Peter LaBarbera's pictures contradict his ramblings

Last week, it seemed that I had a Paul Cameron fixation.

This week may be shaping up to feature anti-gay figure Peter LaBarbera.

Last night, I talked about how he channeled a Paul Cameron factoid (i.e. lie) about homosexuality being more dangerous than cigarettes.

But what he did today takes the cake. I simply could not pass it by.

LaBarbera is known for going to subcultural leather events, taking pictures of the activities there, and posting them on his webpage in an attempt to generalize about the entire lgbt community.

That's why he is known as "Porno Petey" in some circles.

Far be it from him to disappoint us this year. He has just posted pictures from what is called "Up Your Alley," a street fair in San Francisco. LaBarbera made a point to post lots of pictures of naked folks and others engaged in lewd acts.

And included is his commentary about those "nasty homosexuals." This is a supposed acount of acts from a Americans For Truth volunteer who took pictures at the Fair:

As with previous sadistic street fairs, police non-enforcement was so lax that deviant, homosexual sex acts were allowed to go on in the streets as fair attendees passed on by. In his 50-minute stint, Ron photographed two oral sex acts at Up Your Alley - one in which a man “serviced” two men in uniforms, and the other involving two men engaged in fellatio directly in front of a booth. No action by either the police or a private “Folsom Security” staffer was taken against the law-breakers . . .

There is just one problem as I see it. Amidst the pictures is one that stands out - a naked heterosexual couple (don't click on this link if you have a low tolerance for grossness).

So why is this significant? Well to me, it underlines LaBarbera's anti-gay bias.

Look, I am by no means defending how folks behave at these street fairs but as I understand it, this event includes more than gay men walking around nude. As the picture I mentioned demonstrates, there were obviously some heterosexuals there acting unprincipled.

But yet instead of making a possible good point about lewdness in general, LaBarbera's commentary omits the heterosexual couple and goes straight for the gay jugular.

I've never been to one of these events and don't plan to go anytime soon. But fair is fair. And LaBarbera's attempts to attack gays for their behavior while giving heterosexuals a pass for the possible same behavior says more about him than it does about the people whose pictures are posted on his webpage.

P

More influence of Paul Cameron's influence, trouble in Uganda and other Monday midday news briefs

More proof of Paul Cameron's influence - For those who would minimize the role of discredited researcher Paul Cameron on the lgbt struggle for equality, check out this clip featuring an elected official (with voting power) repeating Cameronesque lies:



Big hat tip to Jeremy from Goodasyou.org for pointing this out.

Uganda Parliament To Take Up Bill Banning LGBT Free Speech - And you thought things were bad around here.

Finally, Action on Gay Soldiers - It's about time.

Groups challenge domestic partnerships as unconstitutional - Oh they just want to "protect marriage" and that's it. Riiiight.

Maine court upholds IBM heir’s adoption of lover - I am kind of on the fence about this one.

Take note, black community - THIS is what supporting your own looks like

From this weekend's Washington Post, a profile an lgbt-supportive black church and pastor:

Inner Light Ministries in the District's H Street corridor might seem like a traditional black church, with fiery sermons, electric gospel music, a soulful choir and a congregation that sways and claps in rhythm. But it is hardly that.

For 16 years, it has served as a sanctuary for a small community of black gays and lesbians who say they feel shunned from all directions -- by black men and women who give them cutting looks of disapproval, by mainstream black ministers who condemn homosexuality, and by white gays who make them feel unwelcome in subtle ways, such as switching from hip-hop to country music in a club when too many black men hit the dance floor.

At Inner Light, members say they can be themselves. In the pews on a recent Sunday, a woman adoringly placed an arm around the shoulders of her girlfriend. A man with a linebacker's strong build sat near the front wearing mascara. And condoms sat in a basket near the door in case any worshipers wanted to grab some on their way out.

If you ask me, we need more churches like this and less megachurches.

Huge hat tip to Pams House Blend for first featuring the article.

Peter LaBarbera repeats Paul Cameron lie about homosexuality and cigarettes

Yet more proof regarding what I said last week about the religious right and their links to discredited researcher Paul Cameron has come about via our friend (and I use that as an extreme euphemism) Peter LaBarbera and his phony Christian group American for Truth:

LaBarbera Calls for Federal Studies on the Health Risks of Homosexual Behavior

More Dangerous than Smoking? Men who have had sex with men since 1977 have an HIV prevalence 60 times higher than the general population and 800 times higher than first time blood donors, the FDA reports. When it comes to combating cigarettes, the government not only restricts, taxes and bans smoking, it also funds and encourages anti-smoking messages and advertisements. Given the immense health risks of male homosexual sex, shouldn’t the federal government do a comprehensive study on the matter, tax sodomitic establishments, and educate the public and especially young people about the dangers of “gay” sex?

Speaking Friday at the annual Reclaiming Oklahoma for Christ conference in Edmond, OK, Americans For Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) President Peter LaBarbera called for government study on the heath risks of homosexual behavior.

LaBarbera read from a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) report explaining why “men who have sex with men” (MSM) cannot donate blood due to the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases linked to MSM. He noted that since government agencies and politicians are active in confronting the health risks of smoking (using taxpayer dollars), they should do the same for homosexual sex — especially between men — which appears to be as dangerous or more so than smoking cigarettes.

