Conservative Petitions
Mar 30., 2005 
4 Comments
I seem to be on ConservativePetitions.coms mailing list as I get spammed by them whenever they think something anti-Christian has reared its head. I received an email from them the other day asking me to sign some petition about Terri Schiavo so I went to their website to see what their particular bunched panty was and saw that their most popular petition had to do with Nickelodeon. I checked it out and here’s what the petition says (emphasis mine):
Help Educate Nickelodeon Advertisers on Network’s Pro-Homosexual Agenda!
Despite the protests of more than a quarter of a million concerned citizens — including 130,000 who signed our online petition against the airing of “My Family Is Different” by Nickelodeon — the children’s cable network aired this half-hour homosexual propaganda show on June 18, 2002.
The Nick News show, produced and hosted by pro-homosexual Linda Ellerbee, was billed by Nickelodeon as a “balanced” look at same-sex families, but it was totally skewed to the homosexual agenda. Out of 13 guests on the show, only three presented a Christian viewpoint on the set. In addition, all three adult guests on the show were homosexuals. Not one ex-homosexual or conservative therapist was on the program to discuss the root causes of homosexual behavior.
Homosexual activist Rosie O’Donnell admitted on the show her son wishes he had a daddy, but Rosie brushed aside his concerns and told him he would become a dad when he grew up.
The pro-homosexual teens on the show subtly belittled the Christian teens who argued the Bible says homosexuality is wrong. These Christians were told they were not open minded and needed to be tolerant of different family structures.
The advertisers on Nickelodeon must be educated about the origins of homosexual behavior and the objectives of the homosexual activists who were involved in the preparation of this show, which was aired without advertising. We are now determining which advertisers most need to realize the truth. People who sign this petition will be sent an email update with the names of those advertisers.
Homosexuality is a Gender Identity Disorder that has serious mental and health consequences for those engaging in this sexual behavior. Homosexuals experience high rates of sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse problems, mental health problems and infection from AIDS. Despite what homosexuals claim, no person is “born gay.” This behavior is changeable. It is an unhealthy lifestyle, and children should not be led to believe homosexuality is equivalent to heterosexuality.
We are urging concerned citizens to contact the advertisers on Nickelodeon to let them know they should not be supporting the normalization of homosexuality among children.
Andrea Lafferty
Executive Director
Traditional Values CoalitionSource: ConservativePetitions.com
Did you catch their subtle suggestion that there are only two sides to the “Gay” debate – those promoting “the homosexual agenda” and the Christians? I wondered how true their claims were that Gays have “serious mental and health consequences” and their claims that Gays have “high rates of sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse problems, mental health problems and infection from AIDS.”
I went to the Center for Disease Control’s website and searched, for starters, for their stats on AIDS infections of Gays vs Straights. Here’s what I found:
AIDS Cases by Exposure Category
Following is the distribution of the estimated number of diagnoses of AIDS among adults and adolescents by exposure category. A breakdown by sex is provided where appropriate.
Exposure Category Estimated
# of AIDS Cases, in 2003Male Female Total Male-to-male sexual contact 17,969 - 17,969 Injection Drug Use 6,353 3,096 9,449 Male-to-male sexual contact and injection drug
use1,877 - 1,877 Heterosexual contact 5,133 8,127 13,260 Other* 281 276 557 Source: CDC Divisions of HIV/AIDS Prevention Basic Statistics
One can see from the table that, according to the CDC in 2003, Gays had (not to downplay the devasation of the disease) “only” 4,709 more reported cases of HIV/AIDS than Heterosexuals. That’s not a big enough margin, in my opinion, to word your skewed petition in a way that leads the ignorant to believe that Gays are the only ones at high risk of HIV/AIDS.
Now, their claim that homosexuality is Gender Identity Disorder that results in “serious mental and health consequences”:
Merck reported in The Merck Manual the following about diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder:
The diagnosis also requires the presence of significant distress or obvious impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. Gender identity disorder is not diagnosed if a person engages in cross-dressing or other cross-gender activities without concurrent psychologic distress or functional impairment…
Source: The Merck Manual
On to another claim of theirs – that homosexuality leads to serious mental health problems.
The Psychology department of UC Davis reports on what the American Psychological Association feels about this matter:
Although some psychologists and psychiatrists may personally hold negative attitudes toward homosexuality, empirical evidence and professional norms do not support any linkage of sexual orientation with psychopathology.
Source: Homosexuality and Mental Health
So, after doing some light research, one can see how biased and poorly worded their petition is. I think we all know WHY they worded it they way they did. The sad fact is that people like ConservativePetitions.com are doing nothing but perpetuating the stigmas of homosexuality, as well as the ignorance of those opposed to the lifestyle.
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Agreed. But, a few points.
One can see from the table that, according to the CDC in 2003, Gays had (not to downplay the devasation of the disease) “only” 4,709 more reported cases of HIV/AIDS than Heterosexuals. That’s not a big enough margin, in my opinion, to word your skewed petition in a way that leads the ignorant to believe that Gays are the only ones at high risk of HIV/AIDS.
Dude, it is when gays make up less than 5% of the population (and gay males, who are most at risk for HIV, half that). That’s an incredibly disproportionate rate of infection. Of course, this is mostly due to unsafe sex practices, and probably has little to do with what the show they’re protesting was about: monogamous partners in family relationships.
I’d be inclined to believe that the substance abuse and mental problems rates are higher too because many gay people do not grow up in an environment that accepts them. I bet constant harrassment and fear go a long way toward inclining people to such things.
…as well as the ignorance of those opposed to the lifestyle.
I’m sure you didn’t mean to, but most gays I know do not at all care for the word “lifestyle” being attached to their sexuality. It implies that they chose to be gay. After all, no one talks about the black lifestyle or the female lifestyle.
My favorite response to the “not born gay” idiocy was from Dan Savage who said (paraphrased)
“To those of you men who think that homosexuality is chosen or can be cured, let me ask you: Is there anything at all I could say or do to convince you to put my penis in your mouth and keep it there until I had an orgasm? What makes you think it works the other way?”
Do Gays really only make up 5% of the population? I would have thought the percentage was much larger.
Well, taking that info into consideration, the numbers definitely take on a whole new meaning.
The ‘lifestyle’ wording was because I got tired of typing ‘homosexuality’ =)
I think Kinsey’s estimate was between 10%, but it’s pretty much universally agreed that he was too optimistic. Most current estimates are somewhere between 2% and 10%. It’s really hard to measure such things. And that’s just the estimates for those who are gay. The ones who are okay with it enough even to the extent that they’d tell a doctor that’s how they might have gotten HIV are almost certainly less than 5%.
Appropriate anecdotal (possibly apocryphal) story (percentages made up):
At an early medical conference dealing with the spread of HIV, the presenters were breaking down the transmission methods: “34% of infected reported using intravenous drugs, 36% were homosexual, and 25% did both”. Some doctor who was paying attention in fourth grade: “That only adds up to 95%. What about the others?”
“The last five percent,” said the presenter, “are lying.”
Extremes are always wrong. I think trying to put Gays into a single article really does not do justice to the argument. I do applaude the way you approached the rebuttal. I personally belive that everyone should be happy as long as that happiness does not come in between someone else’s happiness and their own. Gay people do not bother me in any way, and I think some organizations make an agenda of making gays look bad… not the other way around.