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Issues - Child Abuse - Sex abuse and
gays
Homosexuality and Child Sexual Abuse
Scandals involving the sexual abuse of under-age
boys by homosexual priests have rocked the Roman Catholic
Church. At the same time, defenders of homosexuality argue
that youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts should be
forced to include homosexuals among their adult leaders. Similarly,
the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a
homosexual activist organization that targets schools, has
spearheaded the formation of "Gay-Straight Alliances"
among students. GLSEN encourages homosexual teachers--even
in the youngest grades--to be open about their sexuality,
as a way of providing role models to "gay" students.
In addition, laws or policies banning employment discrimination
based on "sexual
orientation" usually make no exception for those who
work with
children or youth.
Many parents have become concerned that children
may be molested, encouraged to become sexually active, or
even "recruited" into adopting a homosexual identity
and lifestyle. Gay activists dismiss such concerns--in part,
by strenuously insisting that there is no connection between
homosexuality and the sexual abuse of children.
However, despite efforts by homosexual activists
to distance the gay lifestyle from pedophilia, there remains
a disturbing connection between the two. This is because,
by definition, male homosexuals are sexually attracted to
other males. While many homosexuals may not seek young sexual
partners, the evidence indicates that disproportionate numbers
of gay men seek adolescent males or boys as sexual partners.
In this paper we will consider the following evidence linking
homosexuality to pedophilia:
· Pedophiles are invariably males: Almost
all sex crimes against
children are committed by men.· Significant numbers
of victims are males: Up to one-third of all sex crimes against
children are committed against boys (as opposed to girls).
· The 10 percent fallacy: Studies indicate
that, contrary to the
inaccurate but widely accepted claims of sex researcher Alfred
Kinsey, homosexuals comprise between 1 to 3 percent of the
population.
· Homosexuals are overrepresented in
child sex offenses:
Individuals from the 1 to 3 percent of the population that
is
sexually attracted to the same sex are committing up to one-third
of the sex crimes against children.
· Some homosexual activists defend the
historic connection between homosexuality and pedophilia:
Such activists consider the defense of "boy-lovers"
to be a legitimate gay rights issue.
· Pedophile themes abound in homosexual
literary culture: Gay
fiction as well as serious academic treatises
promote "intergenerational intimacy."
Homosexual apologists admit that some homosexuals sexually
molest children, but they deny that homosexuals are more likely
to commit such offenses. After all, they argue, the majority
of child molestation cases are heterosexual in nature. While
this is correct in terms of absolute numbers, this argument
ignores the fact that homosexuals comprise only a very small
percentage of the population.
The evidence indicates that homosexual men molest
boys at rates grossly disproportionate to the rates at which
heterosexual men molest girls. To demonstrate this it is necessary
to connect several statistics related to the problem of child
sex abuse: 1) men are almost always the perpetrator; 2) up
to one-third or more of child sex abuse cases are committed
against boys; 3) less than three percent of the population
are homosexuals. Thus, a tiny percentage
of the population (homosexual men), commit one-third or more
of the cases of child sexual molestation.
Men Account for Almost All Sexual Abuse of Children
Cases
· An essay on adult sex offenders in the book Sexual
Offending
Against Children reported:"It is widely believed that
the vast
majority of sexual abuse is perpetrated by males and that
female sex offenders only account for a tiny proportion of
offences. Indeed, with 3,000 adult male sex offenders in prison
in England and Wales at any one time, the corresponding figure
for female sex offenders is 12!"[1]
· Kee MacFarlane, et al., writing in
Sexual Abuse of Young
Children: Evaluation and Treatment report:"The large
majority of
sexual perpetrators appear to be males (Herman and Hirschman,
1981; Lindholm and Willey, 1983)."[2]
· A report by the American Professional
Society on the Abuse of
Children states: "In both clinical and non-clinical samples,
the
vast majority of offenders are male."[3]
· A study in the Journal of Sex Research
states that "pedophilia
does not exist, or is extremely rare, in women."[4]
A Significant Percentage of Child Sexual Abuse
Victims are Boys
· According to the Journal of Child Psychiatry: "It
was commonly
believed fifteen years ago that girls were abused in excess
of boys in a ratio of about 9 to 1, but contemporary studies
now indicate that the ratio of girls to boys abused has narrowed
remarkably. . . . The majority of community studies suggest
a . .
