Ban pedophiles, not gays. Gays are not automatically pedophiles or sex predators. Conservatives know, or should reasonably be expected to know this, but prefer to hate "the gays"/LGBT community anyway, while ignoring the very real predatory pedophilia of heterosexuals.The crazy, dishonest, and ignorant radical religious right do this by engaging in blatant homophobic propaganda; propaganda, as a working definition, is a combination of animus and factually false claims that target a group with the intention to manipulate the emotions of the gullible.
The Minnesota Family Council is big on using scare tactics and pushing narratives that are false. They seek ways to legalize and to try to justify hateful and discriminatory actions to victimize against anyone who does not conform to their extremist agenda. And like so many conservatives do, they try to assert they are victims, when they are nothing of the kind. Any group with so little regard for the truth is no supporter of either truth, or anything or anyone other than hate and bigotry.
Minnesota Family Council falsely claims they are "strengthening the family and advancing truth. All gay kids and adults have families; those families are not 'strengthened' by discrimination and hateful propaganda. Minnesota Family Council has routinely shared supposed news items that were factually false, without ever bothering to do the most minimal fact checking before promoting them.
NO ONE is forcing any church in the United States to alter their ugly religious views or teachings. There is no valid threat to churches from the Boy Scouts or any other advancement of the LGBT community towards dignity and equality.
The Boy Scouts HAVE had a problem with HETEROSEXUAL pedophile predators in the past, so it is not as if their prior policy was serving them well. Rather the assumption that heterosexual men were consistently safe with boys was a fallacy that should have been obvious based on the organization's own pervert files. Just as one law suit was settled in Minnesota, another one was filed against them for the same thing, one of five such law suits in the past two months, with four others currently open. According to the STrib, the attorney who filed the most recent suit has spoken with other men who claimed to have been similarly victimized, so the numbers of pedophile victim suits may go higher.
From bringmethenews.com
At the time of the alleged abuse, Opalinski was a leader for the St. Paul-based Boy Scout Troop 12 and was also an Explorer advisor for Troop 2012.Contrary to the common mis-perception among conservatives, the target of pedophiles is often one of accessibility rather than sexual orientation. We consistently see conservatives demonstrating extreme, willful ignorance on a wide range of issues relating to sex, gender, sexuality and sexual orientation, and reproduction. This is just one more.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court; it’s the fifth such lawsuit to be filed in Minnesota in the past two months and the fourth to name Opalinski as the alleged abuser, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports.
The Northern Star Council is facing at least nine lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by former leaders or volunteers, MPR News reports. They were allowed under the Minnesota Child Victims Act – the same state law that has led to the spate of legal action against the local Catholic Church.
Before moving on, let us point out that the Boy Scouts of America have had their share of problems with clearly heterosexual only leaders and child sexual abuse.
As noted at the Psychology Dept. site of UC Davis web site, information which has been around since 1997, nearly 20 years ago, and makes reference to the right wing hate activist Anita Bryant, and the Boy Scout controversy of long standing, and how those attempt to victimize and stigmatize those who are same-sex oriented:
Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation
Members of disliked minority groups are often stereotyped as representing a danger to the majority's most vulnerable members. For example, Jews in the Middle Ages were accused of murdering Christian babies in ritual sacrifices. Black men in the United States were often lynched after being falsely accused of raping White women.
In a similar fashion, gay people have often been portrayed as a threat to children. Back in 1977, when Anita Bryant campaigned successfully to repeal a Dade County (FL) ordinance prohibiting anti-gay discrimination, she named her organization "Save Our Children," and warned that "a particularly deviant-minded [gay] teacher could sexually molest children" (Bryant, 1977, p. 114). [Bibliographic references are on a different web page]
In recent years, antigay activists have routinely asserted that gay people are child molesters. This argument was often made in debates about the Boy Scouts of America's policy to exclude gay scouts and scoutmasters.
The empirical research does not show that gay or bisexual men are any more likely than heterosexual men to molest children. This is not to argue that homosexual and bisexual men never molest children. But there is no scientific basis for asserting that they are more likely than heterosexual men to do so. And, as explained above, many child molesters cannot be characterized as having an adult sexual orientation at all; they are fixated on children.
As an expert panel of researchers convened by the National Academy of Sciences noted in a 1993 report: "The distinction between homosexual and heterosexual child molesters relies on the premise that male molesters of male victims are homosexual in orientation. Most molesters of boys do not report sexual interest in adult men, however" (National Research Council, 1993, p. 143, citation omitted).
The distinction between a victim's gender and a perpetrator's sexual orientation is important because many child molesters don't really have an adult sexual orientation. They have never developed the capacity for mature sexual relationships with other adults, either men or women. Instead, their sexual attractions focus on children – boys, girls, or children of both sexes.
Conclusion
The empirical research does not show that gay or bisexual men are any more likely than heterosexual men to molest children. This is not to argue that homosexual and bisexual men never molest children. But there is no scientific basis for asserting that they are more likely than heterosexual men to do so. And, as explained above, many child molesters cannot be characterized as having an adult sexual orientation at all; they are fixated on children.
Period. Full stop. The End.
After 20 years (some of the research goes back another 20 years earlier than that) it is no longer an accidental ignorance but instead deliberate and willful ignorance to promote hate against gays by characterizing them as predatory pedophiles.
