Fourteen times the religious right have been caught lying about science to denigrate the LGBTQ community

On Thursday, this blog reported about a study which said there is no one  single 'gay gene,' "but that a complex mix of genetics and environment affects whether a person has same-sex sexual partners."

At the time, I  said that the religious right (or as I like to call them - the anti-LGBTQ industry) will cherry-pick and distort the study to make  negative accusations about our community. And it turns out that I was right:

From LGBTQNation:

The right wing, especially the religious right, have struggled with the science around sexual orientation, especially genetics. Faced with the argument that people are born gay, the right has argued that the science was questionable, and in any case, it didn’t matter. 

“Studies have suggested a genetic link to alcoholism, to violence, and even to adultery,” Pastor Robert Jeffress, one of President Trump’s biggest boosters, has said. “But are we willing to excuse those behaviors on the basis of ‘my genes made me do it’? I don’t think so." 

But in light of a massive new study finding that the genetics behind orientation are complex and not defined by a single gene, the right is turning cartwheels. The study found that many genes play a role in determining someone’s orientation, as did social and environmental factors. Moreover, the study authors made a point of saying that being gay is “natural.” 

What the religious right heard was that genetics are a minor consideration, at best, and that they were right all along.

Aside from spinning horror stories  and anecdotes about gays wanting to "recruit" children or "imprison" Christians, groups such as the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family and other affiliated organizations and individuals have relied on either distorted or cherry-picked science over the decades to make the case that supposedly homosexuality is an "unhealthy lifestyle."

While the junk science generally comes from discredited groups groups, such as the American College of Pediatricians or Christian Medical and Dental Associations,  or discredited researchers and physicians (Paul McHugh or Paul Cameron), cherry-picked science comes from legitimate research. Inappropriately anointed "policy analysts" such as Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, take out portions of studies and skewer them to denigrate the LGBTQ community, regardless of the fact that in its original context the portions didn't speak negatively about the community.

This generally gets these religious right and "morality" groups in trouble because legitimate researchers and Ph.Ds (usually the authors of the studies in question) publicly complain that their work has been misused. The irony is when this happens, the groups either quietly cease citing the research or ignores the complaints while continuing to distort the work.

On at least 14 occasions, religious right groups and personalities have been called out for distorting science to denigrate the LGBTQ community.

1. In 2007, the The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine  (SAHM) called out Dr. Michelle Cretella, the president of the American College of Pediatricians (ACEP), for a piece she wrote which attacked the transgender community. ACEP  is an organization deemed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for how it attempts to legitimatize anti-LGBTQ lies under the veneer of science. SAHM called out eight errors and distortions  Cretella made in her piece.

2. In 2012, Seton Hall professor Dr. Theodora Sirota complained that Rick Fitzgibbons of the NARTH (the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) misused her work to make the case that children in same sex households are not raised better than children "in stable homes with a mother and a father."

3. In 2011, Tom Minnery, a spokesman from Focus on the Family, was dressed down by Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) during a Congressional hearing for deliberately misrepresenting a study. Minnery initially used the study to claim, as Fitzgibbons did in his misrepresentation, that same-sex households are inferior to two parent mother/father households.

4. In 2010, John Horgan, a science journalist and Director of the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology, also complained about how his work was being distorted.

5. National Institute of Health director Francis Collins called out the right-wing American College of Pediatricians for falsely claiming that he stated sexual orientation is not hardwired by DNA.

6. Six researchers of a 1997 Canadian study (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. Shaughnessy, Julio Montaner, and Martin T. Schehter), complained in 2001 that religious right groups were distorting their work to claim that gay men have a short life span.

7. The authors of the book Unequal Opportunity: Health Disparities Affecting Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States (Professors Richard J. Wolitski, Ron Stall, and Ronald O. Valdiserri), complained that their work was being distorted by Focus on the Family.

8. University College London professor Michael King complained that the American Family Association was distorting his work on depression and suicide in LGBT individuals

9. University of Utah professor Lisa Diamond said that NARTH (the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality), a group which also share board members with the American College of Pediatricians, distorted her research on sexual orientation.

10. Dr. Carol Gilligan, Professor of Education and Law at New York University complained that former Focus on the Family head James Dobson misrepresented her research to attack LGBT families.

 11. Dr. Kyle Pruett, Ph.D., a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, also complained that Focus on the Family distorted his work.

12. Dr. Robert Spitzer, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, has consistently complained that religious right groups distorted his study to claim that the LGBT orientation is easily changeable.  

13. Judith Stacey, Professor of Sociology at New York University, has had to, on more than one occasion, cry foul over how religious right groups distorted her work on LGBT families.

14. Greg Remafedi, Professor at the University of Minnesota, complained several times about how religious right groups such as the American College of Pediatricians have distorted his work.

So as far as I'm concerned, how they are twisting the recent study is irrelevant. The actual story, which seems to always be ignored, is how many times members of the religious right have been bearing false witness against the LGBTQ community via the deliberate distortion of scientific information. And how silence about this breach of their own religious code is allowing them to get away with it.