ratio . . . in the order of 2 to 4 girls to 1 boy."[5]
Another study
found that "some authors now believe that boys may be
sexually
abused as commonly as girls (Groth, 1978; O'Brien, 1980)."[6]
· A study of 457 male sex offenders against
children in Journal of
Sex and Marital Therapy found that "approximately one-third
of these sexual offenders directed their sexual activity against
males."[7]
The actual percentage of child sexual abuse victims who are
boys very likely exceeds the above estimates. Many researchers
echo the view of the Journal of Child Psychiatry study, which
refers to the "under-reporting of the incidence and prevalence
of sexual abuse in boys."[8]
· Dr. Robert Johnson, in Medical Aspects
of Human Sexuality,
reports: "The vast majority of cases of male sexual molestation
is not reported. As a result, these young men keep both the
incidents and their feelings to themselves."[9]
· The Department of Justice report on
child sexual exploitation
explains why the percentage of boy victims is underestimated:
"Adolescent boy victims are highly likely to deny certain
types of sexual activity. . . . They are embarrassed and ashamed
of their behavior and rightfully believe that society will
not understand their victimization. . . . No matter what the
investigator does, most adolescent boys will deny they were
victims."[10]
· The Journal of Child Psychiatry adds:
"Boys are usually
encultured into an ethos where self-reliance, independence
and
sexual prowess are valued, while showing hurt or homosexuality
are denigrated. . . . This may lead to powerful repression
or deletion of the experience, with failure to report."[11]
Homosexuals Comprise Less than 3 Percent of
the Population
· Relying upon three large data sets: the General Social
Survey,
the National Health and Social Life Survey, and the U.S. census,
a recent study in Demography estimates the number of exclusive
male homosexuals in the general population at 2.5 percent,
and the number of exclusive lesbians at 1.4 percent.[12]
· A study of the sexual behavior of men
in the United States based on the National Survey of Men (a
nationally representative sample comprised of 3,321 men aged
twenty to thirty-nine, published in Family Planning Perspectives),
found that "2 percent of sexually active men aged twenty
to thirty-nine . . . had had any same-gender sexual activity
during the last ten years. Approximately 1 percent of the
men (1.3 percent among whites and 0.2 percent among blacks)
reported having had exclusively homosexual activity.[13]
· J. Gordon Muir, writing in The Wall
Street Journal, discusses a
number of studies that have found that homosexuals comprise
between 1 to 3 percent of the population.[14]· In a
survey of studies on homosexuals in different populations,
the Archives of Sexual Behavior reported a random sample of
Hawaii State residents interviewed by telephone. The study
found "just
about 3 percent of males and 1.2 percent of females as having
engaged in same-sex or bisexual activity."[15] However,
this
relatively higher number is attributed to the fact that the
study
was not limited to exclusive homosexuals, but included all
those who at some time in their lives engaged in same-sex
activities.[16]
Homosexual pedophiles sexually molest children at a far greater
rate compared to the percentage of homosexuals in the general
population. A study in the Journal of Sex Research found,
as we have noted above, that "approximately one-third
of [child sex offenders] had victimized boys and two-thirds
had victimized girls." The authors then make a prescient
observation: "Interestingly, this ratio differs substantially
from the ratio of gynephiles (men who erotically prefer physically
mature females) to androphiles (men who erotically prefer
physically mature males), which is at least 20 to 1."[17]
In other words, although heterosexuals outnumber
homosexuals by a ratio of at least 20 to 1, homosexual pedophiles
commit about one- third of the total number of child sex offenses.
