The second researcher in less than a week has confirmed that the religious-right American Family Association and its allies lied about research regarding sexual orientation.

Earlier today, Truth Wins Out reported that Francis Collins, Ph.D, of the Human Genome Project has again repudiated falsehoods being spread about his research by ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan and the American Family Association. We also pointed out that a recent article by Kathleen Gilbert, published by the American Family Association and LifeSiteNews, appeared to have falsely reported the results of a British paper by professor Michael King.

In a followup story, Box Turtle Bulletin today said it checked the original British paper and found little resemblance between it and the claims of AFA and LSN. The Bulletin asked King for his reaction. King replied:

LifeSiteNews and OneNewsNow have misinterpreted our review.  Evidence from around the world identifies the main stressors leading to mental distress in gay and lesbian people as discrimination, prejudice, bullying in schools and colleges, and the consequent need for many LGB people to keep their homosexual identity secret, even from their families.

Our review did not examine links between mental disorder and homosexual “behaviour” or “lifestyle”.  Our work reviewed studies of the mental health of lesbian, gay and bisexual people, and sadly, those studies showed that it is people (not behaviour) that are discriminated against, and not least by religious groups and organisations.

Discrimination on the grounds of sexuality is even more devastating than other forms of discrimination such as racism, as it reaches right into families and leaves no refuge for its victims.

Box Turtle Bulletin adds:

To throw more confusion into the mix, Gilbert tossed in a discredited 2007 study by Nazi-apologist Paul Cameron which supposedly demonstrated that “that the lifespan of a homosexual is on average 24 years shorter than that of a heterosexual.” She also used Cameron’s study to claim that discrimination hat nothing to do with it, saying that, “Homosexuals in the United States and Denmark - the latter of which is acknowledged to be highly tolerant of homosexuality - both die on average in their early 50’s, or in their 40’s if AIDS is the cause of death.”

We have already examined glaring flaws in Cameron’s study, as has Danish epidemiologist Morton Frisch who described his study as “humorous example of agenda-driven, pseudo-scientific gobbledygook.” Cameron’s false claims of presenting this “study” before the Eastern Psychological Association earned him an official condemnation from EPA president Phile Hineline in April 2007.

Exodus International seems eager for such misinformation to continue to confuse the ex-gay movement and its allied churches and political groups: Since April 2007, the organization has declined to publicly warn the antigay and ex-gay movements about the lies, nor has the organization challenged AFA, LSN, NARTH, or Quinlan to correct themselves.

Truth Wins Out reported Sept. 15 that the American Family Association and New Jersey ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan lied earlier this month when they claimed that Francis Collins, Ph.D, of the Human Genome Project, supported a core myth of ex-gay ideology. Quinlan said:

When he says he’s born that way, we know now for a fact that that’s false. In fact, just last year in March, the director of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis Collins, said this: homosexuality is not hardwired. There is no gay gene. We mapped the human genome. We now know there is no genetic cause for homosexuality.

That claim about Collins apparently originated in April 2007 from the ex-gay think tank NARTH. It was repudiated by Collins in May of that year, via Ex-Gay Watch. Collins wrote:

The evidence we have at present strongly supports the proposition that there are hereditary factors in male homosexuality — the observation that an identical twin of a male homosexual has approximately a 20% likelihood of also being gay points to this conclusion, since that is 10 times the population incidence. But the fact that the answer is not 100% also suggests that other factors besides DNA must be involved. That certainly doesn’t imply, however, that those other undefined factors are inherently alterable.

[Ex-Gay Watch’s] note indicated that your real interest is in the truth. And this is about all that we really know. No one has yet identified an actual gene that contributes to the hereditary component (the reports about a gene on the X chromosome from the 1990s have not held up), but it is likely that such genes will be found in the next few years.

But NARTH didn’t retract its deception then — thereby making the claim an intentional lie. Quinlan and the AFA then proceeded to parrot the lie.

Late last week, Quinlan retaliated against the exposure of his lie, accusing Ex-Gay Watch of fabricating its 2007 interview with Collins. Ex-Gay Watch responded early this week with hard proof and confirmation from Collins that the interview took place. Collins said:

I am happy to confirm that these e-mail communications from May 2007 and yesterday are indeed authentic, and represent my best effort at summarzing what we know and what we don’t know about genetic factors in male homosexuality. I appreciate your continuing efforts to correct misstatements that seem to be circulating on the internet.

Quinlan, AFA, and NARTH still refuse to retract and apologize for their lie.

Christian contemporary music singer Ray Boltz (pictured) recently emerged from decades of effort to be “heterosexual” and honestly declared that he is same-sex-attracted. His story of sexual and religious struggle was reported last week in The Washington Blade. In short order, New Jersey ex-gay activist Greg Quinlan and the American Family Association’s “OneNewsNow” lied about Boltz’s action.

