Paul Cameron crawls out of his hole

Mary Cheney has dominated the news and I didn't want to talk about her pregnancy any more, but something happened today that is just too good to go unnoticed.

Paul Cameron gave his opinion about Mary Cheney.

Now if you think he said, "I think this is positive and I wish her and her partner all the luck in the world, " you will also believe that Paris Hilton is a misuderstood genius.

Cameron had nothing positive to say about Cheney's pregnancy:

"Her pregnancy is further evidence that participation in homosexual activity distorts value systems, inducing practitioners to harm the commonweal. Our society already has too many children born without the benefits of marriage; Cheney's action is not only a bad example, but poor treatment of an innocent child."

Cameron's dubious history makes it so damned easy for me to rip his comments to pieces, that I am almost ashamed of my desire to do so. But it is important not to laugh Cameron off because he is a very dangerous man.

It was Cameron who provided the scientific (albeit through bad studies and distortions) framework that the anti-gay industry uses against us. Cameron's influence on anti-gay industry studies is so thorough that I devoted an entire chapter of my upcoming book solely on him.

Let's recap his history, shall we?

Paul Cameron is the author of a wide variety of studies about the gay community and all of them portray us as evil, child molesting, feces-eating, gerbil-stuffing monsters.

He has also gotten into trouble because of his questionable tactics in compiling his data:

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. Cameron has posted an elaborate argument about his expulsion from APA on his website, claiming that he resigned from APA before he was dropped from membership. Like most organizations, however, APA does not allow a member to resign when they are being investigated. And even if Cameron's claims were accepted as true, it would be remarkable that the largest professional organization of psychologists in the United States (and other professional associations, as noted below) went to such lengths to disassociate itself from one individual.

At its membership meeting on October 19, 1984, the Nebraska Psychological Association adopted a resolution stating that it "formally disassociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality."

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."7 The resolution formally charged an ASA committee with the task of "critically evaluating and publicly responding to the work of Dr. Paul Cameron."

At its August, 1986 meeting, the ASA officially accepted the committee's report and passed the following resolution:
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."

Cameron's credibility was also questioned outside of academia. In his written opinion in Baker v. Wade (1985), Judge Buchmeyer of the U.S. District Court of Dallas referred to "Cameron's sworn statement that 'homosexuals abuse children at a proportionately greater incident than do heterosexuals,'" and concluded that "Dr. Paul Cameron...has himself made misrepresentations to this Court" and that "There has been no fraud or misrepresentations except by Dr. Cameron" (p.536).

If that is not enough for you all, then check out various Cameron quotes via this link including:

"At the 1985 Conservative Political Action Conference, Cameron announced to the attendees, 'Unless we get medically lucky, in three or four years, one of the options discussed will be the extermination of homosexuals.' According to an interview with former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Cameron was recommending the extermination option as early as 1983." - Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995

"I think that actually AIDS is a guardian. That is I think it was sent, if you would, about forty years ago, to destroy Western civilization unless we change our sexual ways. So it's really a Godsend." - Cameron quoted by Mark E. Pietrzyk, News-Telegraph, March 10, 1995

"Homosexuals are sexually troubled people engaging in dangerous activities"-Paul Cameron quoted at http://www.biblebelievers.com/Cameron2.html

Now despite all of these things, Cameron is still looked at as a credible source regarding the gay community by people like Peter LaBarbera, Lou Sheldon, and Robert Knight.

Groups who dare call themselves pro-family (i. e. The American Family Association, the Family Research Council, the Concerned Women for America, and a plethora of statewide organizations) continue to use his work.

And many of them know of his controversial history.

Gotta love those conservative Christians.