I invite readers to also visit www.johnnyskeptic75.com, where I wrote a book review of Homosexuality, the Use of Scientific Research in the Church’s Moral Debate, copyright 2000. The authors are Stanton L. Jones, Ph.D., and Mark A. Yarhouse, Ph.D. They are conservative Christians.
DR. PAUL CAMERON REFUTED, by Johnny Skeptic
2. How likely are homosexuals to be murderers and pedophiles?
3. Organization that support homosexuals
4. Paul Cameron embarrasses himself regarding oral sex
6. Paul Cameron’s fraudulent claims regarding the lifespan of homosexuals
It is my intention in this article to expose Dr. Paul Cameron’s deceptive, misleading, and unethical misrepresentations of the results/consequences of homosexuality to homosexuals and to society. His research has been rejected by virtually all of the most prestigious professional/medical organizations in the U.S.
Consider the following:
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron_sheet.html
Cameron received his BA from Los Angeles Pacific College in 1961; his MA from California State University, Los Angeles, in 1962; and his PhD from the University of Colorado in 1966.
He was affiliated with various colleges and universities until 1980. They include Wayne State University (1967-68), University of Louisville (1970-73), Fuller Graduate School of Psychology [part of the Fuller Theological Seminary] (1976-79), and the University of Nebraska (1979-80).
He is chairman of the Family Research Institute, P.O. Box 62640, Colorado Springs, CO. 80962-2640. Telephone: (303) 681-3113. Fax: (303) 681-3427. E-mail: pdcameron@juno.com
In the mid-1980s, the gay press labeled Paul Cameron "the most dangerous antigay voice in the United States today."
2. How likely are homosexuals to be murderers and pedophiles?
Consider the following:
http://www.familyresearchinst.org/FRI_EduPamphlet4.html
Paul Cameron
A study of 518 sexually-tinged mass murders in the U.S. from 1966 to 1983 determined that 350 (68%) of the victims were killed by those who practiced homosexuality and that 19 (44%) of the 43 murderers were bisexuals or homosexuals.
Johnny: Cameron's research is widely discredited in the professional/medical community. His writings have been rejected by most of the prestigious medical journals and publications.
Consider the following:
http://www.indegayforum.org/authors/pietrzyk/pietrzyk53.html
Consider, for instance, his [Cameron’s] 1983 ISIS study, a survey of the sexual and social behavior of 4,340 adults in five American cities. Although thousands of heterosexuals allegedly responded to his survey, Cameron could get only forty-one gay men and twenty-four lesbians to respond. The extremely small sample size should have invalidated any conclusions about the sexual behavior of the gay population. In any case, the skewed results of the survey show that Cameron did not get an adequate random sample of heterosexuals either. He claims to have found that 52 percent of male heterosexuals have shoplifted; that 34 percent have committed a crime without being caught; and that 12 percent have either committed or attempted to commit murder. Most people would toss out such a survey but Cameron published the results in several pamphlets and in Effect of Homosexuality upon Public Health and Social Order, an article in Psychological Reports.
In one pamphlet, Murder, Violence and Homosexuality, Cameron asserts that you are fifteen times more apt to be killed by a homosexual than by a heterosexual during a sexual murder spree; that homosexuals have committed the most sexual conspiracy murders; and that half of all sex murderers are homosexuals. Cameron based these conclusions on a sample of thirty-four serial killers he selected from the years 1966 to 1983. He stacked the deck not only by including phony figures (he counts in his sample the claims of Henry Lee Lucas, who subsequently recanted his boast that he murdered hundreds of people) but by examining only those serial killers with an apparent sexual motive. This allowed him to include John Wayne Gacy and his victims but to exclude the great majority of serial killers who are heterosexual, according to sociologist Jack Levin, the author of Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace.
