O'DonnellWeb Monthly Archives

January 28, 2006

Gay bashing, Christian Homeschooler Style

And we have another entrant in the Pro Home Education Hall of Shame. Our newest entrant is young David Bass, who at age 20 is a Christian Homeschool graduate (his description), and is sure he has all the answers, particularly when it comes to same sex marriage. He is sure that if we just focus on the public health issues, we would all understand just how aberrant and dangerous same sex marriage is. According to David, Christians should stop worrying about the biblical implications of same sex marriage and focus on the fact that gays are all HIV carrying fornicators who are likely to abuse their partners and then die young as a consequence of their heathen lives.

I'm somewhat surprised he didn't present that last point as a benefit of same sex marriage.

Let's take a look at his evidence.

Although self-identified homosexuals account for less than 5 percent of the American population, they are the carriers of over 50 percent of HIV/AIDS cases.

I have no idea if this is even true, but it doesn't really matter. Is it news that the gay population is the primary carrier of HIV? He is just throwing scary looking numbers around to impress an audience already inclined to believe him.

Risky behaviors – Campaigns to foster so-called "safe sex" among homosexuals have done nothing to reduce risky behavior. A 1997 CDC report found that 68 percent [ of gays engaging in unprotected sex] were entirely unaware of the HIV status of their partners.

Note - edited to remove unnecessarily graphic description of gay sex. Again, he is going for shock value with his conservative audience.

So, 1997 data means we are dealing with activity probably for the preceding 10 years? He doesn't actually bother to provide citations. It is WorldNet Daily after all, facts really aren't important there. I'm willing to bet the percentage of heterosexuals that engaged in unprotected sex without a preceding HIV test exceeds 68% for the same time period. Again, he has no point.

According to a profile of 2,583 homosexuals published in the Journal of Sex Research, only 2.7 reported having had sexual relations with only one partner, compared to the largest percentage that claimed to have had between 101 and 500 partners over their lifetime. Compare that to the markedly lower promiscuity rates among married heterosexual couples. According to the latest statistics from the CDC, 92 percent of married males and 93 percent of married females reported having had only one sexual partner over the previous twelve months (presumably their spouses).

So we are comparing the sex lives of single gays, over their lifetimes, to that of married couples over the preceding 12 months. Yeah, that is a fair comparison. Also, we don't know anything about the demographic sample for gays here. 100 to 500 partners sounds scary, but what if it was a survey of gay prostitutes? Still might be scary, but it wouldn't exactly be relevant.

Domestic abuse – A survey conducted by the Journal of Social Service Research found that more than half of lesbian respondents reported having been abused by a female partner or lover. Conversely, research has found that married heterosexual women experience the lowest rates of domestic abuse compared to other types of relationships.

Notice his carefully worded paragraph doesn't actually specify physical abuse. Which basically means for all we know they were talking about emotionally tough breakups, or lovers cheating on them, or who knows what. With married women, he specifies domestic abuse, which has certain legal implications and usually refers to violence.

Life span – A 1997 study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that even under "the most liberal assumptions, gay and bisexual men in this urban center are now experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by all men in Canada in the year 1871." The same study estimated that homosexual behavior reduces the lifespan of males by eight to 20 years. Comparatively, the CDC has found that male and female smokers lose an average of 13.2 to 14.5 years of life, respectively

This site, which is where I stumbled into young David Bass (never know what will pop up in a homeschool search), debunks that paragraph for us. Basically, he is using old data about a small subset of urban gays at the beginning of the AIDS crisis. So, it's not exactly relevant to a discussion of same-sex marriage in 2006.

I also notice that nobody on the Christian right is calling for a ban on smoking. Since it seems to be at least as bad for you as a gay relationship, they really should, shouldn't they?

These findings are not those of conservative pro-family advocacy groups, but of non-partisan, non-political medical journals and organizations devoted to protecting public health. What conclusion can logically be reached other than that homosexual behavior is both hazardous to the public at large and often deadly to those who practice it?

Oh, I can come up with some other conclusions. Shall we start with David Bass is a bigoted idiot?

But wait, he's not done yet.

Homosexuality is a cancer that affects every area of life – from the psychological to the spiritual

You could make the same argument about religion. Of course, gays don't go door to door trying to convert you.

Homosexuality is not a benign lifestyle preference, but a death-sentence made possible by government neglect of public health concerns

See gay folks, he really loves you all and just wants the best for you. Apparently he hates smokers, because he doesn't seen to be at all concerned about their death sentences.

Clowns like this give homeschooling a bad name. Welcome to the Hall of Shame.