Even before the historic Boy Scouts of America (BSA) vote this past month, some of its leaders seemed intent on killing the organization. Consider two of the assertions in the ‘read ahead’ materials sent out before the vote (BSA Executive Summary 4/30/13):

“Youth Protection: Youth safety and role modeling are two of the biggest concerns mentioned by members who oppose a change in the policy. In addressing issues related to youth protection for the membership standards study, the Boy Scouts of America tasked its director of Youth Protection, Michael V. Johnson, to consult with leading experts in the field of youth protection and child sexual abuse prevention that the BSA has consulted in the past in formulating the BSA’s Youth Protection policies and curriculum: David Finkelhor, Ph.D., W. Walter Menninger, M.D., psychiatry, Charol Shakeshaft, Ph.D., Victor Vieth, J.D.

All four experts were consistent in their findings and recommendations, including: “The nearly universal opinion among sexual abuse authorities is that same-sex sexual interest or same-sex sexual experience, either in adults or youth, is NOT a risk factor for sexually abusing children.” In regard to role modeling: “Most of the research on the effect on children of associating with self-identified homosexual adults has been done about homosexual parents. The clear conclusion from this research is that there appear to be no effects on children’s adjustment, mental health or sexual orientation.”

Notice the artifice involved in the first claim. Instead of a summary of the actual evidence, BSA substituted “The nearly universal opinion among sexual abuse authorities.” Apparently, if “nearly” all “sexual abuse authorities” believe a certain way, then it is OK to emphatically assert that “same-sex” sexual interest or behavior is “NOT a risk factor for sexually abusing children.”

If opinions of authorities were always true, we would not need empirical studies. Social science is a heavily politicized field anchored among an academia and professional associations committed to advance gay rights. As such, “authorities” can be in lock-step out of conviction or fear for their positions. But evidence, not opinion of experts, is determinative. And the evidence suggests a very strong correlation between homosexual sexual interest/experience and child molestation.

Many studies of men who sexually abused children have found that perpetrators pointed to their childhood abuse by a man as a major factor in their interest in homosexuality and children. One of the more celebrated studies of child molestation asked a random sample of 750 young men (18–27 years old) [1]Bagley:1994 if they

1. had been sexually molested,
2. were interested in sex with boys or girls under the age of 13, and if,
3. as adults, they had had sex with boys and/or girls.

The results showed that 16% said that they had been molested (almost all by men). Of these, 13% said they were interested in sex with a girl and 3% that they had already had sex with one; on the other hand, 22% said that they were interested in sex with a boy and 10% had already had had sex with one.

Of the remaining 84% of the young men who said that they had not been molested, 2% said they were interested in sex with a girl and one admitted to having done so; 1% said they were interested in sex with a little boy and none admitted to having done so.

Bottom line: having been molested was associated with pedophilic interests and behavior — disproportionately directed toward sex with boys. And then, completing the circle, the minority of men with homosexual interests (~3% of the populace)[2]Sweet:2012 claim about 10 times the rate of having been sexually abused as children!

The emphatic assertion “NOT a risk factor for sexually abusing children” by these ‘experts’ is without foundation. And yet the BSA listened to the ‘experts’ instead of evaluating the actual evidence. Frankly, having ‘experts’ who are ‘in the tank’ for gay rights is just plain suicidal.

Academics are often cowardly — certainly no longer automatically trustworthy — especially when it comes to the issue of homosexuality. Consider what happened with Harvard History Professor Niall Ferguson. Respected across the world, Ferguson has written for the Wall Street Journal, and like most Harvard Dons, gets all kinds of lucrative speaking engagements.

On May 2, he opined that the theories of economist John Maynard Keynes (“In the end, we’re all dead”) were influenced by his homosexuality and childlessness. On May 4, Ferguson recanted and deeply apologized, saying he never should have suggested Keynes’ economic philosophy was influenced by his personal life.

Harvard academics have to be bright, but apparently there is another qualification: “thou shalt not say ill of homosexuality.” Speculation — if it doesn’t fit the reigning politics — is apparently worse than evil.

