No matter how the Family Research Council tries to spin the
controversy regarding GLSEN's cease-and-desist letter, it will remain as a well-deserved kick in the organization's ego.
I don't know what's worse for FRC - the fact that it quietly reshot the accusatory video or throughout the entire situation, it has given no comment thereby giving credibility to the belief that the organization knew that it had lied on GLSEN.
No doubt about it, this embarrassment proves that FRC does deserve its
hate group status given by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
My guess is that the organization will continue to dodge the GLSEN controversy and continue to lie on the gay community. And I know this by looking on its webpage.
In the section of FRC's site talking about
Human Sexuality, the organization is pushing a brochure written by Peter
(gays should be exported out of the United States) Sprigg called
The Top Ten Myths about Homosexuality.
Of course the
brochure is junk. I wrote on it last year and I said the following:
According to Sprigg:
The homosexual movement is built, not on facts or research, but on mythology. Unfortunately, these myths have come to be widely accepted in society—particularly in schools, universities and the media. It is our hope that by understanding what these key myths are—and then reading a brief summary of the evidence against them—the reader will be empowered to challenge these myths when he or she encounters them.
According to Sprigg, these "myths" include the following:
- People are born gay.
- Sexual orientation can never change.
- Homosexuals do not experience a higher level of psychological disorders than heterosexuals.
- Homosexuals are no more likely to molest children than heterosexuals.
At first glance,
Ten Myths looks legitimate. However, a more intensive look reveals it to be a mishmash of inaccurate theories, cherry-picked work, and studies taken out of context created to justify homophobia
The following are just a few of the problems with
Ten Myths:
1.
Ten Myths 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.
2. Ten Myths utilizes the work of the organization National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). The website
Truth Wins Out calls NARTH
a discredited “ex-gay” fringe organization that peddles fraudulent “cures” for homosexuality.
According to Truth Wins Out, several NARTH members have been embroiled in controversies including:
Gerald Schoenwolf, PhD, a member of NARTH’ “Scientific Advisory Committee,” who wrote a piece on the group’s website that seemed to justify slavery
NARTH psychiatrist Joseph Berger, MD, another member of its “Scientific Advisory Committee,” who wrote a paper encouraging students to “ridicule” gender variant children.
Also, according to Truth Wins Out:
NARTH’ co-founder, Joesph Nicolosi encourages male clients to become more masculine by drinking Gatorade and referring to friends as “dude”. NARTH therapists have been known to practice rubber band therapy, where a gay client is made to wear a rubber band and snap it on his wrist when sexually stimulated. It is a mild form of aversion therapy meant to “snap” the client out of the moment of attraction. NARTH members have also been known to practice “touch therapy”, where a client sits in the therapist’ lap for up to an hour, while the therapist caresses him.
Earlier this year, another member of NARTH, George Rekers,
resigned from the organization after caught coming from a vacation overseas with a "rentboy."
3. Ten Myths cites
Ex-gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation by Stanton L. Jones and Mark A Yarhouse as proof that people can change their sexual orientation. However in 2009, the American Psychological Association
repudiated this study for bad methodology. Furthermore,
Ten Myths does not address the
conclusion by the APA last year that programs created to change a person's several orientation does not work.
4. Ten Myths pushes the inaccuracy that a man who molests a boy is automatically gay even though the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Child Psychiatrists and the Child Welfare League of America, all say that the homosexuality and pedophilia are not linked
5. But the most egregious inaccuracy in
Ten Myths - and also something that says a lot about the mindset of its author, Peter Sprigg - is the following passage:
Even the pro-homosexual Gay & Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) acknowledges:
• “Gay men use substances at a higher rate than the general population . . .”
• “Depression and anxiety appear to affect gay men at a higher rate . . . .”
• “ . . . [G]ay men have higher rates of alcohol dependence and abuse . . . .”
• “ . . . [G]ay men use tobacco at much higher rates than straight men . . . .”
• “Problems with body image are more common among gay men . . . and gay men are much more likely to experience an eating disorder . . . .”
The GLMA also confirms that:
• “ . . . [L]esbians may use tobacco and smoking products more often than heterosexual women use them.”
• “Alcohol use and abuse may be higher among lesbians.”
• “ . . . [L]esbians may use illicit drugs more often than heterosexual women.”
Homosexual activists generally attempt to explain these problems as results of “homophobic discrimination.” However, there is a serious problem with that theory—there is no empirical evidence that such psychological problems are greater in areas where disapproval of homosexuality is more intense.
So Sprigg's point is that the lgbt orientation itself is indicative of negative behaviors (i.e. drug and alcohol abuse) and not the homophobia that lgbts face.
But strange enough, the source which he cites - the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association - says that homophobia is the reason for many of these health problems. Sprigg deliberately omits information pointing this out:
Sprigg:
“Depression and anxiety appear to affect gay men at a higher rate . . . .”
GMLA:
Depression and anxiety appear to affect gay men at a higher rate than in the general population. The likelihood of depression or anxiety may be greater, and the problem may be more severe for those men who remain in the closet or who do not have adequate social supports. Adolescents and young adults may be at particularly high risk of suicide because of these concerns.
Sprigg:
“ . . . [L]esbians may use illicit drugs more often than heterosexual women.
GMLA:
Research indicates that lesbians may use illicit drugs more often than heterosexual women. This may be due to added stressors in lesbian lives from discrimination. Lesbians need support from each other and from health care providers to find healthy releases, quality recreation, stress reduction, and coping techniques.
So what does this prove? It proves that FRC will freely lie on the gay community until it gets caught. And then most likely it will try to dodge the controversy.
What can the gay community do about this? We continue to expose them. We continue to not only remind people that FRC is a hate group, but we also remind them why FRC is a hate group. We remind people of things like the GLSEN controversy and Sprigg's homophobic comments every chance we get.
No matter how much money or influence FRC may have. No matter how many networks its spokespeople can appear on. No matter how large its mailing list may be, the simple fact of the matter is that the truth is on
our side.
And sometimes, truth is all you need.
