Conservapedia's unbelievable defense of the discredited Paul Cameron

My prayers are with the Kennedy family in the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy. He was an intelligent and strong advocate for the rights of all people, including lgbts. History dealt him a nasty blow with the death of his brothers. But like all men of destiny, Kennedy rose above it to make the world a better place for us all.

He will be missed.

I was reading an excellent piece in Newsweek as to why some people were quick to believe the lie about health care death panels even after they were informed of the truth:

Some people form and cling to false beliefs about health-care reform (or Obama's citizenship) despite overwhelming evidence thanks to a mental phenomenon called motivated reasoning, says sociologist Steven Hoffman, visiting assistant professor at the University at Buffalo. "Rather than search rationally for information that either confirms or disconfirms a particular belief," he says, "people actually seek out information that confirms what they already believe." And God knows, in the Internet age there is no dearth of sources to confirm even the most ludicrous claims (my favorite being that the moon landings were faked). "For the most part," says Hoffman, "people completely ignore contrary information" and are able to "develop elaborate rationalizations based on faulty information."

And naturally my mind began thinking about those lovely individuals and groups concerned with supposedly winning "America for Christ, " colloquially known as the religious right.

Specifically, my mind began thinking about a certain conservative bastardization of the popular site Wikipedia.

I've written about Conservapedia before; about how the site used repeated and bad information to claim that "gay bowel syndrome" is an actual medical term rather than an antiquated term used to denigrate the lgbt community.

Well this new thing I found on the site tops that one.

This is what Conservapedia says about discredited researcher Paul Cameron:

Dr. Paul Cameron, Ph.D. is a scientist who has presented disturbing information about homosexual behavior in the United States. Professional associations have responded by making vague, unsupported accusations about his personal character.

. . . The APA and ASA have issued statements denouncing Cameron for holding positions contrary to theirs. They have not, however, pointed out any specific flaws in his published peer-reviewed scientific papers. So it is patently obvious that they are trying to suppress his findings for political reasons.

Conservapedia's explanation is extremely inaccurate.

The APA (American Psychological Association) dismissed Cameron for not cooperating when the group began investigating his research methodology. Various psychologists complained about how he was distorting their data.

I sincerely doubt that Conservapedia did any research into the matter, so to help the site out, I've attached the link of the letter from the APA officially dismissing Cameron.

And the (ASA) American Sociological Association denounced Cameron because of his bad research techniques. The group was concerned that Cameron was inaccurately being labeled as a sociologist.

The ASA's statement came after a task force looked at Cameron's history and techniques. You can read the findings here. And I might point out, the ASA task force did point to specific flaws regarding Cameron's work and specific complaints made about him.

The irony of Conservapedia's whitewash of Cameron is felt when one takes into account one of the guidelines of the site:

Everything you post must be true and verifiable.

I found a bigger irony when I looked over the list of Conservapedia Administrators. A good many of them have on their profile that they "have accepted Jesus Christ as his/her Lord and Savior."

Apparently they love their version of Christian principles so much that they are willing to lie for them.

Editor's Note - APA letter and ASA report taken from the webpage of Dr. Gregory Herek.

Mike Huckabee - definitely not 'pro-sodomy' but extremely 'pro-ignorant'

I'm on a Mike Huckabee tear today. So sue me already.

The fact that former Arkansas Governor and talk show host Mike Huckabee will be attending a conference in which a workshop on combating the so-called homosexual agenda is to be co-led by a SPLC designated hate group shouldn't be surprising.

Also, the fact that he has aligned himself with former SPLC hate group, the Illinois Family Institute also is not shocking.

That is if you are aware of Huckabee's ugly history of stigmatizing the lgbt community.

In 1992 when he ran for Senate, he advocated quarantining AIDS patients. Huckabee was answering an Associated Press survey when he said the following:

"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague," he wrote. "It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."

In 2007, Huckabee was confronted with his past statements when he ran for president. According to an ABC News article, he chalked up the statement to being ignorant in regards to how AIDS is spread:

"Fifteen years ago, the AIDS crisis was just that, a crisis," he said. "There was still a great deal of, I think, uncertainty about just how widespread AIDS was, how it could be transmitted. So we know more now than we did in 1992, all of us do -- hopefully."

However, the same ABC News article brings up this fact:

Four years before Huckabee's statement, however, President Ronald Reagan's surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, sent out a brochure about AIDS to American homes in which Koop wrote, "No matter what you may have heard, the AIDS virus is hard to get and is easily avoided. You won't just catch AIDS like a cold or flu because the virus is a different type. The AIDS virus is transmitted through sexual intercourse, the sharing of drug needles or to babies of infected mothers before or during birth."

In that same 1992 survey, he said the following about homosexuality:

"homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

In the ABC News article, Huckabee maintained that what he said about homosexuality was still his belief except for the part about it being a health risk.

But if you want get a good indication as to where Huckabee stands on the lgbt community, check out this 2009 exchange on his talk show between him and guest Ann Coulter (starting at 4:00):



Huck to Coulter: I am not, as you characterize me in one article, pro-gay and pro-sodomy -- that is SO not me.

Coulter: Yes, there was a Supreme Court decision you agreed or disagreed with...yes, I got you on that one Mike Huckabee...