The latest attempt to promote their propaganda lies intended to generate animus came in a mass email.
Boy Scouts putting churches at risk?and
The following press release from our friends at Trail Life USA outlines increased legal risk to churches and religious organizations that continue to sponsor Boy Scouts of America (BSA) troops. BSA is offering assurances that their new policy changes, including allowing openly homosexual men to serve as BSA troop leaders, pose no risk to church and religious sponsors. But the facts and the new legal landscape in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s marriage decision say otherwise, as explained below.
The BSA did indeed vote on Monday to end their prior ban on homosexual troop leaders.
Memorandum Released by Former BSA General Counsel Explains Liability to ChurchesThe former BSA General Counsel is an extremist right wing religion activist. Given the many instances where professional homophobes have been caught out as closeted homosexuals, I have to wonder if he is one of those.(Orlando, FL) The pending final and binding decision by the top leadership of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to allow openly homosexual adults and youth within the program reverses over a hundred years of tradition and values and alters years of the youth protection policy within the organization.
One of the lies he promotes in his propaganda is that gay people are pedophiles. This is not factual, and has been widely debunked, but it is a great way to promote unfounded fear of gay people. Gay people are neither more nor less likely to be pedophiles, but pedophilia is in no way connected to sexual orientation, and there are far more heterosexual pedophiles than there are gay pedophiles.
But it is far from ONLY Minnesota Family Council at fault; it is a generic right wing extremist 'meme' or theme.
From Right Wing Watch:
Religious Right Groups Warn Gay Boy Scout Leaders Will Sexually Molest And Recruit Boys Into Homosexuality
Submitted byMiranda Blue on Friday, 5/22/2015 3:34 pm
Even as the Religious Right’s favorite reality TV family is rocked by a sexual abuse scandal, the American Family Association is urging its members to pull their sons from the Boy Scouts out of fear that gay troop leaders will sexually molest them and recruit them into homosexuality.
Former AFA official Bryan Fischer, who hosts a daily program on the organization’s radio network, called Boy Scouts head Robert Gates’ support for admitting gay troop leaders “a disaster, a moral catastrophe.” If gay men are allowed to lead Boy Scout troops, he said, “It’s no longer going to be Boy Scouts of America, it’s going to be Gay Pedophiles Scouting For Boys”.
The AFA’s Randy Sharp told the organization’s OneNewsNow news outlet today that lifting the ban on gay troop leaders would present a “clear and present danger” to boys and that there for parents should “immediately remove their sons” from the organization:
He was hinting at a policy revision to allow open homosexuals to act as leaders and mentors to scouts.
Randy Sharp, director of Special Projects at the American Family Association, says the Boy Scouts are playing with a "clear and present danger" and parents should be aware.
"We would urge all parents to immediately remove their sons from the Boy Scouts of America," Sharp, speaking for the pro-family group, tells OneNewsNow.
He says homosexual leaders are poised to influence boys about their sexuality and their presence subjects boys to opportunities for sexual abuse by their trusted leaders.
John Stemberger, head of the rival organization Trail Life USA, similarly warned that such a “tragic” move by the Boy Scouts would endanger “the safety and security of its boys” and even allow “the homosexual agenda to infiltrate the church”:
John Stemberger, chairman of the board for Trail Life USA, said in a statement that Trail Life is "saddened" by the Boy Scouts' announcement.Meanwhile anti-gay activist Michael Brown told WorldNetDaily that allowing gay Boy Scout leaders not only “opens the door for sexual predators,” it also “opens the door for gay boys to be flirting with straight boys under the auspices of the Boy Scouts’:
"It is tragic that the BSA is willing to risk the safety and security of its boys because of peer pressure from activist groups," he said.
Many churches that sponsored Boy Scout troops also dropped their support and Sharp says Gates' announcement is an "opportunity for the homosexual agenda to infiltrate the church."
Michael Brown, who holds a Ph.D. from New York University and has researched and written a number of books on homosexuality, says he is not surprised by the Scouts.Americans for Truth About Homosexuality’s Peter LaBarbera, for his part, told OneNewsNow that by allowing gay leaders, the Boy Scouts would “promote the acceptance of sexual perversion”:
“I said from the start that gay activists would not stop at having openly homosexual boys in the Boy Scouts, but now it’s openly homosexual leaders.”
Brown, whose books include “Can You Be Gay and Christian?” and the upcoming “Outlasting the Gay Revolution: Where Homosexual Activism Is Really Going and How to Turn the Tide,” believes if the Boy Scouts accept openly homosexual leaders, they will cease to be a positive moral force in the lives of American boys.
“This sets a wrong role model for these kids,” Brown told WND.
Yet, Brown says parents should have further concerns.
“This opens the door for sexual predators, a real danger, and it opens the door for gay boys to be flirting with straight boys under the auspices of the Boy Scouts,” he said.
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality says the presence of open homosexuals will destroy the scouting organization.As Brian wrote earlier today, evangelist Franklin Graham has warned that the move “would put young, innocent boys at risk,” while conservative author Paul Kengor said that a lack of “courage” from the Boy [Scouts of America].
"Because you cannot be a wholesome organization and promote the acceptance of sexual perversion at the same time," he warns.
