There's never been a shortage of ersatz experts struggling to establish some sort of correlation between homosexuality and a propensity to inflict harm upon children. Most often, this perceived association takes the form of a simple equation: homosexual = pedophile. My initial awareness of this came back in 1977, when former Miss Oklahoma and orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant was crusading to repeal a Dade County, Fla. ordinance that prohibited anti-gay discrimination. She named her organization "Save Our Children" and warned that "a particularly deviant-minded [gay] teacher could sexually molest children." Despite a lack of any scientific evidence to support her claims, as well as her failure to mention that a particularly deviant-minded heterosexual teacher could, potentially, do likewise, Bryant's efforts were successful.
This past November, that bastion of robust, all-American masculinity known as college football was rocked by the arrest of Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State assistant football coach. Sandusky faces a multiple count indictment on charges that, over a period of years, he sexually abused boys he met through The Second Mile, a children's charity he founded in the late 1970s. Perhaps the most shocking allegation against Sandusky was that, in 2002, he was discovered, by another assistant coach, anally raping a 10-year-old boy in the locker room shower of the football building on the Penn State campus. Ever since Sandusky's arrest, the scandal has become a cause célèbre for right-wing extremists, who are practically tripping over each other in the stampede to place the blame in the hands of the gay community. Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said, "Sandusky has to be -- he's a gay guy." Never mind that Sandusky has been married to the same woman since 1966. Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, stated on the organization's website, "There IS a long history connecting homosexuality to pederasty [sex with young boys]." Joseph Farah, editor-in-chief of the ultra-socially-conservative World Net Daily, claims that gay rights advocates are creating "an environment conducive for predators of children."
Then there's Dr. Judith Reisman, Ph.D. While discussing the Sandusky case during a recent interview, Dr. Reisman said, "The aim of homosexual males ... is not to have sex with other old guys and get married but to obtain sex with as many boys as possible. That's the reality. I wish it weren't, but it is." Reisman has also, in the past, claimed that the techniques employed by homosexuals to recruit children rival those of the United States Marine Corps, and that the gay rights movement in Germany led to the rise of the Nazi Party and, subsequently, the Holocaust.
On the other hand, Dr. A. Nicholas Groth, has this to say about the connection between homosexuality and pedophilia: "The research to date all points to there being no significant relationship between a homosexual lifestyle and child molestation. There appears to be practically no reportage of sexual molestation of girls by lesbian adults and the adult male who sexually molests young boys is not likely to be homosexual."
Dr. Groth has also drawn the conclusion that male pedophiles do tend to victimize boys more often than girls, but for reasons that really have nothing to do with homosexuality. Groth opines that pedophiles are drawn to children sexually in that they identify with the child and appear to want to remain children themselves. This would explain Jerry Sandusky's description of the alleged locker room shower incident as "horsing around." Groth further stresses:
These same individuals are uninterested in adult homosexual relationships. In fact, they frequently express a strong sexual aversion to adult males, reporting that what they find attractive about the immature boy are his feminine features and the absence of secondary sexual characteristics such as body hair and muscles.
Two different doctors with two entirely different perspectives -- whom to believe?
Dr. Groth is a trained psychologist and pioneer in the scientific study of sexual offenders against women and children. Over the course of two decades, he treated more than 3,000 child molesters. Groth is also the author of Men Who Rape: Psychology of the Offender, a work widely regarded as a textbook on the psychology of sexual violence. Dr. Reisman, conversely, has a Ph.D. in communications from Case Western Reserve University. She is also a visiting professor at Liberty University, which was founded by the vehemently anti-gay Reverend Jerry Falwell.
I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that Dr. Groth has infinitely more credibility than any of the other "experts" mentioned in this article. He formulated his ideas based on his own observations and exhaustive research, as any responsible, trained professional would do. The others seem to simply make up a bunch of crazy shit based on their bigoted agendas, and pray that no one has yet to figure out how to use Google. Thankfully, the days of being able to pull an Anita Bryant are long gone.
Homosexuality and Pedophilia: The False Link | Psychology Today
http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/179/6/482.full
Pedophiles are hardwired that way.
There are those who "re-enact"; the estimates of those of us who have been victimized as children who grow up to be predators and "re-enact" ranges from 10% to perhaps 30%. Would be interested in your source, and given that the vast majority of abuse is not reported, statistics are generally, from reputable sources noted as being empirical. Have not, to date, seen that figure of 50% from a reliable clinical source.
There can be gender orientation confusion on the part of a boy or girl who is abused by a same-gender predator. Generally, that confusion works its way out by the time the individual reaches majority when "re-enactment" becomes separated from core orientation.
In my decades of supporting the healing of other sexual abuse and incest survivors, I gotta say, the phenomena that you speak of so feelingly just does not exist. If you have done the research on this, provide the links.
Situational – does not prefer children, but offend under certain conditions.
Regressed – Typically has relationships with adults, but a stressor causes them to seek children as a substitute.
Morally Indiscriminate – All-around sexual deviant, who may commit other sexual offenses unrelated to children.
