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Posts via daily email:Researchers Denounce Focus On the Family’s Linkage of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Male Homosexuality
Jim Burroway
June 12th, 2009
Focus On the Family is preparing to have their Love Won Out roadshow make its stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan this weekend. One of the principle arguments they are likely to spring on unsuspecting parents (if past history is any guide) is Melissa Fryrear’s assertion that she has never met a gay person who hadn’t been sexually abused, while drawing the insistent link that this abuse somehow is a major cause of homosexuality. (We saw Pat Robertson mine this same material earlier this week.) This damaging and abusive claim — imagine the horror of parents of gay kids in that audience who will hear her say that — has been a very steady theme in Love Won Out’s arsenal.
To bolster that claim, Focus On the Family recently issued one of their “reports” by Jeff Johnston, who is touted as the “gender issues analyst” at Focus On the Family (his degree and qualifications are never mentioned). That report, “Childhood Sexual Abuse and Male Homosexuality,” is further intended to reinforce the claim that most gay men have experienced some form of sexual abuse in their childhoods, and that this is the reason they became gay. To back up his claims, he cites the book, Unequal Opportunity: Health Disparities Affecting Gay and Bisexual Men in the United States
In a chapter titled, “Childhood Sexual Abuse Experienced by Gay and Bisexual Men: Understanding the Disparities and Interventions to Help Eliminate Them,” from the book Unequal Opportunity, researchers analyze and report on data from 17 different studies from the past 15 years. They find the rates of childhood sexual abuse (which they abbreviate as CSA) for men who have sex with men range from 11.8% to 37.0%, and note that “the best-designed studies tend to converge on CSA prevalence of 15% to 25%.”
The authors in Unequal Opportunity are reluctant to say that childhood sexual abuse is one of the factors that leads to or contributes to the development of homosexuality, but they do speculate,
The fact that most childhood abusers of MSM were males suggests either an etiological link between CSA and adult sexual orientation, or the existence of childhood characteristics that are related to adult sexual orientation in men that increase vulnerability, or both.”
And later, they say that these early sexual experiences “can be considered a form of sexual learning, even if that learning is involuntary and the results dysfunctional.” They continue, “Sexual orientation and gender identity can be particularly confusing for men who experienced arousal during the abuse, and MSM who experienced abuse may continue to be aroused by circumstances that mirror the abusive situation.
Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton contacted Ron Stall and Ron Valdiserri and asked them to comment on the Focus On the Family report. They responded with a statement condemning the report as “inaccurate and, in our opinion, a distortion of the scientific literature.” They go on:
Most basically, the Focus on the Family characterization of the literature on childhood sexual abuse among gay men represents a misunderstanding of scientific approaches to distinguishing between correlation and causation. The book chapter in question reports that gay men are more likely to report childhood sexual abuse by men than are heterosexual men. This correlation does not mean that the reported abuse caused the adult sexual orientation. If that were the case, then the fact that some heterosexual men report sexual abuse by women means that sexual abuse by women “causes” heterosexuality in men. It is also worth noting that the argument that childhood sexual abuse causes homosexuality in gay men is undermined by the fact that the vast majority of gay men are not sexually abused as children.
…[W]e want to state clearly that the published research does not support the claim that the development of a homosexual orientation is caused by childhood sexual abuse. Furthermore, adult homosexual orientation is no longer considered a pathology or a maladjustment. We urge those who are interested in trying to better understand some of these complex issues from a scientific perspective to read the discussions in our book, as well as the scientific literature on childhood sexual abuse, and not rely on second-hand interpretations.
You can see Stall and Valdiserri’s full statement at Dr. Throckmorton’s web site.
Update: What kind of qualifications does it take to be a “gender issues analyst” at Focus On the Family? Well in Jeff Johnston’s case, all you have to be is an English major! (PDF: 168 KB/1 page) He has also served on the board of directors of Exodus International and PFOX.
Ray Boltz: Don’t Tell Me Who To Love
Jim Burroway
December 8th, 2008
It’s been just a few months since Contemporary Christian Music singer Ray Boltz came out of the closet and acknowledged the reality of his life. Until then, he was a literal rock star among evangelicals. But after years of serious depression and medication, he finally decided that it was time for the lie to come to an end. Needless to say, his career in CCM has been markedly curtailed.
Today, Boltz is back with a new single and video, courtesy of Soulforce.
You can also download the single here.
Nicolosi Makes Cameo At APA Taskforce
Daniel Gonzales
August 21st, 2008
My former therapist Joseph Nicolosi made a somewhat odd appearance on Aug 14th at the APA’s Taskforce report on Gender Identity, Gender Variance, and Intersex Conditions according to BTB reader Matthew Calamia who was also attending. Calamia, a graduate student in clinical psychology, wrote in an email to BTB:
Nicolosi showed up (late) to the APA Task Force on Gender Identity, Gender Variance, and Intersex Conditions session. He asked the panel what they would tell parents who were concerned about their gender variant children, a “70% predictor of homosexuality.” Randall Ehrbar, a member of the task force, acknowledged it was a controversial topic and that the members didn’t all agree. Then Nicolosi said he was able to cure those children and plugged A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Following the audible groans from the audience, someone mentioned another book that people might find helpful, The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Families and Professionals.Nicolosi left soon afterwards. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen him at any of the other LGBT sessions, but there are two days of the convention left…
Pope Draws Distinction Between Homosexuality and Pedophilia
Jim Burroway
April 15th, 2008
The New York Times reports this morning on comments Pope Benedict XVI made with reporters during his flight to the United States. He talked about the clergy sexual abuse scandal that has affected more than 5,000 victims and cost the church more than $2 billion. He described the scandals as a “great suffering for the church” and for him personally, saying “We are deeply ashamed and we will do what is possible that this cannot happen in the future.”