In Cameron's writings on child molestation„the pamphlet Child Molestation and Homosexuality and two published articles, Homosexual Molestation of Children/Sexual Interaction of Teacher and Pupil and Child Molestation and Homosexuality, he concludes that gays have perpetrated between one-third and one-half of all child molestations; that homosexual teachers have committed between one-quarter and four-fifths of all molestations of pupils; and that gays are ten to twenty times more apt to molest children than are heterosexuals. These figures are said to be based on the content of other child molestation studies, yet Cameron has distorted those studies to get the results he wants. For example, he defines all adult male molestation of male children as molestations committed by homosexuals, a definition rejected by the very experts Cameron cites. Groth, among other experts, has explicitly said that most molesters of boys are in fact men who are heterosexual in their adult relationships. These men are attracted to boys, he says, largely because of the feminine characteristics of prepubescents, such as a lack of body hair.
Cameron also has provided anti-gay organizations with research indicating absurdly high rates of extreme sex practices and venereal diseases among gays and lesbians. In his pamphlets on these subjects, Cameron has claimed, for instance, that 29 percent of gay men practice “urine sex” and that 37 percent of gay men have sadomasochistic sex. Gay men, he says, are fourteen times more apt to have syphilis than heterosexual men and are three times more apt to have had lice. Lesbians are said to be nineteen times more apt to have syphilis than straight women and are four times more apt to have had scabies. Cameron's findings, however, are based on two sources: his discredited 1983 ISIS survey and other studies that ignore random sampling techniques. Several studies Cameron cites to support his conclusions rely on the responses of gay men who were recruited entirely from V.D. clinics.
Johnny: At
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/Rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html, readers will find an informative article by Gregory M. Herek, Ph.D., who I mentioned previously. The article is titled Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation. Herek adequately dispels the myth that a significantly disportionate percentage of homosexuals molest children.
Herek’s bio is as follows:
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/bio.html
Gregory M. Herek is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Davis (UCD). He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from UCD in 1983, then was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. He subsequently served as a faculty member at Yale and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York before returning to UCD, first as a research psychologist and later as a tenured professor.
An internationally recognized authority on prejudice against lesbians and gay men, hate crimes and anti-gay violence, and AIDS-related stigma, he has published numerous scholarly articles on these topics. His edited and coedited books include Hate Crimes: Confronting Violence Against Lesbians and Gay Men (1992, Sage Publications), AIDS, Identity, and Community: HIV and Lesbians and Gay Men (Sage, 1995), Out in Force: Sexual Orientation and the Military (University of Chicago Press, 1996), Stigma and Sexual Orientation (Sage, 1998), and a special issue of the American Behavioral Scientist on "AIDS and Stigma" (1999). He is currently writing a book on sexual prejudice, which will be published by the University of Chicago Press.
Prof. Herek also serves as consulting editor for several academic journals, including Basic and Applied Social Psychology, The Journal of Sex Research, the Journal of Homosexuality, and Psychology of Men & Masculinity.
Prof. Herek is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for Psychological Science (APS). He received APA's 1996 Early Career Award for Contribution to Psychology in the Public Interest. His other honors include the 1999 and 1989 awards for Distinguished Scientific Contributions from APA Division 44, and the 1992 Outstanding Achievement Award from the APA Committee on Lesbian and Gay Concerns.
He is a past chairperson of the APA Committee on Lesbian and Gay Concerns. He also served on the APA Task Force on Avoiding Heterosexist Bias in Research and the APA Task Force on AIDS. He currently serves as chairperson of the Scientific Review Committee for the Wayne F. Placek Award, sponsored by the American Psychological Foundation.
Prof. Herek's other professional involvements also have focused on lesbian and gay concerns and AIDS issues. In 1997, he was a participant at President Clinton's White House Conference on Hate Crimes. In 1993, he gave written and oral testimony on behalf of the APA, the American Psychiatric Association, and four other national professional associations for the House Armed Services Committee's hearings on gays and the U.S. military. In 1986, he testified on behalf of the APA for the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee's hearings on antigay violence.
