Child
Sexual Abuse, Child Safety and Homosexuality:
Fact Replacing Myth.
1. Child sexual abuse is wrong.
It's the responsibility of every individual to work to stop it, struggle to
prevent it, and to push for public policy to end it. All victims deserve to be believed, treated with respect and dignity
and have access to resources for healing and recovery. To do this
effectively, people need to know the facts
about child sexual abuse.
2. There is a myth that Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) are a danger to and molest children because of
their sexual orientation, and that being "gay" means being a
sexual predator.[1]
3. This lie is spread and perpetuated by those who are systematically and deliberately working to deprive LGBT people of their human rights.[2]
This
includes right wing organizations and think tanks as well as religious
institutions such as the Catholic Church,[3]
the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and many
evangelical Christian churches. It also
includes media pundits and politicians of every party (but clustered among the
Republicans and the right).[4]
Some truly believe this falsehood.
Most are cynically using peoples' fear, ignorance of the facts and parents'
strong protective feelings about their children to gain and maintain power, win
elections and make money.
4. This lie is used to deprive LGBT people of equal
rights to marry, adopt, raise foster children, teach, and have equal access
to employment and housing. This pervasive misconception provides a framework
and context that condones violence against LGBT people. [5]
5. Those spreading this lie perpetuate and promote child
sexual abuse by protecting the real
perpetrators.
6. Who ARE the real perpetrators?
a) They are not strangers.
Research tells us that only about 10% of those who sexually abuse children
are strangers.[6] (Finkelhor, et al. 1990)
b) Perpetrators
are almost always someone the child
knows. [7] [8] (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
2004.; Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000.)
c) Perpetrators
are often members of the child's family. 30 to 50% perpetrators of girls
are family members; 10 to 20% of perpetrators of boys are family members.[9]
(Finkelhor, 1994) Most common
perpetrators are fathers, stepfathers, uncles, grandfathers, and men who are
partners/boyfriends of the child's mother.
Research tells us that 90 - 98% of
offenders are male. This vast disparity is usually downplayed by organizations
trying to appear even-handed and objective, and not wanting to risk being
perceived as anti-male.
A small minority of women DO sexually abuse children (mostly
boys; a few girls). It is crucial not to ignore this fact or to invalidate or
minimize the experience of victims whose perpetrators are female. (Finkelhor,
2000, 1994)
7. Who is being victimized?
About 75% of victims of child
sexual abuse are girls.[12]
[13]
(Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000)
About 25% of children who are sexually abused are boys.
Some seem to be more horrified and
disgusted when boys are sexually abused -- raising the question of whether
sexual abuse of women and girls is normative and whether boys are perceived as
more valuable.
ANOTHER myth is that boys
and men cannot be
or are not sexually abused,
raped or harassed.
Both
attitudes are seriously problematic.
Homophobia hurts male victims of
rape because a major reason men and boys don't disclose, report, or get help
for rape by other men is because they fear the label and stigma of being gay.
QUESTIONS THAT ARE OFTEN RAISED
1. But if men
are sexually abusing boys, doesn't this prove that it's a gay problem?
Some
professionals believe, and some research supports that there are people who are
pedophiles - that they have a sexual attraction to children. Some believe that
pedophiles (mostly men) have no adult sexual orientation.[14]
(McConaghy,1998).
However,
the research clearly demonstrates
that child sexual abusers who DO have an adult sexual orientation or adult
partners are far, far more likely to be heterosexual men than they are to be
LGBT people.[15] (Abel,
et al. 2001)
OTHERS
point to recent research that demonstrates that adults who identify as LGBT represent 3% or LESS of child sexual
abusers.[16] (Jenny, C., et al. 1994)
THERE IS NO EMPIRICAL
EVIDENCE DEMONSTRATING THAT LGBT PEOPLE ARE MORE LIKELY TO SEXUALLY ABUSE
CHILDRENTHAN ARE HETEROSEXUAL PEOPLE.
2. So, if some people are pedophiles, does
that mean they can't help what they do?
No. Child
sexual abuse is a CHOICE made by
individuals to assault and abuse those with less POWER than themselves.