During the discussion, the pontiff indicated that he recognized the distinction between homosexuality and pedophilia:
Apparently drawing a distinction between priests with homosexual tendencies and those inclined to molest children, the Pontiff said “I would not speak at this moment about homosexuality, but pedophilia which is another thing. And we would absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry.”
This would be welcome news, but the rest of the church appears not to have gotten the memo. In response to the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the Congregation for Catholic Education in 2005 issued instructions barring gay men entering holy orders unless they had “overcome” for at least three years. This led to a virtual witch hunt within many seminaries, while priests faced increasing stigmatization within their dioceses. Meanwhile, abuse victim advocates accuse the pope of protecting nineteen bishops who they say have been “credibly accused of abusing children.”
You can learn more about the fals link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse in our report, “Testing the Premise: Are Gays a Threat To Our Children?”
Texas County Official’s Job In Jeopardy Due To Sexual Orientation
Jim Burroway
April 2nd, 2008
According to the Dallas Morning News, Justin Nichols is to face an April 15 public hearing before the Collin County Commissioners Court, to discuss his status as coordinator of the county’s teen court program.
Justin is currently running as an openly gay city council candidate for the city of Plano, a Dallas suburb. The Dallas Voice covered the historic race of Plano’s first ever gay candidate. That soon led to anonymous attack emails being sent to Collin County commissioners and other political activists accusing him of being a child molester. That led an unnamed commissioner to call a hearing to determine Nichol’s fate.
Many anti-gay extremists claim that gays are far more likely to sexually abuse children on average. This despite evidence to the contrary. In Nichols’ case, there has not been any allegations brought forward whatsoever — no accusers, no arraignment, charges, no arrest, no trial. And yet Nichols will have to stand before the Commissioners Court and defend his job.
Update: Justin’s hearing before the Commission was canceled. But it doesn’t mean he’s off the hook:
While Mr. Nichols has requested that any discussions related to his job take place in public, the panel has the option of meeting in private about pending litigation, county officials said. The case of Mr. Nichols, who said he has retained legal counsel, could fit that description.
Also, the county had scheduled a job evaluation with Justin on Tuesday, but they canceled the appointment that morning.
Anti-Gay Policies Endanger Children
An Opinion
Timothy Kincaid
December 5th, 2007
For many years, anti-gay activists have strived to convince the American public that gay people are inclined to molest children. They create fraudulent “statistics” that define every man that molests a male child as “homosexual”, even though this man may be married to a woman, have also molested many female children, and have no interest whatsoever in adult men.
It is true that some gay men are predators, as are some heterosexual men. But there is no clear evidence that gay men are any more likely to molest children than straight men.
Nonetheless, parents and other good intentioned people can fall victim to this anti-gay propaganda. And, seeking to protect innocent and vulnerable children, they can be swayed to take anti-gay actions that do not in any way benefit children. Often these actions can result in quite the opposite, direct harm to kids.
Take, for example, the Boy Scouts’ policy of excluding gay scouts and leaders. I believe that this policy, while it may feel to some parents as though it is a protection, actually places children in greater harm.
It does this in two ways. First it provides a false sense of security. Parents may believe that no one is going to be sexually interested in their children because there are no gay men involved. And any unusual behavior or undue attachment may be overlooked.
Second, those kids who are experiencing same sex attractions have no roll models or confidants with whom they can talk. They are left at the mercies of whomever is willing to listen. And this is a pedophile’s dream.
Sadly, the harm of this anti-gay policy is illustrated today.
In 1997, the city of Berkeley stated that it could not subsidize organizations that exclude residents based on sexual orientation or religion. Leader Eugene Evans led the charge – all the way to the Supreme Court – to fight for free berthing. The Sea Scouts did not win their battle, but Evans did become a darling of anti-gay activists. And surely parents felt safer knowing that their children were sailing with a man who was an anti-homosexual warrior.
But now Evans has been arrested for molesting at least four of the boys under his charge.
This sad example makes clear two things. First, identifying as gay or as anti-gay are not indications of pedophile tendencies or behavior. Parents should not fear gay men more not place greater trust in anti-gay activists. Second, policies that exclude gay men and women add no further level of protection and may, indeed, serve to lower a parent’s guard.
Unfortunately, there will still be those who are willing to sacrifice the innocence or protection of children to advance their anti-gay goals.
Hat tip Pam’s House Blend
Obama’s Campaign Gospel Tour To Feature Ex-Gay Advocate
Singer "struggled with homosexuality" after being molested at ages 8 and 13.
Daniel Gonzales
October 21st, 2007
Senator Obama’s campaign has planned an “Embrace the Change” gospel concert tour to consist of three dates in South Carolina featuring five acts, one of whom is Donnie McClurkin according to the New York Times. (Yes, the tour is named “Embrace the Change” which XGW also finds worth noting.)
