I just read this article in the Christian News Wire that made my blood boil.
The entire article is copied below with my comments in bold.
Peter LaBarbera: How Many Boy Victims of Penn State Homosexual Predator Jerry Sandusky Will End Up Thinking They are 'Gay'?
I have written in the past about the tendency of the religious to paint homosexuality as a behavior, rather than a sexual orientation. For those not convinced, take a moment to think on the time in adolescence when you decided who you were going to be attracted to and what societal norms you were going to adhere to. Right, let’s move on.
Homosexuality is the sexual attraction to members of the same sex. It is not a mental illness and is not caused by strictly environmental factors. The evidence points to a biological (genetic) preference. Like handedness. Pedophilia is the sexual attraction to children. The characteristics that define a pedophile’s attraction have little to do with the victim’s gender and much more to do with their age. There are several different categories of sex offenders and lumping them into gay and non-gay is a gross over-simplification. I would assume the author had not read any of the psychological research if he were not the head of an association discounting said research.
The descriptions of "sinful, destructive and changeable" are false and misleading as well. Sinful is arbitrary and subjective to the Abrahamic religions. Destructive only applies to the people who are convinced that it is sinful, the rest of us are just fine with it. And you can see the previous link for the mountain of research proving how un-changeable it is. I would argue that the trauma experienced by those who undergo Conversion Therapy is so destructive to the psyche that most theists would label it abuse if it were in any other context.
We have no way of knowing the number of pedophiles in the world. But we can say with relative certainty that there are far more victims of sexual abuse than those who identify as gay. Part of the title of the above article is true, the male victims of sexual abuse by men often become confused about their sexuality. This is a result of the grooming process perpetrated by sex offenders. The victims are often from broken homes, are abused and/or neglected by their families. They are given gifts and praise. In some cases the physical act can feel good to the child, further confounding the guilt and shame. These are the tools the offender uses to prey on children without the resources and intellectual capacity to protect themselves. In most of these cases, once the abuse stops and the victim receives some type of distance and closure (with or without treatment) their natural sexual orientation emerges.
Homosexuals make up approximately 4% of the population (self-identified in 2008 poll). True the majority of child molesters are men but the victims of abuse are of both genders. According to the Dept of justice: “1 out of 3 girls and 1 out of 5 boys will become victims of sexual abuse by the time they reach their 18th birthday.” It is widely believed that sexual abuse of males by women is significantly under reported. That said, there are too many victims of sexual abuse to imply that it causes homosexuality, and there are not enough gays to account for the number of pedophiles. It's just math.
There is indeed a long history of connecting homosexuality to pederasty. This history is built on fallacies that have been perpetuated by anti-gay bigots and religiously motivated hate mongers. There is no “disproportionate link” between homosexuality and pedophilia. This is a very old stigma that will not go away because it plays into the narrative of the immoral queer preying on children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics stated in Pediatrics in 2004:
"Sexual orientation probably is not determined by any one factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences. In recent decades, biologically based theories have been favored by experts. Although there continues to be controversy and uncertainty as to the genesis of the variety of human sexual orientations, there is no scientific evidence that abnormal parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation. Current knowledge suggests that sexual orientation is usually established during early childhood."
Nice work inserting "perversion" between homosexuality and problem. Real subtle. The view of homosexuality as a perversion is an attempt to shift the focus. I reject the implication that pedophiles that abuse girls are somehow more normal than those who sexually abuse boys. On the scale of immorality, is the rape of a boy by an adult male somehow more atrocious then the rape of a girl?
The majority of sex offenders identify themselves as heterosexual. The author is tying to discredit their self-report by saying that their sexual offending behavior is the true measure of their sexual orientation. Again, we are blending attraction to an adult of the same sex with the attraction to a child. An attraction to another consenting adult who is one’s equal in physical, emotional and intellectual maturity is very different from the desire to injure, intimidate, threaten, coerce or rape an actual child. These attractions have little in common other than as aspects of human sexuality. Unless of course, you are throwing homosexuality into the category of immoral behavior.
The selection of the victim is equally complicated and the motives can range from availability to a specific physical traits. Most sex offenders have a type of preferred victim but many are opportunists who are grooming whatever children are available to them; often several at a time. The gender of the victim is not always significant to the offender. Some offenders cruelly choose to use a child’s body as an instrument of self-gratification. Others, who may be developmentally delayed may view their offense as a type of consensual romance. There is a significantly high percentage of offenders who were abused themselves. Many of these individuals are playing out the abuse and reversing the role. In many of these cases the victim is chosen because of their similarity to the abuser’s memory of himself as a child. This type of a predator is not committing a homosexual action. It is a crime of power and control. A ritual manifestation of a cycle of abuse rooted in deep psychological dysfunction. Predator indeed. Homosexual Predator: not so fast.
