Case in point - the Family Research Council and the conservative online news site Life Site News
Last week, I blogged about how the Family Research Council was distorting a Netherlands study in a piece on its webpage to claim that gay marriages have more promiscuity than heterosexual marriages.
In spite of the fact that the Netherlands study looked at casual relationships involving gay men and none of the men in the study were married, the Family Research Council not only used the study to bash gay marriage but also same-sex households with children.
The Netherlands study was again distorted last week, but this time by Family Research Council head Tony Perkins in an address at the Faith and Freedom Conference:
Data show that the great majority of married homosexuals have multiple sexual partners. One recent study of homosexual couples found that each member of such couples averages eight additional sexual partners per year.
And as if this distortion isn't bad enough, Perkins then says the following:
Other studies suggest that children raised in homosexual homes are much more likely to be exposed to violence than those raised by a mom and a dad.
Perkins doesn't go into detail about just what these studies are but LifeSite News, in an article about Perkins's speech, attempts to take up the slack by assuming just what studies Perkins is talking about:
For example, a 1994 study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence examining conflict and violence in lesbian relationships found that 90% of the lesbians surveyed had been recipients of one or more acts of verbal aggression from their intimate partners during the year prior to the study, with 31% reporting one or more incidents of physical abuse. A 2001 survey in the Journal of the Family Research Institute found that gay men were 25 times more likely than married men to be domestically attacked.
But like Perkins, LifeSite News is highly inaccurate.
According to the Journal of Interpersonal Violence’s own web page:
The Journal of Interpersonal Violence offers the most up-to-date information on domestic violence, rape, child sexual abuse and other violent crimes . . . Focusing on both victims and perpetrators, the journal examines theoretical links between all types of interpersonal violence, exploring the similarities and differences between these types of crimes.
In other words, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence tracks domestic violence, as well as other violent crimes.
Those surveyed in journal articles are the victims of violence, verbal or otherwise, because this is what the journal is designed to track.
What Life Site News is doing here is the equivalent of taking a study of domestic violence in the African-American community published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence and using it to allege that black relationships are indicative of violent behavior.
And that second study? It's entitled Gay Domestic Violence Finally Measured and it was written by researcher Paul Cameron. Cameron is the creator of numerous inaccurate studies about the lgbt community. He has been discredited continuously and extensively by such organizations as the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Assocation.
But at least LifeSite News finds him credible. I guess that makes it all okay.