LaBarbera is linking badly. No study done by any medical group has said that homosexuality is as dangerous as smoking cigarettes. No legitimate researcher or physician has ever said this either.

But Paul Cameron has.

Unless I am inaccurate, it was Cameron who first espoused this lie in 2005.

Of course Cameron's claim was disputed by folks who have actual expertise in the area but he continued to persist with his charade.

Now in all honesty, some folks may dispute my links claiming that since they are "pro-gay" sources, they are biased.

Well another source here from the rightwing Free Republic bear up my contention that Cameron was the first to push the lie that "homosexuality is as dangerous as cigarette smoking:"


Studies have shown that years of smoking shortens the lifespan of the smoker from 1 to 7 years. But analysis of the age of death in Norway and Denmark for gays who are legally married suggests that engaging in homosexual behavior reduces the lifespan by 24 years!

So reported Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron at the annual convention of the Eastern Psychological Association on March 23.

"What justification is there for condemning smoking and endorsing homosexuality?" asked Dr. Paul Cameron, of the Family Research Institute, a Colorado-based think tank. "Today, all across the Western world, school children are being taught the acceptability of homosexuality and the wrongness of smoking.

So the question here is not whether or not there should be research regarding the supposed health risks of homosexuality.

The question here is why would LaBarbera, who is supposed to be a Christian man, stoop to channeling the research of a total fraud?

But here is the most important thing to remember - While Paul Cameron's name may fall back on the dungheap of ridicule, his lies will always plague the lgbt community unless we call them out every time they pop up.

Repost: Something guaranteed to piss you off

I ran into something a while back that I have been itching to show on this site.

This 1986 comic was created by a man named Dick Hafer and it is a vile representation of some of the most evil anti-gay lies out there.

This is for the many young folks who don't remember what it was like in the 1980s when the AIDS crisis was in full bloom, ignorance was all around and Paul Cameron was a credible name.

It is a representation of how far we have come and how far we have to go. You will recognize how some of the same arguments are still being used, although not as explicitly. Check out the comic's list of supporters shown on the last graphic. One of them is Beverly LaHaye, the founder of Concerned Women for America - a religious right organization that continues to fight against lgbt equality.

The next time you hear one of their representatives whining about "intolerant gays," bring this comic to his or her attention.

You can click on the pictures to get a better view of the pages - more are at the bottom (even though I don't think it's work safe). And if you want to see the entire comic (God help you) go here.

Editor's note - The webpage featuring this comic is not anti-gay. It's a site that looks at "problem-based comics" from the past.

Know your lgbt history - Norman, Is That You?

First of all, my prayers and kind thoughts go out to the family of African-American gay author E. Lynn Harris who died today at age 54. The cause of death has not been determined.



I bet a lot of you never heard of this 1976 movie starring star of Sanford and Son Redd Foxx and Pearl Bailey.

Be glad you didn't because nothing can prepare you for how strange it is.

Foxx has just found out that his wife, Bailey, has left him for his brother. So he goes to Los Angeles to tell his son, played by Michael Warren.

But what he doesn't know is that his son is in a same-sex relationship with a white man, Garson (Dennis Dugan). And Garson is highly, highly flamboyant. Needless to say that Foxx is not at all pleased to find out that his son is gay.

And to complicate matters, his wife pays a visit after leaving his brother.

All I can say is that they tried. Too bad that the following preview didn't include the most surreal scene of the movie where Foxx has a nightmare that he is getting an award for being the most homosexual person or something or another. The vision of Foxx with a Liberace wig and speaking with a lisp is something that I never want to see again.

(Editor's note - A reader just sent me a clip of the scene which I have just spoken of. The link is in the comments section. View it with barf bag in hand.)

Past Know Your LGBT History postings:

Know your lgbt history - The 'Exotic' Adrian Street

Know your lgbt history - The Choirboys

Know your lgbt history - Eddie Murphy

Know your lgbt history - The Killing of Sister George

Know your lgbt history - Hanna-Barbera cartoons pushes the 'gay agenda'

Know your lgbt history - Cruising

Know your lgbt history - Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones

Know your lgbt history - I Got Da Hook Up

Know your lgbt history - Fright Night

Know your lgbt history - Flowers of Evil

The Jeffersons and the transgender community

Arrest in murder of gay navyman, Carrie Prejean, and other Friday midday news briefs

Sailor charged in Camp Pendleton shooting death of seaman - This is a first step to some good news in this awful situation.

Ex-Miss California Carrie Prejean heading to Florida to help Republicans - Oh God, why do we have to continue to deal with this woman.

Landmark D.C. law grants parental status to two mothers - Here is some good news for today.

Equality Florida: AAA South to recognize married gay couples in policies - More good news never hurts.

The more things change... - A little history on the lies of Maggie Gallagher courtesy of Goodasyour.org

Peter LaBarbera throws public tantrum, flaunts his irrelevance

Last month, our anti-gay buddy Peter LaBarbera and a few assorted (be nice, Alvin) had held a press conference in Chicago to speak against President Obama's supposed "radical homosexual appointments and overall “gay” agenda."

