Anti-gay activist defends lies, falsely accuses me of advocating violence

On Friday, I raised holy hell against 'Porno' Pete LaBarbera and a gay man, Walter Lee Hampton, III because of a video pushed by Hampton saying if he had children, he would not allow his sons around gay men because supposedly a lot of us "go after" boys between the ages of 13-17.

My anger was at LaBarbera for doing what he usually does - attacking the lgbt community via lies and distortions - and Hampton for using his unfortunate personal experiences to demonize all gay men, many of whom are excellent fathers to their children and would not even think of harming a child.

Today, I discovered that Hampton's claim and LaBarbera has a defender.  Supposed ex-gay D.L. Foster took it upon himself to not only make a poor attempt to correct me but also imply that I want some harm to come to LaBarbera

Grab your mask, your hazmat clothing, and your wading boats because the crap this child throws is deep.

For the benefit of you who do not know, Foster is yet another "true believer" in the lie that there is supposedly a "homosexual agenda" afoot. That being the case, he thinks that anything coming out of his mouth scourging the lgbt community is somehow positive. He likes to invoke Satan a lot when talking about lgbts and has expressed the desire for America to criminalize homosexuality.

Foster has also compared himself to Harriet Tubman  (yes the poster you see comes from him) and has compared lgbt activists to slave owners and the Klan.

Such a charming fellow. You just know his defense of implying that all gay men are pedophiles will be plausible and intelligent . . . that is if you were half high on U.F.O. fumes. Foster offers only a snark-filled response which is more comical than serious. The only halfway decent plausible part of his defense is the following. And I say halfway because it explodes into an absolutely ridiculous harangue on alleged "sex-hungry diseased older gay men:"

In the U.S., it is estimated that two young people (age 13-25) are infected with HIV each hour.”– Youth Report 2000, White House Office of National AIDS Policy.

“More than five young people worldwide contract HIV every minute — that’s 7,000 people each day, and more than 2.6 million each year. Half of all new HIV infections occur in young people ages 15-24, with one-third of all currently infected individuals in this age group.”– Advocates for Youth, March 15, 2001

“More than 300,000 people in the U.S. are living with AIDS, 4,300 of them are children or youth.”– CDC Report, 2001

So how are all these youth getting infected so early? Are other youth infecting them? That doesn’t seem plausible. Mislabled “gay teens” are like baby chicks among a throng of foxes. They are largely unprotected from the dangers of sexual manipulation of older homosexual males. While they claim to be protecting them from heterosexual homophobia, suicide and other social ills, the truth is that its just a tactic to herd them into the arms of infected sexual deviants.

So Foster lists a lot of statistics regarding gay youth and HIV and then creates a causation between that and the idea that older gay men are infecting these youth.

However, you won't find the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) talking about a so-called epidemic or throng of older men infecting youth with HIV because such a high profile vulgarity doesn't exist, except for in the mind of Foster, LaBarbera and ignorant folks who either choose to believe them or help them along this path of thought.

When it comes to HIV/AIDS, the CDC has pointed to several factors including poverty, discrimination, stigma and homophobia, a prevalence of HIV and other STDs in a community, higher rates of undiagnosed/untreated STDs, higher rates of incarceration among men,  and language barrier.

Specifically regarding lgbt youth, the CDC says:

 Research published in the journal Pediatrics found significantly higher rates of mental and physical health problems among LGBT young adults who experienced high levels of rejection from their parents while they were adolescents. Compared with LGBT young adults who experienced very little or no parental rejection, LGBT young adults who experienced high levels of rejection were

• Nearly 6 times as likely to have high levels of depression;
• More than 8 times as likely to have attempted suicide;
• More than 3 times as likely to use illegal drugs; and
• More than 3 times as likely to engage in unprotected sexual behaviors that put them at increased risk for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

The CDC also points to lack of awareness, early sexual activity, sexual abuse (to males and females - and the fact sheet does not give a gender or sexual orientation of the abuser), and substance abuse as factors. But nowhere does the CDC place any blame on older gay men for rate of HIV in youth.

This is not to say that there are not cases in which some people with HIV - both gay and straight - are irresponsibly infecting others. However to jump to a bad generalization about any group (lgbts, heterosexuals, people with HIV of any orientation) based on these incidents is  wrong. Just as Hampton's generalization regarding gay men was a bad extrapolation based on his own alleged personal experiences, Foster's generalization is also an awful extrapolation based on his personal homophobia.

Then Foster gets extremely bizarre. He claims that I advocated violence against LaBarbera:

McEwen was very upset  Hampton spilled the beans about the pederastic pursuits of some adult gay men. He even urged Hampton to  “most of all, do something about that fool Peter LaBarbera”  referring to AFTAH president, who blogged about the video.  Its not clear if McEwen was urging violence, but it certainly seems as if he wants some harm to come to Mr. LaBarbera.

Nope. This is what I said. I was answering Hampton when he raged on my blog about me supposedly misinterpreting his words:

Don't start throwing shade at me, Walter simply you started something you can't finish. I'm not twisting your words, I am simply responding to what you said. And I might point out that you make ugly generalizations about straight men too. Perhaps you should do a couple of things such as change the title of your video, temper your comments the next time you feel the need to preach, and most of all, do something about that fool Peter LaBarbera who used YOUR video and YOUR words to attack all gay men. You see that is the BIG problem. No matter how you attempt to temper what you said, no matter how many addendums and provisos you seek to attach, the fact of the matter is that you published a video which made nasty generalizations about gay men, a video which a twisted homophobe is now using to harm innocent people. 

Only in the twisted world of silly homophobes can my words be taken as me advocating violence against LaBarbera.  Let me make it clearer just in case someone may feel a need to make this an anti-gay meme. I do not believe in violence to further any points I make. Not as a tactic, not as a position, and especially not as a defense. As much as I despise the lies pushed by anti-gay groups and their spokespeople, I would never advocate any violence of any stripe towards any of them. If any time I ever did, I would stop blogging because any advocating of violence is a personal violation of my beliefs, principles, and a slap against my personal integrity. This battle over lgbt equality is about love and truth. It's not a war fought on a battlefield with weapons exploding in the air and bloody bodies strewn all about.  Those of us fighting for lgbt equality are fighting against violence, whether it be physical violence given out by homophobic mobs or spiritual violence doled out by homophobic activists

When I advised Hampton to "do something," I meant possibly sending a strong email of condemnation to LaBarbera for exploiting his video. The grand irony is that Hampton did follow one bit of advice. He changed the title of the video from “I Would Not Let My Teenage Sons Around Gay Men!” to  "I would be careful allowing my teenage sons or daughters around ADULT MEN."

I'm not necessarily agreeable to Hampton smearing all adult men - particularly in light of the fact that adult women can also be pedophiles - but I give him props for recognizing the error even if he probably can't stand the way I pointed it out.

But this entire thing is a hot mess, isn't it? There may be some who fault me for even writing a post about Hampton in the first place and they may have a point about just ignoring such nonsense.

But I can't just ignore it. I don't like attacks on lgbts of any stripe. I don't like it when we are attacked, demonized, or have any stigma put on us. I don't like it because I've seen what allowing this to happen can do to the morale of lgbts, myself included. I've seen talented men taken out of the prime of their lives, not because they were victims of physical violence, but because the words and attitudes of the so-called moral people ripped and tore at their confidence and self-worth until there was nothing left.

If folks don't like what I say, don't cry. Don't whine about me not showing "tolerance."

Just remember that old adage:

"Don't start none and there won't be none."