Similarly, the Archives of Sexual Behavior also
noted that
homosexual pedophiles are significantly overrepresented in
child sex offence cases:
The best epidemiological evidence indicates
that only 2 to 4 percent of men attracted to adults prefer
men (ACSF Investigators, 1992; Billy et al.,1993; Fay et al.,1989;
Johnson et al.,1992); in contrast, around 25 to 40 percent
of men attracted to children prefer boys (Blanchard et al.,1999;
Gebhard et al.,1965; Mohr et al.,1964). Thus, the rate of
homosexual attraction is 6 to 20 times higher among pedophiles."[18]
The stark imbalance between homosexual and heterosexual child
molestationswas confirmed in the Archives of Sexual Behavior
study itself, which divided 260 pedophile participants into
three groups: "152 heterosexual pedophiles (men with
offenses or self- reported attractions involving girls only),
43 bisexual pedophiles (boys and girls), and 65 homosexual
pedophiles (boys only)."[19] In other words, 25 percent
of the offenders were homosexual pedophiles--
or 41 percent if those who molest girls as well as boys are
included.
Other studies report an unusually high percentage
of child
molestations by homosexual pedophiles:
· A study on pedophilia in the Psychiatric
Journal of the
University of Ottawa reported: "According to the literature,
findings of a two-to-one ratio of heterosexual to homosexual
pedophiles have been documented."[20]
· The Journal of Sex Research reports
a study that included "199
offenders against female children and 96 offenders against
male
children. . . . This would indicate a proportional prevalence
of 32
percent of homosexual offenders against children."[21]
· A study of male child sex offenders
in Child Abuse and Neglect
found that fourteen percent targeted only males, and a further
28 percent chose males as well as females as victims, thus
indicating that 42 percent of male pedophiles engaged in homosexual
molestation. [22]
Gay Apologists Insist on a Simplistic Stereotype of Pedophilia
Central to the attempts to separate homosexuality from pedophilia
is the claim that pedophiles cannot, by definition, be considered
homosexuals. Relying upon a questionable methodology[23],
the gay advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign published
a "Fact Sheet on Sexual Orientation and Child Abuse,"
that states: "A sexual abuser who molests a child of
the same sex is usually not considered homosexual."[24]
The basis for this claim is the view that pedophiles
who molest boys cannot be considered homosexual if that individual
has at any time been married or sexually involved with women.
The fact is, however, that the terms "homosexual"
and "pedophile" are not mutually exclusive: they
describe two intersecting types of sexual attraction. Webster's
Dictionary defines "homosexual" as someone who is
sexually attracted to persons of the same sex. "Pedophile"
is defined as "an adult who is sexually attracted to
young children." The former definition refers to the
gender of the desired sexual object, while the latter refers
to the age of the desired sexual object.
A male "homosexual pedophile," then,
is defined as someone who is generally (but not exclusively,
see below) sexually attracted to boys, while a female "homosexual
pedophile" is sexually attracted to girls.[25]
The term "homosexual pedophile" was
first used in the early 20th
century by the Viennese psychiatrist Dr. Richard von Krafft-Ebing,
who pioneered the systematic study of sexual deviance. Krafft-Ebing
described pedophiles as heterosexually, homosexually or bisexually
oriented.[26] This division has been accepted by pedophiles
themselves,[27] and is well attested in the literature:
· A study of child molesters in Behavior
Research and Therapy found that "a homosexual and a heterosexual
subgroup can be delineated among these offenders."[28]
· The Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy
published a study on the same topic, which discussed "the
proportional prevalences of heterosexual and homosexual pedophilia."[29]
The study commented on a study that found that "the percentage
of the homosexual pedophiles would be 45.8." Even adjusted
downward for exhibitionists, "this would still indicate
a much higher percentage (34 percent) of homosexuals among
pedophiles than among men who prefer physically mature partners."[30]
· In a review of studies on pedophilia,
the Psychiatric Journal of
the University of Ottawa concluded: "The findings of
previous
studies report that pedophiles can be divided into heterosexual
and homosexual pedophiles according to their erotic preference.