Religious right figures such as Matt Barber, Oklahoma legislator Sally Kern, and Diane Gramley appeared.

Well the press conference came and went, but we heard nothing about it. I couldn't find any articles about it. And Peter never mentioned it on the Americans for Truth webpage.

That is until today. Apparently, even though several religious right "dignitaries" showed up at Peter's press conference, the media took a serious rain check.

Peter alluded to this fact in a piece that I guess was supposed to make fun of the recent protest by lgbts against the San Diego Mormon Temple.

Lgbts and heterosexual allies held a "kiss-in" at the temple this week to support a gay couple cited for trespassing after they shared a kiss on temple grounds.

Apparently according to Peter, since only 30 people showed up to protest, and the media almost outnumbered the protestors (his words), then the protest was a flop.

In comparison, no media showed up at his press conference last month, and Peter was mad over that:

What is over-the-top, however, is the liberal (”mainstream”) media treating every “queer” protest and event as important news. (Meanwhile, Associated Press and all national media skipped our coalition press conference in Chicago against President Barack Obama’s “gay” agenda — held on the very day that Obama was capitulating to the “Gay” Lobby by signing an Executive Order supporting “domestic partners.”) If homosexual activists do succeed in destroying the influence of the church and ushering in the oxymoronic notion of government-supported homosexual “marriage,” the woefully biased American media will be able to claim major credit.

Twenty-five members of the media showing up at a press conference means success. No media showing up your press conference means failure, Peter.

It's one thing to be irrelevant, but it's another to flaunt your irrelevancy.

Lgbts have long suspected that no one longer cares for your ramblings, Peter. Thank you for proving our point.

And for putting a smile on my face this Friday morning.

Illinois Family Institute drops Paul Cameron-cited piece

From Goodasyou.org some interesting news.

In March of this year, the Illinois Family Institute raised holy hell because Southern Poverty Law Center declared it an official hate group.

Apparently the group had a Paul Cameron-cited article on its webpage and refused to remove it, thereby causing the SPLC to give them the designation.

The SPLC also considers Cameron's group, the Family Research Institute, as a hate group because it Cameron's tendency to outright lie about the lgbt community.

Well according to Goodasyou.org, the Illinois Family Institute has removed the article, thereby causing SPLC to remove them from the hate group status.

Two questions:

1. Why didn't the Illinois Family Institute just remove the article from the get-go?

2. Will these other groups follow IFI's example and remove Cameron's work from their webpages?

Oklahoma Republican embarrassed by Sally Kern, Janet Porter meets someone nuttier than her and other Thursday midday news briefs

A top OKC PR firm owner emails GOP chairman re: Kern’s ‘judgmental rhetoric on morality’ - Oklahoma Republican embarrassed by homophobe Sally Kern. What took her so long?

Can Someone Be Too Crazy For Janet Porter? Yes and No - Uh oh. The religious right gets in bed with a racist. Now there is a nasty picture.

Oxnard teen to stand trial in gay classmate's killing - Lawrence King's murderer will be tried as an adult. That is good news indeed.


Gay T-Shirts In Windows A Problem For American Apparel - Damn there goes the mind control plot via hypnotic t-shirts

Why we should care about Paul Cameron

In the past days, I have talked about discredited researcher Paul Cameron.

In case you want a long recap, go here and here.

But if you want a short recap:

Paul Cameron is the head of the Family Research Institute, an organization declared an official hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. He has been censured, rebuked, and called the carpet on numerous occasions by people on the left and the right for his tendency to use bad research techniques as well as manipulate data to claim that lgbts are leeches on society.

He has been caught making up tales about gay men castrating children in restrooms, and called out on his claims that gays have a "short life span," molest children at a high rate, and engage in extremely deviant sexual practices (including those involving feces and gerbils).

In 1983, he was dismissed from the American Psychological Association after refusing to cooperate in an investigation brought about by member complaints of his work.

Since I’ve written this series I have been disappointed with the reaction of some in the lgbt community.

"Who cares."

"This isn’t a big deal."

"Paul Cameron is just a crackpot."

"You are wasting your time talking about him."

It's a mistake to dismiss Cameron as a mere crackpot when one looks at his connection to so-called legitimate religious right groups.

He has been and still continues to be the go-to guy (although covertly at times) by them when it comes to pushing bad theories about lgbts.

In the past, they relied on Cameron heavily.

In 1991, a Colorado amendment was created to ban gay-rights ordinances. Backers of this amendment, Amendment 2, used Cameron’s data in their position statement. Also, the week before the 1992 vote over 100,000 copies of one of his pamphlets, What Homosexuals Do, went across Colorado. Not surprisingly, the amendment passed. (It was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.)

In 1992 during the anti-gay referendum campaign in Colorado, Cameron was the “chief scientific consultant” for organizations for the referendum.

In 1994, when gays and lesbians challenged the validity of Amendment 2, state Attorney General Gail Norton paid Cameron $15,000 for his research and wanted to use him as an “expert witness.” When informed of his reputation, Norton used neither him nor his research.

Anti-gay spokesperson Robert Knight (formerly of Concerned Women for America and the Family Research Council), in 1994, cited Cameron's work in testimony in front of Congress opposing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Since that time, Cameron's work was cited here and there but his effectiveness lessened due to his dubious reputation.

