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Experts: Fox News’ Coverage Contributes To Violence, Discrimination Against Transgender Community

Carlos Maza — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:46:03 EDT

Fox News’ inaccurate, defamatory, and dehumanizing coverage of the transgender community contributes to transphobic violence and discrimination according to several groups working toward transgender equality.

Experts: Fox News’ Coverage Contributes To Transphobic Violence, Discrimination

Fox News Routinely Promotes Inaccurate And Defamatory Depictions Of The Transgender Community. Fox News’ transgender coverage consistently includes derogatory and harmful misinformation – including name-calling and transphobic pseudoscience – including:

Joking About “The One Part Of Chaz [Bono] That Hasn’t Been Operated On [Fox & Friends, 9/27/11]
Referring To A Transgender Woman As A “Burly Man In A Dress” [Fox News Radio Reporter Todd Starnes, 6/3/13]
Asking If Trans-Supportive Parents Are Guilty Of “Child Abuse” [O’Reilly Factor, 5/23/12]

National Center For Transgender Equality: Fox’s Coverage “Permits Disrespectful And Sometimes Violent Treatment Of Trans People.” Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, wrote in a statement to Equality Matters:

Media misinformation about trans people dangerously permits disrespectful and sometimes violent treatment of trans people. Perhaps worse, though, is that Fox News intentionally misinforms people on issues like trans health care and employment, playing to prejudices they know are outdated. Fox News cements transphobia among the public and, in turn, stalls progress for a community struggling for basic acceptance. [Email exchange, 6/13/13, emphasis added]

National Gay And Lesbian Task Force: Fox’s Transphobic Depictions “Feed Into A Culture Of Discrimination. Jack Harris-Quintana, Policy Institute manager at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and author of Injustice at Every Turn: A Report of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, wrote in a statement to Equality Matters:

These depictions perpetuate stereotypes about trans people and feed into a culture of discrimination. They do nothing to enhance perceptions of trans people but rather, reinforce a system where the trans unemployment rate is twice that of the general population, where 1 in 5 trans people have experienced homelessness, and 19% have been refused basic medical care. What Fox News should be doing is striving for coverage that really is fair and balanced. Trans women are women and should be treated and depicted like any other women; trans men are men and should be treated and depicted like any other men; and those who fall in between should always be respected for the person that they are. [Email exchange, 6/18/13, emphasis added]

GLAAD: Fox’s Coverage “Gives License For Continued Violence And Discrimination” Against Transgender People. Aaron McQuade, director of news and field media at the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, wrote in a statement to Equality Matters:

At a time when the trans community faces such high rates of violence, unemployment and inequality, Fox News' pattern of dehumanizing and spreading misinformation about trans people goes against the standards of good journalism and instead gives license for continued violence and discrimination against a community that instead deserves support and respect. [Email exchange, 6/14/13, emphasis added]

New York City Anti-Violence Project: Fox’s “Vitriolic Hate Speech” Contributes To Violence Against Transgender People. Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, wrote in a statement to Equality Matters:

Hate violence is reinforced by vitriolic hate speech, where public figures accuse transgender people of being degenerates or freaks and mock and dehumanize them by calling them names such as “tranny” or “man in a dress” and suggest that sexual assault against transgender people is anything other than violence. It is no surprise, then, that this culture of hate spawns acts of violence. And as we make progress across this country toward LGBTQ equality, we are seeing a backlash of anti-LGBTQ hatred such as the hatred spewed by Fox News. And so this tells us: we must hold Fox News accountable because they are complicit in this culture of hate. [Email exchange, 6/13/13, emphasis added]

People For The American Way: Fox’s Coverage Does “Real Harm To Real People.” Michael B. Keegan, president of People for the American Way Foundation, wrote in a statement to Equality Matters:

From joking about ‘the one part of Chaz [Bono] that hasn’t been operated on’ to questioning whether parents who support their transgender children are guilty of child abuse, Fox hosts and contributors push damaging myths about transgender Americans that do real harm to real people. Millions of people watch Fox News. When it gives a platform to transphobic bigotry, it legitimizes these damaging views. Transgender Americans deserve dignity and respect in our country’s media, not trivialization, mockery, and attacks. [Email exchange, 6/12/13, emphasis added]

Human Rights Campaign Foundation: Fox’s Coverage Is “Propaganda That Further Stigmatizes” Transgender People. Jeff Krehely, Vice President Of The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, wrote in a statement to Equality Matters:

Coverage that portrays transgender people in a negative light is not news, but propaganda that further stigmatizes a community which faces horrific violence and discrimination at alarming rates. Negative and inaccurate depictions of transgender people in the media are not only unethical, they are dangerous. [Email exchange, 6/12/13, emphasis added]

Transgender Community Faces High Levels Of Violence, Discrimination

Report: Transgender Americans Face High Levels Of Violence, Discrimination, And Rejection. According to a 2011 report released by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), transgender people experience significant levels of discrimination, violence, and rejection in multiple settings:

[NCTE/NGLTF Report, 2011]

Report: Almost A Quarter Of Transgender People Experience “A Catastrophic Level Of Discrimination.” According to the 2011 NCTE and NGLTF report, a majority of transgender people who participated in the study reported at least one serious act of discrimination:

Sixty-three percent (63%) of our participants had experienced a serious act of discrimination – events that would have a major impact on a person’s quality of life and ability to sustain themselves financially or emotionally. These events include the following:

Lost job due to bias

Eviction due to bias

School bullying/harassment so severe the respondent had to drop out

Teacher bullying

Physical assault due to bias

Sexual assault due to bias

Homelessness because of gender identity/expression

Denial of medical service due to bias

Incarceration due to gender identity/expression

Almost a quarter (23%) of our respondents experienced a catastrophic level of discrimination – having been impacted by at least three of the above major life-disrupting events due to bias. These compounding acts of discrimination – due to the prejudice of others or lack of protective laws- exponentially increased the difficulty of bouncing back and establishing a stable economic and home life. [NCTE/NGLTF Report, 2011, emphasis added]

Report: Transgender Women Made Up Half Of The Anti-LGBTQ Homicides In 2012. According to the annual Hate Violence Report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), fifty-three percent of anti-LGBTQ homicides were transgender women, a thirteen percent increase from the previous year:

[NCAVP, 2013]

What NOM Gets Wrong About The New Danish Marriage Study

Carlos Maza — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:00:53 EDT

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is touting a new study from Denmark which allegedly finds that the health benefits of marriage are exclusive to heterosexual relationships. But NOM’s analysis ignores several important details about the study, some of which actually point to the importance of allowing same-sex couples to marry.

