I hate bringing this up, but on another board I read (sports board mainly but with other folders like outsports for politics, etc.) there is a thread about the recent decision allowing states to take the Boy Scouts off their eligible donations list. Most people agree with the decision but somebody posted this:

I think that the figure is wrong. Way wrong. In fact, I always understood it to be the opposite. Does anybody have a link to a site that might help me post something about this. I know that statistics about this sort of thing are necessarily inaccurate, but maybe there is something reputable. I'll look around too, but I thought maybe somebody on here might know more.

Thanks

I should have done my work first. I quickly found a site put out by The Rainbow Alliance that has some good pages about homosexual myths. They had some good quotes and reliable statistics about the matter. As I thought, the opposite is true and the overwhelming majority of instances of sexual abuse of children are heterosexual in nature, if you can even label such abuse under a heading like that.

I hate replying to my own post!

There is of course a flaw in that reasoning.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition:

Pedophilia: The act on the part of an adult of engaging in sexual activity with a child.

Child: A person between birth and puberty.

"child" =/= "someone under the age of consent"

So, technically, if I had sex with a 16-year-old, it's not truthfully considered pedophilia. Do str8 adults have more sex with teenagers than gay adult do?

This is just another example of the intollerance and ignorace of the anti-gay radicals. They will skew thier numbers to meet whatever makes sense in thier mind. Most of the sexual abuse is by some lonely straight guy who needs too be in psychiatric care. Gays are far better adjusted to be involved with children. Shoot most of us can stand kids anyway.

[ July 11, 2003, 08:22 AM: Message edited by: Denver Fan ]

Got a link we can follow?

Also of interest is this press release from the Human Rights Campaign. The rabidly anti-gay Family Research Council [FRC] published a report linking pedophilia and homosexuality, subsequently denounced by one of the researchers whose work they had quoted, Dr. A. Nicholas Groth. "Your report misrepresents the facts of what we know about this matter from scientific investigation... my studies on this topic reach conclusions diametrically opposed to yours... I would appreciate your removing any reference to my work in your paper lest it appear to the reader that my research supports your views."

The HRC also points out that "Dr. Timothy J. Dailey, who wrote the [FRC's report], is not a medical doctor or psychiatrist, but holds a Ph.D. in religion." I'd call that "voodoo bigotry", and wonder if the distorted FRC "study" may be the source of the "close correlation" lie posted on your other discussion board.

Here is the link to the page I found.

Rainbow Alliance Page on Pedophilia

There is actually skewing of numbers on both sides of the debate. It is true that many more instances of abuse are by straight people. This is a statistic that gay rights groups use often. Unfortunately, it's got to be tempered with the fact that there are far more straight people in this world than gay peoiple, so naturally, most crimes of any nature will be commited by straight people if you take raw numbers.

The religious right and other groups use a totally different figure and skew it in two ways. 1) They assume 2% of the population to be gay. That means for every 50 pedophiles, only one of them should be a gay man. If 6 were gay men, then gay men are 6 times more likely than straight men to molest. and 2) They often assume anyone who has sex with someone of the same sex is a homosexual. For instance, if a straight man molests a young boy, he is included in the homosexual statistic.

My point is that neither statistic really is very clear. The truth of the matter is probably that the likelihood of this abuse is the same for both groups, but neither side really wants to admit that.

sjtexasex,

The 'molestation myth' leveled against gay men is just that - a myth! This myth is similar to ones from the Middle Ages leveled against Jewish People (i.e. they use Christian babies in blood sacrifices) - an outrageous lie. Another myth leveled against black men in earleir times (that they will 'take white women for their sexual libidinous lust') - another outrageous lie. People perpetuate these myths in part, to makes these groups easier to HATE!

Don't tolerate it!

Your source is a good one (i.e. rainbow alliance)!

Here's a snippet that you can use -

"1. U.S. Department of Justice statistics show that the vast majority (over 90%) of child molesters (pedophiles) are heterosexual men.
2. The statistics from Canada agree with the U.S.
3. Most of the men (over 50%) are married, and have children of their own."

http://rainbowallianceopenfaith.homestead....nce_Molest.html


The 'truth' will eventually set people free!

