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| Matt Barber |
But apparently some members of the religious right are using this terrible tragedy to score points against the gay community. Diane Gramley of the American Family Association of Pennsylvania and Matt Barber of the Liberty Counsel seem to be practically drooling as they made the following comments:
"Through all this we cannot ignore the fact that Jerry Sandusky's victims were all young boys. We can't ignore the homosexual aspect of this," Gramley offers. "And through Graham Spanier's tenure as president, he has brought more and more homosexual-oriented programming and events to the campus than ever before."
Adds Barber: "There also is an element of political correctness run amok here," he explains. "Anytime homosexuality is involved -- even though in this case it's a homosexual predator preying on children -- people seem to have this innate fear that they are going to be crushed by the sexual anarchist lobby if they speak out against it." Yet Barber says it is a fact that percentage-wise more sexual crimes are committed against children by homosexuals than by heterosexuals.
Neither Gramley nor Barber know what they are talking about. In fact, American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Child Psychiatrists and the Child Welfare League of America, all say that the homosexuality and pedophilia are not linked.
Furthermore, Dr. Greg Herek, Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Davis, says the following:
The distinction between a victim's gender and a perpetrator's sexual orientation is important because many child molesters don't really have an adult sexual orientation. They have never developed the capacity for mature sexual relationships with other adults, either men or women. Instead, their sexual attractions focus on children – boys, girls, or children of both sexes.
It's bad enough that Jerry Sandusky victimized children. It's equally sad that Barber and Gramley are attempting creating new victims in their attempt to exploit the scandal to attack the gay community.
Related post - If Matt Barber hates gay sex so much, then why does he keep talking about it?
"There also is an element of political correctness run amok here," he explains. "Anytime homosexuality is involved -- even though in this case it's a homosexual predator preying on children -- people seem to have this innate fear that they are going to be crushed by the sexual anarchist lobby if they speak out against it."
ReplyDeleteI take issue with this because it completely ignores a painful truth about the Sandusky cover-up: The cover up was not about political correctness, but about protecting the reputation of the Penn State men's football program. So in his attempt to take a shot at LGBT people, Barber is providing cover for the real problem. Shame on him.
Another fact is that pedophiles often choose victims based on access. Gender is largely irrelevant. If they have access to boys, they molest boys, if they have access to girls, they molest girls, if they have access to both, they molest both.
ReplyDeleteAND EVEN IF
Barber is correct. Let's say for the sake of argument that Sandusky is gay, even though he's married to a woman....he's a CLOSETED GAY.
Notice how NONE of the pedophiles that attack boys admit to being gay or have a gay history? There's never any adult men stepping forward to say "yeah, we dated".
So, if you want to layer anything about homosexuality into this----even though the research shows there's nothing gay about pedophilia---- you would have to acknowledge that OUT gay men aren't an issue, that the perps are ALL closeted gays. Leading to yet another reason why the closet is so harmful.
But of course, Barber won't follow that line of thinking to that fair conclusion.
Thank you, Jason. I've been saying as much for some time-- even if the religious right wants to ignore social science, playing by their invented rules does nothing to change the fact that out, gay men are not the problem.
ReplyDeleteBryan Fischer's been spewing the same narrative as Barber, claiming on Twitter that Sandusky justifies the BSA policy against allowing openly gay people to serve as leaders. For whatever reason, he never responded when I pointed out that Sandusky would have been allowed by that policy to serve as a Scoutmasterright up to the day he was caught (possibly until he was convicted).
Only in the twisted minds of the anti-gay religious right does a crime committed by a heterosexual man and covered up by heterosexual men reflect poorly on the gay community.
ReplyDelete