Matt Barber interviewed Steve Crampton of the Liberty Counsel for the “Faith and Freedom” radio broadcast, and Crampton railed against efforts to stop “ex-gay” therapy, saying that banning the practice is akin to the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. If you’re having a hard time figuring out how preventing quack therapists from damaging LGBT people for life has anything to do with forced sterilization, don’t worry, that’s because it’s a nonsensical argument, even if you’re coming from an anti-gay perspective:
Here is the quote, in case you can’t listen to it:
And the side to the whole eugenics movement that I think still underlies the abortion industry in America is that it was pioneered by and championed by the so-called experts.
In 1909, California adopted laws forcing sterilization of those they deemed unfit. It took some six decades before they stopped the practice, during which time sixty thousand Americans were sterilized involuntarily by the experts. We’re talking the California Psychiatric Association, in particular.
Interestingly enough, here we are today at Liberty Counsel litigating against the California psychiatrists and the American Psychiatric Association that so many folks hold in high regard and now they’re touting theories about homosexuality rather than eugenics, but the theories are equally devoid of any kind of scientific basis.
And what I want to say to our listeners is beware the experts. So often, it is the experts that get us into the deep, deep weeds and the darkest places of the experience of humanity and so blindly following them can get us into horrific places.
The problem, of course, is that when Crampton says that the experts’ consensus on homosexuality is “devoid of any kind of scientific basis,” he’s simply lying. The religious right is, as usual, completely opposed to any and all scientific research that runs counter to their limited worldview, and they will do anything to try to confuse people on these issues. The good news is that a growing majority of Americans see their anti-gay, scientifically bereft blather for what it is.
