Paul Cameron won't go away!

I don't know just what Paul Cameron is trying to prove. He has been censured, rebuked, and on a few lucky occasions, laughed at.

And on a very few excellent occasions, allowed our community to have many victories.

But he just won't go away. Apparently someone misinformed him about credibility.

Mr. Cameron, credibility does not mean repeating the same lies and bad studies that got you into trouble in the first place in hopes that people will forget what you have done.

Credibility comes from doing research right the first time, having the guts to admit that you are wrong when errors are made, and not being so biased that you can't see just how much of a pathetic figure you are becoming.

But I digress.

This morning, I saw the following:

Homosexuality More Dangerous Than Smoking
Contact: Dr. Paul Cameron, Family Research Institute, 303-681-3113, 303-886-1947 cell

PHILADELPHIA, Apr. 3 /Christian Newswire/ -- Studies have shown that years of smoking shortens the lifespan of the smoker from 1 to 7 years. But analysis of the age of death in Norway and Denmark for gays who are legally married suggests that engaging in homosexual behavior reduces the lifespan by 24 years!

There is nothing new here. Just the same old lies that got Cameron kicked out the American Psychological Association.

But let me elucidate on the history of Cameron and his attempts to prove that gays have a short life span. The information I am revealing are just a few summaries from my upcoming book:

In the late 80s/ early 90s, Cameron tried to make the claim that gay men have a short life span through disease and the like. He conducted this study by comparing obituaries in gay-themed newspapers to obituaries in mainstream newspapers.

There were several faults in this kind of research including the fact that just because the obituaries were printed in "regular" newspapers does not necessarily mean the deceased was not gay.

Many gays are uncomfortable with how society views them and how they view themselves. To shield themselves from what they see as persecution, they live life in secret, or "in the closet." It’s not farfetched to say that some die while still not open about their homosexuality. Also, even if they were open, who’s to say whether or not the obituary mentioned their sexual orientation?

Also, only two percent of Cameron's sample size were lesbians.

Nevertheless, the anti-gay industry made full use of this bad study. Conservative author William Bennett even referred to it on a Sunday news program, This Week.

However, he backtracked when informed of Cameron dubious history and the piss poor techniques used in the study:

"Given what I now know, I believe there are flaws with Paul Cameron's study. One cannot extrapolate from his methodology and say that the average male homosexual life span is 43 years."

In 2005, Cameron tried to sneak the study out again. It was at this time he claimed that "homosexuality was more dangerous than cigarette smoking."

What he did was take over 10,000 obituaries from the gay newspaper the Washington Blade and compare them to a CDC report entitled AIDS Cases in Adolescents and Adults, by Age - United States, 1994-2000.

He claimed that this supported his gay life span study. However, The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said otherwise.

Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, said Cameron used bad methodology. He also said:

"[The CDC] does not collect statistics on the life span of gay men. While gay men continue to be severely impacted by HIV and AIDS, AIDS-related death data cannot be used to indicate that homosexual men live shorter lives than heterosexual men overall."

So now in 2007, Cameron is again trying to claim again that homosexuality is more dangerous than cigarette smoking. This time, he is using a Scandinavian study to prove this theory.

Cameron's tactic in this case is interesting. In the past, the anti-gay industry copied his bad research techniques at the times they weren't citing his bad studies. Sometimes, they invented their own.

One new tactic they picked up (and I talk about it in my book) is to distort studies from the Netherlands and Scandinavia. This tactic helps them on two fronts: it is difficult for people to refute these studies without heavy research because they come from far away countries.

Also, the anti-gay industry likes to claim that the Netherlands and Scandinavia are the most gay-friendly places on Earth. Subsequently, if they can take studies from those areas and show that "promoting homosexuality" has caused problems, then they can demonstrate that homosexuality on the whole is a bad concept.

So I guess the teacher has learned from the students.

Keep up the good work, Paul Cameron. The anti-gay industry may cite you but sooner or later, the truth will out.

But until then, events like what happened today in Colorado (click on this link if you want to see what our friend Mr. Cameron looks like) when you got smacked down by a legislator for your bad studies will take place more often.

You are indeed slouching towards Gomorrah.