In a June 12 blog post titled “New Danish Study of 6.5 Million: Health Benefits of Marriage are Unique to Male-Female Unions,” NOM touted a nearly 30-year study that compared the mortality rates of different relationship structures and concluded that “married” same-sex couples fared worse than married heterosexual couples. According to one anti-gay blog quoted by NOM:

[This study] does suggest that the health benefits of marriage may be unique to the male-female union. Governments may try to legislate a revised version of “marriage,” but they cannot legislate the health and longevity benefits that come from a man marrying a woman.

NOM’s analysis of the study ignores several important details:

1. The Study Didn’t Examine Married Same-Sex Couples: Despite the language used by NOM, the research actually compared married heterosexual couples and same-sex couples in registered partnerships, which offer many but not all of the same rights and privileges as marriage. Same-sex marriage only became legal in Denmark in June 2012, nearly a year after the study’s conclusion. As Box Turtle Bulletin’s Rob Tisinai pointed out, the study is more of an indictment of the shortcomings of civil unions than an attack on marriage equality.

2. “Married” Gay Men Experienced Significant Health Improvements: NOM fails to acknowledge that, while lesbian married couples didn’t experience improved mortality rates after marriage, the study found that “married” male same-sex couples enjoyed decreased mortality rates when compared to non-married males:

In other words, even in the case of registered partnerships, male couples who had their relationships legally recognized experienced significant health benefits.

3. Same-Sex Couples Still Faced Significant Discrimination: NOM’s analysis also ignores that, even in Denmark, same-sex couples continued to face anti-gay discrimination over the course of the study. For most of the study, gay people in Denmark weren’t protected from discrimination in the labor market. Same-sex couples, and especially lesbian couples, also faced significant hurdles when attempting to adopt and raise children. Experiences of discrimination can cause negative health, including higher rates of mental health problems, for same-sex couples.

4. Correlation Isn’t Causation: The biggest problem with NOM’s analysis is that it confuses correlation with causation. While it is true that the study found the highest mortality rates among “married” lesbian couples, there’s no evidence that the heightened mortality rate is a result of marital status or sexual orientation. Morten Frisch, lead author of the study, cited the finding as evidence of the need to research the “underlying factors” responsible for the health disparity:

Morten Frisch, lead author of the study, says, "Lesbians may constitute a largely unnoticed high-risk population for suicide and breast cancer, so our findings call for efforts to identify the underlying factors responsible and ensure access to basic health care in this population."

NOM’s conclusion may be useful for advancing its talking point that gay relationships are unhealthy or dangerous, but it isn’t actually based in the study’s findings.

Previously:

NOM Baselessly Accuses Obama Administration Of Leaking Its Tax Return

NOM Lashes Out At Boy Scouts With Article Calling Homosexuality “Self-Destructive” And “Unmanly”

NOM Praises Anti-Gay ESPN Analyst Chris Broussard: He Sounds Just Like Us!

O'Reilly On Children Dressing As The Opposite Gender: "I Don't Think That Should Be Happening" After Age 11

Equality Matters staff — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:41:37 EDT

From the June 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: Dr. Daria Schooler, Columbus, Indiana: "Adam Carolla was right that the gender-bending program in a Milwaukee elementary school was bullying against students and their parents. Promoting gender identity to little children is a progressive tactic to encourage alternate lifestyles."

Elizabeth Lewis, Brooklyn, New York: "I work at a preschool where children often dress up and play in clothing of the other gender. They are expressing themselves happily."

Little kids can do that, but once you get into 10 and 11, I don't think that should be happening.

Previously:

Fox Reporter Calls Transgender Woman A “Burly Man Wearing A Dress”

Bill O'Reilly's Parenting Advice: Punish Boys Who Like The Color Pink

Laura Ingraham Dispenses Dangerous Advice For Raising Transgender Youth

Fox Reporter Calls Transgender Woman A “Burly Man Wearing A Dress”

Carlos Maza — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:08:56 EDT

No story about transgender people is too insignificant for Fox News reporter Todd Starnes to cover as a “culture war” horror story, especially if the story gives him the opportunity to use inaccurate and transphobic slurs in his reporting.

In a June 3 article for Fox News Radio, Starnes reported on a Nashville woman who complained after she encountered a transgender woman in a restaurant bathroom. The story included various quotes from the disgruntled woman’s husband, inappropriately referring to the transgender woman as a man and commenting that her presence in the public restroom “poses a safety hazard”:

David Staton, whose wife had the disquieting run-in while eating out at Amerigo, a restaurant in the country music capital, has a simple solution.

“There needs to be some sort of law that says if you are born a man with man-parts, you go to the men’s bathroom,” said Staton. “In a family restaurant, men should go to the men’s room and women should go to the women’s.”

[…]

Staton and his wife were celebrating a date night on Saturday by eating dinner at Amerigo – a regional Italian restaurant chain in Nashville.

Sitting just a few tables away was a group of cross-dressers.

“These guys were well over six feet tall, big burly men in dresses,” he told Fox News. “The whole restaurant noticed them.”

And Staton’s wife especially noticed them after an encounter in the ladies room of the Nashville establishment.

“It was a small restroom and she was waiting for a stall,” he said. “And that’s when she came face to face with a guy well over six feet. She immediately blurted out, ‘Am I in the men’s bathroom?’”

She was not.

Staton said the man went over to the mirror to fix his lipstick and told his wife, “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

[…]

He said it poses a safety hazard – especially for families with young daughters.

“No dad or parent should have to wonder – is my little girl going into the women’s bathroom with men in there,” he said. “To have a man in the women’s bathroom is a dangerous thing. That’s just so wrong on so many levels.” [emphasis added]

On Twitter, Starnes continued his hobby of making derogatory remarks about transgender people by echoing Staton’s comments, referring to the transgender woman as a “burly man wearing a dress”:

Starnes’ coverage of the incident is problematic for obvious reasons: inappropriately referring to a transgender person by the wrong gender, using derogatory language, and peddling the baseless “bathroom panic” myth, to name a few.

But it’s also worth noting that no major news outlet aside from Fox has covered the story. Aside from the few right-wing outlets piggy backing off of Starnes’ report, no other serious news publication found the incident worth reporting.