However, he did enjoy a short resurgence when George Bush was re-elected president in 2004.

In May 2005, Cameron announced the completion of another study that supposedly proved that homosexuality is more dangerous than cigarette smoking and being overweight.

What he did was take over 10,000 obituaries from the gay newspaper the Washington Blade and compare them to a CDC report entitled AIDS Cases in Adolescents and Adults, by Age—United States, 1994-2000.

He claimed that this supported his gay life span study. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said otherwise.

Ronald Valdiserri, deputy director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, said Cameron uses bad methodology.

He also said:

“[The CDC] does not collect statistics on the life span 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.”

In June 2005, when Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a “defense of marriage” bill, accompanying him was televangelist Ron Parsley. Parsley had this to say about homosexuality:

“Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease. Only one percent of the homosexual population in America will die of old age. The average life expectancy for a homosexual in the United States discounting AIDS is forty-two years of age . . . A lesbian can only expect to live to be forty - five years of age . ."

Parsley now heads the Center for Moral Clarity, an organization dedicated to "Christian grassroots organization that advocates for public policies based on biblical principles."

Cameron’s claim that homosexuality is more dangerous than cigarette smoking even made its way to the lower echelons of the Bush Administration.

In July 2005, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter asked that the national Health and Human Services look at a certain web site because it allegedly showed inaccurate information about homosexuality and contraception.

The web site, 4parents.gov, received information from an organization called the National Physicians Center for Family Resources. The chairman of the National Physicians Center for Family Resources board, John Whiffen, said the organization was correct regarding what it had printed about homosexuality.

“It’s fairly well-accepted that smoking is not a good idea. It takes seven years off of your life. It appears that male homosexuality takes more than that off your life."

That's the trouble with some "crackpots." If you leave them alone to cause mischief, they will.

The lgbt community should care about Paul Cameron for a multitude of reasons. He is masquerading as a legitimate researcher and his mess continues to hurt the us.

But for me, it mostly comes down to this:

We reacted because the police kept harassing us as Stonewall,

We reacted because Anita Bryant told those lies about us in the 70's,

We reacted because of the AIDS crisis,

We reacted because of the Proposition 8 vote.

Our history seems to be a pattern of reacting.

When you react, you lash out and are on the defensive. You are not in control of the situation because you are trying to rally yourself from whatever calamity that has been thrust upon you.

And that has been our problem.

We are constantly trying to rally ourselves after being slapped. We wait until we have been wronged before we act and then we try to take care of the situation with a rushed public display of anger.

I hate to say it but let’s take a tip from those people who claim that Obama was not born in the United States.

The only reason why the "birthers" have gotten so much attention is because they have been insistent in pushing their point. They have been on the offensive from the beginning.

And we certainly have a more legitimate case than the "birthers." Paul Cameron has made a career out of lying about the lgbt community. He couldn’t be believed if his blood was replaced with truth serum.

Yet the right continues to cite him either overtly or covertly.

But we are just sitting by and letting it happen without challenge.

We are wasting a valuable opportunity to not only put the religious right on the defensive but bring attention to the fact that they are neither religious in their tactics nor right in their claims.

Sometimes winning the fight is not reacting after being kicked but doing the kicking yourself.

With that in mind, please be aware of the following:

According to the webpage Box Turtle Bulletin, Cameron's work continues to be cited in the following pieces, which are still present and available on each corresponding group's webpage:

Publications:

Journal of Biosocial Science

Psychological Reports

American Family Association:

Targeting Children, Part Four: Access to children: Homosexuality and Molestation — Ed Vitagliano, June 2001.

Targeting Children, Part Three: Activists Encouraging Experimentation — Ed Vitagliano, May 2001.

Homosexuality in America: Exposing the Myths (PDF: 299 KB/24 pages) — Robert G. Howe, 1994.

Americans For Truth:

Study Shows “Gay Married” Lifespans Average 24 Years Shorter than Hetero Marrieds in Norway, Denmark — Peter LaBarbera, April 5, 2007.

Canadian Research Suggests only 1.4% of Adults Homosexual — Peter LaBarera, March 27, 2007.

Stanford Nurse Details Lethal Consequences of Engaging in Promiscuous Anal Intercourse — Kathleen Melonakos, Dec 2, 2006.

Courage:

Living In Truth: Unsure Of Your Sexuality? — unsigned, 2000

Concerned Women For America:

Indianapolis Rejects Domestic Partner Benefit — Robert H. Knight, Aug 2, 2002

‘Sexual Orientation’ and American Culture — Robert H. Knight, July 10, 2002

Rosie and the Docs Peddle Bad Medicine (PDF: 62 KB/7 pages) — Robert H. Knight, May 2002.

Pediatrics Academy Joins Crusade for ‘Gay Parenting’ — Robert H. Knight, Feb 7, 2002

Ears To Hear:

Myths, Facts, and Consequences of the Homosexual Lifestyle — unsigned, April 30, 2007.

Evergreen International:

Gay Identity and the Gay Rights Movement — Jason Park, 1996.

Behavior (FAQ) — Jason Park, 1996.

Why Am I Attracted to Men? — Jason Park, 1996.

