Permeation of Lies

It is extremely important to expose the anti-gay industry. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few, the mainstream gay advocacy groups don't seem to devote that much energy with putting people like Dobson, LaBarbera, and Sheldon on the defensive. They seem to be busy with "winning the hearts and minds" of America.

While "winning hearts and minds" and taking the high road per see is a good thing, ignoring your enemy when they take shots at you could be very detrimental.

Especially when the ammunition is as bad as the studies the anti-gay industry uses to demonize us.

Maybe we need more Genghises than Gandhis

A perfect example is the following press release I wrote detailing how the anti-gay industry is using the "Day of Truth" event to get school children to spread propaganda about the gay community:

‘Day of Truth’ or ‘Day of Lies?’
Religious right organizations continue to lie in order to demonize the gay community

April 20, 2006 --According to the Allied Defense Fund and other so-called "pro family" groups, the "Day of Truth" is created to counter the success of GLSEN’s "Day of Silence" and to tell supposed truths about homosexuality.
Apparently truth to the Allied Defense Fund means passing out incorrect information about the gay community.
"The information they are giving out that supposedly tells the truth about homosexuality are nothing but lies," said researcher Alvin McEwen.
McEwen has studied so-called "pro family" studies and research papers pertaining to the gay community. He claims to have found a pattern of deception. According to him, the information those supporting "Day of Truth" are giving out is no different.

They also invite people to give out this information during the "Day of Truth."
McEwen points to a handout offered on the "Day of Truth" webpage entitled The Ten Big Myths of Homosexual Behavior:
"homosexual behavior are at much higher risk for many sexually transmitted diseases, including not just HIV, but also syphilis, gonorrhea, human papilloma virus (HPV), hepatitis, chlamydia, and a whole group of infections called "gay bowel syndrome."
"Gay bowel syndrome" is an obsolete medical term that is no longer used by any credible physician. According to an April 8, 2005 edition of the Washington Blade, the Centers for Disease Control does not even recognize the term.
In another handout, Homosexuality FAQ Sheet, is the following charge:
"The Centers for Disease Control have found that 60 percent of new cases of HIV infection are men who have had sex with men, and also that the number of homosexual men who admittedly neglect to use condoms is rising. Homosexual victims of AIDS, they found, had an average 1,100 sexual partners in their lifetimes. They estimated that 30 percent of 20-year-old homosexual men will be HIV positive or dead before they reach their thirtieth birthday."
"There are so many inaccuracies in that statement," McEwen said. "The main thing is that the gay lifespan claim is a lie."
McEwen points to an article in the June 17, 2005 edition of the Washington Blade. In this article, Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention told the newspaper:
"[The CDC] does not collect statistics on the lifespan of gay men. While gay men continue to be severely impacted by HIV and AIDS, AIDS-related death data cannot be used to indicate that homosexual men live shorter lives than heterosexual men overall."
"The anti-gay industry are like cockroaches." McEwen said. "For every lie that they tell that you spot, there are probably five others you didn’t see. The sad thing is that well meaning people of faith, especially children, are going to repeat these lies."

Paul Cameron, the Traditional Values Coalition, a little game that I like to call "Time Line"


Paul Cameron is a controversial "researcher," who has provided the anti-gay industry with much of its propaganda.

He has also been censured countless times for the misuse of his colleagues' work - http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron.html

Paul Cameron is useful to people like Peter LaBarbera, Robert Knight, Lou Sheldon, and James Dobson because of the lies he tells. Even when they repudiate his work, the anti-gay industry still finds him useful:


July 31, 2005

"(Paul)Cameron's work is controversial even among conservative groups. For example, the Traditional Values Coalition claims to speak for 43,000 churches. For three years, the coalition has quoted Cameron's studies on its website in an article headlined, ''Report Shows Homosexual Foster Parents Apt To Molest Children," and has told its membership to 'read and distribute Dr. Cameron's report.'

