In another dazzling display of deception that borders on the unethical, Exodus President Alan Chambers and Focus on the Family News have taken a Department of Justice study from 2000 (PDF) and remade it in their own image. The Focus News article, Domestic Violence Among Gay Couples Ascends, takes a complex study and distills out of it a single half-truth apparently meant to give the impression that a large number of gay couples are at each other’s throats.
It’s something that we knew would come to light more as the issue of gay unions began to be on the radar screen of the American public.
So wise is Alan Chambers that he foretold our dirty little secret; let those gays get together in official unions and they will go off their pretty little heads.
In fact, according to the National Violence against Women Survey, 39 percent of homosexuals report being raped, physically assaulted or stalked by their partners. Chambers says many gays grew up in a home where they were abused and that transfers into their relationships later in life.
The article doesn’t link to the actual study as we have above, and one has to wonder if Alan actually read it himself. Jim Burroway at the Box Turtle Bulletin has done his usual excellent job of ferreting out the facts and we suggest you take the time to read his complete article on the subject and even the DOJ report itself (linked above).
The bottom line is this. The portion of the study we are talking about here (pages 29-31) deals with people who have a history of same-sex cohabitation, but not exclusively so. Many of these subjects had been in both same-sex and opposite-sex partnerships at one time or another. And the 39% figure given above may or may not be those who consider themselves primarily homosexual, but instead have at one time been in a same-sex relationship at some point in their lives. Further, that figure covers violence by both same-sex and opposite-sex partners.
From page 30 of the study (page 37 of the PF index):
At first glance, these findings suggest that both male and female same-sex couples experience more intimate partner violence than do opposite-sex couples. However, a comparison of intimate partner victimization rates among same-sex and opposite-sex cohabitants by perpetrator gender produced some interesting findings: 30.4 percent of same-sex cohabiting women reported being victimized by a male partner, whereas 11.4 percent reported being victimized by a female partner. Thus, same-sex cohabiting women were nearly three times more likely to report being victimized by a male partner than a female partner. Moreover, opposite-sex cohabiting women were nearly twice as likely to report being victimized by a male partner than were same-sex cohabitating women by a female partner (20.3 percent and 11.4 percent) (exhibit 9).
Readers may remember a recent article which exposed the same deception used in another study on sexual abuse in foster parent households by the discredited Paul Cameron. The same method of telling half-truths to create a lie was used then. Some ex-gay leaders seem to have no problem with this kind of dishonesty as long as it serves what they consider the “greater good.”
A couple of days ago Alan Chambers posted on this site, “Offensive is different to me then untruthful, Joe. I imagine that I have and will continue to offend you and others with my beliefs, but I do care about being untruthful.” We would like to invite Alan to explain how playing fast and loose with the facts can serve the cause of truth. From this end it serves only to marginalize gay people and validate your own ideological and political agenda – and it happens far too often.
Here is a chance to earn the benefit of the doubt you mentioned, Alan. Just be honest and explain why you said these things, we are listening.
Further reading: Box Turtle Bulletin
Supporting documentation: Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence
What do you do when you’re faced with a political opponent who does nothing but lie? The anti-gay forces of this country have learned that the truth will not set them free, the truth only loses them support, so they lie, lie, and lie again.
We can only hope that there will always be people to stand up and expose their lies for what they are…
I would genuinely love to see Alan Chambers address the point that has been raised here. Has he? And if so, where would I be able to locate his rebuttal. I guess I would further like to see Mr. Chambers address some of the other issues raised here regarding truthfulness. I can understand that it might be difficult, but for some of us, it would be greatly appreciated.
j.
Alan cannot be truthful to himself, how can he be truthful to anyone else?
Maybe Alan wasn’t really saying that gay relationships are more violent than straight. Maybe he was misquoted why trying to discuss the opposite-sex attackes that were in the past. Perhaps Alan thinks this report supports his and Melissa Fryrear’s claim that lesbians become lesbians when they are abused by a man. (I’m trying to be generous).
However, their claim is about childhood abuse of a girl and this report is about spousal or co-habitant abuse. It isn’t the same at all.
So even if that’s his intent, then he’s simply comparing apples and oranges and pretending that they are the same.
You see, Alan, that’s why it is so difficult to give you the benefit of the doubt. You have yet to demonstrate a single instance EVER that I can recall in which you chose factual objective truth over a political claim.
Never yet have you challenged any anti-gay cliam or corrected a single lie that has been said. You have never chosen to be strictly honest when it might not serve your political goals.
Really, Alan. I’m not just attacking you. I cannot recall one solitary instance in which honesty was chosen over spin. Not one.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.