In former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, the underwriters political partners of the exgay movement see both a threat to their growing influence in Congress, and an opportunity to smear same-sex-attracted Americans. Instead of educating churchgoers about sexual abuse, assisting exgays who have been abused, or discussing politics with dignity, the religious right has resorted to defensive and indignant shouting — not to mention more than a little scapegoating.
The antifamily Family Research Council cited Foley as proof that same-sex-attracted persons are disproportionately prone to commit sexual abuse. Without naming the source of its alleged facts, FRC cited two false statistics: One claimed that same-sex-attracted persons — gays and exgays — together account for almost none of the U.S. population; another statistic baselessly claimed that 86 percent of sexual abuse is same-sex. On CNN, FRC went even further, falsely claiming that people who oppose gay-bashing are supporters of sexual abuse.
Meanwhile, Focus on the Family Action, a Republican political branch of the organization that founded FRC, smeared the American people by citing the scandal as proof that our entire society — which swiftly forced Foley out of office — has somehow become too tolerant of “anything-goes” sexuality and pornography.
The timing of the Foley scandal and the Focus/FRC politicization of child sex abuse is ironic: In the past week, girls at schools in Colorado and Pennsylvania have been held hostage, raped and shot dead by heterosexual male offenders. Furthermore, in recent months, a variety of female teachers have made headlines (and court dates) after having sex with their male teenage students. Focus and FRC have had little to say about heterosexual sex abuse and murder.
All the politically partisan and ill-informed bluster about sex abuse could be avoided if religious conservatives would first consult someone like Gregory Herek, Ph.D.
Herek is a professor of psychology at the University of California at Davis, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on prejudice, sexual orientation, and survey research methodology.
Years ago, Herek wrote Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation, and he has periodically updated this science- and statistics-based assessment of sexual orientation and sexual abuse.
Despite the updates, it appears that Herek felt the public needed more information and greater context for the research. Via Jesus Politics, I discovered today that Herek has started a new blog, Beyond Homophobia.
In an entry dated today, Herek reminds the public of the fairly well-established science and statistics behind sexual abuse.
Veteran web sites that deal regularly with religion and sexuality are well aware of Herek and other reliable sources of information about sexual abuse that are linked below. It’s a shame that the religious-rightists have decided to inflame and divide public opinion, rather than to inform and protect families and congregations.
Other sources of information on sexual abuse and sexual orientation:
American Psychological Association
Box Turtle Bulletin
Joe Kort, MA, LMSW, ACSW
MaleSurvivor.org
Men Can Stop Rape: About Male Survivors
Men Can Stop Rape: About Sexual and Domestic Violence
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance (criticizes Focus on the Family’s distortions of fact)
Wikipedia
Excellent post, Mike.
Excellent post, Mike.
I’m appalled at the actions of so many of these groups trying to blame gays in any way possible (i.e.- gays have a higher propensity to molest, Republicans didn’t come forward with the info. because they were worried they would look like gay bashers, etc.).
I was getting angry when reading some of the claims by Gary Bauer and others last night, and my partner told me that I had to look this stuff up to get angry because most people didn’t think like that. The problem is–if we let these sort of ideas go unchallenged, people will believe them on it’s face (heck, he even had to ask me if gay rights organizations really accept NAMBLA as a contributing group).
Dead solid perfect, and I can’t improve on it.
This all absolutely needs to be said. They’re haring around to flood op-ed pages and talking-head shows with their misinformation and bigoted opinions; we need to move just as quickly to balance it.
I had done my own research and knew well about Herek’s study and websites.
Plus what I know from law enforcement records and my own experience.
And the press ISN’T emphasizing enough, the recent violence and sexual abuse against girls in the latest mass shootings.
And the women convicted of abusing boys weren’t punished enough.
Several recent cases of heterosexual child abuse all resulted in marriages because of pregnancy.
Connecting underage sex abuse with homosexuals is backwards.
ALL adults who work with children deserve monitoring.
Banning gay people from the Boy Scouts, Congress and the page program or the priesthood or schoolteaching and coaching won’t solve a damn thing.
But, straight people make up all the rules and it’s easier to blame and ban gays, than pay close attention to all the other roosters in the yard.
Regan,
Too true. And the sad part is that in blaming gays, they are further endangering children.
In shining a spotlight on gays, they leave the rest of the room in shadow and don’t warn their children about the predators hiding in the shadows. They have children who are scared to sit in the park and talk to Sir Ian McKellan about acting but are not at all suspicious about the behind-the-door pat on the butt from the church-going family-man father-of-three.
If little Joey or Suzy end up missing, it won’t be Sir Ian that took them. And some of it could be avoided by realisticly and honestly looking out for the kids first.
But protecting children falls WAY below villifying gays on the agenda of the culture warriors.
I love it when media watchdog groups take on Christian right “family” organizations.
From Perkins claimed that “homosexual men are more likely to abuse children than straight men”; experts disagree:
In recent days, Family Research Council (FRC) president Tony Perkins has used the emerging scandal surrounding former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) to promote a falsehood about gay men — that they are more likely than straight men to sexually abuse children, based on the claim that homosexuals are overrepresented in child sex abuse cases. In fact, a 1995 study released by the American Psychological Association found that “gay men are no more likely than heterosexual men to perpetrate child sexual abuse”; the argument that homosexuals are overrepresented in such cases is based on what John Hopkins University psychiatrist Frederick Berlin has described as the “flawed assumption” that men who abuse young boys are also attracted to grown men.
(More here.)
Hey guys! It’s me….grace! 🙂 I’m doing my best to catch up….”nesting”(decorating) in my new place has been top priority for the past two weeks. A great “hobby” and wonderful distraction for me.
Mike, this is an excellent post. Just super. I will do what I can, on my end, to bring this sort of thing into the light. Thanks for bringing clarity and reminding me of the basic points needed to be brought up for discussion when this stuff comes up or I have the opportunity to bring it up.
love,
pam
So great to see you back here, Pam. We’ve missed you!
I think it is just beyond despicable and certainly anti-christian to attempt to turn these tragedies into political gain and personal profit at the expense of others the way these supposed arbiters of public morality are doing.
So what else is new with them, their gods are money and power.