One week ago, TruthWinsOut.org published exclusive comments by Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H., a professor of pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, who said the “ex-gay” organization PFOX distorted his research findings:
“My work has been cited by PFOX in response to a Washington Post article on gay-straight alliances (GSA),” wrote Dr. Remafedi. “PFOX misuses one of my studies on suicide attempts in gay youth to argue that people should not identify their sexual orientation at young ages. Our findings do not support the contention that young people choose their identity or the timing of events in identity formation. Nor is there any evidence that the availability of GSAs influences those developmental processes.”
Today, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays was caught in another lie by Ed Brayton of ScienceBlogs.com.
Brayton (pictured) noticed that, in an article posted by the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow propaganda service in the wee hours of July 26, PFOX executive director Regina Griggs said: “Over 70 percent of young kids 13- to 24-years-old, men having sex with men, are now HIV-positive.”
Brayton, who is heterosexual, crunches the numbers from current federal Centers for Disease Control research on youth sexual health, and finds that approximately 3.1 percent of men aged 13 to 24, who have sex with men, are HIV-positive. In a worst-case scenario, Brayton finds that 5 percent of MSM in this age group might be HIV-positive.
Brayton comments:
[Griggs] also makes the ridiculous claim that teenagers can’t self-identify as straight or gay. Has she never been a teenager? I knew I was straight the moment I hit puberty and started feeling sexually attracted to girls. Every gay man I know says the exact same thing about feeling sexually attracted to boys at the same time. There wasn’t any confusion about it, you just are what you are, no choice involved.
Hat tip: Box Turtle Bulletin