That’s because someone being bothered by the presence of a transgender person isn’t a news story. Nor is it a story when a restaurant voluntarily allows a transgender woman to use a restroom that matches her gender identity (Tennessee’s non-discrimination laws don’t protect transgender people).

Only in the mind of Todd Starnes – a man who’s made it his mission to gin up anti-LGBT sentiment with throwaway “culture war” stories – does this kind of incident qualify as newsworthy.

Previously:

Bill O'Reilly's Parenting Advice: Punish Boys Who Like The Color Pink

Laura Ingraham Dispenses Dangerous Advice For Raising Transgender Youth

Megyn Kelly Trivializes Transgender Prison Inmate's Fight For Necessary Medical Treatment

Bill O'Reilly's Parenting Advice: Punish Boys Who Like The Color Pink

Carlos Maza — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:27:36 EDT

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly reinforced bogus stereotypes about gender and masculinity, telling a guest on his show that, if his son likes the color pink, “you might have to send him to camp.”

During the June 3 edition of The O’Reilly Factor, O’Reilly discussed a Wisconsin elementary school that offered its students the chance to voluntarily dress up as the opposite gender as a part of the school’s Spirit Week celebrations. O’Reilly and his guest, comedian Adam Carolla, criticized the event, calling the school’s teachers “pinheads”:

O’REILLY: You know why they’re doing this, though, right?

CAROLLA: Why?

O’REILLY: Well, it’s all about anti-bullying and putting the children in other people’s positions so they don’t make fun of girls and boys. It’s a politically correct tactic that’s far too sophisticated for the children to understand and that’s why it’s stupid, and that’s why these educators are pinheads.

CAROLLA: It’s interesting.

O’REILLY: Because while they may have a noble intent, they have no idea how children process things. You don’t dress up like a little girl when you’re five and you’re a boy. That’s just stupid. Go ahead.

CAROLLA: Putting a boy in a poodle skirt and saddle shoes-

O’REILLY: Yeah, I mean it’s insane.

CAROLLA: Is bullying. I mean, listen, I have a six-year-old son, I have twins. He had to ride in his sister’s pink car seat the other day for a mile and he screamed like a stuck pig the entire time.

O’REILLY: That’s a good sign. That’s a good sign because, if he had liked that, you might have to send him to camp.

In addition to being factually inaccurate – the gender-swap day was proposed by the school’s student council and had nothing to do with bullying – O’Reilly’s comments are harmful to LGBT youth and the people who raise them.

While the school’s gender-swap day may have just been a playful celebration, the issue of allowing transgender children to dress how they prefer is a serious one. Allowing children to dress in the clothing that corresponds to their gender identity isn’t “stupid” and “insane,” as O’Reilly puts it – it’s a critical part of creating a healthy and supportive environment for gender-variant youth.

The most chilling part of O’Reilly’s comments, though, is his recommendation that any boy who likes pink should be sent “to camp,” ostensibly to either punish the child or correct such behavior.

Such adherence to strict gender norms is problematic for a number of reasons, but it’s especially damaging for LGBT youth who don’t fit expectations of how boys and girls are supposed to act. Parents who try to force their LGBT kids to abide by strict gender norms – rather than merely accepting their children as they are – end up doing incredible emotional and physical damage.

This is especially true for parents who may be considering sending their child to “ex-gay” or “reparative” therapy, a practice that relies heavily on the false belief that men become gay because they have a “weak” masculine identity (and vice versa). Such was the case for Kirk Andrew Murphy, a man who took his own life after his parents put him through years of “ex-gay” therapy because they noticed him “playing with dolls and stuff.”

When O’Reilly instructs parents to send their gender-variant children to a “camp,” he’s not just adding to his long line of terrible parenting advice; he’s encouraging hostility towards vulnerable LGBT youth by the very people who should be supporting them the most.

Previously:

Fox’s O’Reilly Fear Mongers About MA School Policy To Protect Transgender Students

Fox’s O’Reilly: Are Parents Who Support Transgender Children Guilty Of “Child Abuse?”

Fox’s O’Reilly, Carlson Warn That Glee Makes Kids Experiment With Homosexuality, Identify As Transgender

NOM Baselessly Accuses Obama Administration Of Leaking Its Tax Return

Carlos Maza — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 10:18:22 EDT

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is accusing the Obama administration of intentionally leaking one of the organization’s confidential IRS documents, but congressional testimony and even NOM’s former chairwoman have made clear that the release of the document was “inadvertent.”

During the June 3 edition of Fox News’ America Live, NOM president Brian Brown revived his claim that the IRS stole and leaked its Form 990 to the Human Rights Campaign last year, suggesting that the leak may have been linked to President Obama’s reelection effort:

BROWN: It is a felony to use the private and confidential tax information, tax returns. This goes back to the articles of impeachment on President Nixon. And this was given to our political opponents, the head of which, the head of the Human Rights Campaign was a co-chair for President Obama’s re-election campaign.

[…]

BROWN: We need Congress to move forward, we need a thorough investigation, and we need to know for certain if this goes, to see how high this goes. It is not at all encouraging that, again, this was given to a co-chair of President Obama’s re-election campaign. That’s just wrong.

Over the past few weeks, NOM’s story has been picked up by a number of media outlets, including Politico, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News. In an op-ed for USA Today, NOM chairman John Eastman claimed, without evidence:

[T]he release of NOM's confidential data to a group headed by an Obama campaign co-chair suggests the possibility of complicity at the highest levels of politics and government. This wasn't a low-level error in judgment; it was a conscious act to reward a prominent Obama supporter while punishing an opponent.

In fact, NOM’s conspiracy theory has been debunked by NOM’s own former chairwoman Maggie Gallagher. In a May 10 column for National Review Online, Gallagher wrote that the leak of NOM’s Form 990 had been an accident:

You may recall that a low-level employee also released NOM’s private tax-return information to a guy claiming to be a NOM employee, who then posted it on the Internet.

That explanation was corroborated during the May 17 House Ways and Means Committee’s hearing on the recent IRS controversy. When Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI) asked Acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller about NOM’s accusation, Miller responded by explaining that an investigation had determined that the release of NOM’s Form 990 had been “inadvertent”:

MILLER: Can I suggest something, Mr. Camp, on those two, just to let you know?

CAMP: This would be the National Organization for Marriage and Pro Publica?