As someone who works with a population of abused children, I am much more concerned about the laundry list of potentially crippling psychological and developmental issues that stem directly from sexual abuse. Any abuse is damaging but sexual abuse is particularly destructive to a child’s psyche. The majority of victims know their offender (they are most often a member of the family). This only enhances the guilt/shame aspect of coming forward. Although many offenders have a history of abuse, the majority do not grow up to be offenders themselves. An abuse victim who grows up to have a successful adult same-sex relationship isn't a "perversion." The appropriate word for that individual is "survivor."
The national conversation does need to take place about trust, institutionalized corruption, and the legal and moral responsibilities of the authorities. Identifying the victims and making sure that they receive treatment is paramount. LaBarbera seems to be using this event to reignite fear of the gays in a culture that is becoming ever more tolerant. Dismissing sexual abuse to the casual act of a homosexual does nothing but perpetuate the social shame that keeps victims silent. LaBarbera’s agenda is transparent.
The entire article is copied below with my comments in bold.
Peter LaBarbera: How Many Boy Victims of Penn State Homosexual Predator Jerry Sandusky Will End Up Thinking They are 'Gay'?
The discovery that former Penn State University defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been molesting boys as young as 10 years old -- and that university officials including head coach Joe Paterno did not do more to apprehend this predator -- has shocked America. Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH), said the scandal exposes the continuing problem of homosexual predators in society. He offers the following observations related to the PSU scandal:
Many openly homosexual ("gay") men, like CNN anchor Don Lemon, were molested as boys or experienced abnormally early sexualization. Yet many of these same men do NOT see their boyhood victimization at the hands of homosexual male predators as causing their homosexuality. (This is due partly to the success of the modern "gay" movement that falsely ascribes "gayness" to a person's (innate) identity, and emphasizes the ambiguous notion of "sexual orientation" as opposed to behavior that is sinful, destructive and changeable.)
I have written in the past about the tendency of the religious to paint homosexuality as a behavior, rather than a sexual orientation. For those not convinced, take a moment to think on the time in adolescence when you decided who you were going to be attracted to and what societal norms you were going to adhere to. Right, let’s move on.
Homosexuality is the sexual attraction to members of the same sex. It is not a mental illness and is not caused by strictly environmental factors. The evidence points to a biological (genetic) preference. Like handedness. Pedophilia is the sexual attraction to children. The characteristics that define a pedophile’s attraction have little to do with the victim’s gender and much more to do with their age. There are several different categories of sex offenders and lumping them into gay and non-gay is a gross over-simplification. I would assume the author had not read any of the psychological research if he were not the head of an association discounting said research.
The descriptions of "sinful, destructive and changeable" are false and misleading as well. Sinful is arbitrary and subjective to the Abrahamic religions. Destructive only applies to the people who are convinced that it is sinful, the rest of us are just fine with it. And you can see the previous link for the mountain of research proving how un-changeable it is. I would argue that the trauma experienced by those who undergo Conversion Therapy is so destructive to the psyche that most theists would label it abuse if it were in any other context.
Thus, how many boy victims of homosexual predator Sandusky will end up believing that being homosexual ("gay") is "who they are"? How many will struggle with sexual identity issues? And how many will be told by LGBT advocates and liberal-minded people just to "accept being gay" as "who they are" because they were "born that way"?
We have no way of knowing the number of pedophiles in the world. But we can say with relative certainty that there are far more victims of sexual abuse than those who identify as gay. Part of the title of the above article is true, the male victims of sexual abuse by men often become confused about their sexuality. This is a result of the grooming process perpetrated by sex offenders. The victims are often from broken homes, are abused and/or neglected by their families. They are given gifts and praise. In some cases the physical act can feel good to the child, further confounding the guilt and shame. These are the tools the offender uses to prey on children without the resources and intellectual capacity to protect themselves. In most of these cases, once the abuse stops and the victim receives some type of distance and closure (with or without treatment) their natural sexual orientation emerges.
Because the media and academia have largely become apologists for the modern homosexualist movement, they downplay or ignore obvious causative factors in the formation of "gay" identity -- including pederastic molestation. CNN's Lemon is a case in point: he is now an "out gay" celebrity, yet few question the absurdity of him not associating the molestation of his youth with his later embrace of homosexuality as a positive identity.
