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It was bound to happen. I was hoping that it wouldn’t but in hindsight, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
Someone from the religious right is now blaming gay men for the Penn State tragedy.
Peter LaBarbera of the hate group Americans for Truth had this to say:
. . . how many boy victims of homosexual predator Sandusky will end up believing that being homosexual (“gay”) is “who they are”? How many will struggle with sexual identity issues? And how many will be told by LGBT advocates and liberal-minded people just to “accept being gay” as “who they are” because they were “born that way”?
. . . There IS a long history connecting homosexuality to pederasty, and a disproportionate link between homosexuality and pedophilia: why else would so many child molestation victims be boys when only 1-3 percent of the population is homosexual?
LaBarbera has a long history of demonizing gay men for even the most trivial of things, but today is probably the lowest he has ever stooped.
Now some may ask why am I publicizing LaBarbera’s comments. He obviously wants some type of attention and now I am giving it to him.
This is true. But what LaBarbera said warrants attention. Some of us may scoff at his words but we would be wise to remember one thing. In a subtler form, the slanderous notion that gay men want to harm children has been used by organizations – i.e. the National Organization for Marriage – in efforts stop marriage equality.
In a less subtle form, this lie formed the building blocks of fear and hatred which led to that awful bill in Uganda and subsequently the brutal murder of activist David Kato. His murderer was recently sentenced to 30 years in prison.
So yes, LaBarbera’s word warrant attention, but not in the way he desires. LaBarbera’s words deserves attention as a shining example of hatred and ignorance encased in a mindset so blind that it refuses to acknowledge truth. A mindset masked in religious demagoguery and extremism in its most nauseating form.
To whit, there is no link between homosexuality and pedophilia. None whatsoever.
And this is backed by the American Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the American Academy of Child Psychiatrists and the Child Welfare League of America.
LaBarbera, on the other hand, has no expertise in this area. He has no degrees and has done no research.
He doesn’t even cite any studies.
In layman’s terms, LaBarbera is talking out of his pudgy ass.
What LaBarbera seems to be doing is speaking from an internal pathological need to smear gay men.
The scandal at Penn State is volatile and out-of-control and that is highly understandable. Children have been harmed, quite possibly psychologically scarred for life.
What we all need to do here is pray for them as well as guard our own children against those who would prey on their innocence.
What we don’t need to do allow ourselves to be exploited by someone who doesn’t give a damn about anyone or anything but his own personal prejudices.
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It also deserves to be pointed out that the answer to LaBarbera’s question is “because rape and molestation are not crimes of sexual desire, but crimes of power.” Mr. Sandusky is a married father of 6 – how many children does LaBarbera have again? Given that a large percentage of the men who molest boys are either married to, or otherwise engaged in a sexual relationship with the boys’ mothers, I think LaBarbera should be asked how many children he’s raped. He, after all, has a lot more in common with Sandusky than anyone who’s hoisting a pride flag in front of their home this Veteran’s Day.
In fact, what about the number of rapes where women are the victims? What about the murders, the assaults, the violent robberies committed in this country – who is overwhelmingly responsible for those crimes? When are straight men like LaBarbera going to take responsibility for their people and recommend civil rights restrictions to protect our society from the violence perpetuated by them?
It’s worth pointing out that Sandusky is a married heterosexual who has 2 children. Joe Paterno is a married heterosexually with 5 children. I bet you find that the others who helped cover up Sandusky’s crimes against children are also married heterosexuals.
Probably the reason that Sandusky targeted boys is because that’s who he had easiest access to, same as the child-raping priests.
And while LaBarbera, in complete and deliberate defiance of actual studies and psychological understanding, insists on labeling pederasts who prey on same-sex victims as “homosexuals,” he never carries that to the next, and probably more important distinction – that whether or not you choose to use the word “homosexual” to discuss a straight identified, heterosexually married parent, what is true is that the men who prey on children are almost never openly gay, proudly out, and sexually active with other adult men in acknowledged relationships.
Mental health professionals often make a strong point that most true pederasts are neither heterosexual nor homosexual in the sense of having strong attractions to adults of the target gender – they are attracted exclusively to kids.
But even setting that aside, the people far, far more likely to molest kids are people who are either in no adult sexual relationships at all, or who have forced themselves into closeted, sterile, faux-heterosexual relationships, and their unmet urges slop over onto innocent victims.
And what, exactly, is it that people like LaBarbera advocate for gay men? Why, precisely that – living either unhappy celibate lives or forcing themselves into opposite sex relationships that won’t meet their sexual and emotional needs.
It isn’t the “agenda” of out, proud, healthy LGBT people that creates the conditions in which pederasty thrives – it’s the agenda of people like LaBarbera.
No doubt, somewhere, sometime, there’s been an openly gay, openly partnered gay man who abused kids – gay people are not immune to sexual or mental illness -but that’s sure as hell not what the statistics say is really going on.
Rather than trying to make the connection between homosexuality and pedophilia, let’s look at the connection between the closet, and the damage done to people’s hearts, minds, and spirits by homophobia, and pedophilia.
I wonder what porno would be saying had all of the victims been female? Would they denigrate Sandusky’s heterosexual orientation?
I meant to have said, porno Pete in my last comment.
First of all Porno Pete, if this scum had been a card carrying LGBT member he probably wouldn’t have gotten the job in the first place. But if by some miracle he did, the first time he entered a football locker room with a young boy (even fully clothed), they would have tied him to a goal post and set him on fire.
Until you can show that he can sleep with adult men, you heterosexuals own him because at least we know he can sleep with women.