MILLER: On those two situations, we went to [the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)] and I think Mr. George can speak to what they found. We made the referrals and I believe what they found was that those disclosures were inadvertent and that there’s been discipline in one of those cases for somebody not following procedures.

Miller’s testimony was echoed by Treasury Department Inspector General Russell George, who explained that a review of NOM’s claims had been conducted but was no longer ongoing:

In other words, the leaking of NOM’s Form 990 wasn’t part of some Obama administration plot to “punish” one of the president’s political opponents; it was a mistake made by a “low-level” IRS employee.

NOM’s attempt to link the leak of its Form 990 to the Obama administration is just the latest in the right-wing effort to baselessly blame the Obama administration for errors made by low-level IRS employees. NOM’s accusations reveal more about the group’s desperate desire to score political points than it does about a vast government conspiracy to target and punish conservatives.

Previously:

NOM Lashes Out At Boy Scouts With Article Calling Homosexuality “Self-Destructive” And “Unmanly”

Why Is NOM Still Hosting A Speaker Who Claims Gay People Are “Worthy Of Death?”

NOM Praises Anti-Gay ESPN Analyst Chris Broussard: He Sounds Just Like Us!

This Weekend: NOM Hosts Its Rabidly Anti-Gay Conference For College Students

Carlos Maza — Fri, 31 May 2013 15:22:06 EDT

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) will host its annual “It Takes A Family To Raise A Village” (ITAF) conference this weekend in San Diego, gathering some of the country’s most notorious anti-equality activists to peddle homophobic smears and misinformation to a group of college-aged students.

On May 30 to June 1, college students will gather at San Diego’s Town & Country Resort to participate in NOM’s fifth annual ITAF conference – a weekend-long event aimed at preparing college students to defend “traditional marriage.”

Last August, an undercover Equality Matters investigation revealed that NOM was using the conference to peddle a number of damaging anti-gay falsehoods, including the myths that children raised by same-sex couples are more likely to be sexually abused by their parents and are more likely to identify as gay themselves.

According to this year’s ITAF schedule, the conference will feature many of the same speeches that were presented in 2012, including:

Jesus And Marriage: a lecture that claimed homosexual relationships are a greater sin than polygamy in the eyes of God.
Paul And Homosexual Practice: a presentation that included the distribution of Bible verses condemning homosexuality, including a passage from Leviticus that calls for the death of gay people and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Speakers at this year’s ITAF include Robert Gagnon – a man who’s argued that gay people are “worthy of death” and who has peddled many of the most damaging myths in anti-gay activism. The conference will also feature a speech from NOM’s Cultural Director Thomas Peters, who last year told students that the Catholic Church “doesn’t believe in gay and lesbian people, per se.”

A new addition to this year’s ITAF is University of Texas at Austin sociology professor Mark Regnerus, a man who has been widely discredited by the scientific community since he published a thoroughly flawed paper last year implying that children raised by same-sex couples face a host of negative consequences, including increased risks of sexual abuse. In a recent interview, Darren Sherkat, the person in charge of reviewing the publication of Regnerus’ paper, concluded:

When we talk about Regnerus, I completely dismiss the study. It’s over. He has been disgraced. All of the prominent people in the field know what he did and why he did it. And most of them know that he knew better. [emphasis added]

Last year, several ITAF speakers cited Regnerus’ paper in order to promote damaging lies about same-sex parents. With Regnerus in attendance this year, that kind of misinformation is likely to continue.

Students at ITAF 2012 were also able to purchase a number of anti-gay books from the conference, including Gagnon’s “The Bible and Homosexual Practice,” which falsely claims that society’s “affirmation of a same-sex lifestyle will increase the incidence of pedophilic activity.”

It remains to be seen if this kind of anti-LGBT misinformation will be on display again at this year’s ITAF, but given the conference’s schedule and roster of speakers, it’s unlikely that NOM has decided to change its damaging rhetoric on LGBT people when it thinks it’s behind closed doors.

Previously:

NOM Lashes Out At Boy Scouts With Article Calling Homosexuality “Self-Destructive” And “Unmanly”

Why Is NOM Still Hosting A Speaker Who Claims Gay People Are “Worthy Of Death?”

EXCLUSIVE: Undercover At NOM's Anti-Gay Student Conference

NOM Lashes Out At Boy Scouts With Article Calling Homosexuality “Self-Destructive” And “Unmanly”

Carlos Maza — Fri, 31 May 2013 11:43:24 EDT

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is promoting a column that warns against allowing openly gay members into the Boy Scouts, describing homosexuality as a “snare” that leads to “unnatural,” unhealthy, and “self-destructive” behavior.

In a May 29 post on its Ruth Institute blog, NOM promoted an article titled, “A Boy’s Life With Unisex Scouts,” which tells the story of a fictional boy, Luke, who wants to join the Boy Scouts. Luke’s father is hesitant to let his son join the Scouts, fearing that openly gay members of the organization will lure Luke into the “snare” of homosexuality:

If a certain boy in the ranks were caught trying to entice others in things unmanly, and here I am including also the unmanly things that boys attracted to girls do, he’d have been taken aside, or sent to the counseling he badly needed, or quietly dismissed from the corps.

[…]

[Luke’s father] does not want any word, or suggestion, or tale, or touch, to make Luke’s passage through the straits any more troublesome than it must inevitably be. Most especially does he not want a young scoutmaster with an eye for young men to drop a casual hint about his life, as if it were as moral as eating.

Luke’s father has a right to expect that people will not obtrude themselves into his son’s normal growth to manhood. It is wrong to lay a snare in the boy’s path. It is downright wicked to do so, when the life held forth not only frustrates the natural aims of Luke’s parents and the natural fulfillment of the boy’s masculinity, but also leaves those who are snared prone to an array of terrible diseases, both physical and moral.

He notes with wry irritation that Luke’s teachers are apt to wag their fingers at perfectly innocent things, like cupcakes in a lunchbox, but will cheer when a boy publicizes his entry into the bizarre and self-destructive.

[…]

What is the father supposed to do? He can recall that better time, that healthier time, and can name several boys he knew who, if they were boys today, would inevitably be enticed, by loneliness or a trick of the lewd or boredom or a desperate need to be noticed or a despair that they could ever become true men, into the life of the male forever seeking the male. [emphasis added]

The anti-gay message of the story is clear: gay people are unmanly, prone to disease, and engage in “bizarre and self-destructive” behavior. Gay teens are predatory, in need of counseling, and have been “enticed” into homosexuality due to boredom or fear that they’ll never be “true men.”