I've always read and heard that the majority of pedophiles were hetero; they even eroticize young girls and call it art ("Lolita" is but one example). There does appear to be a strain of ephebophilia (love of adolescent, post-childhood young men) among *some* homosexual men, which comes through in films like "L.I.E.," and among some publications.

BTW, the founder of the Boy Scouts, Robert, Lord Baden-Powell, was an intense lover of young men....

Scouting for boys: the alternative lifestyle of Lord Baden-Powell

What I find interesting about the statistics on the Rainbow Alliance page, and others I've seen, is the actual sexual behavior of those who molest. It is almost impossible to know whether "homosexual" men molest more or less often than "heterosexual" men because we really don't have good definitions for either sexual orientation. And as we all know from Kinsey, a heck of a lot of people fall somewhere in between.

But if you look at the lifestyles (for lack of a better word), of those who molest, even just of those who molest boys, most are either 1) in adult relationships with women (the Rainbow Alliance page does a decent job of pointing this out), or 2) unable to form adult relationships (the true pedophiles that we hear about - who only sexually relate to children). The least likely person to molest is a gay man, that is, someone in an adult relationship with another man.

The "pro-family" movement loves to warp the statistics in order to promote fear of gay men. But the people parents least need to fear are the very ones who are smeared by the deliberate misinterpretation of the data by the anti-gay movement.

This is not an uncommon request by legitimate researchers. There are at least three other cases where work has been so misrepresented that the original author made similar requests.

That's a good point Cpt--I think these religious groups assume that anyone who molests males must be homosexual, which skews their results.

I've gotten so sick of religious groups who rant that homosexual males want to molest everything with a y chromosome in their path. Which makes me think: do they consider men who rape and molest women and young girls anymore dangerous?

Exactly JC! If, by definition every man who molests a boy is gay, and every woman who molests a girl is a lesbian (a very rare occurrance, BTW) then it will look like homosexuals are more likely to molest than heterosexuals.

But even if you accept that kind of "data" from the anti-gay groups, there is a huge fallacy in their arguments. In no study does it demonstrate that ALL gays/lesbians molest children. Yet the anti-gay groups use these "data" to mobilize opposition to securing the rights of all gay men and lesbians. Even if there are more molesters in the gay community, not every gay person has molested or will molest a child. To argue, therefore, that our rights should be curtailed by the government, on the grounds we might someday molest a child, we are being punished for a crime we did not commit.

I get into these discussions on straight websites and the NAMBLA organization is usually brought up (always with a link) and portrayed as part of the mainstream "gay agenda". Really pisses me off!

This lesbian had an interesting opinion piece on the subject. Do we need to take more responsibility in our way of thinking?

http://www.sgn.org/2002/03/01/notions.htm

I think these gay kids who want sex, need to find it with another gay kid or suffer in silence (like I did from age 8 to 21). We must be careful on the issues of helping young kids come out or teaching them the "ins and outs" (sorry) of gay sex. There are organizations and professionals to point these young people to without taking a hands on (sorry again) approach.

I'm not being glib, this is a serious issue that we will have to fight for a long time because the anti-gay folks are making sure their powder is dry in light of the recent Supreme Court decision and Canada's Gay Marriage approval.

You should read some of the Letters to the Editor in the Dallas Morning News of late because they announced a new policy last week that they would start publishing gay union/commitment notices in the paper. The Far Righties are feeling a little piled on by gays right now. The poor dears are having to cancel their subscriptions to the only newspaper in town. (Some say they will only watch FauxNews, so PhillyFan watch those ratings get even higher wink .)

Is the Christian Right up in arms about this current outrageous case? I've noticed a number of these cases popping up again and again, including a Connecticut girl who was abducted by a straight couple on Long Island, and another adolescent girl who was killed by a straight pedophile on Long Island....

US ex-marine (31) lures British girl (12) to France

And he's a Christian fanatic too.

What about the fanatics that abduct children (in this case, Elizabeth Smart) - and when asked if they have ever felt remorse, they reply that, "to be remorseful would be blasphemous to God".

??

Agreed on all counts. Education should be done in an educational setting by open and above-board means (with a focus on tolerance and/or public health and safety).

Piled on? I wouldn't say that.

It's just that when you see the GLBT/Str8 thing as a war, the universities are able to graduate more psych major into successful therapy practices...

Since when is it "stressful" to make sure that your neighbor has the basic level of human rights and dignity?