Thursday, April 03, 2008

Day of Silence coming up. Let's get ready

Bet you thought I was going to post another entry on Sally Kern.

No, that little controversy is one for the ages. I'm sure it will come up again but for now, there is nothing new to add.

Especially in light of the fact that there are so many more important things to focus on.

On the 25th of this month is the annual Day of Silence. Its webpage says:

The Day of Silence (www.dayofsilence.org), a project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), is a student-led day of action where those who in which concerned students, from middle school to college, take some form of a vow of silence to bring attention to the name-calling, bullying and harassment -- in effect, the silencing -- experienced by LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students and their allies.

Naturally the anti-gay industry will have their hooks out trying to disrupt the day. This year, they will be launching a two-prong attack.

Anti-gay industry groups are encouraging parents to keep their children out of school during the Day of Silence.

Then the day after, they hold what they call "The Day of Truth."

According to the Allied Defense Fund, the group sponsoring it, Day of Truth:

was established to counter the promotion of the homosexual agenda and express an opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective.

This of course is a huge lie.

ADF actually encourages children to repeat Paul Cameronesque lies about lgbts during this day. One of their resources is The Ten Biggest Myths of Homosexual Behavior.

The only myth is that the information in this packet is accurate.

The handout claims that "homosexual behavior is at much higher risk for many sexually transmitted diseases, including not just HIV, but also syphilis, gonorrhea, human papilloma virus (HPV), hepatitis, chlamydia, and a whole group of infections called ‘gay bowel syndrome.’ But "gay bowel syndrome" is an obsolete medical term that medical practitioners do not use.

The handout also uses two bad studies put out by anti-gay industry groups. The studies, The Negative Effects of Gay Sex by John R. Diggs and The Negative Health Effects of Homosexuality by Timothy Dailey, contains a multitude of errors:

The Negative Effects of Gay Sex

Twice, John R. Diggs includes the study done by Alan Bell and Martin Weinberg in their book, Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, as indicative of the entire gay population. In one passage, he even refers to it as “a far ranging study of homosexual men . . .” But Bell and Weinberg never said that their findings were indicative of all gay men. They actually said “. . . given the variety of circumstances which discourage homosexuals from participating in research studies, it is unlikely that any investigator willever be in a position to say that this or that is true of a given percentage of all homosexuals.”

Diggs cites a Canadian study twice in order to claim that gays have a shorter lifespan than heterosexuals. But his citation of the study is a mischaracterization. In 2001, the six original researchers (Robert S. Hogg, Stefan A. Strathdee, Kevin J.P. Craib, Michael V. O’Shaughnessy, Julion Montaner, and Martin T. Schechter) who conducted that study have gone on record saying that religious conservatives (like Diggs) was distorting their work.

In another section entitled Physical Health, Diggs claims that gays are victims of “gay bowel syndrome.” The term is an obsolete medical term. exist and even the CDC does not use it. In fact, if one was to look at the endnotes of Diggs’ study, he would find that two of the sources he quoted concerning “gay bowel syndrome” were from articles in published in 1976 and 1983, which is consistent with the years that the term existed. One last source was a letter to the editor printed in 1994 but Diggs does not make it clear as to whatwere the circumstances surrounding it.

He generalizes convenience sample studies as indicative of the gay population at large. Diggs takes studies done in foreign countries and claims that they are indicative of the gay population at large.

Diggs claims that there are five distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual populations including levels of promiscuity, physical health, mental health, lifespan, and monogamy. However, he spends very little time comparing the two dynamics. He uses all of his time castigating gay populations.

He uses an out of date book, The Gay Report (published in 1979) to claim that gays are engaging in deviant sexual practices. Only once does he attempt to tie the alleged deviant practices of gays in 1979 to present day; and to do so, he cites two events that took place regarding bondage workshops. However, there is a strong indication that heterosexuals took part in these events as well as gays. Diggs ignores this dynamic.