Anti-gay rhetoric doesn’t get much more extreme than this, but that hasn’t stopped NOM from promoting the article twice in just over a month. It’s just the latest in NOM’s recent decision to stray from its mission of protecting marriage and defend anti-gay discrimination in the Boy Scouts.

Previously:

Why Is NOM Still Hosting A Speaker Who Claims Gay People Are “Worthy Of Death?”

NOM Praises Anti-Gay ESPN Analyst Chris Broussard: He Sounds Just Like Us!

NOM Finally Acknowledges Weeks Of Anti-Gay Violence Following France’s Marriage Vote

Laura Ingraham Dispenses Dangerous Advice For Raising Transgender Youth

Carlos Maza — Fri, 31 May 2013 10:20:20 EDT

Fox News contributor and radio host Laura Ingraham still doesn’t understand the most basic facts about gender identity in young children, but that isn’t stopping her from giving terrible advice to parents and school administrators working to protect transgender youth.

During the May 30 edition of her radio show, Ingraham discussed an Associated Press story about a gender variant 10-year-old, Ryan, who is biologically male but identifies as female. After several failed attempts to get Ryan more interested in “traditional boy things,” Ryan’s parents decided to abide by their child’s request to refer to her as a female.

Ingraham cited the story as evidence of a “new gender-bending phenomenon,” suggesting that parents are “pushing kids” to identify as transgender and peddling a number of common misconceptions and children and gender identity:

INGRAHAM: 10 years old. This is an AP report. And it’s part of our examination of this new gender-bending phenomenon, which clearly is facilitated and encouraged by a popular culture that seems to have concluded that, you know, traditional gender roles are yesterday’s news. It’s all very antiquated. That we have to have an evolving view of gender. Just because you were born a girl or a boy, so what? Get past it if you want to. And if you want to we’ll encourage you. Not just encourage you, we may actually encourage you to go to a hospital as a prepubescent and start undergoing medical procedures and hormone treatments that delay the natural.

[…]

It’s got to be confusing for kids. I mean I am just a throwback I guess. All of this stuff just seems wild to me. But this what has not only been pushed in the film world and the world of literature. We are always pushing, pushing, pushing. And kids really can’t be kids any longer. They have to be sexual beings at age 6 -- 5 even.

[…]

[T]his pushing kids into a box -- you are transgender, you are this, you are that. How about they’re just kids first. And provides no time for them to grow and maybe grow past their current fascination with -- whether it’s trucks for a girl or fairy princesses for a boy.

[…]

So that’s -- it’s normal for kids to experiment. They wear different things. But now it becomes their identity. And I am not saying some of these kids don’t end up sexually in different places, I don’t know. But I know when they’re kids, their brains have not developed. You don’t have your -- your sexual being even if you can have sex, your sexual being, from everything I have read from all the accomplished psychotherapists and everyone who has examined this, your sexual, quote, identity is really not solidified until much later on.

[…]

I just think of friends of mine who have large families and would be like, get the dress off. Take the dress off, we are going to go out and play some football. Paint. Whatever we want to do. But you’re not wearing the dress. But instead it’s, ‘wear the dress.’ And ‘we’re validating you.’ And again, this is not a 17 year old, this is a 10 year old. And other stories that we have shared with you, as young as 5 and 6 years old.

This isn’t the first time Ingraham has attempted to shame parents for supporting their transgender children, so it’s naturally not the first time she’s been dead wrong about the best way to treat gender variant youth. But her ideas aren’t just “throwback,” as she puts it. They’re dangerous, and they’re totally inconsistent with the views of experts who’ve studied gender identity in children:

Conflating Sexual Orientation And Gender Identity. This is a basic mistake that Ingraham makes throughout her rant. A child’s gender identity – “one’s sense of oneself as male, female, or transgender,” according to the American Psychological Association – is completely distinct from a child’s sexual orientation. While most children don’t begin to develop a “sexual identity” until their early teens, most children establish a clear sense of gender identity – whether they identify as male or female – by a much earlier age.

Blaming Parents For “Pushing” Kids To Become Transgender. A recurring theme of Ingraham’s tirade is that parents are unfairly “pushing” their kids to identify as transgender. In the overwhelming majority of cases, however, the opposite is true – transgender children are the ones encouraging their parents to identify them correctly. It was true in the case of Ryan, who explicitly asker her parents to call her a “she.” And it’s been true each time right-wing media figures have chosen to freak out over a similar story. Whether through explicit requests, recurring behavior, or even the threat of self-mutilation, it’s typically the children, not the concerned parents, who initiate discussions about the possibility of being transgender.

Claiming Kids Are Too Young To Know Their Gender Identity. Much of Ingraham’s criticism rests on the idea that children aren’t qualified to “choose” their gender identity at such a young age and are thus susceptible to being influenced by their parents or school environments. According to experts, however, most children have a firm sense of their gender identity by age four, and that identity remains stable for the majority of children.

Urging Parents To Force Their Children To Abide By Gender Norms. Ingraham mocks parents who choose to “validate” their transgender children, but studies show that failing to acknowledge and support transgender youth can lead to a host of negative consequences, including increased rates of depression, substance abuse, and suicidal behavior. Forcing children to abide by strict gender norms can cause serious emotional damage, and failing to provide transgender youth with necessary medical care can put them at risk for abuse and stigmatization.

Previously:

Alex Jones Warns Against Transgender People “Vomiting And Crapping All Over The Place” If They’re Protected By Non-Discrimination Laws

Megyn Kelly Trivializes Transgender Prison Inmate's Fight For Necessary Medical Treatment

Fox News Columnist Launches Transphobic, Unscientific Rant Against MMA Fighter

“Pederastic Cotton Candy”: WND’s Five Craziest Responses To The Boy Scouts Vote

Carlos Maza — Thu, 30 May 2013 12:18:52 EDT

WND has published a series of unhinged and flagrantly homophobic columns in response to the vote to allow openly gay youth into the Boy Scouts of America.

In the week following the Boy Scouts’ May 23 decision to accept openly gay youth into the organization, WND has published responses from some of America’s most notorious anti-LGBT activists, each peddling the myth that the BSA’s decision will increase rates of pedophilia and other forms of sexual abuse.