Naive/Inadequate – Often mentally disabled in some way, finds children less threatening.
Preferential – has true sexual interest in children.
Mysoped – Sadistic and violent, target strangers more often than acquaintances.
Fixated – Little or no activity with own age, described as an "overgrown child."
The victims do not make the connection between their abuse and their present pathology.
These real human beings do terrible things, and it is only by acknowledging that "normal" people can do these terrible acts of abuse that we come to terms with them, and start to heal our communities.
what people can do is be aware of the adult in their midst with "poor boundaries' - who hugs a child too long, who engages in physical games of teasing and roughhousing that 'seem to go a bit too far'... who constantly focus on children....
and, folks can be aware of the child whose grades suddenly plummet, who suddenly does not want to participate in a previously favored extracurricular activity. In teens - a sudden use of drugs or booze.... are all potential signs of dysfunction and dis-ease in his or her personal environment.
So much has been said here about how wrong the anti-gay organizations are on this subject that it would be a waste of time for me to repeat it. But I'd like to add this: I honestly think that most of these anti-gay organizations and 'experts' actually know very well how wrong they are. Their use of the "homosexual=pedophile" argument is purely cynical.
I think they knowingly use this false argument because gets an instinctive emotional reaction. We as a society, when faced with a possible threat to our children, tend to overreact to the possibility of that threat. So all these groups have to do is place a tiny bit of doubt in some people's minds, and they can (and often will) overreact. They may think to themselves "well, I'm 90% sure gay people aren't pedophiles, but we're talking about our CHILDREN here, so I don't even want to take that 10% chance."
I believe it is a very deliberate intent to manipulate people by the anti-gay forces. I'm not sure how we fight it beyond simply repeating the real facts, but we'll probably have to repeat them quite a lot.
Of course, it seems the majority are, but just sayin'. There are female abusers too, even if it is less common.
I attended a retreat for male sexual abuse survivors a number of years ago, and in the intro meeting, the facilitator asked for a show of hands for those of us who had been abused by women.. mothers, older sisters, teachers, whomever - and 40% of the men at the conference raised their hands... Hardly a scientific study, but for me, at the time, an arresting empirical moment. Many of us had parallel experiences in parents who "triangulated' the abuse... one parent abuses the child, the other becomes jealous, treats the child as a true competitor for affection, and then goes after the kid sexually to "prove a point". In the OTHER scandal going on, with Bernie Fine and his wife, the wife's bedding of the husband's "boytoy" might be seen as that kind of triangulation. Sick, but not uncommon.
Not all predators are pedophiles; some are situational abusers; they may abuse because they have been abused and are "re-enacting". Not all abuse victims grow up to be predators, the eistimate is that about 10& of victims re-enact.
And then there is a small percentage of schitzophrenics, sociopaths and psychopaths, folks with serious biochemically driven behavioral health issues.
pedophiles seem to be hardwired, and they fail to percieve their abuse as bad, they feel they are "helping' kids.. (really). Re-enactment abusers are generally driven by issues of unresolved anger and rage.
People 'believe' that gay men are pedophiles because they WANT to believe that. It helps stew their hatred and justify it to themselves. ACTUAL facts and statistics and TRUTH have little meaning when many heterosexuals consider the lives of all the gay people they created.
This is what very, very many of them call morality.
Yet, can you imagine the mayhem that would ensue if gay people went around treating women or black people in the way that very many women and black people treat gay people, and then gay people justfying that with what is clearly written in the bible about women and blacks? We'd be locked up.
This is exactly the same thing. The responses that are sure to follow that will scream, 'but that's different,' will only serve to prove this point.
People feel justified in their mistreatment of gay people because of what the bible says, yet they do not accept that type of treratment for ANY other group becasue of what is written in the bible about and against them.
In short, it's plain old fashioned bigotry.
However, if an adult male is only sexually attracted to male children, is this is only Pedophilia? What happens to the male to male attraction? Do you just ignore this part of the attraction? While it may be only a child, it is still an attraction to a male isn't it? Or do we just ignore that little fact? And in the most general terms pedophiles do confine themselves to a specific gender. So does a general proclivity to confine themselves to a specific gender have no meaning? Then why don't pedophiles prey upon and molest children of both sexes? I know that some do but how to explain the vast majorities that are gender specific? If there isn't a specific attraction to the same sex then pedophiles would be stalking both male and female. I know you won't like the questions but they are real and deserve considerations and not a bunch of "you hate them/me" crap that avoids the difficult questions.
Some male pedophiles DO molest little girls...and some molest both.
and, about six% of pedophiles are women....
pedophiles are insatiable, and the average number of victims, according to one study, was 135
Not all predators are pedophiles, some are "situaltional abusers" who were, most likely, abused as children and are "re-enacting". statistics are hard to come by but some experienced clinicians estimate that about 10% of those of us who were abused as children grow up to become predators... those abusers are likely to have one-five victims.
The discussion about the abuse of chilren is a critical one, and for that reason, I always grow frustrated with the conflation of pedophilia with gender orientation. Said as a survivor of incest, of sexual abuse and a hetero married guy.