. . . This was confirmed in this recent study."[31] The
article classified homosexual pedophilia into three types:
the socially inadequate homosexual pedophile, the intrusive
homosexual pedophile, and the undifferentiated homosexual
pedophile.[32]
· A study of pedophiles in Behavior Research
and Therapy
concluded: "The second, and perhaps the most important
observation we made, is that a homosexual and a heterosexual
subgroup can be delineated among these offenders. . . . Categorizing
them in this way revealed important differences in the pattern
of their sexual preferences."[33]
· The International Journal of Offender
Therapy and Comparative
Criminology refers to homosexual pedophiles as a "distinct
group." The victims of homosexual pedophiles "were
more likely to be strangers, that they were more likely to
have engaged in paraphiliac behavior separate from that involved
in the offence, and that they were more likely to have past
convictions for sexual offences. . . Other studies [showed
a] greater risk of reoffending than those who had offended
against girls" and that the "recidivism rate for
male- victim offenders is approximately twice that for female-victim
offenders."[34]
Despite this evidence, in their efforts to divorce homosexuality
from pedophilia, homosexual apologists insist on a rigid,
narrow
definition of the terms "homosexual" and "pedophile"
that permits no overlap of the terms. They deny that homosexuals
are attracted in inordinate numbers to boys. They also claim
that pedophiles cannot be classified as "homosexual"
if at any time they have had sexual relations with women.
However, such a narrow definition does not do
justice to the complex nature of pedophilia. Researchers have
long been aware that pedophiles exhibit a wide variety of
sexual attractions and behavior- -often to draw attention
away from their primary lust for boys. A study on sex offenders
in the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative
Criminology notes that "the reason child sexual abusers
are successful at remaining undetected is because they do
not fit a stereotype."[35]
The data indicates that both homosexuality and
pedophilia are
intersecting categories that admit to a wide variety of sexual
behavior:
· A study in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that
homosexual men are attracted to young males. The study compared
the sexual age preferences of heterosexual men, heterosexual
women, homosexual men, and lesbians. The results showed that,
in marked contrast to the other three categories, "all
but 9 of the 48 homosexual men preferred the youngest two
male age categories," which included males as young as
age fifteen.[36]
· In The Gay Report, by homosexual researchers
Karla Jay and Allen Young, the authors report data showing
that 73 percent of
homosexuals surveyed had at some time had sex with boys sixteen
to nineteen years of age or younger."[37]
· A study of sex offenders against male children in
Behavior
Research and Therapy found that male homosexual pedophiles
are sexually attracted to "males of all ages." Compared
to non-
offenders, the offenders showed "greater arousal"
to slides of nude males as old as twenty-four: "As a
group, the child molesters responsed [sp] with moderate sexual
arousal . . . to the nude males of all ages."[38]
· A study of Canadians imprisoned for
pedophilia in the Journal of
Interpersonal Violence noted that some of the adult male offenders
engaged in homosexual acts with adult males.[39]
· Many pedophiles, in fact, consider
themselves to be homosexual. A study of 229 convicted child
molesters in Archives of Sexual Behavior found that "eighty-six
percent of offenders against males described themselves as
homosexual or bisexual."[40]
· Fr. John Harvey, founder and director
of Courage, a support
ministry for Catholics who struggle with same-sex attraction,
explains that "the pedophile differs from the ordinary
homosexual in that the former admires boyishness in the object
of his affections, while the latter admires manliness."[41]
However, the categories are not completely separate:
While granting that the majority of homosexuals
are not aroused by young boys, the distinction between homosexuality
and homosexual pedophilia is not quite absolute. In some cases
the interest oscillates between young adolescents and adults,
in others between boys and adolescents; in exceptional cases
a man may be interested in boys at one time and adults at
another.[42]
Gay activists insist that pedophilia has nothing to do with
homosexuality because pedophiles are only sexually interested
in
children, whereas homosexuals only have sexual relations with
adults. We have already seen that this stereotypical view
is not
correct with regard to homosexuals. There is also abundant
evidence demonstrating that, while primarily interested in
children, pedophiles nevertheless exhibit a wide variety of
sexual behaviors, including relationships with women:
· A study in Child Abuse and Neglect
found that 48 percent of the offenders either were married
or had been married at some time.[43]
· The Journal of Interpersonal Violence
studied the sexual
preferences of male pedophiles who sexually abused children.
