Monday, February 11, 2013

FRC recycles failed DADT predictions to attack gays in the Boy Scouts

Ever since the Boy Scouts hinted about a decision to do away with its "no gays allowed" policy, the Family Research Council has been working the talk shows and sending out emails with portents of doom of what will happen if this takes place.

 But as Carlos Maza from Equality Matters points out, there is something pathetically familiar about these talking points.

They were the same ones FRC used to against the DADT repeal. Unsuccessfully, I might add. What's more, now that DADT has been repealed since 2010, none of their predictions of doom have come true.

Maza points out three failed predictions. Allow me to spotlight one:

“Gays Will Increase The Rate Of Sexual Assault”

FRC on the Boy Scouts’ ban:
So what exactly is the incentive?... Is it safety? Because unless something changed in the last seven months, the Scouts are still dealing with the fallout of more than 2,000 cases of child molestation with the current policy in place! Can they honestly tell parents that entrusting little boys to men with same-sex attractions is somehow going to reduce the incidence of child sexual abuse?
FRC on DADT repeal:
The military already has a serious problem with sexual assault by homosexuals. If the current law against homosexuality in the military is overturned, the problem of same-sex sexual assault in the military is sure to increase.

For the other two, check out Maza's post. He ends it by saying:

In the case of DADT, not a single one of FRC’s doomsday predictions turned out to be anything more than baseless fear mongering – motivated by the group’s extreme anti-gay animus. FRC demonstrated that, when it comes to serious policy analysis, it doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously.

So what’s changed?

Now that the Boy Scouts’ final decision on its gay ban has been postponed until May, it’s likely that media outlets will get another opportunity to cover the controversy. When they do, they should ask how groups like FRC have any credibility when it comes to predicting the consequences of repealing the ban.

No comments: