The Swift Boats of Science (ugly things going in the US)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20050804/cm_thenation/1310207;_ylt=AgZHrI6lTBYDzT.c2kvDUZH9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl


The Swift Boats of Science

Ari Berman Thu Aug 4, 9:22 AM ET

The Nation -- Paul Cameron, founder of the Family Research Institute, calls gays and lesbians "death marketers."

"I am not sure how long they will take to destroy the US from within, but sufficiently weakened, the US will probably fall to another state before that occurs," he recently told the Boston Globe.

In 1983, Cameron cofounded the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality, where he published reports claiming that homosexuals were more likely than heterosexuals to molest children and commit other crimes. Shortly thereafter, the American Psychological Association barred Cameron from its membership. The American Sociological Association said that "Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism."

But Cameron resurfaced with the Family Research Institute, publishing studies titled "Gay Parents More Apt to Molest." In recent years, his pseudoscience has been cited by dissenters in the Massachusetts ruling legalizing gay marriage, in a Florida Supreme Court decision upholding a ban on adoption by same-sex couples and on behalf of a Virginia proposal requiring that adoptive parents reveal their sexual identities to social workers. The media frequently credits the Institute as an alternative to the 150,000-member American Psychological Association.

Cameron's Institute, along with the American College of Pediatrics--a right-wing splinter of the 60,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics--seek to blur the distinction of what is and isn't accepted science, the Boston Globe reports. And these fraud think tanks are multiplying. "Created as counterpoints to large, well-established medical organizations whose work is subject to rigorous review and who assert no political agenda," the Globe writes, "the tiny think tanks with names often mimicking those of established medical authorities have sought to dispute the notion of a medical consensus on social issues such as gay rights, the right to die, abortion, and birth control."......

[Jack Rabbit]

1. The link from The Nation

I had fun over there today.

For the most part, the right wing posters who ventured onto the thread had little to say in defense of Dr. Cameron.