind them as to how others are using them for personal gain. No doubt when she cited her distortions, Ms. West probably felt they were correct because they came from "Christian" sources.

But the ability to lie in order to enhance your argument is a very un-Christian characteristic.

For that matter, so is guillibility.

And yes Ms. West, that last comment was directed towards you.