But when The Boston Globe asked the Traditional Values Coalition last week about Cameron, the group responded within minutes by removing all references to Cameron from its website. The group's spokeswoman, Daniella Lopez, said Cameron's research had been ''mistakenly" put on the website." - Beliefs Drive Research Agenda of Think Tanks, The Boston Globe


March 31, 2006

I order a copy of Traditional Values Coalition head Lou Sheldon's The Agenda. One of the passages from The Agenda is as follows:

"In 1993 and 1994, Dr. Paul Cameron conducted an important study of the mortality rates of homosexuals . . . what he found ws that the median age of death was the late thirties for those who acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). For those who had not developed AIDS, the median age of death was only slightly longer, in their early forties."


September 12

While The Agenda was published before the Boston Globe interview, neither Sheldon nor his organization has made any type of public comment regarding the usage of Cameron's work in The Agenda. Nor is it known whether or not the Traditional Values Coalition issued any type of recall of The Agenda.


September 12

The report, Exposed:Homosexual Child Molesters, remains on the Traditional Values Coalition webpage. The report contains these two passages:

“Drs. Freund and Heasman of the Clark Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto reviewed two studies on child molesters and calculated that 34% and 32% of sex offenders were homosexual. In cases these doctors handled, 36% of the molesters were homosexual.”

“In 1987, Dr. Stephen Rubin of Whitman College conducted a ten-state study of sex abuse cases involving school teachers. He studied 199 cases. Of those, 122 male teachers had molested girls, while 14 female teachers had molested boys. He also discovered that 59 homosexual male teachers had molested boys and female homosexual teachers had molested girls. In other words, 32 percent of those child molestation cases involved homosexuals. Nearly a third of these cases come from 1-2 percent of the population.”

Now check out these two passages from Paul Cameron's study, Child Molestation and Homosexuality:

“Drs. Freund and Heasman of the Clark Institute of Psychiatry in Toronto reviewed two sizeable studies and calculated that 34% and 32% of the offenders against children were homosexual. In cases they had personally handled, homosexuals accounted for 36% of their 457 pedophiles"

“In 1987, Dr. Stephen Rubin, associate professor of psychology at Whitman College, conducted a 10 state survey and found 199 sexual abuse cases involving teachers. 122 male teachers had abused female pupils and 14 female teachers had abused male students. In 59 cases, however, male teachers had abused male pupils and in 4 cases, female teachers had abused female students (overall 32% were homosexual).”

To paraphrase Rod Serling, "nothing more to be said here."

More on Timothy Dailey

Yesterday's revelation that Peter LaBarbera used a bad fallacy about the gay men and pedophilia via Family Research Council member Timothy Dailey only scratches the surface.

Throwing out lies against the gay community is not a new thing to Mr. Dailey. Dailey has spread negative propaganda about the gay community on many instances and every time he has taken the guise of a concerned Ph.D. when doing it.

Dailey has a Ph.D. in religion. With all due respect, he should have a Ph.D. in lying.

A perfect example is a study he created entitled Comparing the Lifestyles of Homosexual Couples to Married Couples (http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS04C02).

If there is one example of this study that proves Dailey's shoddy work and lack of credibility, it has to be in the portion where he compares the promiscuity levels of gay and straight couples.

Let me break it down in a nutshell for you:

Dailey’s theory - Homosexual couples are less monogamous than heterosexual married couples

Dailey’s examples of married heterosexual couples:

A nationally representative survey of 884 men and 1,288 women published in the Journal of Sex Research in 1997

Another 1997 national survey appearing in the Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States

A telephone survey conducted for Parade magazine of 1,049 adults selected to represent the demographic characteristics of the United States published in 1994.

Dailey’s examples of homosexual couples:

A Dutch study of gay men in steady and casual partnerships in the Netherlands. The researcher, Dr. Maria Xiridou, took her data for this study from the Amsterdam Cohort Studies (ACS). The ACS collected data between the years of 1984-2000. http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,003.htm

(One more thing: same-sex marriage was legalized in the Netherlands in 2001)

Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, published in 1979. The authors of the study, Bell and Weinberg went on record saying that their study was not indicative of all gay couples. Their exact words, which is included in the book are: ". . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlike that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals."

