Dave Agema controversy gets worse for lgbt community

The lgbt community really needs to pay attention to the Dave Agema situation in Michigan because it's just gotten worse. Agema, a state Republican leader, caught a lot of negative attention recently for posting outdated information about the lgbt community on his Facebook page.

Agema has not only refused to take back what he said, in spite of the fact that folks have complained about the inaccuracy of the information, but he has also put up a petition claiming that he  "will dig in and fight even harder to defend our conservative values from these attacks by liberals in the media, and even in our own party." Today, two state Republicans, Ken Yonker, of Caledonia, and Thomas Hooker, of Byron Center, signed the petition.

According to a Michigan newspaper:

Yonker, who began his second term this year, signed the petition on March 30. On the petition, Yonker thanked Agema for "bringing forward the negative struggles the gay life style [sic] brings." He also linked to factsaboutyouth.com, a website that among other things contends homosexuals are more at-risk of contracting STDs, more likely to suffer from mental illness, less apt to be monogamous and likelier to live shorter lives.

"I encourage all to learn more this struggle some live with, so we can understand and help them," Yonker wrote on the petition before linking to the website, which also includes information about "change therapies" for homosexuals.

There is one problem

Facts About Youth contains the same tired lies and misinformation about the gay community found on almost every religious right web page and repeated by almost every religious right talking head. The following are just a few:

1.  Facts About Youth repeats the claim that Dr. Francis Collins stated that homosexuality is not hardwired by DNA. The truth is that Francis Collins never said that. In fact, Dr. Collins said his words were being distorted:

The words . . .  all come from the Appendix to my book “The Language of God” (pp. 260-263), but have been juxtaposed in a way that suggests a somewhat different conclusion that I intended. I would urge anyone who is concerned about the meaning to refer back to the original text.

2. Facts About Youth repeats the lie that  the Robert Spitzer study proves that homosexuality is changeable, excluding the fact that Spitzer has said on more than one occasion that his research was being distorted.

3. Facts About Youth mentions the term "gay bowel syndrome," even though it does not exist.

4. Facts About Youth repeats the lie that a Canadian study proves that gay men have a short life span, even though the researchers of the study said that their work was being distorted.

I don't know what's worse about this situation. The fact that people who are going to be voting on lgbt issues is spreading this bad information or that the lgbt community and our leadership seem to be clueless about raising a fuss over it.