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Scientists Say Enough to Right-Wing Manipulation of Their Work

The religious right defends its intolerance towards gays and lesbians by generating misleading statistics about them. For example, groups like Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council claim that gay men are more likely to be pedophiles than straight men simply by calling men who abuse boys "gay," rather than pedophiles. A greater proportion of child molesters choose victims of the same sex than consenting adults choose partners of the same sex, so there you have it: Gay men molest boys. (Confused? You should be.)

They also claim again and again that children do best with a mother and a father. That's not what the research says. Research says that kids do better with two parents than one, but parents' gender and orientation have no effect. (Slate's William Saletan exhaustively debunked the right's response to Mary Cheney's pregnancy if you want more details.) Just as their bogus studies (with such qualified authors as born again actor Kirk Cameron) make a mockery of science, so does their success getting their views reported by media outlets trying to be balanced make a mockery of that basic journalistic tenet.

Well, at long last, the scientists whose professional studies are being cherry-picked and distorted to bolster the religious right's claims have created a website to refute the misuse of their work. The site, RespectMyResearch.org, lists the studies that have been distorted and explains how. It also has a portal researchers can use to report misuse of their findings.

If only mainstream media outlets will check it before they publish bogus claims fed to them by right-wing think tanks, maybe some intelligent public dialogue about GLBT issues will follow.

Posted by Cameron Scott on 02/27/07 at 2:29 PM | E-mail | Print | Digg | de.licio.us | Reddit | Newsvine | Yahoo! MyWeb | StumbleUpon | Netscape | Google |



Comments

I'm sorry, I'm not following you ... why is it incorrect to call men who molest boys "gay"? I assume that men who molest girls are straight. Why is this incorrect?

Posted by: Guav on 02/27/07 at 3:01 PM

They are two distinct groups: pedophiles who molest boys (who may or may not also molest girls) and adult men who have relationships with other adult men, who are gay. There are no statistics showing that gay men also molest boys. I think straight people would take offense to if distinctions were blurred between men who have sex with adult women and men who molest young girls.

Posted by: Cameron on 02/27/07 at 3:05 PM

This is great news. The resource may not get the utilization it deserves, but this is good nonetheless.
This deliberate blurring of the lines is about as sick as it gets. I'm comfortable being a gay person but it's very upsetting that this term [gay] to some people means pedophile.
However, it's likely that the right wingers who are spreading this kind of misinformation are doing so specifically because they realize that the idea of gayness in and of itself is losing much of its mystery and fear in mainstream America. Not talking emotionalized election poll results, I'm talking how accepting of me I find most people I encounter.

Posted by: Paul Miller on 02/27/07 at 3:23 PM

Everybody has their own studies and research. People will believe what they want to believe. We known how reliable the drug industry research studies are. Look at Sigmund Fraud, the Jewish father of sit down , or lie down therapy(with some of the student assistants). Look at the history of science and medicine. In two hundred years, people will laugh at our scientific beliefs. So many of these studies are just frauds. But thank God, we have Sacred Scriptures as our guide that does not change.

Posted by: Pastor Bob on 02/28/07 at 7:50 AM

Ya... who needs reality when you have 2000 year old Jewish Fairy Tales telling you how to think and who to hate.

Posted by: Guy Incognito on 02/28/07 at 8:51 AM

Cameron, sorry to burst your bubble but a man who molests a young girl would be considered straight yet still be a pedophile. A man who molests a young boy is a gay pedophile. They're both pedophiles but they still do have sexual orientations.

Posted by: Joe on 02/28/07 at 11:34 AM

Sorry, Joe, you ignoramous, but pedophiles are only attracted to children, regardless of gender, and are not attracted to adults sexually, voiding the discussion what there adult sexuality would be. You should do a little research yourself.

Posted by: Paul Miller on 02/28/07 at 11:43 AM

Your might want to look at your biblical history pastor!
How many times has the bible been changed?
Nothing, not even the interpretations of "Christ" are permanet. also "coroporate research" is different than reserachs who are trying to be "objective" in understanding realities!

Posted by: ronaldmrq on 03/03/07 at 4:14 AM

Thank God scientists are standing up for themselves and fighting back. The radical right wingers, both Catholics(my religion) and SBC are all nuts and creeps. Science is the seeking of truth and the understanding of our universe and our world. And who exactly is the ultimate truth? For we sane christians God is the ultimate truth and science is always looking for the truth, all truths including the ultimate truth. Just exactly what are the radical right wingers afraid of, these people seem to fear everything. They fear sex, terrorists, science and they are terrified of us liberals/progressives. They follow Bush who claims to be Jesus Christ when we all know he is nothing of the kind, he just may be the antichrist or at least one of his minions. Bush dazzles the right wingers with religion when in all reality he is not religious if he were he would oppose war. WWJD? Jesus would oppose all war. God said Thou shalt NOT kill. These stupid Bushies not only kill freely but they do it for PROFIT. How many times do we on the left have to keep repeating that fact for the stupiod on the right. You right wing Bushie republicans are all nothing but killers and killers for PROFIT. That is without a doubt the worst reason for killing. Don't the right wing dummies ever get it that Bush is a Corporatist not a religionist. If the dummies on the right, both Catholics and SBC could ever get their values straight they would disavow themselves of the entire Republican Party. But the religious doesn't want to admit to itself that it is just a terribly guilty as Bush and his entire fqamily and Cheney(Halliburton) and the entire frickin' state of Texass that they are all greedy for MORE money and political power because what they already have is just not enough, they gotta have MORE and MORE and they will kill to get it. Many of us Catholics have always criticised our religion for it's excesses of wealth in the past but now I seem to be the only one left. Catholics are as corrupt as the SBC. When will you religious people ever wake up. Sorry fellow lefties but the right wingers are the worst. Didn't Jesus or one of the apostles say something like a church is not necessary to... Just maybe you folks are so busy praying to your churchs and church hierarchies(Catholics have always done this)and the righteousness and the pope and their priest and actually themselves while SBC'ers seem to worship their bible and their religious leaders when all of them are supposed to be worshipping God and doing so with meekness and humility. Good gosh Pastor Bob, wake up and look at all the death, destruction, hate and intolerance you spew out at everybody. Gays are also made in the image and likeness of God, not just you. When you right wingers finally understand that we are ALL, ALL, ALL children of God and equal in his sight.

Posted by: Bob DAmico on 03/08/07 at 1:56 PM

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