He has assisted the APA in preparing amicus briefs in court cases challenging the constitutionality of state sodomy laws at the federal and state levels (e.g., Lawrence v. Texas and Bowers v. Hardwick, U.S. Supreme Court; Campbell v. Sundquist, Tennessee Court of Appeals), military policies excluding lesbians and gay men (Watkins v. U.S. Army, Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals), state antigay ballot propositions (Romer v. Evans, U.S. Supreme Court), the parenting rights of lesbians and gay men (Bottoms v. Bottoms, Virginia Court of Appeals), and the right of the Boy Scouts to exclude gay people (Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, U.S. Supreme Court). In addition, he has served as consultant and expert witness for numerous legal cases involving the civil rights of lesbians and gay men and people with AIDS.
Johnny: Even if Cameron’s statistics regarding murder are true, the following government statistics render his statistics virtually useless:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/LCWK9_2002.pdf
2002 - deaths by all causes - 2,443,387
#1 cause of death -
Diseases of the heart - 696,947
#14 cause of death - Assault (homicide) - 17,638
Johnny: If Cameron is trying to prove that homosexuals pose a significant threat to society, then I will tell him that even if ALL homicides were committed by homosexuals, that would be less than 3% of the number of deaths caused by heart disease alone, and heart disease is largely preventable. The obvious conclusion here is that generally, heterosexuals are much more of threat to themselves than homosexuals could ever be.
Consider the following:
http://myhealth.barnesjewish.org/healthnews/healthday/051112HD529099.htm
Better lifestyle habits -- think less junk food, more fish and more exercise -- can help prevent 80 percent of coronary heart disease and 90 percent of type 2 diabetes.
That's the thrust of a report scheduled to be presented Saturday by Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the Harvard School of Public Health's department of nutrition, at the American Society of Nephrology's annual meeting, in Philadelphia.
"There is a huge potential for reducing the major causes of death, from cardiovascular disease and diabetes," said Willett, whose report was titled "Diet and Optimal Health: A Progress Report."
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5114a2.htm
CDC (Centers For Disease Control)
Annual Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Years of Potential Life Lost, and Economic Costs --- United States, 1995-1999
Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States and produces substantial health-related economic costs to society. This report presents the annual estimates of the disease impact of smoking in the United States during 1995--1999. CDC calculated national estimates of annual smoking-attributable mortality (SAM), years of potential life lost (YPLL), smoking-attributable medical expenditures (SAEs) for adults and infants, and productivity costs for adults. Results show that during 1995--1999, smoking caused approximately 440,000 premature deaths in the United States annually and approximately $157 billion in annual health-related economic losses. Implementation of comprehensive tobacco-control programs as recommended by CDC could effectively reduce the prevalence, disease impact, and economic costs of smoking.
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/html/fact15.html
“Cigarette smoking is linked with a wide range of psychiatric diagnoses including anxiety, agoraphobia and panic disorder but especially with depression. Many epidemiological studies have reported an association between clinical depression and smoking. Some have concluded that the effects of long-term nicotine exposure on the brain may have a causal influence on major depression while others suggest that shared environmental or genetic factors may predispose to both smoking and major depression. A longitudinal study by Breslau et al found that a history of daily smoking increased significantly the risk of major depression. This was consistent with earlier reports which suggested that previous smoking history increased the risk of depressive symptoms and increased the risk of attacks of major depression.”
Johnny: Obviously, cigarette smoking is preventable.
http://www.wvdhhr.org/bph/oehp/obesity/mortality.htm
According to the National Institutes of Health, obesity and overweight together are the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States, close behind tobacco use. An estimated 300,000 deaths per year are due to the obesity epidemic
Johnny: In many cases, obesity can be prevented or successfully reversed.
What about lesbians? Consider the following:
http://www.familyresearchinst.org/FRI_EduPamphlet4.html
Paul Cameron
In 1992 two Jeffersonville, Indiana lesbians, aged 17 and 16, abducted a 12-year-old girl whom they accused of trying to "steal a girlfriend." The little girl was pushed into the trunk of a car, stabbed repeatedly, and beaten with a heavy metal bar. While still struggling, they poured gasoline on her and set her ablaze.
Johnny: If Cameron is attempting to make a correlation between lesbians and violence, he has embarrassed himself. Consider the following from an article by Dr. Timothy J. Dailey, a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Marriage and Family Studies:
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS02E3
Pedophiles are invariably males: Almost all sex crimes against children are committed by men.