A study of the sexual profiles of 2,583 older homosexuals published in the Journal of Sex Research published in 1997. The study included homosexual men in other countries. More than three quarters of men were born in Australia or New Zealand (78.1%), a high number of the men were from United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe (19.5%) and a small percentage of men surveyed were from other countries (Asia, Africa, Oceania, North, Central or South America - 2.3%).

A survey conducted by gay magazine Genre. Dailey did not study the results himself, but received them from a web page created by your friend and mine, Peter LaBarbera.

Dailey is clearly creating piecemeal trash.

In the first place, the Dutch study is not a fair comparison with any the three examples used for heterosexual couples because the data was collected over a span of 16 years (for gays who were not even married or counted as monogamous) in contrast with a span of one year (married heterosexual couples).

Also, all surveys for heterosexual couples originated in the United States, while the studies featuring gays were mostly from other countries. Lesbians are not even included.

The truly sad thing is that these studies are repeated by other so-called "pro family" groups and supporters as proof of the "abnormality" of the gay community.

How sad indeed.

What exactly is a "headless monster?"
Peter LaBarbera shows us the way

I had no intention of posting today but I saw something that must be brought to everyone's attention.

Peter LaBarbera considers himself a "pro family" activist but it would seem that he is consumed with talking about what he feels is the worst in the gay community. Apparently he feels that negative images in the gay community are indicative of the entire community at large. This is much like how a member of the Ku Klux Klan would feel that any African-American who is a criminal is indicative of the Black community at large.

In Peter's zeal, he has created a site entitled "Americans for Truth." The name of the site is pretty ironic because truth is not what Peter is after.

A good friend of mine, Joe Brummer (his site is linked below) has demonstrated Peter's desire to stigmatize the gay community with propaganda.

On the site Americans for Truth, Peter features a piece written by Family Research Council member Timothy Dailey entitled Homosexuality and Child Abuse. This piece pushes the theory that gays molest children at a higher level because:

a. a majority of pedophiles are male

b. a majority of child molestation victims are male

Therefore, gay men are molesting children at a higher rate.

WRONG!

Now Joe deconstructs Dailey's lies perfectly with credible information but I want to get a little taste of this argument because of several facts that I want to make people aware of regarding Dailey's study.

In the first place, Dailey got into trouble for his study. Apparently, he distorted a legitimate study to come to his conclusion. You see, Dailey's theory has an unsavory beginning.

His theory that gay men molest children at high rate is not original. It was first thought of by a man by the name of Paul Cameron.

Many of us know about Cameron and his lies. He has been censored numerous times by medical organizations for misusing his colleagues' work.

One person whose work he misused was Dr. A. Nicholas Groth.

Groth, director of the Sex Offender Program at the Connecticut Department of Corrections, complained to the Nebraska Board of Examiners of Psychologists about Cameron’s usage of his work. Groth said:

“(Cameron) misrepresents my findings and distorts them to advance his homophobic views. I make a very clear distinction in my writing between pedophilia and homosexuality, noting that adult males who sexually victimize young boys are either pedophilic or heterosexual, and that in my research I have not found homosexual men turning away from adult partners to children. . . I consider this totally unprofessional behavior on the part of Dr. Cameron and I want to bring this to your attention. He disgraces his profession." - http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/Articles/000,010.htm

In 1978, Groth had interviewed 175 men who had been convicted of child molestation in Massachusetts. He found that none of them had an exclusively homosexual relationship. They were either exclusively heterosexual, a bisexual with a predominantly heterosexual orientation, or a fixated pedophile with no sexual interest in adults

Furthermore, Groth had said that homosexuality and pedophilia are not related:

"...(I)t is a faulty assumption that if an adult male selects a young boy as his victim, his sexual orientation is homosexual. We found that some (73, or 49%) offenders responded exclusively to children---boys, girls, or both---and showed no interest in adults or age-mates for sexual gratification. These men were pedophile in the true sense of the word.”