BSA Decision Was “Rooted In Pure Evil”

In a May 24 column, Liberty Counsel spokesman Matt Barber claimed that the BSA’s decision was “rooted in pure evil” and joked that camping trips would have to include a disco ball to accommodate gay scouts:

Ultimately, this decision had nothing to do with “tolerance” or “inclusivity.” Neither did it concern the best interests of the boys who make up Boy Scouting. Instead, this decision was rooted in pure evil. It had everything to do with money. “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Timothy 6:10).

And wandered from the faith they have.

Now come the many griefs.

[…]

What a camping trip! Imagine the pup tent. Your son and Jimmy – who’s got a crush on him – along with Billy and Billy’s boyfriend Bobby, all snuggly warm in the middle of nowhere. But make room for Sammy (formerly Suzie) and Sammy’s boyfriend Gary (formerly Gertrude).

Don’t forget to hang the disco ball.

Boys Will Be “Coerced Into Homosexual Behavior” Because Of Their Hormones

In a May 27 column, conservative commentator Mychal Massie warned that boys would be “brainwashed” into accepting homosexuality and claimed that boys would be “coerced into homosexual behavior” because of their hormones:

Why should we be spending money fighting lawsuits and/or endangering our children by knowingly giving predators and the deluded access to our boys? Sensitivity is about not picking on someone who is different. Sensitivity is not synonymous with having our children brainwashed into accepting that which is aberrant as normal.

[…]

Let me also point out there is a reason boys and girls are separated in organizations such as this. Amongst other reasons, it has to do with hormones. Are we now supposed to believe that some of our boys will not be coerced into homosexual behavior?

“Expect Cover-Up Upon Cover-Up…Resembling The Catholic Church Scandal”

In a May 26 column titled “Texas Boy Scout Massacre,” Linda Harvey, founder of the anti-gay hate group Mission America, claimed that the BSA would actively cover up instances of sexual abuse by scouts in order to defend their gay-inclusive membership policy:

They have power now, they will use it and it won’t be done responsibly. It won’t be child-friendly and it will cost the families of America.

As time rolls on, there will be incidents of abuse. Will the Boy Scout organization report these? Let’s not kid ourselves. They just showed how compromised/intimidated/clueless they are. Expect cover-up upon cover-up in the future, eventually resembling the Catholic Church scandal.

And sadly, many parents have no clue, thinking, what’s the harm? Where’s the threat? An openly homosexual 12 year old in my son’s troop – what’s the big deal? They don’t know the possible risks, because compromised churches have bought the lie and are too sheltered to know what they are dealing with.

Scouts Engaged In “Coprophilia, Pedophilia, Bestiality” Will Also Be Accepted

Notoriously homophobic WND columnist Les Kinsolving recycled his go-to anti-gay talking point, that accepting gay youth had paved the way for the Boy Scouts to accept other “sexual orientations,” including bestiality:

This 60 percent actually approved a measure that said no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts “on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone.”

Can you believe this?

Believe it – and realize that this statement inevitably proclaims that the Boy Scouts will not reject any boy who has engaged in coprophilia, pedophilia, bestiality or any of the many other alternative sexual orientations.

“Boy Scouts As Pederastic Cotton Candy”

In a May 28 column titled “Boy Scouts As Pederastic Cotton Candy,” anti-LGBT pseudoscientist Judith Reisman wrote:

854 adults stamped a “bull’s eye” on the Boy Scouts as pederast targets.

Now, bigger and/or more manipulative lads, with cell phones and other pornography resources stirring their sinews, will greedily entrap any and all boys who seem easy prey.

[…]

Eroticize the campsite and you eroticize boys to one another and to their leaders. “Gay Scoutmasters” will arrive soon to “help” “their” lads, to train and encourage them – to believe they are naturally “that way.”

Previously:

Will Media Outlets Fall For The Anti-Gay Boy Scout Trap Again?

Report: How The Media Turned The Boy Scouts Story Into A Debate Over Pedophilia

Pedophilia Myth Tainted Cable News Coverage Of Boy Scouts’ Anti-Gay Ban

Fox News Devotes Zero Seconds To Covering Brutal Anti-Gay Hate Crime

Carlos Maza — Fri, 24 May 2013 11:02:00 EDT

The recent brutal slaying of a gay man in New York City had all the trappings of a national news story, so why was it ignored by major cable news outlets?

On May 17, Mark Carson was shot in the face and killed while walking home in New York’s Greenwich Village by a man who pelted him with anti-gay slurs and asked, “You want to die tonight?” Carson’s alleged killer, Elliot Morales, reportedly laughed as he was arrested by police, bragging about what he had done.

The incident highlights a recent spike in anti-gay hate crimes both in New York City and across the country. Days after Carson’s death, community members staged a massive rally against anti-gay violence featuring several city mayoral candidates.

Carson’s death was also symbolically significant. The shooting took place just blocks away from the Stonewall Inn, considered by many to be the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement. And the brutal hate crime comes in the wake of growing acceptance of LGBT people, with three more states adopting marriage equality just in the past several weeks.

But despite the significance of Carson’s death, cable news outlets largely ignored the incident, opting instead to continue obsessively reporting on the trial against Jodi Arias, a woman who has been convicted of murdering her boyfriend.

According to an Equality Matters analysis, while all three major cable news networks extensively covered Arias’ trial and her plea to jurors to avoid the death penalty, CNN spent less than one minute discussing Carson’s murder, and Fox News ignored the story completely:

Only MSNBC devoted a full segment to Carson’s murder, rightly pointing out the recent surge in anti-gay violence even as LGBT people win legislative battles across the country:

So what explains the failure of major cable news networks to cover Carson’s story?

For some networks, the decision to ignore the Carson case and focus on the Arias trial likely has more to do with ratings than anything else. Arias’ plea to avoid the death penalty was a ratings gold mine for cable news networks, despite the substantive portion of her trial having been over for weeks.

For Fox, ignoring Carson’s murder fits into the network’s larger pattern of downplaying anti-LGBT violence and harassment while peddling trivial anti-equality horror stories.

But whatever reason cable news networks have for ignoring anti-gay violence, the result is the same: viewers fail to recognize the day-to-day challenges and threats faced by LGBT Americans, while anti-gay activists have an easier time promoting the bogus narrative that LGBT people aren’t actually a marginalized group.

