As Arizona Governor Jan Brewer is facing mounting pressure on both sides on that state's anti-gay bill, the hate speech just keeps on coming. Now, Paul Cameron, chairman of the Family Research Institute, weighs in:
“One must understand those who act on their homosexual desires or interests usually end up being parasites on society, and parasites that are very dangerous for society, not only because they take far more than they contribute to society, but they particularly injure children,” Cameron said.
He claimed many societies have decreed the death penalty for “homosexual molestation or rape,” although he still refused to offer his full support.
“I have no particular, nor my colleagues, any particular stance on this except to say this is not an unreasonable thing, especially as we consider, as we’re looking right now, at news reports all across the world regarding those with homosexual interests in children have done to children,” Cameron said.
He made his remarks on the David Pakman show Tuesday.
Cameron has had a whole history of ethical issues, having been expelled from the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association according to the Raw Story link. But his "concern" about children is not based in fact. As the New York Daily News reported last year, children of gay couples were actually better off than children of straight couples, according to an Australian study.
Researchers said they found no difference between gay-parent and straight-parent households in the kids' self-esteem, emotional health, and the amount of time they spent with their parents.
But children of gay couples scored "significantly better" when it came to general health as well as family cohesion, meaning the families got along better with one another.
Researchers noted the same-sex parents and their children "continue to face discrimination in a variety of contexts."
And there is no relationship between
same-sex couples and child molestation or pedophilia.
Reflecting the results of these and other studies, as well as clinical experience, the mainstream view among researchers and professionals who work in the area of child sexual abuse is that homosexual and bisexual men do not pose any special threat to children. For example, in one review of the scientific literature, noted authority Dr. A. Nicholas Groth wrote:
Are homosexual adults in general sexually attracted to children and are preadolescent children at greater risk of molestation from homosexual adults than from heterosexual adults? There is no reason to believe so. The research to date all points to there being no significant relationship between a homosexual lifestyle and child molestation. There appears to be practically no reportage of sexual molestation of girls by lesbian adults, and the adult male who sexually molests young boys is not likely to be homosexual (Groth & Gary, 1982, p. 147).
In a later literature review, Dr. Nathaniel McConaghy (1998) similarly cautioned against confusing homosexuality with pedophilia. He noted, "The man who offends against prepubertal or immediately postpubertal boys is typically not sexually interested in older men or in women" (p. 259).
And as the latter link notes, the view that gays are pedophiles or child molestors is no longer widely held. The difference is generational. Cameron grew up during a time when this stereotype was still widely believed. However, it is not widely believed in this country anymore. The erosion of this myth has significantly contributed to the acceptance of gays in this country.