The AFA falsely stated that Boltz “has publicly announced he’s living a homosexual lifestyle” and falsely characterized a person’s honesty about sexual attraction as a “decision to engage in homosexuality.”

Quinlan went further — misquoting established science regarding the biological impulses that define sexual attraction and the psychological impulses that define romantic attraction. In particular, Quinlan misquoted Francis Collins of the Human Genome Project:

When he says he’s born that way, we know now for a fact that that’s false. In fact, just last year in March, the director of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis Collins, said this: homosexuality is not hardwired. There is no gay gene. We mapped the human genome. We now know there is no genetic cause for homosexuality.

Quinlan’s fiction, however, was exposed as such sixteen months ago. After the ex-gay pseudoscience outfit NARTH also misquoted Collins, Collins told Ex-Gay Watch in May 2007:

It troubles me greatly to learn that anything I have written would cause anguish for you or others who are seeking answers to the basis of homosexuality. The words quoted by NARTH all come from the Appendix to my book “The Language of God” (pp. 260-263), but have been juxtaposed in a way that suggests a somewhat different conclusion that I intended. I would urge anyone who is concerned about the meaning to refer back to the original text.

The evidence we have at present strongly supports the proposition that there are hereditary factors in male homosexuality — the observation that an identical twin of a male homosexual has approximately a 20% likelihood of also being gay points to this conclusion, since that is 10 times the population incidence. But the fact that the answer is not 100% also suggests that other factors besides DNA must be involved. That certainly doesn’t imply, however, that those other undefined factors are inherently alterable.

Your note indicated that your real interest is in the truth. And this is about all that we really know. No one has yet identified an actual gene that contributes to the hereditary component (the reports about a gene on the X chromosome from the 1990s have not held up), but it is likely that such genes will be found in the next few years.

Sidestepping any discussion of science, the Gospel Music Association mischaracterized Ray Boltz’s honesty, saying, “We do not comment on the lifestyle choices of people in our community.” (Emphasis is TWO’s.)

For more insight into the (mis)handling of sexual orientation by the Christian gospel music scene, check out averyfineline.

Addendum: Good As You notes that Francis Collins is — contrary to any forthcoming ex-gay smears — an evangelical Christian.

By Wayne Besen

The last few weeks have shown that so-called pro-family organizations are some of the most useless, money-sucking scams in the world. With real families suffering from economic hardship in America, a declining birthrate in Europe and Google doubling the price of daycare for employees, the only thing right wing family groups want to discuss is their bizarre and all-encompassing fagela fetish.

Recently, The Brooklyn Paper, had a huge headline, “SPLITSVILLE: Brooklyn divorces up 30%.” The article cited a number of reasons including, “when the economy tanks, so do many marriages.”

One would think this would alarm so-called pro-family organizations and they would be out in force repairing marriages — or at least looking for economic solutions to take the stress off couples. Unfortunately, as I walked around my Brooklyn neighborhood, I saw not one representative from the American Family Association.

Well, I take that back. I did encounter one of the group’s representatives on CNN Headline News as we debated a Heinz mayonnaise ad in the United Kingdom that featured two men kissing. I’m sure the children of these broken marriages in Brooklyn will feel much better knowing Heinz pulled the ad and they can have gay-free mayonnaise at both mommy and daddy’s separate houses.

A new study by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University showed that in 2006, for the first time in U.S. history, a majority of births to women under 30 — 50.4 percent — were out of wedlock. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert points out that, “By comparison, when John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960, just 6 percent of all births were to unmarried women under 30.

One imagines that this report might have startled “pro-family” organizations and they would have put their millions of dollars towards stopping this trend. No such luck. Instead, they are investing huge piles of money and manpower to pass anti-gay marriage amendments in Florida, Arizona and California. The upshot for “pro-family” groups is that if heterosexuals keep screwing up marriage, by the time gay people finally win the right nationally, we won’t want to use it.

“Evangelicals of the older generation have become obsessed in almost a technical psychological sense in opposing gay rights,” David Weddle, a professor of religion at Colorado College told the Colorado Springs Gazette. “The irony is that homosexuality is not a biblical theme.”

Right wing organizations and their flocks want to be taken seriously, but their priorities and actions are reprehensible. For example, a middle school teacher was fired in Mount Vernon, Ohio last month after preaching in the classroom, refusing to remove his Bible and burning crosses onto the arms of pupils. You read that correctly — he seared crosses on the body parts of impressionable students, as if it were a gang ritual.

Surely, reasonable people can agree that such behavior is inappropriate in the classroom. But, oh no, some of the yahoos in Mount Vernon believe their religion places them above the Constitution - so they are holding demonstrations in the town square. I wonder if these zealots would have the same reaction if a teacher were burning a Stars of David or Muslim crescents on the forearms of students?

