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?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.