There IS a long history connecting homosexuality to pederasty, and a disproportionate link between homosexuality and pedophilia: why else would so many child molestation victims be boys when only 1-3 percent of the population is homosexual? Since cases of women molesting boys remain rare, if homosexuality were not such a strong factor, nearly all of pedophile victims should be girls, which is far from the case.
Homosexuals make up approximately 4% of the population (self-identified in 2008 poll). True the majority of child molesters are men but the victims of abuse are of both genders. According to the Dept of justice: “1 out of 3 girls and 1 out of 5 boys will become victims of sexual abuse by the time they reach their 18th birthday.” It is widely believed that sexual abuse of males by women is significantly under reported. That said, there are too many victims of sexual abuse to imply that it causes homosexuality, and there are not enough gays to account for the number of pedophiles. It's just math.
There is indeed a long history of connecting homosexuality to pederasty. This history is built on fallacies that have been perpetuated by anti-gay bigots and religiously motivated hate mongers. There is no “disproportionate link” between homosexuality and pedophilia. This is a very old stigma that will not go away because it plays into the narrative of the immoral queer preying on children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics stated in Pediatrics in 2004:
"Sexual orientation probably is not determined by any one factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences. In recent decades, biologically based theories have been favored by experts. Although there continues to be controversy and uncertainty as to the genesis of the variety of human sexual orientations, there is no scientific evidence that abnormal parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation. Current knowledge suggests that sexual orientation is usually established during early childhood."
Sandusky is married but obviously has a homosexuality (perversion) problem. Yet pro-"gay" liberals will deny any linkage between homosexuality and Sandusky's rape/seduction of boys. In fact, after news of the Penn State scandal came to light, "gay" activists stressed that Sandusky is married and that most pedophile cases involve "straight, married men." However, behavior is what matters -- not a person's marital status or self-described "sexual orientation." Sandusky was married but was he really "straight" (sexually or morally)? Some inner demons or life traumas -- probably in his own youth -- caused him to lust for boys, wrecking untold misery in the lives of his victims. Behavior is the issue, and this was a case of a serial homosexual predator raping boys.
Nice work inserting "perversion" between homosexuality and problem. Real subtle. The view of homosexuality as a perversion is an attempt to shift the focus. I reject the implication that pedophiles that abuse girls are somehow more normal than those who sexually abuse boys. On the scale of immorality, is the rape of a boy by an adult male somehow more atrocious then the rape of a girl?
The majority of sex offenders identify themselves as heterosexual. The author is tying to discredit their self-report by saying that their sexual offending behavior is the true measure of their sexual orientation. Again, we are blending attraction to an adult of the same sex with the attraction to a child. An attraction to another consenting adult who is one’s equal in physical, emotional and intellectual maturity is very different from the desire to injure, intimidate, threaten, coerce or rape an actual child. These attractions have little in common other than as aspects of human sexuality. Unless of course, you are throwing homosexuality into the category of immoral behavior.
The selection of the victim is equally complicated and the motives can range from availability to a specific physical traits. Most sex offenders have a type of preferred victim but many are opportunists who are grooming whatever children are available to them; often several at a time. The gender of the victim is not always significant to the offender. Some offenders cruelly choose to use a child’s body as an instrument of self-gratification. Others, who may be developmentally delayed may view their offense as a type of consensual romance. There is a significantly high percentage of offenders who were abused themselves. Many of these individuals are playing out the abuse and reversing the role. In many of these cases the victim is chosen because of their similarity to the abuser’s memory of himself as a child. This type of a predator is not committing a homosexual action. It is a crime of power and control. A ritual manifestation of a cycle of abuse rooted in deep psychological dysfunction. Predator indeed. Homosexual Predator: not so fast.
As someone who works with a population of abused children, I am much more concerned about the laundry list of potentially crippling psychological and developmental issues that stem directly from sexual abuse. Any abuse is damaging but sexual abuse is particularly destructive to a child’s psyche. The majority of victims know their offender (they are most often a member of the family). This only enhances the guilt/shame aspect of coming forward. Although many offenders have a history of abuse, the majority do not grow up to be offenders themselves. An abuse victim who grows up to have a successful adult same-sex relationship isn't a "perversion." The appropriate word for that individual is "survivor."
The national conversation does need to take place about trust, institutionalized corruption, and the legal and moral responsibilities of the authorities. Identifying the victims and making sure that they receive treatment is paramount. LaBarbera seems to be using this event to reignite fear of the gays in a culture that is becoming ever more tolerant. Dismissing sexual abuse to the casual act of a homosexual does nothing but perpetuate the social shame that keeps victims silent. LaBarbera’s agenda is transparent.
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