Now here is the connection between Dailey and Cameron's studies:

In 2002, Groth complained about Dailey's study for the same reason he complained about Cameron's work:

June 10, 2002
Timothy J. Dailey, Ph.D.
FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL
801 G Street N.W.
Washington, DC 2001
Dear Dr. Dailey:
On the web site www.frc.org you reference my work in your article on "Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse". I am writing you to object to my name and research being associated in any way, shape, or form to lend legitimacy to the views proposed in your paper.
If you are, in fact, familiar with my research, you must realize that my studies have indicated that homosexual males pose less risk of sexual harm to children (both male and female)--from both an absolute and a percentage incidence rate--than heterosexual males. Your statement that "the evidence indicates that disproportionate numbers of gay men seek adolescent males or boys as sexual partners" appears to come from the assumption that if an adult male is attracted to a male child, this adult male's sexual orientation is ipso facto homosexual.
Since your report, in my view, misrepresents the facts of what we know about this matter from scientific investigation, and does not indicate that my studies on this topic reach conclusions diametrically opposed to yours, I would appreciate your removing any reference to my work in your paper lest it appear to the reader that my research supports your views.
Yours truly,
A. Nicholas Groth, Ph.D.

http://www.hrc.org/Content/ContentGroups/News_Releases/20021/Researcher_Cited_in_Anti-Gay_Report_Criticizes_the_Study_as_Biased_and_Misleading.htm


What Peter LaBarbera did by repeating Dailey's study is repeat a "headless monster." A "headless monster" is a story or urban legend that, despite being constantly refuted, continues to be repeated as truth due to the prejudices of the person repeating it and the person or group he is repeating it to.

For shame Peter!

"Americans for Truth" my pinkie toe!

Dehumanizing semantics and the anti-gay industry

One of the points I make in my upcoming book are about the six propaganda techniques the anti-gay industry uses against the gay community.

One of these techniques is a bit more sinister than the others. In essence, the anti-gay industry seeks to strip gays and lesbians of their humanity in the eyes of the public. To them, it is not enough to declare that homosexuality is against God’s will. These groups manufacture illusions of cabals and invisible enemies; nameless and faceless gay legions out to “destroy” American values and morals.

To further this incorrect notion, members of the anti-gay industry often use sound bites that are repeated until they become part of the verbal lexicon. They skillfully employ phrases that covertly push the idea that gays are outside of the mainstream. This serves to dehumanize their opposition. The following phrases have been used over and over again to describe the actions of the gay community and those viewed as their supporters:

“promoting homosexuality”
“marketing homosexuality”
“endorsing homosexuality”
“teaching homosexuality”
“homosexual activists”
“radical gay agenda”
“activist judges”
“forcing their agenda on us”
“pro homosexual”
“sodomy advocates”
“sodomy lobby”
“sexual anarchists”
“special rights”
“homosexual behavior”
“legitimizing their lifestyle”
“lifestyle”
“deadly lifestyle”
“death style”
“counterfeit marriage”
“aggressive minority of sexual deviants”
“homosexual indoctrination”
“gay militants”
“they are after our children”
“homosexuals can’t reproduce so they have to recruit”
“normalizing homosexuality”
“marketing their lifestyle to children”
“forcing their lifestyle”
“indoctrinating children”
“unelected judges”
“destructive lifestyle”
“pansexual”

The following passages in articles and press releases created by so-called "pro family groups demonstrate this point (the emphasis on the semantical words have been added by me):

“But unfortunately, the evangelist observes, many Christians have been bullied into submission on the aggressive homosexual agenda in public schools.” - Evangelist Composes to Combat Homosexual Agenda in Public Education, Agape Press, May 11, 2005

“Elsewhere in the battle against the homosexual agenda, the Broward County School Board in Florida has voted to allow a pro-homosexual group to indoctrinate its teachers on tolerance.” - Children Adopted by Homosexuals Suffer, Family Advocate Says, Agape Press, April 25, 2002