A recent New York Times magazine article, “Childless Europe,” explored why certain countries in Europe are losing population. The hopelessly out of touch Pope Benedict chimed in with his typically sunny advice. “Europe is infected by a strange lack of desire for the future,” the Pontiff said. “Children, our future, are perceived as a threat to the present.”

Instead of selfishness, as the Pope implied, it was the traditional values of the Pope that contributed to the problem. In societies that either offered a safety net or where men shared the burdens of child rearing, women were having more babies. However, when educated women were stuck at home and forced to do all the work - such as in Italy - they chose to have less children. Will the Pope now call on men to help out more at home or for countries to ensure daycare for families?

Finally, the Wall Street Wonder, Google, plans to raise the amount it charged for in-house day care by 75 percent. Under the revised plan, parents with two children in Google day care could see their yearly bill increase to more than $57,000 from around $33,000. This crushing blow to the family drove a few employees to tears.

Was the American Family Association in Silicon Valley raising hell and standing up for families? No, they ignored grimacing parents, so they could punish Ronald and Grimace by launching a boycott against McDonald’s for supposedly having a gay agenda. Maybe the delusional scolds at the AFA thought they saw rainbow color fries, in much the same way they once accused the cartoon character Mighty Mouse of snorting cocaine.

Right wing organizations can be considered many things - but certainly not advocates for the family. They inhale money, exhale anti-gay pollution and have done absolutely nothing for the traditional families they claim to represent. It seems the more such groups proliferate, the more the family deteriorates.

(Clownish AFA Says Ronald is Too Gay)

Well, thank God we can finally eat McNuggets in peace without the yahoos at the American Family Association annoying us at the next table. The AFA will announce a boycott today because they claim the company supports the so-called “gay agenda” and has taken sides in the “culture wars.”

“It is about McDonald’s, as a corporation, refusing to remain neutral in the culture wars,” whined the oft-offended AFA. “McDonald’s has chosen not to remain neutral but to give the full weight of their corporation to promoting the homosexual agenda, including homosexual marriage.”

The AFA - the Tupelo, Mississippi-based group that once claimed Mighty Mouse snorted cocaine - has once again gone mad. What next, they will claim that Grimace is secretly gay because he is the same lavender shade as the Teletubby Tinky Winky?

McDonalds is not promoting a “gay agenda.” They are simply supporting equality for all people in the workplace. This boycott will fail, just as AFA’s Disney Boycott fell flat. The group is all hat and no cattle and has emerged as one of the most dishonest groups on the far right fringe. They even sell a video, “It’s Not Gay” featuring failed ex-gay Michael Johnston - without a disclaimer telling AFA members that Johnston has participated in gay orgies, while claiming to have “changed.” Now, how moral is that?

I’m going to do my part this morning. I will put my yogurt back in the refrigerator, march down to McDonald’s, and buy a delicious Egg McMuffin. Yum!

Please call McDonald’s today and thank them for being a fair-minded company and let them know you would rather eat without the angry, puritanical AFA crowd.

1-800-244-6227

Read full Guardian article HERE

Wayne Besen, an executive director of gay advocacy group The Truth Wins Out, appeared on a CNN debate in the US last week discussing the Heinz ad.

In the debate he raised issue of how the AFA, a powerful American lobby group, had played a role in the strong stance Heinz US had adopted over the ad.

“They are a very powerful constituency, a very powerful lobby group. They are one of the top groups in the religious right in America,” Besen told MediaGuardian.co.uk.

He added that the AFA had gone after companies including Disney and Ford in the past.

“They have a lot of experience mobilising campaigns and boycotts. They are like a puritanical national nanny,” Besen said.

Truth Wins Out executive director Wayne Besen appeared on CNN Headline News today to defend a British TV ad which featured gay men in parental roles, serving Heinz mayonnaise.

Besen criticized U.S. foodmaker H.J. Heinz for succumbing to homophobia and withdrawing the ad under pressure from the right-wing American Family Association. About 200 viewer complaints were received by British regulators.

Here’s the ad:

Truth Wins Out defended the ad:

The Headline News segment included Randy Sharp of the AFA, who claimed that the ad promoted a homosexual lifestyle: “What does mayonnaise have to do with homosexuals and their lifestyle?” Sharp claimed that 70,000 AFA supporters in the United States disagreed with the ad.

Business marketing analyst Dan Hill said Heinz was right to pull the ad. Hill said:

“In business you can never afford to forget that the bottom line is that ‘family values’ means ‘my family, not your family,’ and I think in the UK most households have traditional family structures.”

Besen responded that gay couples are well-accepted in the United Kingdom and that gay soldiers have been allowed to serve in British armed forces with great success.