When they compared the sexual response of the pedophiles with
the control group, they found, unexpectedly: "Surprisingly,
the two groups did not differ in their response to the nude
female stimuli."[44]
· A study in the Psychiatric Journal
of the University of Ottawa
reported that "most of the middle-aged pedophiles have
had
significant adult sexual activity."[45] Fifty-eight percent
of the
pedophiles in one study had at least one child, while other
research indicated that "more than two-thirds of the
married pedophiles in their sample had children, with an average
of two to three children per subject."[46]
· A report by the Department of Justice
addressed the devious
stratagems of pedophiles, who will go to great lengths to
conceal their true desires: "Preferential sex offenders
may be 'pillars of the community' and are often described
as 'nice guys.' They almost always have a means of access
to children (for example, through marriage, neighborhood,
or occupation.)"[47]
Thus, the evidence shows that homosexual pedophiles
cannot be narrowly defined as individuals who are solely attracted
to underage boys. In fact there is considerable overlap between
homosexuality and pedophilia.
David Thorstad is a homosexual activist
and historian of the gay
rights movement.[48] He is a former president of New York's
Gay
Activists Alliance (GAA), a prototype activist group founded
in
December 1969. The GAA at its inception opposed age of consent
laws, which prohibited adults from having sex with children.[49]
Thorstad is also a pedophile and founding member of the North
American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).
Thorstad argues that there is a natural and
undeniable connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.
He expresses bitterness that the gay rights movement has,
in his view, abandoned pedophilia. Thorstad writes: "Boy-lovers
were involved in the gay movement from the beginning, and
their presence was tolerated. Gay youth groups encouraged
adults to attend their dances. . . . There was a mood of tolerance,
even joy at discovering the myriad of lifestyles within the
gay and lesbian subculture."[50]
The inaugural issue of the Gay Community News
in 1979 published a "Statement to the Gay Liberation
Movement on the Issue of Man/Boy Love," which challenged
the movement to return to a vision of sexual liberation. It
argued that "the ultimate goal of gay liberation is the
achievement of sexual freedom for all--not just equal rights
for 'lesbian and gay men,' but also freedom of sexual expression
for young people and children."
In the early years there was some reluctance
to accept pedophilia, primarily among feminist and lesbian
activist groups. In March 1979 the Lesbian Feminist Liberation
(LFL) accusing "so-called Man/Boy Lovers" of "attempting
to legitimize sex between children and adults. . . . Feminists
easily recognize this as the latest attempt to make palatable
the sexual exploitation of children." The coalition went
on record as opposing "the sexual abuse of children by
heterosexual or homosexual persons."[51]
Despite this opposition, Thorstad claims that
by 1985 homosexual pedophiles had won acceptance within the
gay movement. He cites Jim Kepner, then curator of the International
Gay and Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles: "A point I've
been trying to make is that if we reject the boylovers in
our midst today we'd better stop waving the banner of the
Ancient Greeks, of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Oscar
Wilde, Walt Whitman, Horatio Alger, and Shakespeare. We'd
better stop claiming them as part of our heritage unless we
are broadening our concept of what it means to be gay today."[52]
In 1985 NAMBLA was admitted as a member in New
York's council of Lesbian and Gay Organizations as well as
the International Gay Association--now the International Lesbian
and Gay Association (ILGA). In the mid-1990's ILGA's association
with NAMBLA and other pedophile groups cost the organization
it's status as a Non- Governmental Organization in the United
Nations.
ILGA's renewed attempt to gain admittance to
the UN was rejected again in April 2002 because the organization
"did not document that it had purged pedophile groups
such as [NAMBLA]." The Washington Times reports that
Ishtiag H. Anrabi, Pakistani delegate to the UN Economic and
Social Council, expressed concern that ILGA was continuing
to be secretive about ties with pedophile groups: "For
more than a year, the ILGA has refused to provide documentation
or
allow review of its membership list to demonstrate that pedophilia
groups have been expelled."[53]
Pedophile Themes Abound in Gay Literature The
late "beat" poet Allen Ginsberg illustrates the
seamless connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.
Many know Ginsberg as an illustrious "out" homosexual
poet: fewer are aware that he was also a pedophile.