Several years ago the Washington Post noted McClurkin’s public statements on his own sexual history and views on gay conversion:
McClurkin wrote on a Christian Web site in 2002 that he struggled with homosexuality after he was molested by male relatives when he was 8 and 13. “I’ve been through this and have experienced God’s power to change my lifestyle,” he wrote. “I am delivered and I know God can deliver others, too.”
Via AmericaBlog
It’s Not Homophobic To Investigate Child Sexual Abuse
A commentary
Jim Burroway
September 7th, 2007
Got that?
Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey of Wakefield, England were one of the first gay couples to be approved to serve as foster parents in the U.K., taking in 18 children in only 15 months. And right away, there were problems:
With no previous convictions, they came across as respectable men who simply wanted to help boys with a variety of problems.
In reality, they were paedophiles, who repeatedly abused the children in their care.
Even when the mother of two of the children reported her suspicions to the council, officials accepted the men’s explanations and did nothing.
Instead of banning children from staying with Faunch and Wathey, they sent youngsters with more serious problems to them. Between them, the couple abused four boys aged between eight and 14.
In a scathing report published yesterday, Wakefield Metropolitan District Council was condemned for treating the men as “trophy carers”.
…
“It was clear that a number of staff were afraid of being thought homophobic.
“The fear of being discriminatory led them to fail to discriminate between the appropriate and the abusive.”
Good Lord, where to begin? There are scumbags in every walk of life; gays aren’t immune to that phenomenon. I’ve said many times that there is no connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse. But that certainly doesn’t mean that there aren’t pedophiles who are also gay. It happens, proportionally about as often as straights abuse kids.
That’s why investigating credible allegations of inappropriate behavior with underage children is not homophobic; it’s exercising proper responsibility. The idea that conducting an investigation might be “homophobic” is ludicrous, whether we’re talking about foster parents or Senators.
Sure, we’ve seen where anti-gay hysteria has led to wrongful convictions, and yes, those investigations and prosecutions were driven by homophobia. But it’s pretty easy to avoid that: conduct a proper investigation which doesn’t make assumptions based on the alleged perpetrator’s sexuality. That’s really not difficult to do.
Investigators should not let personal assumptions convict someone without sufficient evidence, nor should fear of being branded “homophobic” deter an investigation and risk leaving vulnerable children exposed. It’s no more homophobic to investigate credible claims of sexual abuse by gays than it is heterophobic to investigate straights. But refusing to investigate out of fear of being labeled homophobic is both patronizing and cowardly, and it implies that they are afraid that if they look too closely they may provide evidence that there is something to the stereotype.
But guess what? Just because it’s a stereotype doesn’t mean it can’t be true in particular instances. There really are Whites who can’t jump and Appalachians who can’t read. And in this case, trying to avoid a stereotype ended up being criminally negligent. Just ask the kids who were put into Faunch’s and Wathey’s care after the first complaints surfaced.
Let’s be clear: It is not gay bashing or homophobic to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse — or any other serious claims of wrongdoing for that matter. So let’s put an end to that excuse, shall we?
“Pedophilia Tag” Discourages Male Volunteers
Jim Burroway
July 11th, 2007
Anti-gay activists often equate homosexuality with child sexual abuse, either by accusing gay men of being more likely to abuse children, or by claiming that virtually all gays and lesbians themseves were abused. Just this week, we’ve seen Peter “Porno Pete” LaBarbera breathlessly repeat unfounded allegations that roving bands of lesbians “forcibly seduce” girls through “lesbian rape.”
Although LaBarbera’s hyperventilations are too ludicrous for rational people to take seriously, accusations like these can have a chilling effect, especially where much-needed charity, and educational, and mentoring work is concerned.
A new survey in the U.K. shows that many British charities are having trouble recruiting men to work with children, out of fear of being labeled a pedophile:
In all, 13% of the men questioned said they would not choose to volunteer to work with children due to fear of being perceived as a paedophile.
… The NCH’s chief executive, Clare Tickell, said: “Many children, especially boys, are desperately in need of a male mentor, which is why we urgently need men to come forward despite any fears they may have about public perception. We work hard to ensure volunteers are checked by the police, trained and monitored, which we hope encourages men to come forward and helps assuage the public’s concern.”
If 13% of men in general are reluctant to volunteer, there’s every reason to believe that gay men are likely to be more so. The “blood libel” of gay pedophilia continues to harm not just gay and lesbian adults, but children themselves who can benefit from positive male role models. For more information about the false link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, please see our report, “Testing the Premise: Are Gays a Threat to Our Children?”
Dr. Gilligan Speaks Out Against Dr. James Dobson — On Video
Jim Burroway
December 18th, 2006
Truth Wins Out has posted an amazing video of New York University’s Dr. Carol Gilligan. In the video, she reacts to Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson’s distortion of her research in a recent Time magazine commentary on Mary Cheney and Heather Poe’s decision to have a baby:
The “money-quote”, as they say, is here:
I have an issue with James Dobson, because if he picked up my book In A Different Voice and just read the beginning, the introduction, he would read a sentence I wrote saying that “a different voice” I describe is identified not by gender but by theme, and its association with women and empirical observation that admits exceptions. And in my book I write about men speaking about care and about women about fairness… And it’s such a simplification and really a caricature of my work, and I just think it’s not in the spirit of science… and for someone who represents morality and family , its disrespectful…
Dr. Gilligan reiterates later in the video that there are no grounds whatsoever in her research on which Dr. Dobson can attack Mary Cheney and Heather Poe’s decision to have a baby. She also discusses how people have responded to her speaking out:
This morning, I got emails from such a range of people … basically just saying “good for you for speaking out.” And I think that a lot of people have been frustrated that there isn’t more response to this kind of distorted use of science in the media. It’s not the first time, by any means.
