The Anti-Gay Industry and Sexual Health

I promised an excerpt from my upcoming book and though some wrote asking about Paul Cameron and exact deception techniques of the anti-gay industry, I decided to focus on something not entirely talked about: how their attempts to connect being gay with bad sexual health actually hinders the community from receiving good medical care:

The use of the term "gay bowel syndrome" is just one of the many ways the anti-gay industry attempts to push the notion that gays on the whole are more promiscuous than heterosexuals and are therefore more susceptible to diseases. In his first sentence of the same study, (Glenn T.) Stanton makes the statement:

"HIV is the most notable infection associated with homosexual sex and other promiscuous behaviors . . ."

On the Focus on the Family website is the following question:

"Is AIDS God’s punishment on gays, lesbians, and other promiscuous people?"

Even the Traditional Values Coalition gets into the act:

"Contrary to what groups like ACT UP would have us believe, it is not "silence" about AIDS that spreads the disease or other homosexual- related STDs. It is homosexual behavior that spreads HIV infection and death. Health officials have stated that an estimated 20,000 people between the ages of 13 and 24 are infected with HIV each year in the U.S."

These statements are deliberate distortions. There are no legitimate studies that say homosexual sex is in itself a promiscuous behavior.

Also, HIV is associated with "unsafe sexual behavior," be it homosexual or heterosexual intercourse. It is an especial distortion the way TVC phrases the sentence about "homosexual behavior" before the sentence, "Health officials have stated that an estimated 20,000 people between the ages of 13 and 24 are infected with HIV each year in the U.S."

The organization makes it sound as if unprotected sex between gays is responsible for each and every one of these new infections. It conveniently forgets the heterosexuals, hemophiliacs, and intravenously drug users who are infected by HIV.

In a general sense, sex has a very dual effect on Americans. It is the veritable hornet’s nest at the top of the tree and Americans are the children with the stick constantly prodding it in order to see what happens next. As with the actual case of the child prodding the hornet’s nest, when activity builds, Americans run for cover.

The anti-gay industry exploits this dual effect by using the supposed promiscuity of the gay community like a sort of Joseph McCarthy list, changing the numbers to suit whatever audience they are talking to:

"One study determined that homosexual males have from between 20 to 106 sexual partners per year. It’s no wonder that homosexual men account for over 50% of all hepatitis cases, and still account for over 50% of all AIDS cases despite the fact that they only make up 1-3% of the population." - The Gay Agenda vs. Family Values - Matt J. Barber

"Fidelity is almost unheard of in homosexual relationships; the average number of partners for each person is eight. These relationships are not open -- they are wide open. A homosexual publication, The Advocate, reports that 57 percent of its homosexual readers claimed they had sexual relations with 30 or more partners. Twenty-nine percent of their readers had anonymous bathhouse sex. A 1991 study of homosexual men in New York revealed an average of 308 sexual partners per man." - Supremes Ruled Wisely: Arizona Can’t Afford Same Sex Marriage - The Arizona Conservative

An article in USA Today in November 1984 reported that homosexuals have an average of 50 different sexual partners each year. - Offering Hope to Homosexuals -http://www.firststone.org/articles/topics/homosexuality/offering_hope_to_homosexuals.htm

"Homosexual activists claim their lifestyle, which in some cases includes thousands of sexual partners, should be sanctioned, protected, and granted special rights by society. Would you critique this stance?"- a "loaded" question on the Focus on the Family web page

"Studies in Sexual Preference (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1981) indicated that only 3% of homosexuals had fewer than 10 lifetime sexual partners. Only about 2% could be classified as either monogamous or semi - monogamous." - The Catholic Family Association of America - http://www.cathfam.org/Hitems/HMonogamy.html

"A. P. Bell and M. S. Weinberg, in their classic study of male and female homosexuality, found that 43 percent of white male homosexuals had sex with five hundred or more partners, with 28 percent having 1,000 or more sex partners." - Timothy Dailey - The Negative Effects of Homosexuality

How the anti-gay industry perverts statistics can act as a stumbling block to the gay community receiving adequate health care.

In the case of STDs, some in the anti-gay industry would blame the "culture" for any outbreak in the heterosexual community. However, in the case of gays and lesbians, they are quick to blame the identity of being gay rather than the sexual behavior of individual gay people or how societal rejection contributes to the sexual behavior of individual gay people.

According to the article Health Care Screening for Men Who Have Sex with Men, gay men can be at a high risk for preventable diseases. The article also said that gay males do not receive appropriate medical information for a number of reasons, including

the patient being fearful to come out to his or her doctor,

the personal discomfort the doctor may feel about having a gay or lesbian patient,

possible open hostility of the doctor to having a gay or lesbian patient, and

concern that the patient’s employer may learn his or her orientation and terminate their employment.

Furthermore, the article also said that younger men are possibly at a higher risk for diseases but due to low self-esteem, depression, or lack of peer support.

Now in the hands of an objective medical practitioner, this information would be geared to providing solutions to these problems.

In the hands of so-called "pro family" groups, the sole purpose of this information would be demeaning the gay community. No matter how it is presented, the connotation would be "look at those filthy, nasty homosexuals."

Consider these facts:

More than half of all people will get an STD at some point in their lives

The estimated total number of people living in the US with a viral STD is over 65 million.

Every year, there are approximately 15 million new cases of STDs, some of which are curable.

One in two sexually active persons will contact an STD by age 25

When the anti-gay industry throws the possibility of catching diseases in the mix, they are not only exploiting America’s unfamiliarity with homosexuality, but also its uncomfortability with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The truth of the matter is that many people do not know about sexually transmitted diseases and they will not take it upon themselves to get informed about them.

In almost every study, talking point, research paper, or anything the anti-gay industry puts out regarding the gay community is the notion that gays are increasingly promiscuous. These studies continue to say that gays are susceptible to all sorts of diseases.

Bear in mind that a large number of these studies consists of small sample studies (like studies of gays with HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases or a small number of gays in a city).

And members of the anti-gay industry will omit any part of a study that say outside factors (i.e. rejection because of orientation) make it difficult for members of the gay community to sexually mature.

Then Robert Knight, Timothy Dailey, James Dobson, etc. claim that creating situations that are gay friendly (i.e. same sex marriage, passage of anti-discrimination laws) will put people, particularly children, at risk for "HIV, hepatitis A,B, and C, "gay bowel syndrome," human papillomavirus (HPV), syphilis, gonorrhea, and other sexual transmitted diseases . . ."

There is no logic in this line of reasoning; only fear tactics.