Paul Cameron: FRC Chairman Claims 23% Of Gay Men Have Had Sex With Children

Impact

The chairman of the Family Research Institute, an organization best known for its anti-LGBT defense of the "traditional family," told reporters on Thursday that he had uncovered some shocking facts about gay people and the "homosexual movement." The biggest shock: Almost none of it is true. (Go figure, right?)

Paul Cameron repeated the frustrating GOP diatribe that having sex with children and animals is part of a gay man's "sexual repertoire" in his speech to the National Press Club. The trustworthy "researcher" also mentioned that gay people "more frequently involved in criminality" and "are more apt to smoke, use drugs, drive recklessly and get infected by their sexual activities with a host of dangerous germs and experience various organ failures."

Okay, maybe there's a shred of truth there. The STD rate is higher among men who have sex with men because of the lack of education on protection. Many do not realize that using a condom protects one against more than impregnating someone. But various organ failures? Criminality? Are those numbers even reported by sexual orientation?

According to Cameron, yes. He pored over several obituaries of LGBT people, and from those concluded that over 50% of all LGBT people were criminals, bad drivers, and smokers. Even if over 50% of the obituaries he looked at mentioned these aspects of the people's lives (in an obituary?), it still would have been impossible for him to know if they were related to their homosexuality.

Cameron's final point was the most dumbfounding of all. Apparently, "23% of the gays [in San Francisco] admitted that they illegally had sex with boys."

This guy has said some strange things in the past: that "homosexual behavior" is more dangerous than smoking, that President Obama's support of same-sex marriage indicated a past filled with gay relationships, and that people of the "lower strata" were more likely to engage in homosexuality. But to make a claim that 1 of 4 gay men in San Francisco had "illegal sex" (can it ever be legal sex?) with boys? With no evidence? Surely a man with a doctorate in psychology should know the importance of citing one's claims.

Despite his "research" being rejected from both the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Sociological Association, he still urged them to consider re-categorizing homosexuality as a "mental pathology" — something the APA hasn't done since 1975.

"Those who engage in homosexuality live such shortened lives," he claimed. "If smoking is a pathology, if drug abuse is a mental pathology, think of all the things that are mental pathologies. Homosexuality would seem to qualify."

Why, pray tell? Because LGBT people often first identify as straight before realizing their sexuality or gender identity, so the epiphany later in life that they are LGBT is clearly indicative of an illness.

Above all, it is so disappointing that people like Cameron take pride in hurting people that are different from them. His unwillingness to pay attention to actual psychological research on homosexuality (like that there might have been a reason that the APA decided it wasn't a disorder 38 years ago) showcases his stubbornness and overall lack of intelligence. It isn't fair to the LGBT community that people like this attempt to defame and slander their very existence.