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| Also listed in: COEqual | Faith Progressives | GLBT Progressives | GLBT Youth for Progress | Media Watch |
Categories: Equality / Civil Rights, Civil Liberties / Privacy, Media Accountability
John Avavosis has an important post up regarding an SF Chronicle article that ran yesterday. The Chronicle quoted our neighbor in the Springs, Paul Cameron, as an expert saying that gays are bad parents who are likely to molest kids. Paul Cameron is an utter, unmitigated, hack who leads what the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as one of the most dangerous hate groups in America. Here's a sample of Paul's "work", per the Southern Poverty Law Center:
"He told the 1985 Conservative Political Action Committee conference that "extermination of homosexuals" might be needed in the next three to four years. He has advocated tattooing AIDS patients in the face, and banishment to a former leper colony for any patient who resisted. He has called for gay bars to be closed and gays to be registered with the government."
Read Aravosis' post and then contact the Chronicle!
We'll see if they attack the message, distance themselves from the messenger, or just let it stand. I'm guessing it'll be the middle option.
It's not that they disagree with Cameron, they just don't want anybody to know that they agree.
Frankly, other than maybe Fred Phelps, Cameron is the best possible anti-gay source to quote if you want to illustrate how hateful the religious right is. The problem is that the Chronicle didn't provide much context for how crazy he really is, not that saying orphanages are better than gay people isn't pretty crazy.
I think the intent was probably good, they just didn't pull it off very well.
Response: The Forum interviewer remarked that many societies have considered homosexuality a capital crime. Noting that it would be cheaper to kill homosexuals in primitive societies than jail or quarantine them is hardly an endorsement. In fact, Cameron is quoted in the same article as saying that such an idea is "not politically, ethically or socially acceptable" today. Where former Surgeon General Koop got his information is mystifying. He never asked Dr. Cameron whether he advocated such a policy." - Revisiting the New Republic's Attack on Cameron