One of the greatest hypocrisies of ex-gay groups is how they seek victimhood status against the alleged gay agenda that discriminates them for daring to want to "be free from homosexuality," while simultaneously allowing themselves to be a funnel/conduit for some of the most extreme anti-gay propaganda in existence.
PFOX (Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays) is a perfect example of the hypocrisies of the ex-gay movement.
On it's webpage, PFOX has this huge section called
"Equal Rights," where it posts articles pushing the lie that ex-gays are somehow discriminated against. Such articles include:
Are Ex-gays Next?, Ex-Gay Declaration of Independence, Hear our message, then judge, and Ex-Gays Face Double Discrimination.
And a few of these articles have huge errors. Such as the piece
Putting Adolescents at Risk.
This article pushes the notion that:
Males who self-identify as “gay” before age 18 are highly likely to have been victims of sexual abuse and/or to suffer from untreated Gender Identity Disorder (GID). This puts them at high risk for a number of negative outcomes. When these problems are untreated, the boys often act out in ways that draw negative attention to themselves. The strict restriction of bullying and other mistreatment by fellow students is, of course, important, but it is equally important to address the underlying problems. Even if an adolescent boy does not suffer from sexual abuse or GID, sexual activity combined with the predictable adolescent irresponsibility carries a high risk.However one of the sources which PFOX uses to prove this claim is being distorted:
The following is the conclusion of a study of the association of health risk behaviors and sexual orientation: “GLB youth who self-identify during high school report disproportionate risk for a variety of health risk and problem behaviors, including suicide, victimization, sexual risk behaviors, and multiple substance abuse use. In addition, these youth are more likely to report engaging in multiple risk behaviors and initiating risk behaviors at an earlier age than their peers.” (Garofalo 1998)
The study PFOX is referring to is
The association between health risk behaviors and sexual orientation among a school-based sample of adolescents, by Massachusetts pediatrician Robert Garofalo.
PFOX is implying that the study says that the lgbt orientation is causing bad behavior in youth.
PFOX was not the first group to use Garofalo's work to make this claim. In 1998, the Family Research Council and 14 other so-called religious right groups, including the Christian Coalition and Focus on the Family, ran a full-page ad in
The Washington Post using Garofalo's study to claim that "homosexuality is a dangerous lifestyle."
When Garofalo found out how his research was being used he got angry because you see, his study never faulted the lgbt orientation for bad behavior amongst gay youth.
Garofalo contended that his research was saying that when gay teenagers abuse drugs or contemplate suicide, it is because of
the unaccepting culture they face. -
Boston doctor says ads distorted his work on gays, Anne E. Kornblutt, The Globe Staff, The Boston Globe, August 4, 1998
Another article in PFOX's Equal Rights section,
African Americans: Same Sexuality & Race, cites a study by discredited researcher
Paul Cameron:
According to the Omega Journal, a leading publication on death and dying, the median age of death for a homosexual man without AIDS And With a long-term sexual partner is only 41 years of age. The median age of death of heterosexual married men is 75 years. The average age for a married, African American male is 69 years. Given these statistics, this is not only a moral issue, but an emerging public-health crisis. Passing laws that would institutionalize a lifestyle that could cut the lives of our young men by nearly a third is unthinkable.But the one thing that takes the proverbial cake when it comes to the hypocrisies of PFOX is
this link.
For not curious enough to click it, the link is a diagram from that lovely anti-gay group, the Allied Defense Fund, that outlines supposedly how we lgbts are slowly taking over the world in color coordinated splendor.
I don't know what's worse; the fact that someone loony enough to think this up is getting gainfully employed or the fact that I wish lgbts could get as coordinated as we are shown to be in the diagram.
You can't have it both ways, PFOX. If you want "tolerance" from our community, then you don't put ugly and untrue things about us on your webpage.
No one should have to tolerate being kicked in the teeth.
