Penn State abuse scandal distorted by anti-gay bias

The horrific tales of alleged sexual abuse and molestation by Jerry Sandusky during his tenure at Penn State has sent ripples throughout the college football world, and rightfully so. It’s a disturbing series of accusations that would shake any institution to its core, with allegations of staggering cover-ups that touched all levels at the storied university.

Unfortunately, there are those who would use this monstrous tale of a man who might be the most vicious sexual predator in football history and the institution that protected him to attack people who have absolutely nothing to do with Sandusky, Penn State, or even with pedophile predators at all.

In a classic example of “The sky is blue therefore the lights are on” argument, right-wing(nut) commentators and groups have jumped at lightning speed to blame the Penn State scandal on the gays. Yes, you read that right. An astonishing number of pundits have come out of the woodwork to accuse the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) community of being at the very root cause of a man who hid in plain sight, using his position to endear himself to his young victims.

And it’s not just the usual suspects from Southern Poverty Law Center certified hate groups, either. Sure, we know that we’ll get this kind of anti-gay drivel from the American Family Association and the Family Research Council. Both groups are in a race to see who can demonize gays the most. But now major columnists and commentators are jumping on the “Blame the gays for pedophiles” bandwagon. More disturbing still, “truth” is added to the very long list of victims in this sordid series of assaults.

Bryan Fischer, spokesbigot of the American Family Association, quickly led the pack with his stereotypical rant of “homosexuals molest more than heterosexual” garbage:

“I think the main takeaway from this, and this is what people do not want to focus on, this is what the media does not want any attention drawn to, is that what this illustrates is the truth, it’s a simple stubborn fact, that homosexuals molest children at much higher rates than the heterosexual population. And this is a fact of life that the gay lobby does not want us to know but this illustrates it”

Then there’s WorldNetDaily’s Joseph Farah, who not only appeared on Fox News to peddle this excrement, but took the time to write:

We may not fully understand the details of what Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky did or didn’t do to young boys in locker rooms and showers, though he does admit inappropriate behavior. But the real question is how he did it for so long without consequences.

But now that being accused of homophobia is considered an offense, while practicing homosexuality is considered a virtue, should it really surprise anyone that such behavior would go unreported or unchallenged for so long?

In an age when government schools are actually teaching children how to perform homosexual acts and that there is nothing wrong with them, it would seem that an environment conducive for predators of children is being created under the watchful eye of the state and the media.

Remember also that Penn State is a public university. There is probably no institution more conscious of the new “sin” of homophobia than the American college campus. There are few imaginable offenses more grievous than homophobia in that environment. One pays a price for exhibiting any symptoms of this dread disease – especially in academia.

That’s right. Farah claimed that the reason that Sandusky was able to get away with his long series of sexual assaults on boys is because the school was afraid to be branded as “homophobic.” Clearly, Farah is completely clueless to the reality that a pedophile is NOT a homosexual. This wouldn’t get the time of day if it was just another obscure hate group, but WND is a massive site that gets over 1.5 million page views a month.

If my not-so-subtle implications aren’t clear enough, let me put it in black and white: Pedophilia and homosexuality are not even close to being the same thing. They are not related — never have been, and never will be. Sadly, this particular myth still maintains a chokehold on the voice of reason within the conservative community.

A few months ago, a group called B4U-ACT held a little gathering of their pro-pedophile “professionals” to discuss ways to approach the American Psychological Association to declassify pedophilia as a “disorder.” The APA is completely opposed to the concept, and they understand that pedophilia is very much a disorder and such “relationships” are, in fact, criminal. B4U-ACT has no chance of actually changing policies at the APA. It’s a fringe group of twisted “psychologists” who have had a clear agenda for decades.

The only reason we know about this particular gathering is because hate group leader Peter LaBarbera “infiltrated” the event and “reported” of their “attempts.” The right wing media had a field day with the “news” until someone figured out that it was all complete cow dung. But that doesn’t stop LaBarbera from continuing his crusade against truth (interesting because his little hate group is called “Americans for Truth about Homosexuality”). His latest bile goes something like this:

Sandusky is married but obviously has a homosexuality (perversion) problem. Yet pro-“gay” liberals will deny any linkage between homosexuality and Sandusky’s rape/seduction of boys. In fact, after news of the Penn State scandal came to light, “gay” activists stressed that Sandusky is married and that most pedophile cases involve “straight, married men.” However, behavior is what matters – not a person’s marital status or self-described “sexual orientation.” Sandusky is married but was he really “straight” (sexually or morally)? Some inner demons or life traumas – probably in his own youth – caused him to lust for boys, wrecking untold misery in the lives of his victims. Behavior is the issue, and this was a case of a serial homosexual predator raping boys.

To people like Labarbera, gays are caused by being molested as children. Never mind the fact that it’s just not true. The reality is that most adult gay men and women were never molested as a child. Of those that were molested, the vast majority of them had already recognized their same-gender attraction. But please, don’t let facts get in the way of Labarbera’s sheer bigotry.

Sadly, this is the exact kind of bigotry that drives these gay-obsessed individuals to false comparisons of people like Sandusky to the gay couple down the street. Even more disturbing is the fact that right wingnuts are so quick to “blame the gays” for a serial molester and the coverup of that molestation — instead of the actual molester and the institution that covered it up.

This isn’t a case of “gays being more accepted” as Cal Thomas absurdly deduced. This is a case of the value of football being held over the value of the mental health and physical safety of the very young boys who were supposed to be in a safe environment. It’s football over safety, and a good “public image” over shutting down a monster.

We see this all the time in religious environments. A Christian Science Monitor article from back in 2002 points out that sexual abuse is common in all churches, not just the Catholic church — in fact, it’s an “even greater” problem in protestant churches. Victims and parents routinely go to church or school leadership instead of reporting the attack directly to the police. As a result, the organization is able to shuffle people around a bit to protect the accused abuser, while the victim is left to their own devices. It’s a tragic story that’s seen time and time again.

To be clear, the reason that this whole mess happened isn’t because of “the gays.” It’s because a sick, twisted man (I know, I’m supposed to say “allegedly” here) weaseled his way into a role that gave him access to the objects of his desire: boys. The very leadership that was supposed to provide protection for those boys failed in that responsibility, and even went so far as to quickly brush the allegations of nearly 10 years ago under the rug.

The time has long since passed for petty anti-gay bigotry to shut the hell up and start addressing the real problems of elevating “the good of the church/school/whatever” over the lives of children who are abused by real-live monsters.

Tags: anti-gay, bryan fischer, Cal Thomas, featured, Jerry Sandusky, Joe Paterno, Joseph Farah, molestation, Penn State, Peter Labarbera

Category: Opinion