Oh, the Irony

One of the long-held and oft-cited “beliefs” of homobigots about gays and lesbians is that they are predatory, going after children to “recruit” as part of the proverbial radical homosexual agenda. It’s especially used in reference to gay men, which is why homobigots love to conflate gay men and pedophiles; a man who molests boys is further evidence, they claim, that gays prey on children. It’s a particularly nasty meme that refuses to die, in spite of its utter lack of validity.

So it was with some bitter amusement I read that children are being genuinely and openly targeted by the ex-gay movement, appealing to parents’ concerns about the horror of having a gay child and recruiting kids to disseminate the lie that homosexuality is a mental illness.

Called 'Youth in the Crosshairs' the report was prepared by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. It says that groups such as Exodus International and Focus on the Family now recommend "prevention" and conversion therapy "treatments"…

"Whether through ex-gay teen programs or traveling ex-gay conferences like Focus on the Family's Love Won Out ex-gay programs are recommending that parents commit their children to treatment of 'prehomosexuality' even if it is against their children's wishes. Heterosexual youth are also being recruited in schools and churches to spread the message that homosexuality is a treatable mental illness," the report says.

"One of the most disturbing accounts in this report is a case involving a 5-year-old boy who was subjected to conversion therapy to address 'prehomosexuality.' The case involves a psychologist who claims that his theories and treatments are scientific," said study co-author Jason Cianciotto, the Policy Institute's research director.

Every reputable medical and psych group, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association, has discredited this crap, but that matters little, of course, to the anti-science crowd.

Like I’ve said before, if you want to know what conservatives are up to, just pay attention to what they’re accusing us of doing. It’s all about projection. There’s no radical gay agenda, but there is a radical anti-gay one.