Lifesite News:

Canadian Research Suggests only 1.4% of Adults Homosexual — Unsigned, March 27, 2007.

Expert Research Finds Homosexuality More Dangerous Than Smoking — Unsigned, April 3, 2007.

US Sexuality Survey Shows Gays 107% More Likely To Engage In Criminal Activities — “JJ,” June 13, 2005.

Yet Another Study Confirms Gay Life Expectancy 20 Years Shorter — “JJ,” June 6, 2005.

Same-Sex Parenting is Harmful to Children Says REAL Women of Canada — Unsigned, March 2004.

The Case Against Same-Sex Marriage (Originally published in Crisis magazine) — Tim Leslie, January 2004.

Homosexuals Declare War On Boy Scouts — Unsigned, August 23, 2000
.
National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH):

Joseph Nicolosi e Linda Ames Nicolosi, Omosessualità. Una Guida per i Genitori, (PDF: 174 KB/5 pages) (Italian: Joseph Nicolosi and Linda Ames Nicolosi. Homosexuality. A Guide for Parents) — Roberto Marchesini, October 2005.

Conversion Therapy Revisited: Parameters and Rationale for Ethical Care — Christopher H. Rosik, Spring 2001.

Revisión de la Terapia Teparativa: Parámetros y Fundamento Para el Cuidado Ético (PDF: 280 KB/18 pages) (Spanish: Conversion Therapy Revisited: Parameters and Rationale for Ethical Care ) — Christopher H. Rosik, Spring 2001.

Pediatrician Says Childhood Gender Identity Disorder Requires Treatment, Not Sex-Change Surgery — Ross Olson, undated (updated April 20, 2006).

Father-son Relationships and Male Sexual Development — Gregory Dickson, undated (Updated Sept 30, 2002).

Renew America:

Attorney, Group Blast Bishops Over Sex Ed — Matt C. Abbott, August 21, 2005.

Sometimes, Where There’s Smoke, There’s the Fired — Selwyn Duke, February 11, 2005

Virtue Online:

Expert Research Finds Homosexuality More Dangerous Than Smoking — “David Virtue,” April 4, 2007.

1.4% of Adults Homosexual? — “David Virtue,” March 23, 2007.

Sites like Box Turtle Bulletin should be commended for their diligent work in cataloguing all of this nonsense.

But the question needs to be asked - why have we let this go on for so long without raising hell about it?

The only reason why the religious right gets away with citing Cameron is because no one calls them on it.

Isn't time for us to do a little calling out?

Other HB/HM articles on Paul Cameron:

More homophobic lies from the Paul Cameron Poland tour

Homophobic 'researcher' Paul Cameron in all of his repulsive glory

What's Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?

I was in a ROTTEN mood when I got home today.

But thanks to John Corvino, I'm better. So I want to return the favor and show you the video that got me smiling. It's the trailer to a lecture he did called What's Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?

I'm in agreement with him on every point but damn it's still good to watch. It should be required viewing for everyone, gay or straight:



John Corvino is a writer, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. For more about his work, go to http://www.johncorvino.com

Lawrence King's killer, NOM gets a 'supporter', and other Wednesday news briefs.

Lawrence King’s Killer Motivated By Neo-Nazi Beliefs - Tell me AGAIN how it was Lawrence King's fault that he was murdered.

Terrell Carter Explains His Absence: "Been Working on My New Album" - Maybe he can tell us where Tevin Campbell is (shut up, Alvin)

The shutout was funny. The 3 attendees might be more telling - Oh look. NOM has someone who will support them on Facebook.

Hate Crimes could be on the path to enactment, finally - BOOM!

Dethroned Miss California Carrie Prejean lands right-wing book deal - Apparently I'm going about this book thing all wrong.

Hip-hop shows why some in the black community fear lgbts

I am an old school man. I remember when rap music first came out. I remember the Sugar Hill Gang, the first female rap group called Sequence, and I definitely remmber when Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five came out with the first socially conscious rap song called The Message.

Since that time, I have tuned out and with good reason. Rap music and the genre that it helped to spawn, hip-hop, has done some incredible things lyrically but rap stars give me a huge pause.

Like the one called Cam'ron.

I don't know Cam'ron and I have never heard of his music, but he seems to have started something ugly regarding lgbts. It's gotten so extreme that a Fox News contributor (of all people) has stepped in to speak against it:

Fox News political contributor Dr. Marc Lamont Hill wants to put an end to the pop culture catchphrase "no homo."

"No homo" was originated by rap star Cam'ron, who had an affinity for wearing anything pink but didn't want it to be perceived as gay.

Since being made popular by Cam'ron and his Dipset hip-hop crew, the expression has evolved into a ubiquitous slang term used to chase any phrase, action or idea that could be perceived as gay.

Apparently, the article says, anything that is perceived as gay is perceived as weak.

Now I know some people are going to start bashing, but let's not as of yet. Rock music has a stereotype of being vulgar and country music has a stereotype of being to the political right of Genghis Khan (remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks).

Personally, I think this "No Homo" nonsense hits on something about the black community that very few people want to realize.

We hear that the black community opposes homosexuality because of religious beliefs.

That's a dodge.