Previously:

REPORT: Fox News, CNN Underreport Anti-Gay Hate Crime While Obsessing Over Jodi Arias Trial

Fox Ignores Marriage Equality Victories While Peddling Anti-Equality Horror Stories

Fox & Friends Blames The “P.C. Police” For Gay-Inclusive Federal Forms

REPORT: Fox News, CNN Underreport Anti-Gay Hate Crime While Obsessing Over Jodi Arias Trial

Carlos Maza — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:58:41 EDT

Fox News ignored the brutal murder of a gay man in New York City, which has been labeled a hate crime by local police, while CNN underreported the story. Even though the attack is part of a disturbing spike in anti-gay violence in New York, the cable networks instead focused on covering the proceedings in the trial against Jodi Arias.

Gay Man Murdered In New York City Subjected To Anti-Gay Slurs

Mark Carson, A Gay Man, Was Shot And Killed By Man Screaming Anti-Gay Slurs. According to The New York Times:

Mark Carson did not hide that he was gay, and when he went out on the town he would often head to Greenwich Village, where years before he was born, much of the struggle for gay liberation unfolded. Yet late Friday night, just blocks from the Stonewall Inn, among the most important landmarks of that struggle, he was confronted with a man screaming antigay slurs, who then stalked him before pulling out a silver revolver and fatally shooting him, the police said. [The New York Times, 5/18/13]

The Murder Has Been Labeled An Anti-Gay Hate Crime By Police. According to Slate:

A 33-year-old man with a criminal past was charged on Sunday with gunning down a gay man on a busy stretch of New York City's West Village, only blocks from what is considered to be the birthplace of the American gay rights movement. The alleged killer, police say, was motivated by only one thing: that his victim was gay.

"It's clear that the victim here was killed only because and just because he was thought to be gay," New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a press conference. "There is no question about that. There were these derogatory remarks. The victim did nothing to antagonize or instigate the shooter in this case. It's only done because the shooter believed him to be gay."

Elliot Morales was charged Sunday with murder as a hate crime, along with weapons charges, in the death of Mark Carson. [Slate, 5/20/13]

Carson’s Murder Sparked A Rally Against Anti-Gay Violence In New York City. According to Mother Jones:

Blinding afternoon sun lit the biggest gay rights demonstration in years in New York's West Village Monday. The LGBT community and its supporters, including a couple of mayoral candidates, marched in the wake of a murder that has capped a month-long spate of homophobic violence.

Demonstrators—police say 1,500, organizers say many hundreds more—marched through the leafy streets that gave birth to the gay rights movement to the corner where Mark Carson, 32, was shot in the face and killed Friday night as he walked with a friend. [Mother Jones, 5/21/13, emphasis added]

Analysis: Cable News Coverage Of Jodi Arias Trial Overshadowed Coverage Of Carson’s Murder

Fox News, CNN Prioritized Jodi Arias Trial Over Ben Carson’s Murder. According to an Equality Matters analysis, between May 19 and May 21, both Fox News and CNN underreported Mark Carson’s murder, spending significantly more time covering the sentencing of Jodi Arias – a woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend:

Fox News Completely Ignored Carson’s Murder But Spent More Than 30 Minutes Covering The Arias Trial.
CNN Devoted More Than 90 Minutes To The Arias Trial And Less Than One Minute Covering Carson’s Murder.

CNN Mentioned Carson’s Murder Only Once. According to an Equality Matters analysis, CNN mentioned Carson’s murder only once, during the May 19 edition of Weekend Early Start:

MSNBC Was The Only Cable News Network To Devote A Full Segment To Covering Carson’s Murder.

Anti-Gay Violence, Hate Crimes Are On The Rise

Carson’s Murder Is The Latest In A Spree Of Anti-Gay Violence In New York. New York’s police commissioner reported that anti-gay crimes in the city have spiked 70 percent this year. According to Business Insider:

There's been a spate of other anti-gay attacks in New York City recently. A man said he was gay bashed in the East Village just Monday. There were three other apparent anti-gay hate crimes in New York in May, Gothamist has reported.

On Tuesday, New York's police commissioner Ray Kelly said anti-gay hate crime in New York has spiked 70% this year. The New York City Anti-Violence Project — which collects data on hate crimes against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people — saw a 13% increase in hate crime reports from 2010 to 2011. [Business Insider, 5/21/13]

FBI Statistics: Anti-Gay Violence Is On The Rise, Even As Other Hates Crimes Are Decreasing. According to the Los Angeles Times, hate crimes based on the victim’s sexual orientation are on the rise:

More than 6,000 hate crimes were reported to U.S. law enforcement agencies in 2011 — a 6% decrease from 2010, the FBI said Monday. But crimes based on the victim's sexual orientation increased slightly.

[…]

"The increase in the number of reported hate crimes directed against gays and lesbians, now the second most frequent category of crime, is especially disturbing," the [Anti-Defamation League] said in a statement.

There were 1,508 reported sexual orientation hate crimes in 2011, up from 1,470 in 2010, an increase of about 2.6%. Overall, nearly 21% of hate crimes were motivated by sexual orientation bias, the FBI said, with men victimized the majority of the time. [Los Angeles Times, 12/10/12]

Methodology

Equality Matters searched news transcripts provided by TV Eyes for the words “Carson,” “gay,” “hate crime,” “Jodi,” and “Arias” between May 19 and May 21. Reruns and teases for upcoming segments were included. One mention of Carson’s murder during the May 19 edition of MSNBC’s Weekends with Alex Witt was excluded because it was brought up by a guest and not by the show’s host.

Why Is NOM Still Hosting A Speaker Who Claims Gay People Are “Worthy Of Death?”

Carlos Maza — Wed, 22 May 2013 16:41:54 EDT

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has condemned the recent murder of a gay man in New York, but the organization continues to promote a speaker who has written that gay people are “worthy of death.”

On May 21, NOM issued a statement condemning the recent murder of a gay man in New York City, which local police have labeled a hate crime, calling it “senseless” and adding that “no person should be subjected to violence because they are gay or lesbian.”

But NOM’s rhetoric is at odds with remarks made by one of its most notorious allies, Robert Gagnon. Gagnon, who has a history of speaking at NOM events, has publicly stated that people who are gay engage in behavior that makes them “worthy of death.” In his book, “The Bible and Homosexual Practice,” Gagnon writes:

Participation in same-sex intercourse is partly its own payback for turning away from the one true God, since Paul regards such behavior as itself unclean, a dishonoring of one's own body, and a self-shaming act of obscene indecency. At the same time, it is evidence of God's future judgment, since the participants have no excuse for not knowing that those who do such things are worthy of death.