Biographer Raymond-Jean Frontain refers to Ginsberg's
publications in both NAMBLA Bulletin and NAMBLA Journal. He
discusses how Ginsberg's biographers failed to discuss his
poems that contained pederastic themes:
Although both Shumacher and Barry Miles (Ginsberg's
initial
biographer) frankly discuss Ginsberg's sexual politics, neither
refers to his involvement with the controversial North American
Man/Boy Love Association. . . . I reread Collected Poems and
Ginsberg's two subsequent collections, surprised by the pattern
of references to anal intercourse and to pederasty that emerged.[54]
Ginsberg was one of the first of a growing number of homosexual
writers who cater to the fascination with pedophilia in the
gay community. Mary Eberstadt, writing in the Weekly Standard,
documents how the taboo against sex with children continues
to erode--with the impetus coming from homosexual writers.[55]
Revealingly, the examples she provides of pedophilia
in current
literature come from gay fiction. Eberstadt cites the Village
Voice, which states that "Gay fiction is rich with idyllic
accounts
of 'intergenerational relationships,' as such affairs are
respectfully called these days."[56] Other examples of
pedophilia- themed gay fiction include:
· In the introduction of the "mainstream"
homosexual anthology
Penguin Book on International Gay Writing, David Leavitt notes
matter-of-factly that "Another 'forbidden' topic from
which European writers seem less likely to shrink is the love
of older men for young boys." Leavitt praises one book
with a pedophilic theme included in the anthology as a "coolly
assured narrative [which] compels the reader to imagine the
world from a perspective he might ordinarily condemn."[57]
· Several texts included in another anthology,
The Gay Canon: Great Books Every Gay Man Should Read, feature
scenes of man-boy sex. One such book is praised as "an
operatic adventure into the realms of love, personality, ambition
and art . . . a pure joy to read." The protagonist is
"a pedophile's dream: the mind of a man in the body of
a boy."[58] Another novel which includes graphic descriptions
of sexual violence against boys is said to "[tear] straight
to the heart of one of the greatest sources, community-wide,
of 1990's gay angst: What to do with men who love boys?"[59]
· Yet another anthology of homosexual
fiction, A History of Gay
Literature: The Male Tradition, published by Yale University
Press, includes "a longish chapter on 'Boys and Boyhood'
which is a seemingly definitive account of pro-pedophile literary
works."[60] The author appears more concerned with the
feelings and emotions of the man than with his boy victim.
He explores the question of "whether or not you regard
[having sex with boys] as a way of retreating from life or,
on the contrary, as a way of engaging with it at its most
honest and least corrupted level."[61]
· A significant percentage of books that
have appeared on the Gay Men's Press fiction bestseller list
contain pedophilia themes,
including:Some Boys: described as a "memoir of a lover
of boys" that "evokes the author's young friends
across four decades."[62] For a Lost Soldier: the story
of a sexual relationship between a soldier and an eleven-year-old
boy, set during World War II.[63] A Good Start, Considering:
yet another story about an eleven-year- but is rescued by
a teenager
who "offers him love and affection"[64] Terre Haute:
billed as "A poetic novel of sexual awakening in the
American Midwest, tracing an adolescent's journey from introspection
to perilous desire." Shiva and Arun: the story of two
Indian adolescents who "discover early on the joys of
sex."
Teardrops on My Drum: barefoot kids in 1920's Liverpool search
for "adventure, love and sex." Pro-pedophilia Publications
Recent years have seen the appearance of publications that
lend a scholarly veneer to the fascination with pedophilia
in the gay community. Such publications attempt to make the
case
for "intergenerational intimacy." The nation's largest
gay
publisher, Alyson Publications, which distributes Daddy's
Roommate and other homosexual books that promote homosexuality
to children, publishes books advocating man-boy sex, including:·
Paedophilia: The Radical Case, which contains detailed information
on how to engage in sexual relations with young boys.[65]·
The Age Taboo, another defense of pedophiliawhich claims:
"Boy- lovers . . . are not child molesters. The child
abusers are . . . parents who force their staid morality onto
the young people in their custody."[66]
The Journal of Homosexuality is viewed as the premier "mainstream"
English-language publication of the gay movement. One prominent
editor is John DeCecco, a psychologist at San Francisco State
University who also serves on the editorial board of the Dutch
pedophile journal Paidika. It is therefore not surprising
to see pedophilia promoted on its pages.
