Recently some people have very publicly claimed that "There is certainly a logical link between homosexuality, pedophilia, incest and beastiality and other deviant behaviour".
Excuse me?
Where on earth do these people get their "facts" from which they proclaim with such absolute certainty?
There is a trend among conservative groups worldwide to use information and "statistical" material produced by a certain "Dr" Paul Cameron - who is a foremost self-proclaimed American "expert" on homosexuality - and who has been barred from practicing psychology because of his continued use of manufactured statistics, falsified "studies" and completely unscientific methods in producing the material he (and others like him) supply to religious right groups around the world.
Among his "scientific proofs" are the following: that gay men are more likely to suffer from anal infections, gay men live shorter lives, gays are more prone to suicide, gay men are unhygienic, you can "become " gay through careless contact with gay people especially as a child, homosexuality is a result of poor upbringing, gay people can become 'straight', AIDS is a "gay disease" despite the fact that most AIDS victims are heterosexual and female - and the list goes on. This very same rubbish is used by people like James Dobson in his personal war on homosexuality which he has been fighting since 1977.
Cameron has minced no words in showing the depths of his depravity and hate for gay people. Back in the day, when the AIDS epidemic began in 1984, he was called in by President Reagan as a resident right wing conservative "'expert' on homosexuality" - and made his recommendation - extermination of the US GLBT population as a means of eliminating the problem. It isn't very surprising to discover this man finds inspiration in the works of the Third Reich and its theories on race and eugenics. And yet groups claiming to be "Christian" flock to hear him speak - and buy up all the lies and propaganda he can produce.
It is interesting to note that much of the above rhetoric generated in the USA found its way into a locally produced book called "the Pink Agenda" which was unleashed by Africa Christian Action (part of Christian Action Network) on an unsuspecting public in 2001 and was subsequently banned from public sale to audiences under 18 - despite the dire consequences of ingesting such a diatribe consisting of blatantly one-sided religious argument and carefully manufactured "facts".
I think the meaning of all this is pretty clear - education grounded and based in truth and fact is the way forward - listening to old recycled rubbish which keeps doing the rounds is useless and destructive. Get educated.
- Firstly, a persons sexual orientation or gender identity does no harm to the person him or herself - or to those around him.
- Secondly, a person's sexual orientation or gender identity is natural, inborn and immutable (cannot be changed).
- Thirdly, bestiality is a subject on its own and not associated with homosexuality. The term refers to sex acts between different species of animal. One could even argue that heterosexual people, being more numerous than GLBTI people, would be far more prone to such a temptation than gay folk.
- Fourthly, pedophilia is asexual. It is not necessarily same or opposite sex based. Pedophilia refers to sex acts between adults and young children, most typically without consent of the minor in question, regardless of the gender or sexuality of either victim or perpetrator. This is undoubtedly harmful - but once again MOST DEFINITELY NOT a typical GLBTI trait.
A few short years ago a study on pedophilia revealed some interesting facts: It turns out that most pedophiles are heterosexual males, followed by heterosexual females - and only then by homosexual males and last but not least, homosexual females. So once and for all, claims in this regard are unfounded, and based on misinformation and ignorance. So why do these groups maintain that gay men are pedophiles?
I can see where this misguided claim comes from - the worldwide move to lower the legal age of sexual consent for males to match the age for females - and in cases where discriminatory legal ages of consent are set on the basis of same gender relations. It seems that some people claim that this move indicates that gay men are "pedophiles" because they want access to "our children". Nothing could be further from the truth. It is surprising that such people can find discriminatory laws that set different legal ages of consent for gay and straight males and females as just and equitable. It is equally ludicrous to label those attempting to set this right for purposes of equality - as "pedophiles".
Oh and lastly - "incest"? Come on, man - incest is romantic or sexual relations between siblings or even parents and offspring - most typically between people of opposite genders. Incest by the way is illegal in most countries today because of the dangers posed by inbreeding and the effect this could have on the gene pool - not merely for "moral reasons" - in fact, royalty as far back as ancient Egypt married siblings to continue their royal lines - and some royals today can be considered the product of incest.
In either case, people do not raise an eyebrow in terms of incest when they interbreed dogs or other pets or live stock and yet for some reason, the moral issue hits home when it comes to people.
Nevertheless, I fail to see how any of these things - WHICH ARE CLEARLY UNRELATED to homosexuality in any way shape or form - define homosexuality as any kind of "threat" to "morality" or the so-called "family" or "civilization".
People in South Africa - notably Erroll Naidoo of the Family Policy Institute in Cape Town - have in the past ranted about marriage and "the family" having been the cornerstone of civilization for over 5000 years - now being threatened by the "new" invention of same gender marriage!
This very smart chap has failed to take into account that marriage as he sees it is and has been largely an illusion - the perfect family he and his groups portray hardly ever existed - except possibly in the dreams of the fundamentalists of course - with a working father who calls all the shots - a patriarch - and a supportive and compliant mother who sits at home unconcerned with affairs outside of the family and church, and good little girls and boys who speak when they are spoken to, wash behind their ears, swallow all their biblical worldview greens and eat up all their hypocrisy and bigotry. They claim "traditional marriage" alone has always existed, ordained by some unseen God figure - whose existence neither he nor any other religious figure can prove nor give substance to - and fails to recount how same gender marriage has been a part of society going back as far as ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Japan - and even in medieval Europe - for as long as their has been "heterosexual marriage" - before the Roman Catholic Church eventually managed to stamp it out with persecution and public executions. As has so often been pointed out - history is written by the victors - or those in power.
The "institution of marriage" is now being threatened BY people getting married? Huh?
One would expect the opposite to be seen as a threat, not so? And yet out there right this minute, people who call themselves "true" and "moral" Christians are indulging in acts of bigotry, hatred and persecution - and leading others down the same path behind them.
Shouldn't you be asking yourselves how "moral" it is to continue allowing hatred and incitement to it, based on immoral pursuits and assertions and attacks upon the equality, freedoms and dignity and human rights of others?
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