Earlier last month, over 14,000 school district superintendents in the country were sent a letter by a group called the American College of Pediatricians inviting them to peruse and use information from a new site, Facts About Youth, which was created to supposedly help young adults. The website says the following:
Facts is a non-political, non-religious channel presenting the most current facts on the subject. Facts is committed to advancing a school environment in which all students will experience the opportunity to achieve optimal health and safety, even in the midst of differing worldviews. Facts is intended to be a resource to promote the factual and respectful discussion of these potentially divisive issues. This is a web site for and about youth and their needs.
The web site also claims that it was created to combat some medical organizations who supposedly because of "political correctness" misrepresent science to affirm unhealthy lifestyles as normal behavior.
Facts About Youth sounds as legitimate as the organization behind its creation, the American College of Pediatricians. That is until you read the so-called facts it posts about the gay community, such as:
Some gay men sexualize human waste, including the medically dangerous practice of coprophilia, which means sexual contact with highly infectious fecal wastes
To put it succinctly, Facts About Youth is a fraud not unlike the eugenics movement . What Facts About Youth does is push almost every anti-gay talking point and distortion repeated by various religious right groups over the past 30 years under the guise of unbiased research. But this "research" is full of errors and distortions, including the following:
1. Facts About Youth repeats the claim that Dr. Francis Collins stated that homosexuality is not hardwired by DNA. The truth is Francis Collins never said this. In fact, Dr. Collins said his words were being distorted:
The words . . . all come from the Appendix to my book "The Language of God" (pp. 260-263), but have been juxtaposed in a way that suggests a somewhat different conclusion that I intended. I would urge anyone who is concerned about the meaning to refer back to the original text.
2. Facts About Youth repeats the lie that the Robert Spitzer study proves homosexuality to be changeable, excluding the fact that Spitzer has said on more than one occasion that his research was being distorted.
3. Facts About Youth mentions the term "gay bowel syndrome," even though the term does not exist.
4. Facts About Youth repeats the lie that a Canadian study proves that gay men have a short life span, even though the researchers of the study said their work was being distorted.
5. Many of the studies cited by Facts About Youth are over 10 years old and some even go as far as the 1970s.
6. Many studies cited by Facts About Youth are convenience samples not meant to be indicative of the entire gay community in general.
One example of this is the citation of the 1979 book The Gay Report, which was the result of 2500 responses coming from a gay magazine questionnaire. The magazine, Blue Boy, was a softcore porn magazine which is now defunct. However, Facts About Youth cites this book on several occasions when claiming to give accurate details on gay sexual behavior.
And while I am on the subject, the American College of Pediatricians is also a fraud. It is a shell group, if you will, which was created to push a phony scientific argument about the so-called dangers of homosexuality. The American College of Pediatricians is not motivated by science but the so-called Christian beliefs of its members.
And on top of all of these lies, the claim that Facts About Youth is non-political is also another distortion. The web site gives a shout out to the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an organization which, despite of all the proof to the contrary, pushes the phony claim that homosexuality is a "changeable condition." Facts About Youth lists NARTH members as being on a subcommittee of the American College of Pediatricians. One member is George Rekers, a former University of South Carolina professor, a founder of the anti-gay Family Research Council, and a Baptist minister.
Rekers has testified against the gay community in adoption cases. Ironically, his testimony in two cases was so biased that it actually helped the cause of gay adoption.
So basically Rekers and the rest of these phony medical professionals are trying to push information to schools which claim that:
1. Gay men are disease ridden sex animals who enjoy playing with feces,
2. Lesbians are equally diseased and irresponsible,
3. Homosexuality is just a changeable condition.
And they want schools to pass along this information.
It's bad enough when wanton homophobes like Fred Phelps tell lies about the gay community.
But when people who purport to be medical professionals pass along these lies, it almost should be criminal.