Saturday, April 14, 2012

Homophobic junk scientist Paul Cameron makes a fool of himself



I couldn't believe this interview when I saw it. From Crooks and Liars:

As Raw Story's Stephen Webster noted, on the heels of a recent study which found that "people who have negative feelings toward homosexuality often have secret attractions to the same sex — and are more likely to have grown up in households that forbid homosexual feelings," we have Thom Hartmann asking about that very topic during this interview with the leader of an anti-gay organization which the SPLC has designated as a hate group.

Hartmann confronts anti-gay leader: Do closeted gays run your movement?:

On Russia Today TV’s The Big Picture Thursday, progressive radio host Thom Hartmann confronted Family Research Institute chairman Dr. Paul Cameron and asked him an unusually pointed question: “Does it concern you that many of your colleagues in the anti-gay movement may actually be closeted gays?”
“Um, no,” Cameron replied. “Very few of them are homosexually interested. First of all, um… Most people are not interested in homosexuality. There’s not at all. A few homosexuals like to say — and they’ve been saying this now for at least the last seven years — almost everybody is bisexual, maybe some homosexual…”
“I’ve never heard anybody say that,” Hartmann replied.

Cameron went on to claim that biologist Alfred Kinsey, whose groundbreaking research pioneered the study of human sexuality, “was gay” and “pushed that idea,” making his scientific findings somehow less valid. “Most of the homosexual leadership… have pushed that idea,” he added. “But it’s not true!”
Cameron didn’t provide any source or research to support his claim, so interested viewers may just have to take his word for it.

It's not surprising that Cameron didn't provide any research or sources to back up his claim. If he did, then that would have given Hartmann an opportunity to pivot towards Cameron's long history of rebukes and censures for his bad research methodologies.

Allow me to break it down for you.

Cameron is the man is responsible for pushing the following myths about the gay community:
Lesbians are more likely to die in car wrecks,

Gay men molest children at a high rate and are more likely to be serial killers,

Gay men stuff gerbils up their rectums,

Gays and lesbians in the military are more likely to rape their heterosexual counterparts.

Basically, it was Cameron who in the 80s came up with the idea of aggressively using science to prove that homosexuality is a "dangerous lifestyle." The problem is to do this, Cameron attained a reputation for either distorting legitimate science or distorting his own work to gain the conclusions he wanted from his "studies." He has also been discredited and censured by many group and individuals on the left, the right, and in the middle due to his bad research techniques. Several of his studies have been criticized for such errors as having small sample sizes, showing an anti-gay bias in interviews, and not having enough responses to establish a suitable analysis.

Naturally the Southern Poverty Law declared Cameron's group, the Family Research Institute, to be an anti-gay hate group.

Let's take a quick look at condemnations rained down on him by the medical community:

“(Cameron) misrepresents my findings and distorts them to advance his homophobic views. I make a very clear distinction in my writing between pedophilia and homosexuality, noting that adult males who sexually victimize young boys are either pedophilic or heterosexual, and that in my research I have not found homosexual men turning away from adult partners to children . . . I consider this totally unprofessional behavior on the part of Dr. Cameron and I want to bring this to your attention. He disgraces his profession.” - Dr. A. Nicholas Groth in 1984 after discovering that Cameron distorted his work.

"Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists - American Psychological Association, 1983

The science and profession of psychology in Nebraska as represented by the Nebraska Psychological Association, formally dissociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality. Further, the Nebraska Psychological Association would like it known that Dr. Cameron is not a member of the Association. Dr. Cameron was recently dropped from membership in the American Psychological Association for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists - Nebraska Psychological Association, 1984

Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism" - American Sociological Association, 1985

The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism and thus, it formally disassociates itself from the representation and interpretations of scientific literature in his writings and public statements on sexuality. - Canadian Psychological Association, 1996

In the past, the religious right regarded Cameron as the go-to-guy for information regarding their false claims about the gay community. But now when the truth has came out about his piss poor research, they shuned him like a leper.

Luckily for the gay community, Cameron will not go away.

More about Paul Cameron's lies here and here.


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4 comments:

Kathy Baldock said...

He is a loon and I can't believe anyone in the US still has him on as a guest, unless they want to make conservatives look crazy.

Allan said...

Paul Cameron's homosexual (almost exclusively male-oriented) "science" also includes the "fact" that the gay lifespan is 42 years, and his methodology for deriving that number was to peruse the death announcements that were printed in gay newspapers. He has also promoted the medically outdated term "gay bowel syndrome". It doesn't exist, though all humans are susceptible to all sorts of diseases on both sides of their anuses, but "gay bowel syndrome" is as extremely gross as Mr. Gay Bowel Syndrome paulcameron wants it to be when he frequently describes it in detail.

Much like the definition of "santorum" belongs forever to that pig, "paulcameron" needs to be widely defined as "gay bowel syndrome" and vice versa. It's an obsolete, derogatory term eliminated by actual scientists, like doctors and researchers and such. Clearly nothing to do with Paul Cameron, who is a lying fraud. An intentionally lying fraud, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center's criteria for hate groups, which lists Paul "Gay Bowel Syndrome" Cameron's NARTH as an anti-gay hate group.

The only "gay bowel syndrome is paulcameron" is "gay bowel syndrome is paulcameron is gay bowel syndrome".

Check out the Beeson's anti-gay video, featuring gay bowel syndrome himself, describing himself. I forget the name right now but you should be able to find it. Ty and Janette Beeson, I think.

John B. said...

So at age 50 I guess more than half of my gay friends should be dead by now. This is such a piece of crap, and so obviously untrue to anybody who knows anybdy who is gay, that we should be attesting to this at every opportunity and pointing out just how maliciously untruthful these self-appointed "experts" are. Every time Paul Cameron or anybody quoting his "statistics" opens their mouth we should ask them, "so why aren't half of my gay friends dead yet?" (BTW I realize that for a certain generation of gay men living in certain regions like NYC this may well be true, but this is not the 1980's anymore as those of us who have come out since then can personally attest.)

ColdCountry said...

“I’ve never heard anybody say that,”

HA! Finally. I don't understand why he hasn't been called out before when it's so easy.

"Most people are not interested in homosexuality."

True. But some, like you, are obsessed with it. Hmmm. What was it that new study said?