In 1990 the Journal of Homosexuality published
a series of essays on pedophilia that were eventually published
as Male Inter-Generational Intimacy:Historical, Socio-Psychological,
and Legal Perspectives, edited by pedophile Edward Brongersma.
None of the essays offered any substantive criticism of pedophilia:
most blatantly promoted man- boy love as the natural right
of homosexuals.
In 1999 Helmut Graupner, wrote an article on
pedophilia in the
Journal of Homosexuality, in which he claims: "Man/boy
and
woman/girl relations without doubt are same-sex relations
and they do constitute an aspect of gay and lesbian life."
Graupner argues that, as such, consensual sexual relations
between adult homosexuals and youths as young as fourteen
qualifies as a "gay rights issue."[67]
The fascination with pedophilia continues to
be a cause of concern even within the gay community. Lesbian
columnist Paula Martinac, writing in the homosexual newspaper
Washington Blade, states:[S]ome gay men still maintain that
an adult who has same-sex relations with someone under the
legal age of consent is on some level doing the kid a favor
by helping to bring him or her 'out.' It's not pedophilia,
this thinking goes--pedophilia refers only to little kids.
Instead, adult-youth sex is viewed as an important aspect
of gay culture, with a history dating back to 'Greek love'
of ancient times. This romanticized version of adult-youth
sexual relations has been a staple of gay literature and has
made appearances, too, in gay-themed films.[68] Martinac adds
that "When some gay men venerate adult-youth sex as affirming
while simultaneously declaring 'We're not pedophiles,' they
send an inconsistent message to society. . . . The lesbian
and gay community will never be successful in fighting the
pedophile stereotype until we all stop condoning sex with
young people."[69]
The steadfast denial of the disturbing
ties with pedophilia within
the homosexual movement is no purely academic matter. Perhaps
the most tragic aspect of the homosexual-pedophile connection
is the fact that men who sexually molest boys all too often
lead their victims into homosexuality and pedophilia. The
evidence indicates that a high percentage of homosexuals and
pedophiles were themselves sexually abused as children:
· The Archives of Sexual Behavior reports:
"One of the most salient findings of this study is that
46 percent of homosexual men and 22 percent of homosexual
women reported having been molested by a person of the same
gender. This contrasts to only 7 percent of heterosexual men
and 1 percent of heterosexual women reporting having been
molested by a person of the same gender."[70]
· A study of 279 homosexual/bisexual
men with AIDS and control
patients discussed in the Journal of the American Medical
Association reported: "More than half of both case and
control
patients reported a sexual act with a male by age 16 years,
approximately 20 percent by age 10 years."[71]
· Noted child sex abuse expert David
Finkelhor found that "boys
victimized by older men were over four times more likely to
be
currently engaged in homosexual activity than were non-victims.
The finding applied to nearly half the boys who had had such
an
experience. . . . Further, the adolescents themselves often
linked their homosexuality to their sexual victimization experiences."[72]
· A study in the International Journal
of Offender Therapy and
Comparative Criminology found:"In the case of childhood
sexual
experiences prior to the age of fourteen, 40 percent (of the
pedophile sample) reported that they had engaged 'very often'
in sexual activity with an adult, with 28 percent stating
that this type of activity had occurred 'sometimes'"[73]
· A National Institute of Justice report
states that "the odds that a childhood sexual abuse victim
will be arrested as an adult for any sex crime is 4.7 times
higher than for people . . . who experienced no victimization
as children."[74]
· A Child Abuse and Neglect study found
that 59 percent of male
child sex offenders had been "victim of contact sexual
abuse as a child."[75]
· The Journal of Child Psychiatry noted
that "there is a tendency
among boy victims to recapitulate their own victimization,
only this time with themselves in the role of perpetrator
and someone else the victim."[76]
The circle of abuse is the tragic legacy of
the attempts by
homosexuals to legitimize having sex with boys. For too many
boys it is already too late to protect them from those who
took advantage of their need for love and attention. All too
many later perpetrate the abuse by themselves engaging in
the sexual abuse of boys. Only by exposing the lies, insincere
denials, and deceptions--including those wrapped in scholastic
garb--of those who prey sexually on children, can we hope
to build a wall of protection around the helpless children
among us.
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=IS02E3&f=BK03F01 |
