Today, during an interview with nationally-syndicated progressive radio host David Pakman, crackpot Paul Cameron — a discredited “researcher” who was kicked out of both the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association for peddling virulently anti-gay junk science — served up an especially nutty word salad in which he claimed, among other things, that he knows President Obama to be a gay man because of a remark Elizabeth Taylor once made about gays in Hollywood and that he was “seduced” and “raped homosexually. . . as a three-year-old,” which he said caused him to be attracted to men. But never fear, America, because Paul Cameron wants you to know that he is not, not, not gay anymore. “On a scale of 1 to 100, it’s zip,” he reassures Pakman’s viewers after chortling uncomfortably. (You believe him, right?) “As a matter of fact” says Cameron, “if anything, I’m repelled by it. I’m probably about a minus 100 (-100).”
That’s basically how the entire interview transpires: Pakman asks Cameron a simple question, i.e. “Why do you think President Obama may be gay himself?”, and Cameron responds with an extended romp through the garden of free association. In this case, he initially cited a press conference in which “homosexuals [claimed] that they had sex” with the President. (I believe he was referring to a tabloid-worthy incident in June 2008, where a man of dubious mental stability named Larry Sinclair rented out a room at the National Press Club and held a press conference in which he made wildly fantastical allegations of gay sex, drugs, and murder against then-candidate Obama, ignored a request from an incredulous reporter to release his mental health records, and told the assembled throng that he preferred not to wear pants because of the disproportionate size of his genitalia. According to Ben Smith at Politico, Sinclair was promptly arrested after the event concluded.)
After Pakman attempts to bring Cameron back on task by reminding him that unsubstantiated allegations do not, in fact, equate to proof, Cameron agrees, then redirects, this time alleging that the President’s homosexuality can be confirmed by the fact that — I kid you not — the Denver Post has gay reporters on its staff and writes about LGBT issues. And by the way, “If you look at [President Obama’s] church, where he went to church with [Rev. Jeremiah] Wright and so forth, uhh, hmmmmm…” And then there’s the President’s connections with Hollywood, which must mean he’s gay, because “as Liz Taylor said, ‘Without gays, there is no Hollywood.'”
And so it goes. We “learn” that Cameron doesn’t get very excited downstairs anymore at his age, Harvey Milk had relationships with several teenagers, over half the children in Afghanistan and Pakistan are molested by their teachers because of the “fair degree of prominence” homosexuality has in those societies, the heinous crimes of Jerry Sandusky were caused by American acceptance of homosexuality, only 20% of gay men abstain from anal sex, and that men in general are incapable of thinking sexual thoughts without then acting on them. As proof, Cameron cites the biblical story of randy ol’ King David, who “looked out and he saw a good-looking broad [sic], [but] he didn’t have to… invite her in…”
I’m not exaggerating. Watch the video. Before you simply write Cameron off as a quack, though, realize that his bogus research is still cited by major anti-LGBT hate groups including the Family Research Council, American Family Association, and Concerned Women for America. And do you remember that thoroughly debunked wingnut canard about the supposed “health risks” of homosexuality? You know, the one about how gay men, on average, live only half as long as their heterosexual counterparts? The lie that, although it’s been discredited for years, still resurfaces today in legislative testimony, city council hearings, and public comment forums across the country? You guessed it, that whopper originated in the so-called “research” of Paul Cameron. So while the man may be a nuttier than a fruitcake, he’s still — almost unbelievably — a menace.