There are too many folks in the black community who break other Biblical commandments without pause. There is too much sex before marriage, too many illegitimate births, and too many off-the-shoulder dresses, fake hair, and fake nails at black gospel awards shows for so-called sanctified people to start pointing fingers at lgbts.

There are also too many gays and lesbians in the church and the pulpit for homosexuality to be considered the so-called sin of the ages. Everyone knows it but as long as no one "names it," no one has to "claim it."

Some in the black community feel that homosexuality is a threat because it threatens the gender roles that many in the black community have staked out for our men and women.

You know what I'm talking about. The strong brother who is supposed "to help the sista out." Or the hot and sexy black woman who "is fixing her hair to go out and scope at the club for a man."

This perceived idea is ridiculous. It reduces the black man and woman to plastic objects or commodities. Lgbts in the black community are considered a threat because by our very existence we question these ridiculous roles. We make some in the black community question themselves. And apparently they don't like what they see.

But this isn't our fault.

And to a measure, it's not the fault of hip-hop. By it's stark directness, hip-hop is merely bringing that problem to the forefront.

So maybe in talking about how the black community perceives homosexuality, we have been moving in the wrong direction. I don't know.

But I do know that there is a lot to be discussed regarding gender roles and sexual orientation in the black community if only someone would have the guts to initiate the conversation.

A clip of discredited researcher Paul Cameron making a fool of himself on the Donahue show

Anti-gay spokesperson Robert Knight once told me that I was obsessed with discredited researcher Paul Cameron. I found, and still find his comments to be ironic seeing that Knight has on occasion freely cited Cameron statistics even after he knew of the man's dubious history.

However, in viewing my behavior these few days, I see that Knight may have had a point. I've been on a tear about Cameron. However, it's only because I feel that the lgbt community don't know as much about him.

A short recap is in order. Paul Cameron is the man I consider directly responsible for a vast majority of religious right discredited studies about the lgbt community. When the AIDS crisis began, he made a career out of creating bad studies accusing the lgbt community of things like molesting children at a high rate, eating feces, and using gerbils as sex toys.

He has been discredited on numerous occasions but his work still continues to haunt the lgbt community via contemporaries like The Traditional Values Coalition, Americans for Truth, Concerned Women for America, and other religious right groups.

As I understand it, Cameron allowed Sascha Baron Cohen to make a fool out of him in the new movie Bruno. I haven't seen it yet but I hear it's good.

However, as the following clip from a past episode of Donahue demonstrates, Cameron needs no one's help in being made a fool.

His comments just defy description and would be funny if it weren't for all of those who took him seriously and caused the lgbt community so much harm:



Other HB/HM articles on Paul Cameron in Poland:

More homophobic lies from the Paul Cameron Poland tour

Homophobic 'researcher' Paul Cameron in all of his repulsive glory

Mixed bag for hate crimes legislation, Oklahoma Baptists try to put one over on everyone, and other Tuesday news briefs

Senate voted to strike funding for F-22 - Double hot damn! The one thing that could cause hate crimes legislation problems is gone!

Senate adopts amendments to hate crimes measure - Then again, the poison pills seem to be in effect.

Anti-gay Clue: It's fellow conservatives' support of Mike Heath that's the real mystery - A gay man accidentally kills another and the wolves feast. Of course they don't want to do anything considered "un-Christian," such as encouraging prayer for the parties involved.

Baptists apologize to Okla. governor for error - This is funny. They talk about morality then falsely pushes the idea that the Governor signed it.

Gay night draws 2,100 to Nats' game - Funny. I remember when the religious right used to flip out over stuff like this.

More homophobic lies from the Paul Cameron Poland tour

"Whereas two-thirds of the population are worker bees . . . generally those who engage in homosexuality belong to the other third, the third that so to speak exploits society." - Paul Cameron

Discredited researcher Paul Cameron (and one of the co-stars of the movie Bruno) seems to have gotten a lot of attention during his tour of Poland in May of this year.

Yesterday's clips of an interview with him was disturbing enough but today's clip is even more disturbing. He seems to be lecturing to a full auditorium and no one is challenging him when he says vicious inaccuracies like the statement at the beginning of this post.

And if anyone did want to challenge him, they would definitely have a lot of material to work with. From viewing the clip, I found things that were basically inaccurate.



The bulk of the clip is Cameron making the inaccurate claim that gays and lesbians molest children at a high rate. As proof of this, he cites two studies (funny how he didn't cite his own work) that according to him comes from the "homosexuals themselves."

One study he cites is the Bell and Weinberg that formed the basis of the book Homosexualities published in 1978. Homosexualities was produced by the Kinsey Institute. Cameron considers this to be a study conducted by gays since according to him, Alfred Kinsey was a gay man.

But the authors of the study, Alan Bell and David Weinberg, said their work could not be used to generalize about the entire gay community:

“. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator will ever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”

Cameron then claims that "around the same time" (his words), researchers Karla Jay and Alan Young sent out questionnaires around the country regarding sexual habits of gays and lesbians.

Now the answers to these questionnaires formed the basis of the 1979 book The Gay Report.

According to one of the best online sites when it comes to debunking Paul Cameron's lies, Box Turtle Bulletin:

The Gay Report was modeled after many other informal sex surveys which were popular in the 1970s and 1980s. Magazines like Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Playboy often conducted reader surveys.

