I don’t watch much television news, so there’s stuff that I miss. Like this item that just recently came to my attention via a co-worker of mine. Apparently there, during a debate on CNN, some representative of a right wing organiation cited a study out of Illinois which allegedly found that gay adoptive parents are 1more likely to sexually molest their children.
I’m working on tracking down a transcript. For the moment, I’ve been able to trackdown a WorldNet article about the study in question. The article is dated March 2, 2005, so it’s recent enough that this is most likely the study in question.
A six-year study of sexual abuse committed by foster parents in Illinois found a highly disproportionate percentage of the cases were homosexual in nature.
About one-third were same-sex while estimates are that no more than 3 percent of people in the general population say they engage in homosexual acts.
An article in the March issue of the peer-reviewed publication Psychological Reports presented data analyzed by Dr. Paul Cameron, chairman of the Colorado-based Family Research Institute.
Cameron believes it’s likely the Illinois figures reflect the situation among the nation’s estimated half-million foster children
.
That Paul Cameron and the Family Research Institute figure into this are major red flags.
I don’t know exactly how the CNN anchors responded to this, or how the representative “gay side” responded, though I’ve heard reports that the anchors appeared quite taken aback, and that no one on the show had ever heard of the study. (One CNN anchor said she had a lot to say about that interview, but that she’d save her comments for when they were off the air. That worries me, because it will almost certainly be used against our families at any available opportunity, and we need to have ammunition against it. (Though the Paul Cameron connection should be ammunition enough by itself.) What’s more, CNN needs to be prepped to respond to this kind of thing.
Did anyone out there see this on CNN? Does anyone have video or a transcript?
You probably already know this, but WorldNet Daily is basically right-wing wackjob central HQ.
yeah, Cameron is a HUGE red flag… like the size of Texas huge. That is the study and what Cameron did was look up lexus-nexus articles and count. God, talk about BAD biased plain stupid research… more here about Cameron
Jon Stewart had a GREAT piece on it today with a clip of the whole episode. The wingnut quoted the bogus study and the gay rights activist basically said that he has never heard of such a study (understandably, its done by an quack)… the CNN anchor basically said “interesting debate”…
and that was it. Like the two sides were equal. Jon Stewart had a few good (and hilarious) words about it.. slamming both the study and the CNN anchors who were basically talking heads and idiots for not calling her on it.
oh, btw, if you have cable and Comedy Central, that episode will be repeated tonight at 11:30pm ET/PT (10:30pm CT/MT)
I came across the same article and “study” recently when responding to a similar discussion about gays as foster parents, etc. Actually, I think the discussion was started by an editorial that was simply stating a support of gay people and asking for tollerance. Of course, it all degenerated into “dirty fag” talk and someone mentioned that article as support for his position.
I did some research into WorldNet, Psychological Reports, The Family Research Institute, and Paul Cameron. What I found is:
WorldNet is an extreme right-wing, fundamentalist Christian web site posing as a news outlet.
Psychological Reports is the fringe of psychological journals that will accept any “research” for publication. It may be a peer reviewed journal but as far as I can tell it’s on a par with UFO conspiracy theorists reviewing the National Enquirer.
The Family Research Institute, the supposed sponsors of this “study”, is an “organization” that exists solely to be the mouthpiece of Paul Cameron (who happens to be the chairman of the institute) in his crusade against gay people. The literature on their web site doesn’t address any other topic.
And finally… Paul Cameron is a psychologist who has been kicked out of the American Psychological Association and the Nebraska Psychological Association. The American Sociological Association adopted a resolution stating that he “is not a sociologist”. All of this is based on the fact that he “has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism” and “has repeatedly campaigned for the abrogation of the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, substantiating his call on the basis of his distorted interpretation of this research”.
To say the inclusion of Paul Cameron’s name “raises red flags” is an understatement. His inclusion immediately discredits anything he says about homosexuality. And since he talks about nothing else you simply can’t believe a word he says. He’s like that homeless guy who lives in every big city who wanders the streets muttering to himself about the same thing all the time and occassionally stopping to give a crazy speech to no one in particular and who everyone else in town just ignores. That’s Paul Cameron. He has absolutely no credibility.
The sad part is that if this “study” really did make its way to CNN then, in my mind, it discredits them as a reputable news agency because they obviously didn’t do the least bit of research on the story or they just didn’t care. I’d expect that from Fox “News” but I thought CNN had more integrity.
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The American Psychological Association has on its web site a lot more reputable information with regard to this issue. They have their official “statements and resolutions,” including one on lesbian and gay foster parents, as well as a research summary of lesbian and gay parenting. Sorry I do not have the links, but they should be easily accessible through their site search engine.
In the meantime, I saw through this blog something that would have been the winner in a “write your own caption” contest: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/archives/duver001/nwn/020600.html
Best, Y
I saw the program and within fifteen minutes sent CNN an email saying that anyone could have done a quick websearch while the program was airing and known that the “research” was a lie. CNN provides Jerry Falwell with a forum on a regular basis, that ought to give us a hint.
I have no idea about the validity of the 1/3 number, but I find the title is definitely erroneous. The assumption is that if the abuse was same-sex in nature, that it was then instigated by a gay person. That is the fallacy. Many of the same-sex abuse that is committed, primarily by men, are men who are married and primarily living heterosexual lives. Just because someone engages in homosexual sex does not automatically mean they are a homosexual.