Johnny: Dr. Dailey is a conservative Christian.
Consider the following:
http://www.writing-world.com/mystery/suicide.shtml
Women rarely commit murder, but when they do, a gun is most often the weapon they chose because it eliminates the physical differences between the sexes, allowing a hundred pound woman to kill a three hundred pound man, when any other weapon must be used at close range and can easily be taken from her.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/wo.pdf
Violent crimes committed by males and females
1993-1997
Sexual assault
Percentage of female offenders - 2%
Johnny: Obviously, of that 2%, lesbians comprised a much smaller percentage.
What would Cameron do if he had a child who was homosexual? Vice-president Cheney’s daughter Mary is an acknowledged lesbian. Vice-president Cheney loves his daughter and treats her well, and he most certainly has not distanced himself from her. Consider the following:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43375-2004Oct18.html
By Hank Stuever
Washington Post Staff
Writer
Tuesday, October 19, 2004; Page C01
Vice President Cheney expressed outrage the day after Sen. John Kerry brought it up ("Dick Cheney's daughter who is a" -- the pause here was a fraction of time that might as well have been 10 seconds -- "lesbian," Kerry had said, in response to a question about whether lesbians and gay men are born or choose to be homosexuals) in the last presidential debate, just a week after Sen. John Edwards brought it up in the vice presidential debate. Lynne Cheney, Mary's mother, was even more incensed. She called it "a cheap and tawdry political trick. . . . The only thing I can conclude is he's not a good man. I'm speaking as a mom." (How dare they bring her daughter into this . . . this . . . political debate. In a presidential election no less.)
The GOP is run, in part, by gay men and women, its families are full of gay people, and yet it is institutionally opposed to even the most basic protections for gay couples. You can keep up a policy based on rank hypocrisy for only so long. And then it tumbles like a house of cards. Kerry just pulled one card from out of the bottom of the heap. Watch the edifice of double standards slowly implode. Gay people and their supporters will no longer acquiesce in this charade. Why on earth should we?”
Johnny: It is important to note that Kerry did not criticize Mary Cheney.
I challenge Paul Cameron to publicly state how he would treat one of his children if he or she was a homosexual, including what he would do if his child refused to go to a reparative therapy clinic.
3. Organizations that support homosexuals
Among organizations that support homosexuals are the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Anthropological Association, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Association Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Child Welfare League of America, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, and the American School Counselor Association, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,
and the
American Bar Association.
Consider the
following:
http://www.apa.org/pubinfo/answers.html
American Psychological Association
Psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals agree that homosexuality is not an illness, mental disorder or an emotional problem. Over 35 years of objective, well-designed scientific research has shown that homosexuality, in and of itself, is not associated with mental disorders or emotional or social problems. Homosexuality was once thought to be a mental illness because mental health professionals and society had biased information. In the past the studies of gay, lesbian and bisexual people involved only those in therapy, thus biasing the resulting conclusions. When researchers examined data about these people who were not in therapy, the idea that homosexuality was a mental illness was quickly found to be untrue.
In 1973 the American Psychiatric Association confirmed the importance of the new, better designed research and removed homosexuality from the official manual that lists mental and emotional disorders. Two years later, the American Psychological Association passed a resolution supporting the removal. For more than 25 years, both associations have urged all mental health professionals to help dispel the stigma of mental illness that some people still associate with homosexual orientation.
Studies comparing groups of children raised by homosexual and by heterosexual parents find no developmental differences between the two groups of children in four critical areas: their intelligence, psychological adjustment, social adjustment, and popularity with friends. It is also important to realize that a parent's sexual orientation does not dictate his or her children's.