Twenty-five hundred responses came from a gay magazine questionnaire. The magazine, Blue Boy, was a softcore porn magazine. Because of this, said Box Turtle Bulletin, the authors of The Gay Report:

. . . have virtually guaranteed an exceptionally heavy biased towards the opinions and experiences of those who are much more sexually experienced.

In other words, it is the equivalent of claiming that those who respond to a sex survey in an issue of Hustler magazine are indicative of the American heterosexual population.

Even the authors of The Gay Report said:

We agreed at the outset not to pretend that these percentages represented the practices and views of all gay people—they reflected only our respondents.

And according Box Turtle Bulletin, the number of respondees in proportion to how many questionnaires sent out is too low:

To prepare for this study, the authors distributed “hundreds of thousands” of 16-page surveys across the country, with an abridged version printed in the adult magazine Blueboy, which is sort of a gay equivalent to Playboy or Penthouse. Out of this massive distribution, they received only 5,400 responses. While that may seem like a sizeable response, it is quite low when you consider the response rate. The authors estimate that 400,000 gay men and 100,000 lesbians saw at least one form of the questionnaire.5 That means the response rate for this survey is barely 1%. A negligible response rate like this would render any survey statistically meaningless.

I should point out that these two studies (both conducted over 30 years ago) was the only proof Cameron gave to justify his claim about the lgbt community and child molestation.

Pointing out the errors in Cameron's tour is important for two reasons:

1. I've seen these references to Homosexualities and The Gay Report in work by other religious right groups. I've had to debunk the Bell and Weinberg distortion on this site more times than I can count. So while it's safe to say that many religious right groups no longer cite Cameron by name, there is enough evidence to see that they are still using his distortions.

2. It bothers me that Cameron is able to go to a foreign country that is totally ignorant of his dubious history and pass his lies off for truth. It amazes me that a man who has been dismisssed from so many medical groups, who has faced censured so many times can still attain any type of credibility anywhere. This will no doubt have ugly repercussions for the worldwide lgbt community.

The reason why not enough people are aware of just how influential and dangerous Paul Cameron is has to do with those who have the power to expose him not doing their job. We have got to get on the ball with this one.

Other HB/HM articles on Paul Cameron in Poland:

Homophobic 'researcher' Paul Cameron in all of his repulsive glory

Adoption is about the child, not the religious beliefs of those placing the child

From the United Kingdom comes a situation regarding gay adoption which I am sure the religious right in this country will try to exploit for its own purposes:

Dr Sheila Matthews, who has been a medical adviser to the Council’s adoption panel for five years, said she believed it would be “inappropriate” to place children in a household with same sex parents.

“Using my professional judgement and having done a lot of reading around the subject, I am satisfied that there are research findings which support my position that a same sex partnership is not the best family setting to bring up children,” she said. . . . "This conflicts with my professional, religious and personal integrity.”

Dr Matthews was told in April by the Council’s Head of Services for Children, Young People and Families, Martin Pratt, that she could no longer be on the panel and that another medical adviser would be found to replace her.

She has sought advice from the Christian Legal Centre. Its director Andrea Minichiello Williams said her case was another example of “how a well respected professional who holds conscientious views on sexual practice, informed by Christian faith, is being asked to choose between her faith and her job."

. . . “And devout Christians are suffering the consequences,” she said. “This is not the mark of a free and civilised society where freedom of speech and religion is carefully guarded.”

This isn't anything new. In 2006, Catholic Charities of Boston in Massachusetts announced that the agency would end its adoption work rather than comply with state law requiring that gays be allowed to adopt children.

So this case may give the religious right more proof that the "gay agenda forces people to choose between their jobs and beliefs."

Therefore, if the lgbt community takes on the religious right in this situation without flipping the script a bit, we are walking into their trap.

You see, adoption is not about the lgbt community nor about the beliefs of those who would place these children. Ultimately, adoption is about giving children good homes.

Now I don't know what Dr. Matthews has been reading (I think I have a good idea, unfortunately), but the vast amount of research out there says no child suffers adverse affects from being placed in a same-sex household.

Regardless of how she spins it, Dr. Matthews is placing her personal beliefs above the needs of the child.

If someone on any adoption board does this, then he or she needs to be removed, point blank.

Also, how far does this "my personal beliefs won't allow it," nonsense go? Will the "personal beliefs" card be allowed when it comes placing children in households of different ethnic origins.

You see how complicated this thing gets when people on these boards start deviating from their actual mission - that mission being to find a child a good home.

Removing Dr. Matthews was the right thing to do. In the cases of adoptions, the needs of the children should always come first. Everything else, especially the personal religious beliefs (however deeply held) of those choosing the homes, is incidental.

Religious militancy at Charlotte Pride and other news briefs

On the edge: Religious militancy in the Queen City - For years, Charlotte Pride has been besieged with very vocal anti-gay protesters. This year may be a bit more troubling than most as Matt Comer shows in this special report.

Anti-Gay Extremists Predict “Flash Point” for Charlotte Pride - And on the heels of that excellent report is this done by Box Turtle Bulletin which takes a deeper look at the parties involved.