I feel that same frustration. As a scientist, I have always worked with the operative axiom that good science happens when you let the data lead the way. The worst mark of a scientist is one who will fudge the data to fit a hypothesis. Fudging data is what causes rockets to explode in mid-flight, or drugs to cure diseases which instead kill through unintended side-effects. Fudging data gave tobacco companies cover when others suspected a link between smoking and cancer. Fudged data has been accused of bringing about any number of failed national policies and destroyed lives. And fudging data has long been a tool for those who marginalize others who cannot defend themselves.
We expect scientists to act with integrity in dealing with research, and we expect moral leaders to speak morally. I find the abuse of science to be unspeakably outrageous, both in its motivations and in its consequences. And I find moral leaders’ easy distortions and falsehoods to be utterly antithetical to their very status as moral leaders.
Kudos to Dr. Gilligan for speaking out so visibly and forcefully. And many thanks to Wayne Besen for bringing this to everyone’s attention.
See also:
Dr. Kyle Pruett Speaks Out Against Dr. James Dobson — On Video
A Third Researcher Condemns Dobson
Dr. Gilligan Speaks Out Against Dr. James Dobson — On Video
Dobson Doesn’t Know When To Quit
James Dobson Misrepresents Research In Time Magazine
Update on “The Politically Inconvenient Truth”
Jim Burroway
October 20th, 2006
Three weeks ago, I wrote about the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins going on various media outlets to claim that gays are much more likely to molest children. I examined the “evidence” that he offered and found it to be quite lacking.
When I wrote that, I had tried to contact the FRC to get some clarification on exactly what source material Tony Perkins was using when he made his claims. My e-mail went unanswered for more than a week, and when I did get a reply, they just referred me to their online tract, Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse, which wasn’t much help.
A few days ago, someone passed on an E-mail he received from the FRC which clarifies one point, namely the following claim:
…the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy found that boys molested by men are almost four times more likely to become homosexual or bisexual than boys who weren’t molested.
When I wrote my examination, I couldn’t find the relevant article in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. My detective work led me to believe that claim actually came from a third-hand reference to a book written in 1979 by David Finkelhor. I now stand corrected.
According to the email I received, the claim actually comes from an article written by James R. Bramblett, Jr. and Carol Anderson Darling entitled “Sexual contacts: Experiences, thoughts, and fantasies of adult male survivors of child sexual abuse” (Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, vol 23, no. 4, Winter 1997; pp 305-316).
And right there on page 313, we read the following:
In this study, 46% of the abused men, as opposed to 12% of the non-abused men, defined their sexual orientation as either bisexual or homosexual.
This study examined two groups of men, one group of 35 men who had been sexually abused and another non-abused group of 33 men to serve as controls.
That’s right. The Family Research Council is basing its evidence on thirty-five men who somehow are to represent all men who were sexually abused — that’s not very compelling evidence.
And notice the non-abused group. Twelve percent identified themselves as being gay. Now, if this group were representative of non-abused men, would the Family Research Council concede that gay men make up 12% of the male population? I doubt it.
Another interesting fact is that the composition of the abused group broke down this way: 54% straight, 32% bisexual, and 14% gay. In other words, the number of gay men in both groups is the same. What’s more, there were no bisexuals in the non-abused group. They were either gay or straight.
So why the large numbers of bisexuals in the abused group? The authors note that “according to existing literature, gender identity confusion and gender preferences are often cited as being affected by childhood sexual abuse.” The very small number of participants makes it extremely dangerous to try to draw broad conclusions. Not all bisexuals — and perhaps not even significant numbers of bisexuals — are bisexual due to past abuse, for example. And this is not to say that bisexuals generally are “confused”, but it certainly begs the question of whether abused men suffer a greater degree of uncertainty over their sexual orientation than non-abused men.
The most this study proves is that abused men are more likely to report being bisexual than being gay. That’s an important distinction given the difficulties involved with overcoming child sexual abuse. But the Family “Research” Council won’t recognize that very important distinction. Instead, they’ll do just about anything for a smear, including misrepresenting the lives of abused men to denigrate others.
Two Cases, Two Standards
Jim Burroway
October 15th, 2006
There is a remarkable double standard when it comes to adults having sex with children. Right here in my adoptive home of Tucson, Arizona, Veronica Bullock, 27, faced 7½ years in prison for having had sex with a twelve-year-old boy. Instead, she was given a thirty day jail sentence and probation. She also has to register as a sex offender.
Meanwhile, our nation obsesses over former Congressman Mark Foley’s disgustingly inappropriate behavior with sixteen-year-old male pages. Mark Foley’s behavior, while deplorable, does’t appear to have been illegal as far as we know. There have not been any allegations that he actually had sex with these pages, but if he did, sixteen is the legal age of consent in the District of Columbia and in many states.
