Four times the Family Research Council falsely connected homosexuality and pedophilia

Statements like this from FRC president Tony Perkins have been absent during the latest Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.

In this recent and awful scandal regarding the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, one thing I am glad about is how silent the anti-LGBTQ evangelical right haVE been. That bunch is known for exploiting situations like this to push a  false connection between homosexuality and pedophilia. I'm not stupid enough to think that this is due to them not wanting to. They have done it in the past. Case in point is the Family Research Council. Below, I give four examples of FRC connecting homosexuality and pedophilia, even in light of the fact that researchers and science have said otherwise:

April 2010: Family Research Council accuses gays of pedophilia without any proof - In exploiting a Catholic Church molestation scandal in 2010, FRC head Tony Perkins cites the abstract of a 1988 study in order to blame gay men. But the abstract doesn't prove his point.

December 2010: FRC: Scientists Refuse to Accept Clear “Correlation Between Homosexuality and Pedophilia” - Without any proof to back up their claims, FRC president Tony Perkins and Senior Fellow Peter Sprigg charge that there is a correlation between homosexuality and pedophilia, but scientists refuse to accept it. I should point out that neither Perkins nor Sprigg have a background in science nor have either of them conducted any scientific studies of any type. 

February 2011: Family Research Council pulling the 'gay = promiscuous pedophiles' card to defend DOMA - This is an old tactic which a few religious right groups used in the past to demonize the LGBTQ community -  attacking the concept of marriage equality by citing studies having nothing to do with marriage equality. And what's worse, they would cherry pick the study they cite.  In this case, FRC  distorted a study on child molestation and another on casual gay relationships and HIV in the Netherlands.  

 February 2013: Perkins: ‘Ironic’ That Critics of Pedophilia in Catholic Church Want Boy Scouts to Lift Gay Ban - Again exploiting the scandal of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, FRC president Tony Perkins accuses gays of wanting to be involved in the Boy Scouts to have "influence" on "impressionable children."

What's probably different this time is FRC's nauseatingly cozy relationship with the Trump Administration. For fear of losing this relationship,  FRC is most likely downplaying any claims by the Southern Poverty Law Center that it's a hate group determined to undermine LGBTQ equality.  This means no succumbing to the temptation of exploiting a scandal to paint gay men as sexually abusive monsters.

That's all well and good, FRC. But you can't run away from your past.


Graphic of Tony Perkins taken from Gay Central Valley

News brief special - American Catholics attempting to blame the LGBTQ community for major child sex abuse scandal

William Donohue is one of the American Catholic leaders attempting to blame the latest child molestation scandal on gays. 

Scathing report reveals 300 Pennsylvania Catholic priests sexually abused over 1,000 children - THIS is a goddamn disgrace. And why not exacerbate this mess by blaming the LGBTQ community.

Catholic Cardinal: ‘Homosexual culture’ is to blame for child rape - Oh yeah there it is.

American Catholic leaders blame the Pennsylvania sex abuse scandal on gays - We've seen it before.

Cardinal blames ‘homosexual culture’ for Catholic Church’s child sex abuse problem - More details about this bullshit.

For those who NEED education on how homosexuality and pedophilia are in no way related or correlated: 

Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation

Homosexuality and Pedophila: The False Link

Milo Yiannopoulos and the Myth of the Gay Pedophile

Hate group quietly working to shut the LGBTQ community out of every aspect of public life

How do we know that the Alliance Defending Freedom is a hate group? Simply take a look at some of the cases it has defended in front of the courts.

Zack Ford of ThinkProgress did and this is what he found:

When the SPLC designated ADF an anti-LGBTQ hate group, it published a thoroughly researched document outlining the many reasons it had earned that designation, notably including its support for criminalizing homosexuality in the U.S. and abroad. Last month, Media Matters released an even more comprehensive report cataloging ADF’s history of extreme, demonizing rhetoric directed towards the LGBTQ community. But ADF’s work also speaks for itself. 

ThinkProgress surveyed approximately 30 of the group’s current and most recent court cases and found a desire to shut LGBTQ people out of almost every aspect of public life.

In cases involving employment discrimination, the so-called right to discriminate specifically against the LGBTQ community, and attacks on transgender students in high schools, ADF has taken the lead in arguing for the point of view which would reduce the rights of the LGBTQ community and expose trans youth to danger. Particularly in the case of trans youth, ADF heavily pushes the false idea that they are a danger to other students:

 . . . when the Obama Justice Department sued North Carolina for enforcing its discriminatory HB2 law, ADF countersued on behalf an anonymous coalition of parents and students called “North Carolinians for Privacy.” They argued that the courts should rule against the federal government because “the female University Students are deeply concerned that allowing biological male students into their private facilities increases the likelihood that they will be assaulted or otherwise victimized.” 

This fear-mongering — that trans kids are inherently a threat to their peers — has been at the core of their other cases: 

Doe v. Boyertown Area School District, where ADF represented a group of parents and students challenging a Pennsylvania school’s transgender-inclusive policy. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled against ADF this summer. 

Maday v. Township High School District 211 and Students and Parents for Privacy v. United States Department of Education, a pair of cases in which ADF represented a group of parents challenging an Illinois school’s policy respecting transgender students. A federal judge denied ADF a preliminary injunction in December and the case is ongoing. 

Board of Education of the Highland Local School District v. United States Department of Education, in which ADF represented an Ohio school that refused to accommodate a transgender student. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit agreed with a federal judge to protect the transgender student, the case was later dismissed after mediation. 

Privacy Matters v. United States Department of Education, in which ADF represented parents who objected to a transgender student at their Minnesota school. Curiously, ADF dropped the case after the Trump administration rescinded the guidance protecting transgender students, even though the school’s policies didn’t change. 

These cases do not account for the work ADF does spreading anti-trans propaganda in local church communities, peddling an anti-trans model policy to schools, drafting state legislation similar to HB2 to impose such policies writ large, and sending schools legal threats for having inclusive policies or disciplining anti-trans teachers.

Ford also said that even in cases in which ADF doesn't take the lead, it finds a way to interject:

Even when ADF isn’t the lead counsel on a case related to LGBTQ issues, it often finds a way to shoehorn in by representing groups who file amicus briefs (“friend of the court” briefs) in these cases. This gives ADF another opportunity to advocate against LGBTQ legal equality, and they even list these cases on their website as if they’re actually a party to them.

You can read Ford's entire article here. It is imperative that the LGBTQ community educate ourselves and others on the Alliance Defending Freedom or it will succeed in its goal of shutting us out.