Another myth about homosexuality is the mistaken belief that gay men have more of a tendency than heterosexual men to sexually molest children. There is no evidence to suggest that homosexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to molest children.
http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron_sheet.html
On December 2, 1983, the American Psychological Association sent Paul Cameron a letter informing him that he had been dropped from membership. Early in 1984, all members of the American Psychological Association received official written notice that "Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists" by the APA Board of Directors. Cameron has posted an elaborate argument about his expulsion from APA on his website, claiming that he resigned from APA before he was dropped from membership. Like most organizations, however, APA does not allow a member to resign when they are being investigated. And even if Cameron's claims were accepted as true, it would be remarkable that the largest professional organization of psychologists in the United States (and other professional associations, as noted below) went to such lengths to disassociate itself from one individual.
[Johnny: Cameron’s elaborate argument won’t do him any good because the American Psychological Association would have cancelled his membership whether he resigned or not. Not only that, his reputation has been widely discredited among most or all of the most prestigious professional/medical organizations in the U.S., not to mention elsewhere in Canada and Europe.]
In 1985, the American Sociological Association (ASA) adopted a resolution which asserted that "Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism" and noted that "Dr. Paul Cameron has repeatedly campaigned for the abrogation of the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, substantiating his call on the basis of his distorted interpretation of this research." The resolution formally charged an ASA committee with the task of "critically evaluating and publicly responding to the work of Dr. Paul Cameron."
At its August, 1986 meeting, the ASA officially accepted the committee's report and passed the following resolution:
The American Sociological Association officially and publicly states that Paul Cameron is not a sociologist, and condemns his consistent misrepresentation of sociological research. Information on this action and a copy of the report by the Committee on the Status of Homosexuals in Sociology, "The Paul Cameron Case," is to be published in Footnotes, and be sent to the officers of all regional and state sociological associations and to the Canadian Sociological Association with a request that they alert their members to Cameron's frequent lecture and media appearances.
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/archives/febsamesex.htm
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says children who are born to, or adopted by, one member of a gay or lesbian couple deserve the security of two legally recognized parents. Therefore, a new AAP policy statement, "Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents," supports legal and legislative efforts that provide for the possibility of adoption of those children by the second parent or co-parent in same-sex relationships.
The statement says there is a considerable body of professional literature that suggests children with parents who are homosexual have the same advantages and the same expectations for health, adjustment and development as children whose parents are heterosexual.
Co-parent or second-parent adoption protects a child's right to maintain continuing relationships with both parents in a same-sex relationship. Several states have considered or enacted legislation sanctioning co-parent or second parent adoption by partners of the same sex. But other states have not yet considered legislative action, while at least one state bans adoptions altogether by the second parent or co-parent in a same sex relationship.
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/cate....html#H-60.940
American Medical Association
H-60.940 Partner Co-Adoption
Our AMA will support legislative and other efforts to allow the adoption of a
child by the same-sex partner, or opposite sex non-married partner, who
functions as a second parent or co-parent to that child. (Res. 204, A-04)
H-65.976 Nondiscriminatory Policy for the Health Care Needs of the Homosexual
Population
Our AMA encourages physician practices, medical schools, hospitals, and clinics
to broaden any nondiscriminatory statement made to patients, health care
workers, or employees to include "sexual orientation, sex, or perceived gender"
in any nondiscrimination statement. (Res. 414, A-04)
H-65.979 Sexual Orientation as an Exclusionary Criterion for Youth Organization.
Our AMA asks youth oriented organizations to reconsider exclusionary policies
that are based on sexual orientation. (Res. 414, A-01)
H-65.983 Nondiscrimination Policy.
The AMA affirms that it has not been its policy now or in the past to
discriminate with regard to sexual orientation. (Res. 1, A-93; Reaffirmed: CCB
Rep. 6, A-03)
H-65.990 Civil Rights Restoration.
The AMA reaffirms its long-standing policy that there is no basis for the denial
to any human being of equal rights, privileges, and responsibilities
commensurate with his or her individual capabilities and ethical character
because of an individual's sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or
transgender status, race, religion, disability, ethnic origin, national origin,
or age. (BOT Rep. LL, I-86; Amended by Sunset Report, I-96; Modified: Res. 410,
A-03)
H-65.992 Continued Support of Human Rights and Freedom.