If it were Mark Foley who had been found having sex with a twelve-year-old boy (or even a twelve-year-old girl, for that matter), what sort of punishment do you think he would face?
With all of the recent interest in the supposed link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, I have decided to update the report, Testing the Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children? It’s not only available in regular web format (HTML), but it is also available as a PDF document so you can download it and pass it along to as many people you like.
The Politically Inconvenient Truth
Jim Burroway
October 8th, 2006
Over the past week, Tony Perkins, of the Family Research Council, has tried to make himself something of a media expert on the supposed link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse. Since October 3, he appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room, MSNBC’s Hardball and MSNBC Live, Fox’s The Big Story, with Charmaine Yoest on CNBC, and all three nightly network newscasts. And wherever he’s appeared, he’s been making the claims that he made in this blurb, entitled “The Politically Incorrect Truth” that he posed on his web site:
The more recent revelation that Foley himself was molested as a teenager, and his lawyer’s acknowledgment that he is indeed a homosexual, simply reinforce a pattern well-attested in the scholarly literature. For example, the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy found that boys molested by men are almost four times more likely to become homosexual or bisexual than boys who weren’t molested. Homosexual activists don’t want you to know that, because it undermines the myth that people are “born gay.” Although homosexuals and bisexuals are less than 3% of the male population, male-on-male abuse accounts for about a third of all child molestation. The Archives of Sexual Behavior reported that “eighty-six percent of offenders against males described themselves as homosexual or bisexual.”
Three specific statistical claims, but only two cited sources. Let’s examine them one by one.
Claim 1:
…the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy found that boys molested by men are almost four times more likely to become homosexual or bisexual than boys who weren’t molested.
I looked high and low in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy for this statistic. It was nowhere to be found. But after searching through the FRC’s website, I was able to find it repeated in another document that carried this footnote: Watkins and Bentovim (#35).
Update (10/20/2006): Almost there weeks after writing this post, I have learned the actual source for this claim. You can read that update here.
Okay. Here’s the first example of shoddy research: Tony Perkins got his source wrong. He should have referred to Bill Watkins and Arnon Bentovim’s “The sexual abuse of male children and adolescents: A review of current research”, which originally appeared in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry vol 33, no. 1 (January 1992): 197-248.
I happened to have that report on file, and this is what I learned:
Finkelhor (1984c) note it is a traditional mythology that molestation leads to homosexuality, but at the same time he found, in his college study, that boys victimized by older men were over four times more likely to be currently engaged in homosexual activity than were non-victims.
With that, I went to our local university library and found David Finkelhor’s 1984 book Child Sexual Abuse: New Theory and Research (New York: Free Press) and found this on page 195:
Boys victimized by older men were over four times more likely to be engaged in homosexual activity than were nonvictims.
For this statistic, David Finkelhor cited yet another book he wrote clear back to a book he published in 1979, Sexually Victimized Children (New York: Free Press). This book presented some preliminary results of a survey that he conducted in the mid-seventies among social science college students at six New England colleges. Notice that now we’re talking about data that is some thirty years old. And since it comes from a convenience sample of social sicence college studients, the data is not representative. David Finkelhor plainly discusses the weakenesses of his sample in pages 38-41 of his book.
But that’s not all. Finkelhor’s claim about boys victimized by men doesn’t actually appear to be in the book (I can’t find it, anyway). So how did he determine that these kids were “currently engaged in homosexuality” as he said in his later book? I found my answer in appendix B, where the questionnaire was reproduced:
In the last year, how many sexual experiences have you had with someone of your own sex?
0. None
1. 1-2
2. 3-5
3. 5-10
4. 11 or more
So this is what it took for Tony Perkins to come up with his statistic that he’s so proud of. It wasn’t a comprehensive survey of adults who were molested as children. Perkins had to find an obscure third-hand reference to a thirty-year-old study that was not peer-reviewed, and was based on a convenience sample of college students taken at the very height of the sexual revolution (college students who were enrolled in social science classes in New England, no less). And that statistic included those who may only have had a single experimental experience in the past year.
How’s that for cherry picking?
Let’s skip Perkins next claim for now — that 3% of male homosexuals account for a third of all molestations, a claim we’ll come back to in a moment — and move on to his other attributed statement.
Claim 2:
The Archives of Sexual Behavior reported that “eighty-six percent of offenders against males described themselves as homosexual or bisexual.”
This is a very poor choice of support for such a broad contention. That 1988 study (Erickson, W.D.; Walbek, N.H.; Seely, R.K.; “Behavior patterns of child molesters.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 17, no. 1 (1988): 77-88; abstract available here) consisted of a convenience sample of only 63 convicted molesters against male victims. The brief sentence of “eighty-six percent of offenders against males described themselves as homosexual or bisexual” is the only mention of sexual orientation. There was no attempt to follow up on whether any of these predators had any adult relationships, or if so, what kind of relationships they were. There was no description of how they may have measured these predator’s sexual attractions. There was no attempt to quantify their erotic age preference. Just one single sentence in passing, with no further explanation or support.
