If anyone is going to try to use the victimization of at least ten boys at Penn State University to garner support for his anti-homosexuality agenda, it’s Peter LaBarbera, founder of the hate group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality. He’s the one, you may recall, who pushed back against the Chicago Cubs’ “It Gets Better” campaign, claiming that the Cubs were promoting “destructive behavior” by attempting to prevent teen suicides – suicides driven by people like Peter LaBarbera, in fact, who said he wanted to tell gay youths that “it doesn’t get better.” The message LaBarbera proudly promotes, it seems, is that the only good gay teen is a dead gay teen.
In any event, LaBarbara posted an article on his website, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, entitled, How Many Boy Victims of Penn State Homosexual Predator Jerry Sandusky Will End Up Thinking They Are Gay? The article goes on to spin some highly questionable “facts,” such as that there is a “continuing problem of homosexual predators in society.”
Let’s start with LaBarbera’s first premise, in his title, that Jerry Sandusky was a homosexual. As Dr. Nicholas Groth, a pioneer in the field of child sex abuse, noted: “The child offender is a relatively young adult either who has been sexually attracted to underage persons almost exclusively in his life or who turns to a child as a result of stresses in his adult sexual or marital relationships. Those offenders who are sexually attracted exclusively to children show a slight preference for boys over girls, yet these same individuals are uninterested in adult homosexual relationships. In fact, they frequently express a strong sexual aversion to adult males.” (Emphasis added).
Dr. Groth goes on to say that, “With his primary sexual interest in children and not adults, the fixated offender fits the classic definition of a ‘pedophile.’ And because he is fixated on children, he cannot properly be considered to be either heterosexual or homosexual — he often finds adults of either sex repulsive.”
When it comes to applying Dr. Groth’s studies to Sandusky, and his preoccupation with children – as evidenced by numerous foster children and those he claimed to be “helping” at the Second Mile charity – Dr. Groth notes, “But regardless of the nature of the relationship, the gender of the child is often irrelevant — it’s the easy access and vulnerability that makes the child a target.” (Emphasis added).
Dr. Groth also notes that “. . . Regressed offenders are typically heterosexual in their adult relationships. Unlike our three percent sample, they date women and marry them. [Sandusky was married.] They often are parents, stepparents or extended family members of their victims. By all appearances — and by their own self-identification — they are straight.” Dr. Groth seemingly shoots down the notion that homosexuals are more predatory than heterosexual men: ”In over 12 years of clinical experience working with child molesters, we have yet to see any example of a regression from an adult homosexual orientation. The child offender who is also attracted to and engaged in adult relationships is heterosexual.” (Emphasis added).
In addition, statistically, the evidence that homosexuals prey on children at a higher rate than heterosexual men doesn’t track; in 1982, Dr. Groth reported: ”The research to date all points to there being no significant relationship between a homosexual lifestyle and child molestation. There appears to be practically no reportage of sexual molestation of girls by lesbian adults, and the adult male who sexually molests young boys is not likely to be a homosexual.” (Emphasis added).
LaBarbera’s shameless use of the Penn State victims to promote an anti-gay agenda flies in the face of research and statistics conducted by experts. As noted by ProCon.org, “Many men who were sexually abused (especially those abused by other men), are confused about their sexual/affectional preference. While it is difficult to determine cause and effect regarding this orientation (e.g., whether sexual abuse ’causes’ homosexuality), most men, gay and straight, have concerns about how sexual abuse may have played a role in determining their sexual orientation.”
Drs. Groth and Birnbaum, among others, have conducted studies and have found no evidence that homosexuals are more likely to prey on children; in fact, it’s the opposite – in a study of 175 adult males who were convicted in Massachusetts of sexual assault against a child,none of the men had adult homosexual inclinations. Dr. Carole Jenny and colleagues arrived at the same conclusion – in their review of 352 medical charts of sexually abused children, “The molester was a gay or lesbian adult in fewer than 1% in which an adult molester could be identified.”
There’s a “well known lack of linkage” between homosexual behavior and child sexual abuse; with lesbians, there are so few cases that there’s not even a statistic for it.
Victims of child sexual abuse are, undoubtedly, confused about their sexual identity following an incidence of sexual trauma by an adult. Studies that show an uptick in homosexuality among abused males are foggy on which came first, the chicken or the egg; there’s no way to know whether the homosexual tendencies pre-dated the abuse.
LaBarbera has made it his life’s mission to connect every “perversion” with homosexuality; he’s made it his life’s mission to make absolutely certain that youths with homosexual tendencies continue to feel shame and guilt about their sexual identity; he is, now, beginning the process of attempting to shame and confuse the Penn State victims further by intimating that their non-consensual relationship with child predator Jerry Sandusky will lead to a homosexual lifestyle. Of course, even if any of these young victims emerge as homosexuals in their adult life, there should be no shame around it; the important and critical point is for there to be a culture of unconditional support for the Penn State victims, as well as all other victims of child sexual assault.
LaBarbera views homosexuality as a “perversion,” and yet he’s made it his life’s work paying very, very close attention to homosexuality. He has transcended ideology, and is now simply obsessed with homosexuals.
Would that be considered normal behavior, in any of these studies?