[…]

Yet Paul’s rhetorical strategy in Romans was not to absolve gentiles of gross sin, or to declare that all sins are equal, or to deny God or God’s people the right to take action against gross sin. Rather, Paul’s rhetorical aim was to demonstrate that Jew and gentile alike had no option but to believe in Jesus Christ or die.

[…]

Unlike issues of diet and calendar, same-sex intercourse still belongs with a range of immoral actions which, if persisted in, invites God’s judgment and the community’s discipline rather than a “welcome” which ignores such behavior. [emphasis added]

Gagnon is also an outspoken critic of hate crime legislation that would protect gays and lesbians from violence like the attack that took place in New York. Gagnon has claimed that hate crime laws promote hate against opponents of homosexuality and peddled the myth that hate crime laws would result in the jailing of “anyone who publicly speaks out against homosexual activity.”

When he isn’t peddling misinformation about hate crime legislation, Gagnon promotes some of the most damaging myths about LGBT issues, including the claims that homosexuality is unhealthy, can be cured through “ex-gay” therapy, and is linked to pedophilia.

Despite his extreme views on homosexuality, Gagnon has been invited to speak at NOM’s summer student conference – the “It Takes A Village” (ITAF) conference – for every year since it began in 2009.

He’ll be speaking again at this year’s conference – which takes place during the last weekend of May –giving a lecture titled “Paul and Homosexual Practice.”

During a similarly titled talk during last year’s ITAF, Gagnon compared homosexuality to incest and polygamy while distributing Bible quotes to students, including the Leviticus passage which states that gay people “shall certainly be put to death.”

NOM also sold copies of Gagnon’s book, “The Bible and Homosexual Practice,” which deems gay people “worthy of death.”

If NOM really condemns anti-gay violence, as it purports to do so in its public statements, it should stop promoting (and selling) the work of a man who has openly stated that gay people are “worthy” of such violence.

Previously:

NOM Praises Anti-Gay ESPN Analyst Chris Broussard: He Sounds Just Like Us!

NOM Finally Acknowledges Weeks Of Anti-Gay Violence Following France’s Marriage Vote

NOM Openly Advocates For Anti-Gay Business Discrimination

WND Asks Why Bestiality Isn’t Treated The Same As Homosexuality

Equality Matters staff — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:25:24 EDT

WND columnist Les Kinsolving equated homosexuality to bestiality, suggesting that people who engage in bestiality should receive the same legal protections afforded to gay people in same-sex relationships.

In a May 20 column titled “Why Not An Additional ‘B’ To LGBT?,” Kinsolving suggested that people engaged in bestiality should be allowed to legally marry animals, equating homosexuality with bestiality and suggesting that animals are capable of consenting to sex with humans:

If lesbians, male homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals should have the right to marriage licenses – as a few states, including Maryland, now provide – why should the real animal lovers (whose orientation is bestiality) not be allowed to marry?

The argument that animals are incapable of making a choice is surely invalid in that some animals choose to run away when fondled by humans, while others do not – which certainly indicates their ability to choose.

Have there ever been any reports that apprehended practitioners of bestiality have as high a rate of AIDS and syphilis as do homosexuals?

WND’s Kinsolving is a notorious homophobe. During the debate over Maryland’s marriage equality law in 2012, he claimed that voters would repeal the measure because gay people are more likely to have syphilis.

Previously:

WND’s Farah: I Didn’t Compare Gay Marriage To Child Sacrifice (But I Should Have)

WND Columnist: Obama Praised “Infamous Perverts” By Citing Stonewall In His Inaugural Speech

Scam: WorldNetDaily Charging $29.99 To Send Anti-Gay Letters To Congress

Will Media Outlets Fall For The Anti-Gay Boy Scout Trap Again?

Carlos Maza — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:27:04 EDT

As the Boy Scouts prepare to vote on whether to change the organization’s ban on openly gay members, news outlets should resist the urge to let anti-gay activists frame the debate around concerns about pedophilia and sexual abuse.

On May 23, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) will vote on a proposal that would rescind the organization’s ban on openly gay scouts but maintain a ban on gay adults serving in leadership positions.

The “compromise” proposal is clearly meant to assuage right-wing fears that openly gay scout leaders might engage in pedophilia – a fear that was given plenty of airtime in February when the BSA first considered changing its policy:

But the compromise proposal hasn’t silenced anti-gay groups like the American Family Association (AFA) and Family Research Council (FRC), which continue to warn that allowing gay people into the BSA would increase the risk of inappropriate sexual behavior and sexual abuse. OnMyHonor.net, one of the groups leading the effort against the compromise proposal, lists sexual abuse as one of its primary concerns about accepting gay scouts (emphasis in original):

Based upon personal and candid conversations with BSA officials at the highest levels, the BSA is fully aware that this proposed resolution will absolutely increase the risk of boy-on-boy sexual contact in Scouting… Enacting this resolution will result in more ugly litigation and will further the public scandal to the BSA, not to mention the tragedy of countless boys who will experience sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

The “gays are pedophiles” talking point, of course, has been widely debunked by child welfare experts and has no basis in reality. Even the BSA acknowledges that the threat of sexual abuse by gay members is a myth, stating:

[T]he BSA makes no connection between the sexual abuse or victimization of a child and homosexuality. The BSA takes strong exception to this assertion. Some of the nation's leading experts reinforce this position.

The BSA has stringent polices that protect the safety and privacy of youth and adult members and has always worked to ensure that it is a supportive and safe environment for young people.

But this consensus from child welfare experts apparently wasn’t enough to stop mainstream media outlets from obsessively debating the homosexuality-pedophilia connection in February. On Fox News, for example, discussions of pedophilia tainted more than two-thirds of the network’s coverage of the Boy Scouts’ ban:

When the BSA votes on its compromise proposal, media outlets should refuse to allow anti-gay activists – many of whom have histories of extreme anti-gay commentary – to hijack their coverage in order to peddle damaging and discredited smears about gay people.

Previously:

NOM's Morse: Accepting Gay Boy Scouts Leads "Down The Path To Androgyny"

Report: How The Media Turned The Boy Scouts Story Into A Debate Over Pedophilia

Déjà Vu: FRC Rehashes Same Arguments Against Boy Scouts That It Used Against DADT Repeal