This is important. As you can imagine, it’s much easier to label oneself as a homosexual than as a pedophile. Members of the Aryan Nation, for example, call themselves Christians instead of bigots, a claim which most Christians would vehemently disagree.
I’m sure the “researchers” at the Family Research Council had to dig long and hard to find that statistic, because it runs completely counter to what the most respected experts have to say about the subject — Dr. Carole Jenny, Nicholas Groth, and the late Kurt Freund, for example. They have all found that this supposed connection between homosexuality and pedophilia simply don’t exist.
And finally…
Claim 3:
Although homosexuals and bisexuals are less than 3% of the male population, male-on-male abuse accounts for about a third of all child molestation.
Here’s a news flash: that 3% statistic only applies to men who openly acknowledge their sexual orientation. It does not include those who engage in same-sex sexual activity but identify as straight.
A recent random survey of 4,193 men in New York City revealed that among men who have sex with men, 72.8% identified as straight. And these only represent those who admit to such sexual activity when questioned.
In short, this claim is not only unsubstantiated, it is logically false and demonstrably wrong. But he’s not the only one to make it. You can read an extensive analysis of that myth in my report, Testing the Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?
Friends, this is what passes for research at the Family “Research” Council: cherry-picking of thirty-year old data, ill-supported conclusions, and statements built on faulty logic. In other words, the same old stuff. It’s time we — and specially the press — called them on their so-called “science” and exposed it for what it is: junk.
Challenging Predators Is “Gay-Bashing”?
Jim Burroway
October 2nd, 2006
Just a few moments ago, Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council just appeared on CNN’s “The Situation Room” to talk about the unfolding scandal involving Congressman Foley’s sexually explicit Instant Message exchanges with 16-year-old pages. When Perkins was asked why he thought the Republican Congressional leadership delayed so long in handling the situation, he answered that he didn’t know. But, he said, it raised a lot of questions:
Was it out of fear of pushing something too far, over-reacting, and that, uh…. because of the orientation of congressman Foley they would be seen as being ‘gay bashing’? Was that part of the decision not to act? That’s what I think we need to know.
Let’s get these two things clear right away:
- Going after sexual predators is not gay bashing.
- Equating homosexuality with sex abuse is.
Fear of gay-bashing? This congressional leadership? Give me a break. The election is down to the last five weeks. I’m surprised the gay bashing hasn’t started earlier.
Gary Bauer, who heads a group which calls itself “American Values” sent this outrageous statement out in his daily “End of the Day” e-mail this afternoon:
Groups like NAMBLA, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, continue to be given positions in “gay rights” parades and, without shame, continue to promote their governing slogan, “Sex by eight or it’s too late.”
I would like anyone who has any evidence of NAMBLA has been invited to participate in a gay pride parade to email me directly. I’m looking for photographs or mainstream newspaper articles. (Sorry, I’m afraid I won’t take Agape Press’s word for it.) I haven’t seen anything like this in at least the past ten years –- probably longer. I know I would be outraged to see such a thing, as would virtually everyone I know. If it’s happening, I want to know about it.
It looks as though this scandal will provide the anti-gay lobby plenty of ammunition to use against us. Now is the time to get informed. One place to start is by reading Testing the Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?.
Ben Stein’s Libel
Jim Burroway
October 2nd, 2006
I figured it was only a matter of time. And I wouldn’t have to wait for very long.
Former Congressman Mark Foley, Republican from Florida, resigned after sexually suggestive Instant Messages between him and a 16-year-old page were made public. It had been rumored in the mainstream press that Mark Foley was gay, but closeted for several years. And now that those rumors are confirmed by way of a scandal, the supposed link between homosexuality and pedophilia is being trotted out once again.
This time, these charges aren’t confined to a few web pages of militant anti-gay activists. Ben Stein offered this bit of wisdom in the American Spectator today:
We have a Republican man in Congress who sent e-mails to teenage boys asking them what they were wearing, and an entire party, the Democrats, whose primary constituency, besides the teachers’ unions, is homosexual men and lesbian women. I hope it won’t come as a surprise to anyone that a big part of male homosexual behavior is interest in young boys. (Take a look at anyone renting Endless Summer next time you are at the video store.)
Ben Stein presents himself as someone who is knowledgable about a lot of things. He even cashed in on that reputation in a game show called “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” in which contestants were challenged to “steal” his money by outwitting his vast knowledge of all sorts of minutia.
Unfortunately, Ben Stein is horribly uninformed about pedophilia. Where’s the isolation booth when you need one?
In our report, Testing the Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?, I looked over countless articles in the social science literature and could not find any evidence that there was any link between homosexuality and pedophilia. Instead, I found researchers saying things like this:
The research to date all points to there being no significant relationship between a homosexual lifestyle and child molestation. There appears to be practically no reportage of sexual molestation of girls by lesbian adults, and the adult male who sexually molests young boys is not likely to be a homosexual.
Of course, that’s not to say that there aren’t any predatory gay men or women. It looks like Foley provides us with one shameful example. But when child abuse experts have studied this problem closely, they clearly state that there is no evidence of a greater proportion of predators among gays than anyone else. (A few experts have even argued that openly gay men and women are less likely to be sexual predators.)
No, the fact that Foley went after teenage boys is not an integral part of his homosexuality. It’s a part of something else. What is that something else? I don’t know. Maybe we should ask Debra LaFave, who at 25 repeatedly had sex with a 14-year-old boy in 2005. Or maybe we should ask Tracy Tapp, who molested three male high school students.