Our AMA continues (1) to support the dignity of the individual, human rights and
the sanctity of human life, and (2) to oppose any discrimination based on an
individual's sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability, ethnic origin,
national origin or age and any other such reprehensible policies. (Sub. Res.
107, A-85; Modified by CLRPD Rep. 2, I-95; Reaffirmation A-00)
H-180.980 Sexual Orientation as Health Insurance Criteria.
The AMA opposes the denial of health insurance on the basis of sexual
orientation. (Res. 178, A-88; Reaffirmed: Sub. Res. 101, I-97)
D-65.995 Health Disparities Among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender
Families
Our AMA will work to reduce the health disparities suffered because of unequal
treatment of minor children and same sex parents in same sex households by
supporting equality in laws affecting health care of members in same sex partner
households and their dependent children. (Res. 445, A-05)
http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/policy/archive.html
American Psychological Association
“Adopted by the APA Council of Representatives on August 16, 1998. Superseded by
Sexual Orientation & Marriage adopted by the APA Council of Representatives on
July 28 & 30, 2004.
“WHEREAS there is evidence that homosexuality per se implies no impairment in
judgement, stability, reliability, or general social and vocational capabilities
(Conger, 1975) for individuals;
“WHEREAS the scientific literature has found no significant difference between
different-sex couples and same-sex couples that justify discrimination (Kurdek,
1994;1983; Peplau, 1991);
“WHEREAS scientific research has not found significant psychological or
emotional differences between the children raised in different-sex versus
same-sex households” (Patterson, 1994)
The American 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. (August 1996)
Johnny: One of Cameron’s problems is that since many heterosexuals molest children too, he cannot determine which homosexuals molest children BECAUSE they are homosexuals.
4. Paul Cameron embarrasses himself regarding oral sex
Consider the following:
http://www.familyresearchinst.org/FRI_APA-rebuttal.html
FRI (Family Research Institute) has published estimates from its national sex survey that suggest that 80% of gays have engaged in oral-anal contact at least once in their life. Such unhealthy and unsanitary practice is commonplace among homosexuals
Johnny: Yes, oral sex is commonplace among homosexuals, but it is also quite popular among heterosexuals. Consider the following:
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/menshealth/facts/infectionoralsex.htm
Oral sex is now very common in both
heterosexual and homosexual couples.
For many years it was regarded as an almost
‘unmentionable’ activity. But these days, research suggests that most sexually
active people go in for it sometimes.
It has been shown that oral sex has certain very
positive aspects.
It can be extraordinarily effective at helping women
to reach a climax. It can help men who have
some minor difficulty in getting an erection. It cannot get you pregnant (except
under the most extraordinary and unlikely circumstances).
…….there is always some risk of transmission of HIV during oral sex, whatever precautions you take. However, you cannot get infected if your partner does not have the virus!
Johnny: Since Cameron opposes oral sex EVEN IF NEITHER PARTNER HAS THE VIRUS, his deceptive nature is obvious.
Is AIDS really a big issue among most opponents of homosexuality? No it isn’t. While general opposition to homosexuality has been around for millennia, AIDS is a modern disease. It originated around 1930 in Africa. Even if a cure of vaccine were found for AIDS, most people who oppose homosexuality would still oppose it. Of course, this truth is about much more than just AIDS. Religious conservatives, including Paul Cameron, are the chief opponents of homosexuality, and they are opposed to private homosexual acts no matter what homosexuals do in public, even regarding homosexuals who do not have any STD’s (sexually transmitted diseases), are not pedophiles, and who are not murderers.
Believe it or not, in 2003, two gay men living in Texas were arrested for having sex in the privacy of their own home. The gay couple sued the state of Texas and eventually the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in their favor. Consider the following:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/06/26/scotus.sodomy/
Tuesday,
November 18, 2003 Posted: 11:00 AM EST (1600 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court Thursday struck down a Texas state law banning private consensual sex between adults of the same sex in a decision gay rights groups hailed as historic.
The 6-3 decision by the court reverses course from a ruling 17 years ago that states could punish homosexuals for what such laws historically called deviant sex.