“The ACLU continues to use a law license to bully school districts and harass parents in order to brainwash their kids abut the ‘normalcy’ of homosexuality.” - Jan LaRue, ACLU Seeks Mandatory Homosexual Sensitivity Training, Concerned Women for America press release, July 14, 2005

“Homosexual activists are now beginning to openly admit that they don’t want to marry just to have a normal home life. They want same-sex marriage as a way of destroying the concept of marriage altogether and of introducing polygamy and polamory (group sex) as ‘families’” - Do Homosexuals Really Want the Right to Marry?, The Traditional Values Coalition.

For the third time in recent years, voters in Maine will go to the voting book to stop the homosexual agenda being (from) being forced on them by activists and their own legislature - Maine Activist Condemns Elitist Lawmakers Pushing Homosexual Agenda, the American Family Association, July 15, 2005

“One pro-family advocate feels the ACLU, in its efforts to force the homosexual agenda in American schools, is using the bullying tactics of Chairman Mao to ‘reprogram’ staff and students on the issue of homosexuality.” - Knight: ACLU’s Pro-Homosexual ‘Bullying’ Tactics Reminiscent of Chairman Mao, Agape Press, July 21, 2005

Homosexual Activists’ War Against the Christianity: Church seen as Main Obstacle Hindering Wholesale Acceptance of Homosexual Agenda - a headline from Agape Press, February 21, 2006

(Kevin) Hoeft says he will be monitoring how the school board responds when the local Gay Straight Alliances take part in the National Day of Silence, an event designed to increase the acceptance of homosexual sex among young people.” - Board ignores parents and their concerns over Campus GSA clubs, Agape Press, March 16, 2006

Pro-Homosexual Push Commonplace in Schools Coast to Coast, Homosexual Activists Transforming Public Schools into Propaganda Factories, Agape Press, July 24, 2006

This reminds me of a character in George Orwell's novel Animal Farm. The character, Squealer, used language in order to deceive others about the crimes of the ruling class.

We seem to have a lot of Squealers nowadays, but obviously they are clutching crosses.

Another naive so-called "pro family" activist needing to be exposed

This Monday, a conservative webpage published a perfect example of what the gay community needs to be fighting.

A freelance columnist, Marsha West, wrote what she probably felt to be a declaration of war against the forces of evil (Parents, Listen Up! - http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=17975)

Naturally we gays and lesbians were first on her list. Check out her first sentence:

"This is no longer a nation where kids can be kids anymore. The secular humanists have seen to that."

In a nutshell, it is the usual tripe about America being no longer a "moral nation, blah blah blah." But what is interesting is that she repeats a few pieces of anti-gay distortions that have made James Dobson and his ilk so powerful in the Republican Party.

Check out this tidbit:

Here’s a sobering statistic: The average life span for a “gay” man is in the mid 40s if AIDS fails to intervene, the late 30s-to-early-40s if it does. Does that sound like a healthy lifestyle? It boggles the mind to think that the high death rate among “gays” is being hidden from America’s kids on purpose. Children deserve to know the truth!

To paraphrase the late Ronald Reagan, there they go again.

Whenever members of the anti-gay industry and their supporters want to scare people of faith, they claim that gay men have short life spans.

That my friends, is a lie.

As a matter of fact, it will be my pleasure to make it the first lie of the anti-gay industry that I talk about in this blog.

In the first place, gay men do not have short life spans. When members of the anti-gay industry and their supporters make this claim, they generally point to one of two studies:

One study is by discredited "researcher" Paul Cameron. Cameron has no credibility amongst his colleagues because he has been censured on many occasions as well as dismissed from the APA in 1984 for distortion of his colleagues' work. - http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron_sheet.html

The second study is an Oxford/Canadian study that spoke purely on hypothetical terms. In 2001, the six original researchers went on record complaining that their work was being distorted by so-called "pro family" groups in order to demonize the gay community. - Gay Life Expectancy Revisited, International Journal of Epidemiology, http://ije.oupjournals.org/cgi/content/full/30/6/1499

In addition, the Centers for Disease Control have gone on record saying that they do not collect life span information on gay men. - www.washblade.com/print.cfm?content_id=5865

As it turns out, Ms. West's cite of the gay life span reeks of Cameron.

