Another researcher cries foul over anti-gay industry misuse of study

Last week, I talked about how the phony news site One News Now distorted a study to claim that the lgbt orientation in itself leads to depression and substance abuse.

I pointed out not only how the study was distorted but also the fact that One News Now cited researcher discredited researcher Paul Cameron.

Well today brings part two of the story, courtesy of my friends over at Box Turtle Bulletin:

A British researcher has denounced two North American anti-gay web sites for distorting his research. University College London professor Michael King, in a statement to Box Turtle Bulletin, clarified the findings of his research on depression and suicide among LGB people, and emphasized the importance that “all sectors of society welcome them as equal and valuable citizens.”

Professor King spoke out in response to an article that appeared last Wednesday in LifeSite, an unofficial Catholic web site, which claimed that the “homosexual lifestyle [is] strongly linked to depression [and] suicide.” The same article by Kathleen Gilbert appeared again Saturday on the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow.

. . . We asked Professor King for his reaction to the LifeSite/OneNewsNow article. This was his reply:

"LifeSite News and OneNewsNow have misinterpreted our review. Evidence from around the world identifies the main stressors leading to mental distress in gay and lesbian people as discrimination, prejudice, bullying in schools and colleges, and the consequent need for many LGB people to keep their homosexual identity secret, even from their families.

Our review did not examine links between mental disorder and homosexual “behaviour” or “lifestyle”. Our work reviewed studies of the mental health of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, and sadly, those studies showed that it is people (not behaviour) that are discriminated against, and not least by religious groups and organisations.

Discrimination on the grounds of sexuality is even more devastating than other forms of discrimination such as racism, as it reaches right into families and leaves no refuge for its victims.

We suggest in our review that the availability of alcohol and drugs at gay social venues may be a factor in the greater risk of drug and alcohol misuse in LGB people. Reducing this problem is something for which LGB people must take greater responsibility. However, the fact that discrimination still exists in our societies means that many are forced to use such venues to meet each other rather than through more common ways available to heterosexuals, such as at work, during the pursuit of hobbies and past-times, or at church.

There is now abundant evidence that homosexuality is not itself a mental disorder and that it is compatible with a healthy lifestyle. We shall only begin to see a reduction in mental distress and deliberate self harm in LGB people when all sectors of society welcome them as equal and valuable citizens."

Now we all know the modus of operation of the anti-gay industry. They are going to either ignore the rebuke or claim that King is biased and pro-gay.

Their tactics are beginning to sound like a broken record.

But one thing is clear and everyone had better take note of it - members of the lgbt community are getting highly savvy in pointing how just how the anti-gay industry distorts legitimate studies.

And sooner or later all of their tactics, every lie they told, every study they misused, every discredited study they used will come back to bite them in the ass.

Payback is a bitch and I hope to be around to enjoy every minute of it.

Hell, I hope to be right in the middle of it all, directing traffic.