Friday, September 16, 2011

Why Americans for Truth is an anti-gay hate group

Americans for Truth about Homosexuality is one of the so-called "pro-family" organizations labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Of course the leader of this group, Peter LaBarbera (otherwise known as "Porno Pete") takes offense to this label. He said the following in a recent interview:

"They're treating pro-family groups like pariahs," the AFTAH founder compares. "It's a very dirty tactic, because we're not about hate; we're about loving people enough to tell them the truth . . ."

LaBarbera at the time was whining about how the media wasn't covering the fight between groups like his and the gay community as he thinks it should be covered, but let's look at his claim about "telling the truth."

The following are LaBarbera's idea of "telling the truth":

This is a badly doctored photo of openly gay Congressman Barney Frank. LaBarbera posted it on his site to accompany a ridiculous claim that gay TSA agents are getting their thrills by groping men.

No doubt Labarbera claims that it was a joke, but it's  a rather tasteless attack on the gay community and its par for the course for LaBarbera.

Other things LaBabera has done to earn his organization's hate group status includes:

1. attempting to smear GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) days before its annual Day of Silence event via a fake controversy involving pictures on a facebook page not even associated with GLSEN.

2. Smearing gays via a CDC report on an increase on HIV while intentionally downplaying the part of the report which clearly places the blame on this increase on homophobia (while at the same time implying that the report "dispels the homophobia causes AIDS propaganda")

3.  Defending a bill which would lead to the imprisonment and possible genocide of Ugandans simply for being gay or lesbian.

4. Going to subcultural leather events and using the "racy" behavior of gays attending to stigmatizing the entire lgbt community while ignoring the behavior of heterosexuals at the same events (that's why he is called "Porno Pete.")

5. Making ugly comments about a "transgender quota" in the Obama Administration simply because the president appoints a (very, very qualified) transgendered woman to an office in his administration.

6. Instigating a  highly inappropriate comment about gays, lesbians, and sexual intercourse; a comment so ugly that it led to a feud between three religious right groups. And by the way, Barber was heavily involved in this one too.

7. Continuously citing the work of the discredited researcher Paul Cameron, even when made aware of his dubious history of getting kicked out of medical groups, censures and rebukes.

8. Aiding and abetting Conservapedia spread lies about gay health using the fictional term "gay bowel syndrome."

9. Freely admitting to errors when it comes to claims against the gay and lesbian community but not taking responsibility for them.

10. Falsely accusing the Democratic National Convention and the Gay and Lesbian Task Force of putting on a sadomasochistic event.

11. Attempting to imply that a staph infection was the new HIV and then lying about his implications when caught.

And speaking of Paul Cameron - the discredited researcher who has been censured by groups like the American Psychological Association, The Nebraska Psychological Association, the American Sociological Association, and the Canadian Psychological Association for his shoddy work which says (amongst other awful things) that gay men stuff gerbils up their rectums - here is what LaBarbera and Martha Kleder of the Concerned Women for America has to say about him:



Transcript:


Kleder: One of the things I've also noticed is that the SPLC seems to be riled by the fact . . . uh . . . if they don't particularly like your source that you document then you must be a hate group.
LaBarbera: Paul Cameron.
Kleder:  Yeah.

LaBarbera: They say if you cite Paul Cameron, then you are a hater. I mean that's ridiculous. You know there is a researcher who just came out and found that Paul Cameron's work on the greater likelihood of homosexual adoptive parents to have . . . for the child to emerge as a homosexual. He confirmed Cameron's thesis. You don't have to agree with everything Paul Cameron ever did but how proposterous to say that citing a researcher . . Paul Cameron's work has been published in peer-reviewed journals. What they've done, Martha is set up these criteria and then you violate them,  they call you a hate group, and then they have their little echo chamber on the left which reports their charge. And of course the media, which really doesn't like us anyway. The media is very pro-gay, they cite us and so it begins to take a life of its own.

You can read a semi-complete history of Cameron's lies here and here. And by the way, LaBarbera's claim that another researcher proved Cameron's thesis about children in same-sex households is also incorrect. LaBarbera failed to mention that the researcher, Walter Schumm (the other researcher he cited) used the same bad methodology Cameron used to come to his original thesis:

Schumm’s “meta-analysis” (and Cameron’s before him) doesn’t even have the benefit of being built off of random convenience samples. There were no convenience samples in any of the ten prior works that Schumm used for his meta-analysis. In fact, they weren’t even professional studies. They were popular books! That’s right, each of the ten sources that Schumm used to construct his “meta-analysis” were from general-audience books about LGBT parenting and families, most of which are available on Amazon.com. Schumm read the books, took notes on each parent and child described in the book, examined their histories, and counted up who was gay and who was straight among the kids.

All in all, it seems to me that LaBarbera has done more than enough to earn his organization's hate group label.  And his definition of "the truth" leaves a lot to be desired.

Related posts:

Reasons why NOM should be named as a hate group

The reason why the American Family Association is a hate group

16 Reasons Why The Family Research Council is a Hate Group  



Bookmark and Share

No comments:

Post a Comment