Tom Benton, MD and his flock of other quacks (American College of Pediatricians) have stooped to a new low in their attempt to confuse the public regarding LGBT youth: they recently mailed their innocuously appearing yet truly virulent “Facts About Youth” to school superintendents across the country under the guise of medical expertise. Contrary to the cohesive opinion of numerous reputable medical and mental health organizations Dr Benton peddles the snake oil ideas that same-sex sexual attraction is learned, pathological and treatable.

This counterfeit group of fringe fanatics should not be confused with the renown American Academy of Pediatricians which in fact completely disagrees with the assertions, misrepresentations and frank lies being perpetuated by Dr Benton et al:

“An estimated 2 to 5 percent of adolescents are homosexual, the same percentage as among adults. Scientists generally agree that several factors converge to form a person’s sexual orientation. But there is increasing evidence that human beings may be genetically predisposed toward heterosexuality or homosexuality. These tendencies may even be established prior to birth, just as gender, hair color and complexion are all preprogrammed. Contrary to what some believe, we do not choose to be straight or gay. Come adolescence, a person is innately drawn toward one sex or the other.” – American Academy of Pediatricians

For further reading about Dr Benton’s sleazy organization and its assertions I highly recommend the excellent 4/5/2010 Box Turtle Bulletin post by Timothy Kincaid: “Bogus ‘American College of Pediatricians’ distributes deliberately fraudulent anti-gay propaganda to schools.”

CNN anchor Kyra Phillips is another perpetrator of misinformation. Under the guise of “balanced” reporting, Kyra recently interviewed Richard Cohen (right), an unlicensed “ex-gay therapist”, in her segment “Homosexuality -is it a problem in need of a cure?” As evident in the photo, one of the ways Cohen “cures” is by encouraging men to hold each other in semblance of father and child and thus address the supposed childhood trauma sustained from being raised by an emotionally-distant father. First asserted by Irving Bieber, MD in the 1960s as the cause of homosexuality, this hypothesis has long since been debunked but remains central dogma of the anti-gay fringe.

Quacks like Benton and Cohen will always exist but the pseudoscience they espouse should be recognized for what it is: snake oil “evidence” that only appear on the surface to support their baseless beliefs. They do not represent the other side of the coin nor the counterweight to a mass in balance. They are in fact nothing more than angry flies buzzing around a mountain of scientific evidence they would rather ignore.

“The nation’s leading professional medical, health, and mental health organizations do not support efforts to change young people’s sexual orientation through therapy and have raised serious concerns about the potential harm from such efforts.” – American Psychological Association

Related posts

• 10/20/11 – Talk To Me – Kevin McHale for The Trevor Project
• 7/12/11 – Michele Bachmann: Pray the gay away
• 6/14/11 – For the health of sexual minority youth
• 6/12/11 – Prom queen Andrew Viveros – It Gets Better!
• 6/9/11 – The UCLA “Sissy Boy Experiment”
• 5/4/11 – Google commercial: It Gets Better!
• 10/15/10 – It gets better!
• 4/13/10 – Update: ACP being called on their lies