Thursday, October 31, 2013

Completely Descredited "Researcher" Paul Cameron Addresses Russian Duma

If one wants to truly understand the lengths American Christofascists are going to in their quest to export anti-gay hate and lies overseas, events in Russia continue to be most educational.  No lie and untruth seems to be too much and shockingly Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church seem only too happy to parade outright liars, charlatans and frauds "experts" to legitimize their anti-gay jihad.  Things have now reached a new low as the Russian Duma - the Russian equivalent to Congress - have welcomed Paul Cameron as a "researcher" on homosexuality.  As long time readers know, Cameron was thrown out of every legitimate association to which he was a member over a quarter of a century ago.  Why?  Because he deliberately falsified research results and deliberately skewed his "research" to reach predetermined results to slander and denigrate gays.  In one court case, a federal judge opined that Cameron was a fraud.  The Bilerico Project looks at Cameron's appearance before the Duma.  Here are highlights:

Want to know how dangerously, rabidly anti-LGBT the climate in Russia is getting? This one report from BuzzFeed encapsulates it in perfect, chilling detail:
Russia's parliament invited an American anti-gay psychologist whose work has been widely discredited to give expert testimony where he suggested that a third of LGBTs support pedophilia, according to a participant in the meeting.

Family Research Institute founder Paul Cameron, who has been censured by the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association for distorting statistics in efforts to block LGBT rights, spoke at a Duma roundtable on "family values," according to tweets from lawmaker Alexander Sidyakin.
BuzzFeed translates this tweet as follows: "[Cameron] cited statistics of a survey of homosexualists: 27% engage in sex with children from 15 to 18, 15% with children under 15; 32% think such sex is OK."

Of course, there is absolutely no legitimacy to these "statistics," or any other "facts" cited by this "researcher." Cameron was kicked out of both the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association for peddling virulently anti-gay junk science; the Southern Poverty Law Center calls him an "infamous anti-gay propagandist" and lists his organization, the Family Research Institute, as a hate group.

Cameron is best known for the thoroughly debunked canard about the supposed "health risks" of homosexuality -- you know, the one about how gay men, on average, live only half as long as their heterosexual counterparts. It's a lie that's been discredited for years, but it still surfaces in legislative testimony, city council hearings, and public comment forums across the country. Cameron's bogus "research" is also still cited by major anti-LGBT hate groups like the American Family Association, the Concerned Women for America, and until recently, the Family Research Council.

He's also, to put it simply, a crackpot. In an appearance on a Christian talk radio show last year, Cameron made the wild-eyed claim that "the long term goal of the homosexual movement is to get every little boy to grab his ankles and every little girl to give it a try." He also told nationally-syndicated progressive radio host David Pakman that he knows President Obama to be gay, the heinous crimes of Jerry Sandusky were caused by American acceptance of homosexuality, and that over half the children in Afghanistan and Pakistan are molested by their teachers because of the "fair degree of prominence" homosexuality has in those societies.

Seriously. And this is the man Russian parliamentarians are consulting as an "expert" on homosexuality. If that doesn't send chills up your spine, I don't know what will.

Russia wants to be regarded as a world leader and super power.  Allowing charlatans like Cameron appear before the nation's highest legislative body does nothing to further this ambition.  Indeed, it makes Russia and Russians look like laughing stocks.

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