And maybe we should ask every straight person we meet why “a big part of heteroseuxal behavior is interest in young boys and girls.”
Ben Stein tries to justify his ignorant remarks with this laughably classic line:
Don’t get me wrong. My very best friend is gay. I have many gay friends and they are great people. But…
But… no. This isn’t about homosexuality, and certainly not healthy homosexuality. The closet has a terribly corrupting influence. And with few exceptions (and certainly, exceptions exists), almost all of our “gay scandals” involve closeted gay people. Andrew Sullivan puts it this way:
What I do know is that the closet corrupts. The lies it requires and the compartmentalization it demands can lead people to places they never truly wanted to go, and for which they have to take ultimate responsibility. From what I’ve read, Foley is another example of this destructive and self-destructive pattern for which the only cure is courage and honesty. While gays were fighting for thir basic equality, Foley voted for the “Defense of Marriage Act”. If his resignation means the end of the closet for him, and if there is no more to this than we now know, then it may even be for the good. Better to find integrity and lose a Congressional seat than never live with integrity at all.
And therein, I think, lies part of the problem. As long as gay men and women continue to be marginalized by large segments of our society, and as long as people continue to feel pressured to hide who they are to everyone around them, they will continue to seek out human contact in the most inappropriate ways. Maybe Ben Stein should get to know his “gay friends” a little better and observe exactly what it is about them that makes them great people. I’ll bet a princely sum that he knows these great people because they’re not closeted.
We will see many attempts to link pedophilia with homosexuality in the next several weeks. Like the famous “blood libel” that Ben Stein’s ancestors suffered under, this libel is not likely to go away anytime soon.
Paul Cameron Is Quoted In The Christian Post
Jim Burroway
August 18th, 2006
A reader passed on a tip of Paul Cameron’s latest missive being picked up by the Christian Post. I wanted to write a little blurb about it, but The Real World intervened and I didn’t have time. Fortunately, Timothy Kincaid at Ex-Gay Watch posted a much better rundown on this than I would have, with an interesting link to the International AIDS conference taking place in Toronto.
Now that Cameron’s “homosexual pedophilia” claims have been picked up by the Christian press, it’s only a matter of time before it shows up in a mainstream venue. When it does, whether it’s a news story or a letter to the editor in your local paper, remember where you can find the real scoop about his bogus findings. And for a more in-depth examination of the supposed link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, read our report Testing The Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?
Bernard Baran Released From Prison
Jim Burroway
July 1st, 2006
Bernard Baran, at age nineteen, was one of the first to be convicted of child sexual abuse in a wave of convictions during the day-care hysteria of the 1980’s. He was released on bail Friday after twenty-one years in prison. His conviction was overturned and he was granted a new trial earlier last week. While free, Bernard will be tracked by GPS, is not allowed to leave the state, and is prohibited unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of sixteen.
While he’s free for now, he could be returned within months. Berkshire District Attorney David F. Capeless is appealing the ruling that overturned Bernard’s conviction, and vows to go forward with a new trial should the appeal be upheld. Bernard’s attorney, on the other hand, is confident:
Baran’s trial was one of several prosecutions surrounding sexual abuse at day-care centers. Since that time, many of the methods used to build those cases have been discredited and the convictions overturned.
Harvey Silverglate, a member of Baran’s defense team, said the country was gripped in a “national sex panic” in the 1980s that led to dozens of inappropriate convictions. As an openly gay man who worked with children, Baran was a likely target. Absent the hysteria, Silverglate said, Baran would never have been convicted.
“If there is a new trial, you will see the curtain pulled back on how these cases happened in the 1980s. The curtain will be pulled back as to why this man spent 20 of his best years in prison for a crime that never happened,” Silverglate said. “I suspect the district attorney will not really want to retry this case.”
See also:
Justice For Bernard
Justice For Bernard
Jim Burroway
June 24th, 2006
“I don’t know how much longer I can hold on for. I have spent fifteen years of my life locked away for something I never did and after a while you start to lose all hope.” — Bernard F. Baran, Jr., March 3, 1999
Twenty years ago, Americans were alarmed by the shocking allegations of child sexual abuse in the McMartin preschool case near Los Angeles. Soon other cases followed — the Little Rascals day care center in Edenton, North Carolina, the Fells Acres day care center in Malden, Massachusetts — all these and more sent the country on a wild witch-hunt — literally, as stories of satanic ritual abuse and sacrifice were accepted with incredible gullibility by the press. Today, most (but not all) of these allegations have been debunked and the accused set free, but only after their lives were forever ruined.
But there is one case that is still with us today, one case of a terrible miscarriage of justice that cries out for attention.
Bernard Baran’s case is remarkably similar to the other cases: A teenager working at a public pre-school in Pittsfield, Massachusetts was accused of molesting five 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. Experts were brought in and, using suggestive and leading interrogation techniques, extracted “testimony” from some very young and impressionable children. During the subsequent trial, evidence was withheld from the defense attorney while a general atmosphere of hysteria spread throughout the community and the state.