Of the 13 states with sodomy laws, four -- Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri -- prohibit oral and anal sex between same-sex couples. The other nine ban consensual sodomy for everyone: Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia.
Johnny: Such an atrocity could only have happened in states with high percentages of conservative Christians. The three dissenting votes were predictably from justices Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas, all of whom are conservative Christians. Regarding the recent 6-3 vote in the Supreme Court that upheld Oregon’s assisted suicide law, the three dissenting votes were predictably justices Scalia, Thomas, and Rehnquist’s replacement Chief Justice Roberts. Chief Justice Roberts is a conservative Christian.
Women most certainly are not afraid of being raped by gay men. Consider the following:
http://www.paralumun.com/issuesrapestats.htm
In 1995, 354,670 women were the victims of a rape or sexual assault. (NationalCrime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1996.)
Over the last two years, more than 787,000 women were the victim of a rape or sexual assault. (National Crime Victimization Survey. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, 1996.)
One of the most startling aspects of sex crimes is how many go unreported. The most common reasons given by women for not reporting these crimes are the belief that it is a private or personal matter and the fear of reprisal from the assailant.
Approximately 28% of victims are raped by husbands or boyfriends, 35% by acquaintances, and 5% by other relatives. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994)
Data from the National Women's Study, a longitudinal telephone survey of a national household probability sample of women at least 18 years of age, show 683,000 women forcibly raped each year and that 84% of rape victims did not report the offense to the police.
Victims of rape often manifest long-term symptoms of chronic headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbance, recurrent nausea, decreased appetite, eating disorders, menstrual pain, sexual dysfunction, and suicide attempts. In a longitudinal study, sexual assault was found to increase the odds of substance abuse by a factor of 2.
Estimates of the occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases resulting from rape range from 3.6% to 30%.
Victims of marital or date rape are 11 times more likely to be clinically depressed, and 6 times more likely to experience social phobia than are non-victims. Psychological problems are still evident in cases as long as 15 years after the assault.
A study examining the use of health services over a five year period by female members of a health maintenance program found that the number of visits to physicians by rape victims increased 56% in the year following the crime, compared to a 2% utilization increase by non-victims.
The National Public Services Research Institute estimates the lifetime cost for each rape with physical injuries which occurred in 1987 to be $60,000.
Johnny: Obviously, Paul Cameron is deceptively selective regarding which evidence he chooses to use. If the preceding statistics applied to homosexuals, you can bet that he would use them.
6. Paul Cameron’s fraudulent claims regarding the lifespan of homosexuals
Consider the following:
http://www.geocities.com/ninure/cameron.html
A recent study of Cameron's which has received a great deal of attention among the religious right is "The Lifespan of Homosexuals," a paper comparing 6516 obituaries gathered from sixteen American Gay newspapers over a twelve-year period to a sample of obituaries from regular newspapers (findings of the paper are published in Medical Consequences of What Homosexuals Do). Cameron comes to the following conclusions:
“Less than 2% of Gay men survived to old age
“If AIDS was the cause of death, the median age of Gay males was 39,
“For those who died of other causes, the median age was 42, and only 9% died old,
“Lesbians had a median age of 45; 23% died old
“2.8% of Gays died violently
“Gays were 116 times more apt to be murdered; 24 times more apt to commit suicide; eighteen times more likely to die in a traffic accident
“20% of Lesbians died of murder, suicide or accident, a rate 487 times higher than that of white females aged 25-44.
“Now it is obvious that AIDS in America is having a hugely disproportionate impact on Gay men, and this would have the effect of lowering the average statistical life expectancy of the Gay population. However, this is not enough for Cameron; he must prove that AIDS is not the result of unsafe sexual practices but is merely one manifestation of self-destructive behavior on the part of Gays and Lesbians. Thus he resorts to culling obituaries from Gay and Lesbian newspapers, a methodology which would be laughed at by any reputable research scholar.