Huck: Nope, you didn't. I am definitely not pro-sodomy -- I promise, scout's honor. There are many things I might be but that is not one of them.

I've watched how Huckabee manuevers through the talk show circuit and parses his comments into feel good soundbites. The problem is that no one, except for that ABC News article, has really confronted him with his statements and especially not his allegiances.

And I wonder if anyone ever will.

Big hat tip to Pams House Blend.

What's with Mike Huckabee's fascination with anti-gay hate groups and other Tuesday midday news briefs

Huckabee Hearts the Illinois Family Institute - Is there any extreme group with whom Mike Huckabee won't associate himself with? (Editor's note - see earlier post about Huckabee and anti-gay hate group Mass Resistance)

Insurgent congressional candidate Anthony Woods' life story reads like Aaron Sorkin wrote it—he's a gay, black Iraq veteran with a Harvard degree. - Bet you if he wins, he won't make the cover of Ebony or Jet. I also bet you they won't talk about him on BET.

CA: Arnold takes his inductees with Milk - Another well-deserved honor for Harvey Milk!!

I Wonder What Chris Buttars Thinks His "Sexual Orientation" Is - Not this so-and-so again!

Love That Dares to Tweet Its Name Sparks Web Series - This is going to be interesting for those who love soap operas.

Mike Huckabee and Congressional leaders to attend conference with hate group

The anti-gay Massachusetts group Mass Resistance is in a bragging mood.

Apparently its leader, Brian Camenker, has been asked to co-run a workshop on How to counter the homosexual extremist movement during the conservative "Take Back America" conference next month.

You do know Mass Resistance, don't you? One of the officially designated anti-gay hate groups as deemed by the Southern Law Poverty Center.

Mass Resistance is the group behind the David Parker situation (in which they and Parker orchestrated a phony moral panic against Estabrook Elementary School) and the fallacious "Fistgate" mess that came back to haunt President Obama appointee Kevin Jennings; unsuccessfully I might point out.

Co-hosting this workshop will be a perennial favorite of mine, The Holy Bullies and Headless Monster Misinformer of the Year for 2008 Matt Barber.

Barber, employed by the anti-gay Liberty Counsel, has done so many things to "endear" himself to the lgbt community.

Originally, he was fired from AllState Insurance for anti-gay columns he wrote. Although Barber claimed to have written them on his own time, it was alleged that he used company equipment to do so. Also he did involve the company in his nonsense by listing the fact that he was an employee in his columns.

Barber parlayed that furor into becoming a spokesman for Concerned Women for America, where he scrapped with folks like Wayne Besen and Keith Boykin on coast to coast television, despite often times being in way over his head. And now, he has this position at Liberty Counsel as the director of Cultural Affairs.

Barber's attacks on the lgbt community have bordered on fanatic and loony, including (information taken from Sourcewatch):

A January 2007 column on gays in the military: "Move over National Guard and Green Berets – make way for the avant-garde and Lavender Berets."

A March 2007 column bashed "left-wing storm troopers" and referenced a "6-foot-4-inch homosexual linebacker who likes to wear lipstick and high-heels."

A May 2007 WorldNetDaily article quoted Barber describing cross-dressers as people who "get their jollies from wearing a dress, high heels and lipstick."

Barber asserted that former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey "admitted in his memoirs that he fancied doing the toilet bowl tango with strange men at truck stops."

In a column, Barber told the story of a "burly truck driver" who "got twitterpated by the way pantyhose felt against his skin and eventually made the self-determination that he was, in fact, a woman trapped in a man's body," which somehow means that "parents may well be forced to explain to Junior why Ms. Johnson at parochial school has a five o'clock shadow, calves like Schwarzenegger, an Adam's apple the size of a golf ball and is stuffed into a miniskirt like a 10-pound turkey in a 5-pound bag." He further asserted that a federal ban on discrimination against gays and transsexuals means that female employees will be "forced to share bathroom facilities with any male employee who got his jollies from wearing a dress."

Then there was this column comparing lgbts and progressives in general to idol worshippers and child sacrificers of Biblical times.

For comedic purposes, I would love to be at that workshop held by Camenker and Barber.

The two will be telling such conservative dignitaries as Mike Huckabee, Phyllis Schafly,Rick Scarborough, Mat Staver, Rep. Tom McClintock, Rep. Michele Bachmann, and others how to lie on the lgbt community.

As if these folks really needed any urging or help in that department.

But one has to wonder why how do they feel about attending the same conference as an officially designated hate group.

I don't think Huckabee has any problems with that.

According to him, lgbts aren't having our civil rights violated because we haven't had our heads sufficiently cracked in.

Editor's note - Before anyone gets it twisted, the Southern Poverty Law Center does not deem groups as anti-gay hate organizations simply because said organizations work from the belief that homosexuality is a sin. The SPLC site clearly says:

Anti-gay groups are organizations that go beyond mere disagreement with homosexuality by subjecting gays and lesbians to campaigns of personal vilification.

Related articles:

Mike Huckabee - definitely not 'pro-sodomy' but extremely 'pro-ignorant'

'Fistgate' and President Obama - religious right pushes a pitiful attempt of guilt by association

The legend of the Mad Dad of Massachusetts or how to distort a situation religious-right style

The 2008 Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters Misinformers of the Year Awards