And to whom was Ferguson ‘apologizing’? Why, all the homosexuals that just might find his remarks ‘upsetting.’ Woe to the Dons of Harvard. Freed from honoring a God they could not see, they now must kiss the rearward parts of lesser gods.

Limbaugh Right, O’Reilly Wrong: Homosexuals Molest Kids

In an attempt to raise public awareness of the linkage between homosexuality and child molestation, FRI published the following news release on April 22. In it, we made public some of the data from our recent systematic study of Google News web-based reports of child molestation.

“Rush Limbaugh said Penn State’s Sandusky was gay. Bill O’Reilly retorted ‘homosexuality has nothing to do with the crime of pedophilia.’ Really, O’Reilly?

“We searched Google News for ‘2012 Child Sexual Abuse’ each day in 2013 from February 8 through March 8. Counting same-sex adult/child sex as homosexual and opposite-sex abuse as heterosexual, the homosexual fraction for the 210 U.S. perpetrators in Google-linked stories was:

• Foster/adoptive fathers: 6 of 8 (75%)
• Teachers (including librarians, aides); males 6/17 (35%); females 3/7 (43%)
• Boy Scouts: 3/4; Boys/girls clubs: 2/2
• Religious leaders: Protestant 8/11 (73%); Catholic 5/5; Jewish 3/4
• Babysitters: 3/5; Daycare workers: 2/4
• Coaches, instructors: 5/9 (56%); Policemen, firemen: 3/9
• Relatives (moms, dads, grandparents): 2/10
• Stepfathers/Mothers’ boyfriends: 1/10
• Friends/Neighbors: 1/9
• Others: 34 of 96 (35%)

“Women accounted for 22 (10%) of U.S. perpetrators; 12 (57%) engaged in homosexuality. Homosexuality was also large among foreign clerics (Catholic 4/5; Protestant 1/1; Jewish 3/3).

“Since only 3% of adults admitted to homosexual behavior in a large U.S. government random sample of 33,902, child sexual abuse was excessively homosexual. In Jay and Young’s Gay Report, 22% of 4,329 gays and 5% of 962 lesbians reported illegal same-sex sexual contact with children. And in Kinsey Institute interviews with 671 San Francisco gays, 23% admitted illegal sex with boys; of 288 lesbians, 4% admitted illegal sex with girls. These admitted perpetrators were not ‘pure pedophiles’ either; all said kids constituted only ‘half or less’ of their sex partners — the rest were adults.

“Three centuries before Christ, Aristophanes noted of the homosexually-inclined ‘when they grow to be men, they become lovers of boys, and it requires compulsion to overcome their natural disinclination to marriage and procreation.’ ‘Do some homework, O’Reilly!’ said Dr. Paul Cameron, who supervised the study. ‘Look at the empirical evidence, not pro-homosexual professional association statements.’”

Of some relevance to the Boy Scouts, the study revealed a possible consequence of the new practice of allowing openly-identified homosexuals to foster or adopt children. In the Google News reports, of 210 perpetrators, 8 (4%) men molested their foster/adoptive children. Two did so heterosexually, six (75%) homosexually.

Twenty years ago, covering approximately a five-year span, 34 (6%) of 603 newspaper stories concerned foster/adoptive child molestations by men. 12 (35%) of these fathers molested homosexually, a far smaller proportion than in our latest study.

That change over time ought to make the Boy Scouts nervous. Of the 210 perpetrators in our latest Google database, four were associated with the Boy Scouts. A former Boy Scout scoutmaster founded his own organization for boys and girls (shades of Jerry Sandusky). Most of these Boy Scouts perpetrators allegedly victimized boys, the ‘clients’ of the Boy Scouts.

These molestations happened without any change in BSA policy toward homosexuals. It will be no surprise if the more frequent homosexual molestation of foster/adoptive children following the acceptance of homosexual foster or adoptive parents presages what will now happen in the Boy Scouts.