The Negative Effects of Homosexuality

Timothy Dailey use a 1985 survey of lesbians at a Michigan music festival to claim that lesbians have a high rate of domestic violence. However, according to the reviewer of the study, Suzana Rose, Ph.D., of the 1099 lesbians participants, most were white and between the ages of 20-45. She also said: “Questions concerning perpetrating abuse need to distinguish between actions taken in self-defense and actions initiated by the aggressor. This point was not assessed here. Findings are limited by the selective recruiting of participants.”

Dailey also uses the Weinberg and Bell book to claim that all gay men are promiscuous despite the fact that both authors said their work was not indicative of all gay men.

Dailey uses the term “gay bowel syndrome”

Dailey cites a study that says young gay men are in danger of catching disease at a high rate. He omits the part of the study that said they need places to build their self esteem as homosexuals. In addition, he performs mathematical manipulation on percentages gauged in legitimate studies in order to push forth a higher image of gay men catching diseases.

He generalizes convenience sample studies as indicative of the gay population at large.

For more information, check out this excellent video by Wayne Besen who breaks it down on a level we can all understand.

The Day of Truth is anything but truth.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who you trying to fool, Tsu?

Even the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association reports:

"That men who have sex with men are at an increased risk of HIV infection."

"Gay men use substances at a higher rate than the general population."

"Depression and anxiety appear to affect gay men at a higher rate than in the general population."

"Men who have sex with men are at an increased risk of sexually transmitted infection with the viruses that cause the serious condition of the liver known as hepatitis. These infections can be potentially fatal, and can lead to very serious long-term issues such as cirrhosis and liver cancer."

"Sexually transmitted diseases occur in sexually active gay men at a high rate. This includes STD infections for which effective treatment is available (syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, public lice, and others), and for which no cure is available (HIV, Hepatitis A, B, or C virus, Human Papilloma Virus, etc.)."

"(I)t is still thought that gay men have higher rates of alcohol dependence and abuse than straight men."

"Recent studies seem to support the notion that gay men use tobacco at much higher rates than straight men."

"Problems with body image are more common among gay men than their straight counterparts, and gay men are much more likely to experience an eating disorder such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa."

http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=9&id=185

You gonna claim the G&LMA's findings are also a myth?

BlackTsunami said...

Nice try my friend but you committed several standard anti-gay industry tactics.

Your first inaccuracy to pull out a five-year-old article. The article was published in 2003.

You also cherry picked parts to suit your agenda and ignored other parts.

You pulled out "that men who have sex with men are at increased risk for HIV infection."

You omitted the part - "but the effectiveness of safe sex in reducing the rate of HIV infection is one of the gay community's great success stories"

You pulled out "Depression and anxiety appear to affect gay men at a higher rate than in the general population."

You omitted - "The likelihood of depression or anxiety may be greater, and the problem may be more severe for those men who remain in the closet or who do not have adequate social supports. Adolescents and young adults may be at particularly high risk of suicide because of these concerns. Culturally sensitive mental health services targeted specifically at gay men may be more effective in the prevention, early detection, and treatment of these conditions."

That portion is important because it aligns with studies that say depression and anxiety amongst gay men have to do with facing a homophobic society, particularly amongst youth - this link bears my point up - http://www.stjoan.com/gl/articles/youth.htm

But HERE is the main thing that you missed while distorting this article to malign lgbts. NOTHING in this article pushes the idea that gays should stop being gay in order to curb these problems. Nothing in the article blames the lgbt sexual orientation for potential problems. The article clearly says that lgbts should develop good health habits. Nothing in the article embraces the "ex-gay" lie.

This article is no different than an article written about health problems involving women and African-Americans. The only difference is that no one would use those articles to bash women or African-Americans on the whole (okay in the case of African-Americans, maybe a racist group would).

I guess if your standards for judging were used, the recent article talking about young adult sex habits means that teenagers are nasty sex-driven individuals who should be locked up at night.

And the main thing is that you DID NOT to refute anything I said regarding Dailey and Diggs's article. You ignored it and distorted yet another article to prove whatever preconceived negative notions you have about lgbts.

It's as if you are saying "so what if Diggs's and Dailey's work is incorrect. Homosexuality is a bigger evil so anything that puts lgbts in a bad light cannot necessarily be wrong."

Again, nice try but you really should read more and cherry pick less.