The Heterosexual Agenda
Commentary, by John Aravosis

Are heterosexual men a threat to children? 

The past few months America has seen a spate of child abduction/murders in which grown men kidnap young girls, molest, and then kill them.  To wit:

• Seven-year-old Danielle Van Dam was stolen from her bedroom and suffocated, prosecutors say, by her 50-year-old neighbor in San Diego.  Prosecutors say they found Danielle's blood on the man's clothes, and also found child pornography, including images of a young girl being raped, on his home computers.

• An eight-year-old girl in Arkansas was allegedly abducted by a 20-year-old man who stands accused of luring the child out of her bed by telling her the house was on fire.  He then allegedly took her into the side yard and assaulted her.

• Seven-year-old Erica Pratt was grabbed by two men from a street corner in front of her home in Philadelphia.  The next day, she luckily gnawed through the duct tape that was restraining her in a dirty basement and escaped through a window.

• Five-year-old Samantha Runnion was abducted, kicking and screaming from in front of her California home, by a man while playing a board game with a friend.  The man lured her by saying he was looking for a lost dog.  Samantha was subsequently sexually assaulted and suffocated to death.

• Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart was reportedly taken from her Salt Lake City bedroom by a man at gunpoint.
  (Source: Court TV)

• Two teenage girls were kidnapped at gunpoint on August 1, 2002 by a man in his mid-30s to early 40s.

Some might say it's a bit unfair to castigate all straight men for the sins of a few.  But why not?  Many in society - the religious right and the Catholic Church top the list - regularly blame gay men as a class every time a crime happens involving a man and a boy.  Wouldn't it be only fair to apply the same standard, i.e., blaming all straight men when their brethren attack young girls?

Frankly, it would be fair, if you think turnabout is fair play.  But blaming all straight men for the crimes of a few would make me as much a bigot as those who paint gays with equally-broad, and equally groundless, accusations.  Who am I talking about?  Read on. 

First, consider the Catholic Church.  The Vatican has consistently tried, mostly in vain, to convince Americans that gays are to blame for the church's scandal in which senior leaders of the church knew about accused pedophiles in its midst, yet continued to assign them to posts where they serially abused young children.  This past April, Monsignor Eugene Clark of New York told the assembled parishioners at St. Patrick's Cathedral that "disordered" homosexuals were to blame for the church's scandal.  And the Bishop of Detroit said the current crisis is "not truly a pedophilia-type problem, but a homosexual-type problem," and the head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, when asked to comment on the scandal, told reporters that "it an ongoing struggle... to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men."

This in spite of the fact that the actual experts in the field of child abuse have repeatedly said that these are not gay men, nor really even straight men, who are conducting the abuse, but rather men who are very confused about their sexual orientation.  

According to USA Today, "clinical experience with pedophiles suggests 'it's kind of a separate sexual orientation,' says David Finkelhor, author of four books on child sexual abuse and director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. 'Often they have no attraction to adults whatsoever.' "  The Washington Post did its own research, and came to the same conclusion: "Behavioral scientists are virtually unanimous in their emphatic rejection of a linkage between homosexuality and child sexual abuse by priests or any other group.  'The only reason this is even a question is that this is a homophobic society,' said Robert Prentky, a forensic psychologist who has spent two decades studying sexual predators at the Massachusetts Treatment Center inside the state prison at Bridgewater."

Then there's the religious right.  In spite of what the experts say (facts are inconvenient things when you're trying to hold a Jihad), the Vatican's minions among America's religious right have jumped at the chance to use the misfortune of so many innocent children for their own political gain.  A few months back, a number of "religious conservative" activists began a whisper campaign, then a yelling campaign, trying to get the media and the public to buy the lie that a gay cabal was behind the Catholic scandal.  But such attempts at misinformation are nothing new.  For years the religious right has tried to paint gays with the lie that they routinely stalk young children for sex.  Just take a look at the latest action alert from the American Family Association (AFA).  AFA is apoplectic over a recent decision by the Big Brothers-Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) to support the civil rights of all Americans by not discriminating based on sexual orientation in their hiring and firing practices.

"There's no doubt the BBBSA will become a magnet for homosexuals who exploit opportunities to engage young, impressionable children with their unhealthy lifestyle," says AFA Chairman Donald Wildmon in a recent action alert on the issue.  "It's simply a matter of time before someone's child becomes a sexual assault victim because of BBBSA's political correctness."

(No word from the AFA on how they feel about the Big Brothers hiring Catholic priests.)

You'd think it couldn't get any nastier than that.  But oh it does.

AFA is responding by having its voluminous membership contact top American companies that financially support the Big Brothers - folks like Microsoft, Pillsbury and Verizon - asking them "to refuse future financial support of Big Brothers-Big Sisters of America until they repeal this dangerous and troubling policy."  Yes, the religious right is so hell-bent on spreading the lie that gays are after your kids, that they're willing to bring down a good organization like the Big Brothers-Big Sisters of America.  An organization, mind you, that helps the very kids that these so-called "religious" groups claim to be so concerned about.  

So, no, I do not think all heterosexual men are a threat to America's children simply because a string of them have been kidnapping, raping and murdering young girls these past few months.  I also don't think that all religious fundamentalists sodomize young girls for sport, even though one of their own - Earl "Butch" Kimmerling - did just that to his 8-year-old foster daughter a few years back in Indiana.  (Ironically, if you can call it that, the little girl was previously in the custody of a gay male couple, and Kimmerling went to court to get her taken away from them, as he felt gays were a sexual threat to children.  Kimmerling ended up getting the girl, then proceeded to sodomize her for over a year before the police found out.  Perhaps the religious right thinks Big Brothers-Big Sisters should ban conservative Christians from being around children as well?)

But neither do I buy for a minute that gays are a threat to children simply because many in the Catholic leadership thought it okay to coddle pedophiles in its ranks.  The abuse of children is a serious issue no matter where it happens.  But we dishonor the memory of those children when we use their misfortune as political sport.