“There are a number of reasons why obituaries from Gay newspapers are not representative of deaths among the Gay population as a whole. Gay newspapers were created by and for the urban Lesbian and Gay communities which have only recently flourished (within the past two decades). These communities consist of Gay men and women who are disproportionately young, open, and socially active among their fellow urban Gays. Obituaries in Gay newspapers are not meant to provide a public record of deaths among all Gays, but to allow members of the urban Gay and Lesbian community to express mourning, particularly for those whose lives have been cut short by illness or accident. Lesbians and Gays who live outside these communities or who die of natural causes are not nearly as likely to be reported in a Gay newspaper.
“Taking into account these factors would seem to explain some of Cameron's more bizarre findings, such as the fact that the median age of Gays who died from causes other than AIDS is nearly as low as the age of those who died from AIDS, and that Gays are more likely to be murdered, die in traffic accidents, die from heart attacks, cancer, etc. than heterosexuals. Moreover, the fact that Cameron was only able to obtain 133 Lesbian obituaries out of a total of 6516 Gay obituaries over twelve years would seem to suggest that obituaries from Gay newspapers are hardly reflective of the Gay and Lesbian population, unless one is willing to conclude that the vast majority of Lesbians live forever.
At http://www.slate.com/id/2098/, Walter Olsen discusses Cameron’s phony statistics regarding the homosexual lifespan. Following are some excerpts:
Cameron's method had the virtue of simplicity, at least. He and two co-authors read through back numbers of various urban gay community papers, mostly of the giveaway sort that are laden with bar ads and personals. They counted up obituaries and news stories about deaths, noted the ages of the deceased, computed the average, and published the resulting numbers as estimates of gay life expectancy.
What do vital statistics buffs think of this technique? Nick Eberstadt at the American Enterprise Institute sums up the reactions of several of his fellow demographers: “The method as you describe it is just ridiculous.” But you don’t have to be a trained statistician to spot the fallacy at its heart, which is, to quote Centers For Disease Control and Prevention statistician John Karon, that “you’re only getting the ages of those who die.” Gay men of the same generation destined to live to old age, even if more numerous, won’t turn up in the sample.
Other critics rattle off other objections. The deaths reported in these papers, mostly AIDS deaths, will tend to represent the community defined by such papers or directly known to their editors. It will include relatively more subjects who live in town and are overtly gay and relatively few who blend into the suburbs and seldom set foot in bars. It will overrepresent those whose passing strikes others as newsworthy and underrepresent those who end their days in retired obscurity in some sunny clime.
……. Harry Rosenberg, the mortality-statistics chief at the National Center for Health Statistics, says he's unaware of evidence that HIV-negative gays have a lower life expectancy than other males.
Johnny: It is most embarrassing for Cameron that the American Enterprise Institute is quite conservative and quite Republican.
If the truth be known, Cameron, and many other opponents of homosexuality as well, oppose what homosexuals do in their bedrooms regardless of how long they live, whether or not they are murderers, whether or not they are pedophiles, whether or not they have any STD’s (sexually transmitted diseases), or any other factors.
There is no doubt whatsoever that regardless of one’s sexual preference, the major factors that contribute to health, happiness, and well-being are PERSONAL lifestyle choices, not EXTERNAL circumstances due to other peoples’ actions. The vast majority of homosexuals who have good dietary habits, do not smoke cigarettes, are not obese, and practice safe sex, can on average expect to live a good deal longer than heterosexuals who do not have good dietary habits, smoke cigarettes, are obese, and do not practice safe sex.
Cameron quotes lots of statistics, but statistics DO NOT apply to individuals. In order to be fair, each homosexual, and each heterosexual for that matter, should be judged on a case by case basis. As judged on a case by case basis, it is an uncontestable fact that tens of millions of homosexuals around the world compare favorably with the typical heterosexual as judged by any standards of health, happiness, and well-being that Cameron wishes to use.
One wonders if Paul Cameron will embarrass himself further by replying to my article.
Readers who have found this article to be of value should find my article on Stanton L. Jones, Ph.D., and Mark A. Yarhouse, Ph.D. at http://www.johnnyskeptic75.com/ to be of value as well.