But two things are remarkably different about Bernard’s case, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these two distinguishing marks appear together. First, where most of the other cases have been dismissed or overturned and the falsely accused were eventually allowed to go free, Bernard (who goes by the nickname, “Bee”) is still serving three life sentences. And second, Bernard was openly gay. Being a gay teenager is never easy, but few have carried a burden like Bernard’s — especially in a climate that assumes that all homosexuals are child-abusing perverts.
When one of the parents learned that Bernard was gay, she complained to the Early Childhood Development Center where Bernard worked, saying she didn’t want “a queer” working with her child. When school officials refused to fire Bernard, the child’s father called police on October 5, 1984, alleging that his son had been sexually abused by Bernard. In the hysterical frenzy that followed, four more accusations were made.
Bernard and his mother were from a working-class background and they didn’t know how to go about finding a proper lawyer. They had very little money for a defense attorney, so Bernard’s original lawyer, who was inexperienced and took the case for only $500, barely reviewed the evidence. During the trial there were no eyewitnesses, forensic evidence was practically nonexistent, and the children’s testimony was elicited only after extremely heavy prompting and leading questions by the prosecution. The first child’s parents who started it all were heavy drug users, and the father was known to be exceptionally abusive.
On top of all that, with Bernard being openly gay, he was an extremely easy target. The district attorney said in his closing arguments that being gay was the same as being a child molester, and he compared Bernard to “a chocoholic in a candy store.” After only one day of defense testimony and three-and-a-half hours of jury deliberation, nineteen-year-old Bernard Baran was convicted and given three life sentences on January 30, 1985. It was over as quickly as that.
Bernard has been in prison for the past twenty years. I don’t have to tell you what it’s like to be gay and a convicted child molester in a maximum security prison.
His case languished for years, but there was a small cadre of friends and family who refused to give up. In 1999 lawyer John Swomley took the case with the sponsorship of the National Center for Reason and Justice. Since there was little documentation available, he had to rebuild the case from scratch. He finally was able to file an appeal in June 2004. A year later, Worcester Superior Court Judge Francis R. Fecteau agreed to take the motion under advisement. And another year after that, the judge finally ordered a new trial last Tuesday, and set Bernard’s bail at $50,000.
Right now, Bernard’s supporters are working on raising the bail money. But even if he is released, he will have to wear a GPS tracker wherever he goes, he will be required to check in with a parole officer once a week, and he will not be premitted to leave the state of Massachusetts. Because, after all, the state of Massachusetts still considers him a dangerous sex offender.
The state promises to appeal the judge’s decision. If it stands, then prosecutors may decide to hold a new trial or drop the case. So far, they indicate that they will press forward with the case. Bernard is not out of the woods yet, so right now he needs your support. His defense fund has been exhausted and desperately needs your donations. And you can spread the word about this important opportunity to correct a terrible miscarriage of justice.
For more information about Bernard’s case:
- The Boston Phoenix June 18, 2004 article “The Trials of Bernard Baran” provides an excellent overview of the circumstances surrounding Bernard’s conviction, his “catch-22″ in maintaining his innocence in prison, and the many flaws in his case.
- Columnist Katha Pollit demanded justice for Bernard Baran in the February, 21, 2000 edition of The Nation.
- Debbie Nathan’s article “The Ritual Sex Abuse Hoax” appeared in the January 20, 1990 Village Voice, documenting the sex-abuse hysteria that swept the nation in the 1980’s.
- And you can learn more about the assumed link between homosexuality and child sexual abuse in our report, Testing the Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?
For too long, gay men have carried the burden of being automatically associated with child molesters. A few have paid a terrible price for this burden. Bernard’s fight is ours as well.
See also:
Bernard Baran Released From Prison
She Didn’t Really Say That, Did She?
Jim Burroway
April 3rd, 2006
We also have seen evidence that homosexual couples prey on young males and have, in some instances, adopted them in order to have unfretted [sic] access to subject them to a life of molestation and sexual abuse.
– Tenn. State Rep. Debra Maggart (R-Hendersonville)
Rep. Maggart made these comments in an e-mail to Sara Dykstra, a master’s student in special education at Vanderbilt University. Ms. Dykstra had written to members of the Tennessee House Committee on Children and Family Affairs after hearing about legislation the committee was considering which would ban gay couples from foster parenting and adoption.
The Tennessee legislature is busy considering at least six different bills which would affect gay and lesbian parents in such areas as adoption, foster parenting, visitation rights, and custody. And it appears that such preoccupation invites a lot of misinformation and bigotry into the process.
Wherever anti-gay extremists gather, you can safely bet your paycheck that someone will soon level the charge that gays are obsessed with molesting children. Unfortunately, this charge isn’t unusual where unpopular minorities are concerned. Some observers have compared this to the “blood libel” that had historically been leveled against Jews (the myth that Jews kidnap Christian babies for blood sacrifices). But Rep. Maggart takes this particular libel against gays and lesbians to a whole new level of depravity.
Extensive research on child sexual abuse has shown, time and time again, that this charge simply is not true. And the outrageous thing about it, many of the anti-gay “experts” know full well it’s not true — they’ve read these studies themselves. But they deliberately distort these findings in their so-called “research” to keep their libel fresh with the “Authority of Science.” You can learn more about how they do this — and what the experts really have to say about child sexual abuse — in Testing The Premise: Are Gays A Threat To Our Children?