But this only scratches the surface.

One of Ms. West's links, the "Medical Downside of Homosexual Behavior," has numerous errors. It cites the study done by Robert Spitzer as proof that gays can change, but omits the fact that Spitzer has gone on record numerous times complaining about the misusage of his study by so-called "pro family" groups. - (www.exgaywatch.com/blog/archives/2006/06/spitzer_says_fo.html
www.glaad.org/media/np_archive_detail.php?id=369)


"The Medical Downside of Homosexual Behavior" also distorts a study from the Netherlands. The journal claims that according to the study, mental problems in the gay community cannot be attributed to homophobia. This is a misdirection.

Conveniently omitted in the citation of the study is the fact that the researchers said:

It is unclear to what extent findings from this Dutch study can be generalized to other cultures or nations. Compared with other Western countries, the Dutch social climate toward homosexuality has long been and remains considerably more tolerant. To the extent that the level of social acceptance of homosexuality induces differences in mental health status in relation to homosexuality, the observed differences might be greater in other Western countries than in the Netherlands.

With all due respect to Ms. West, she is a perfect example of well meaning people of faith allowing their egos to blind them as to how others are using them for personal gain. No doubt when she cited her distortions, Ms. West probably felt they were correct because they came from "Christian" sources.

But the ability to lie in order to enhance your argument is a very un-Christian characteristic.

For that matter, so is guillibility.

And yes Ms. West, that last comment was directed towards you.

Sept. 6, 2006

There are a bunch of organizations in this country who thrive on ignorance, fear, and a sense of entitlement.

They refer to themselves as "pro family" and even members of the gay community regard them as the religious right


With all due respect, I don't see them as that. They are an anti-gay industry who seeks to gain political power by building on the religious beliefs and ignorance of people of faith. And they have been pretty successful.

Central to this success are their so-called studies on the gay community. In order to prove that gays and lesbians should not have any protection of laws, they have created a written and oral pattern of deception that is not only blatant in its attempts but shameful in its audacity. In their zeal to prove the worst about the gay community, the anti-gay industry runs roughshod over science and truth. They have created a houses of pseudo-scientific studies based on distortions, lies, headless monsters, and legitimate studies taken out of context , which are then pushed by fake experts, Ph.D.s, conservative columnists and bloggers, and ignorant people of faith all willing to sacrifice their integrity on the altar of an alleged higher calling.

We know the claims these studies make:

gays have a short life span
gays molest children at a higher level than heterosexuals
lesbians abuse their partners at a high level
gays are more violent and are prone to crimes
gays are promiscuous and cannot handle the concept of marriage.

For two years, I have studied the methodologies of so-called "pro family" groups (i.e. Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, the Traditional Values Coalition, etc) and am glad to say that their claims are rooted in lies, outright deceptions, and legitimate studies with portions cherry picked out.

In 2007, I will publish my book, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, detailing just what how the anti-gay industry propagandizes about the gay community. Through this blog, I will publish some of my findings and update everyone as to the progress of my book. I will update this blog on a weekly basis.

Now I must emphasis that I am not attacking anyone's religion. I respect a Christian's right to believe that homosexuality is an abomination. I also respect the right of the Boys Scouts of America to prohibit gays from serving as members. Of course I also believe that if the organization had any integrity at all, it should refuse any form of public monies because some of this money is derived from gay sources via taxes. And isn't accepting money from those who you feel will not conform to your moral code just as bad as allowing them in your group.

But I digress.

What I am saying through my book and my blog is that distortions and lies in the name of God are still distortions and lies. And anyone who knowingly uses them and can still refer to themselves as a person of faith needs to examine themselves.