Michael Schwartz: "Homosexuality Is Inflicted On People... All Pornography Is Homosexual Pornography" (VIDEO)

Think Progress had someone videotaping at the Family Research Council's "Values Voters Summit" and they caught Michael Schwartz, the chief of staff for Republican Senator Tom Coburn, saying some bizarre things about homosexuality and pornography. During a panel discussion on "The New Masculinity", Schwartz denounced pornography as a "blight" and a "silent disease" before stating that it causes young boys to become homosexuals.

Homosexuality is inflicted on people... But all pornography is homosexual pornography because all pornography turns your sexual drive inwards. And that in fact is what it does. I know couples now who are struggling with the husband's addiction to pornography. It's a terrible thing. And that's what happens. And, you know, if it doesn't turn you homosexual, it at least renders you less capable of loving your wife. And it's something you need to be healed of.

Watch Schwartz's remarks below, and visit Think Progress for more on Schwartz's homophobic history.

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Comments

[truji999]

04:06 PM on 09/23/2009

They don't want gays to blame them and call them religious wingnuts yet they have no problem with blaming the gays for their own "erictile dysfunction". And then they have the nerve to be shocked that gay people are angry.

[seer60]

10:42 PM on 09/22/2009

He seems to be both prudishly obscure (typical) AND conflating a lot of anecdotal evidence (Naomi Wolf included) as:
Using one's own hand is a man's hand (insert "Gay" here) pleasuring a man...
A Southern California porn director's comment regarding the last couple decades increase in male erectile dysfunction and homosexuality as "What do you expect when individual men have personally watched thousands of male erections & orgasms while attempting to w#@k off to hot girls in porn videos...
To equal close to halfway of the pleasure of being with a real woman, one must consume images of multiple beautiful women in a given "session" to a point where one just has to masturbate in fantasy (oblivious of their own hand) for release, resulting for some in their real life significant other being less of a turn-on...
That Japanese analysis that using one's own hand for release leads eventually to impotence and that at minimum to maintain virility, one should employ as life-like an artificial sexual surrogate as possible, such as a RealDoll or CandyGirl...
Any of the above have ANY bearing for at least some individuals?
The real kicker is that few of the Religious Right nowadays claim that masturbation is a mortal sin.
So wouldn't their stereotypical advice to young men to think only of "Jesus" or sports (teams composed of males) or cold showers (locker rooms anyone?) while masturbating instead of nekkid women make their young men the Gayest of All?

[sociocanuck]

04:36 PM on 09/22/2009

If I make absolutely sure there are no guys in my pr0n does that mean I'll turn into a lesbian - or do I have to be the right gender, first?

[Martha12]

06:44 AM on 09/22/2009

All republicans are gay!?

Porn in the USA: Conservatives Are Biggest Consumers

8 of Top 10 Porn-Consuming States Voted Republican in 2008 Presidential Election

New study shows that the states that consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption.

New nationwide study of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.

Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says.

Edelman spends part of his time helping companies such as Microsoft and AOL detect advertising fraud. Another consulting client runs dozens of adult websites, though he says he is not at liberty to identify the firm.

That company did, however, provide Edelman with roughly two years of credit card data from 2006 to 2008 that included a purchase date and each customer's postal code.

The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users; Montana bought the least with 1.92 per 1000.

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Business/story?id=6977202&page=1

[RODERICK098]

10:39 AM on 09/22/2009

Did anyone see Tom Delay on Dancing With The Stars??/?????? He said I am having problems getting in touch with my feminine side and then practically took flight when he danced.

[heroine addict]

11:32 PM on 09/21/2009

...if we could only take a peek at his web browsing history, it might shed some light.

[Jessica Guerra]

11:30 PM on 09/21/2009

Hmm, didn't work on my husband. And what does that mean for women who watch porn?

[Paris]

11:04 PM on 09/21/2009

You need to eat a lot of roast lamb and garlic soup for that

[Rescisco]

10:48 PM on 09/21/2009

Noooo...It's GOP stupidity that is inflicted on people.

[yert33]

10:13 AM on 09/23/2009

CO-SIGN!

[beekeeper]

10:47 PM on 09/21/2009

Larry? Larry Craig where are you???

[weatherwaxx]

10:41 PM on 09/21/2009

This poor clunk needs to come out of the closet.

[tierone]

10:39 PM on 09/21/2009

So, can we guess he's speaking from anecdotal evidence?

That is, is he talking about himself?

[confuseddemocrat]

10:02 PM on 09/21/2009

the comments by this individual exemplify why there is such a large partisan divide

Rather than having a honest discussion about the harmful effects such as the prevalence of STDs among the actors or the objectification of both men and women), he uses this forum to take a cheap shot and to promote bigotry, hatred and ignorance toward a subset of individuals who are not undermining society

In doing so, he misses an opportunity to create substantive dialogue and to build consensus with regards to dealing with problems created by the pornography industry

[beekeeper]

10:47 PM on 09/21/2009

Well said!

[Articulator]

09:59 PM on 09/21/2009

He must be at war with his own feelings.

[beekeeper]

10:47 PM on 09/21/2009

Brilliant...

[pantherburns]

09:31 PM on 09/21/2009

This is so stupid I'm left without a reply.

[AAKAlan]

09:29 PM on 09/21/2009

I wonder how long it will be before we hear reports of this idiot in a bed which is not his wife's?

If he really thinks that all porn leads to homosexuality, he may, in fact, be speaking strictly for himself. Perhaps when he watches porn, he gets more turned on by the guys.

Which would be fine, if he just kept his idiot mouth shut.

Too much to ask, right?