Sessions of unnecessary 'hate' debate: AL Sen. seeks last-ditch derail - A pathetic attempt to toxify hate crimes legislation.

DCF Removes Gay-related Web Pages, After Conservative Complaints - THAT is some bull@!%$!

Homophobic 'researcher' Paul Cameron in all of his repulsive glory

“If you isolate sexuality as something solely for one’s own personal amusement, and all you want is the most satisfying orgasm you can get—and that is what homosexuality seems to be—then homosexuality seems too powerful to resist. The evidence is that men do a better job on men, and women on women if all you are looking for is an orgasm . . . Marital sex tends toward the boring end. Generally, it doesn’t deliver the kind of sheer sexual pleasure that homosexual sex does.” - Paul Cameron, Rolling Stone, March, 18, 1999

Not many people in the lgbt community or the world know who Paul Cameron is.

But we all should.

Paul Cameron is the grandfather of all anti-gay junk science.

When the religious right compares us to pedophiles, when they claim that we have a short life span, when they talk about how "how homosexuality has dangerous physical and medical consequences," it's his discredited "data" that they are inferring.

Paul Cameron is probably singlehandedly responsible for every lie, every distortion, every bastardization of science that has plagued the lgbt community since the onset of the AIDS crisis.

His bad research techniques and tactics has led him to be dismissed from major scientific groups, as well as censured by conservatives and liberals alike.

Unfortunately these techniques and tactics also gave the religious right a "scientific component" to attack the lgbt community. If there was no Paul Cameron, there would be no Peter LaBarbera, no Matt Barber, no Linda Harvey, etc., etc.

The following clips are of Paul Cameron in Poland this year, where he was barred from speaking at a university after his dubious history was made known.

I think you can see the ugly homophobia that has tainted his research from the beginning, especially with his fascination with anal sex in the gay community (of course he omits how heterosexuals also participate in this activity), and his claim that he has been the victim of a conspiracy of "ad hominem" attacks.

The "real fun" starts at 2:45 in this clip when he begins talking about how gays have a supposedly high rate of molesting children.



Now in second this clip, he goes into full detail about anal sex, making sure to imply that it is solely "gay behavior." He also talks about how the attacks against him have been unfair because all he is doing is presenting data that the gay community also presents. He also tells a huge bold-faced lie (as if his entire presentation isn't a lie) when he says that gays aren't showing any evidence that his work is inaccurate.



Of course Cameron omits several things. There is a reason why he has to go to foreign countries to present his "studies." He is a laughing stock in the United States. While religious right groups fully exploit the so-called results behind his studies, they are careful not to call him by name. There is a reason for that.

Let's take a quick look at his history:

"Right now, here in Lincoln, there is a 4-year-old boy who has had his genitals almost severed from his body at Gateway in the rest room with a homosexual act… It’s really awkward. I could see where Gateway would want to suppress this. I could see where the parents would want to suppress it. It could be just a rumor. But enough things have happened recently so that such a thing doesn’t have to be invented.” - Paul Cameron told this story to a group in 1982 in Lincoln, NB in an attempt to kill a human rights ordinance. The police discovered the story to be false but the ordinance was defeated.

And let's not forget the condemnations rained down on him by the medical community:

“(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.” - Dr. A. Nicholas Groth in 1984 after discovering that Cameron distorted his work.

"Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists - American Psychological Association, 1983

The science and profession of psychology in Nebraska as represented by the Nebraska Psychological Association, formally dissociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality. Further, the Nebraska Psychological Association would like it known that Dr. Cameron is not a member of the Association. Dr. Cameron was recently dropped from membership in the American Psychological Association for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists - Nebraska Psychological Association, 1984

Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism" - American Sociological Association, 1985

The Canadian Psychological Association takes the position that Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism and thus, it formally disassociates itself from the representation and interpretations of scientific literature in his writings and public statements on sexuality. - Canadian Psychological Association, 1996

And while we are at it, let's not forget those on the right who dismiss Cameron's work:

"Given what I now know, I believe there are flaws with Paul Cameron's study. One cannot extrapolate from his methodology and say that the average male homosexual life span is 43 years." - former Ronald Regan Cabinet member William Bennett criticizing Cameron's "gay lifespan study." - New Republic (1998, February 23, page 4)

This article has been removed due to the inaccuracies surrounding the research of Paul Cameron. - A posting on the webpage of Ex-gay group Exodus International

Paul Cameron has been censured and attacked not because his "research" is controversial, but because it is wrong. He ranks right up there with folks who think that the Earth is flat. His organization, the Family Research Institute, has been declared an official hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

And not because it embraces the belief that homosexuality is a sin. According to Mark Potok, the director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, Cameron's group has that designation because Cameron consciously lies about the lgbt community.

The sad fact that Cameron has credibility anywhere (not matter where it is) is testament to people's need to believe that their beliefs are somehow superior to others' beliefs.

This unfortunate need to feel superior has plagued mankind from the beginning of time. And, as in the beginning of time, there will always be people like Paul Cameron to exploit it.

More about Paul Cameron's lies here and here.

And despite all that has been said about Cameron's lies, this link shows that he still has a degree of credibility with some people, including Peter LaBarbera, Concerned Women for America, and the Family Research Council.