It is NO coincidence that when
males are sexually abused, they are in societally disvantaged positions -- when
they are boys,[17] (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000), when they
are in prison,[18] [19] (Human Rights Watch, 2001, Valerie Jenness, et al.,
2007) when they are disabled, as in the abuse of deaf boys in England’s
Catholic Church, (Sobsey
et al., 1997)[20] when they are gay, etc.
In the same way, it is NO
coincidence that women and girls outnumber men and boys as victims of
sexualized violence and abuse because of the power differential between men and
women.
4. Doesn't the child sexual abuse scandal in
the Catholic Church prove that child sexual abuse is a LGBT problem? Or at
least a gay male problem?[21]
The
Catholic Church's structure and policy decisions have made it a haven for those
men who choose to sexually abuse children. There is a culture of obedience to
priests, unquestioning acceptance of priests’ morality, and consistent and
systematic protection and cover-up of perpetrators. The Church's policy and
practices allows sexual abuse to flourish.[22]
5. Isn't
there a gay group called NAMBLA that promotes "man/boy" love and
isn't it supported by LGBTs?
There is a group called the
National Association of Man/Boy Love that claims to be made up of gay men and
purports to be about sexual freedom for boys. It is clear that the organization
is made up of child rapists trying to use the LBGT movement as protection for
its criminal and immoral activities. Its existence is used routinely to
discredit LBGT people despite the fact that no LBGT organization supports
NAMBLA or its "ideas."
6. Isn't
it true that gay men have a youth glorify and eroticize youth? Yes SOME do! And so do some straight men.
Our culture eroticizes childhood, youth, vulnerability and weakness and trains
men to become sexually excited by these categories. However, not all men – gay or heterosexual –
accept or buy into the glorification of youth.
7. Well,
even if gay people aren't child molesters, aren't children better off with a
mother and a father?
A growing
body of scientific literature demonstrates that children who
grow up with one or two gay and/or lesbian parents fare as well in
emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children
whose parents are heterosexual. Children’s optimal development seems to be
influenced more by the nature of the relationships
and interactions within the family unit than by the particular
structural form it takes.[23]
[24](Pennin, 2002).
Scholars have achieved a rare degree of consensus[1] that unmarried lesbian parents are raising
children who develop at least as well as their counterparts
with married
heterosexual parents [25]
(Stacey et al., 2001; Tasker, 2005; Stacey, et
al., 2010).
Please look at the recent
document issued by the American Psychological Association entitled
“Lesbian and Gay Parenting.”
It is online at http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/parenting-full.pdf.
(Link checked 7/2011).
8. Are we forgetting hate crimes against
lgbt youth and children?
Yes, we
forget that lgbt people are more likely to be VICTIMIZED because they
are gay. When gay men are imprisoned they are often separated from other inmates
because they will otherwise be raped by heterosexual men. In a study of
California prisons in 2007, it was found that inmates who identified as LGBT
were 15 times more likely to be raped than those who did not.[26]
(Jenness, 2007)
Gay men are
raped more often than heterosexual men, in part because they are the victims of
anti-gay hate crimes, but also because they are in relationships with other
boys and men, and couple violence is one of the most prevalent forms of
physical and sexual violence.
Two of the
top three reasons students said their peers are harassed in school are actual
or perceived sexual orientation and
gender expression, according to the 2005 GLSEN/Harris Interactive Report, "From
Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America."
The problem
is even worse for LGBT students. Nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT youth (86.2%) reported
being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual
orientation, nearly half (44.1%) reported being physically harassed and about a
quarter (22.1%) reported being physically assaulted, according to the 2007
National School Climate Survey.[27]
LGBT youth are at a heightened risk for suicide, suicide attempts and suicidal
thoughts due to harassment and homophobia.
If you are a parent,
check out
A Parent's Guide to Protecting Children Against Sexual Abuse
available on the web
at http://www.wcasa.org/docs/saam/A%20Parent's%20guide%20to%20csa.pdf
(link checked 5/10)
Written by Susan McGee, Kim Kumada, Ian O'Brien and Rebecca
Russell in conjunction with Humboldt State University's course "Education for Action:! Skills-Building
for Social Justice Activists."
[1]
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageid=13722
(link checked 5/10)
[2]
“What the SCIENCE Says – And Doesn’t Say – About Homosexuality: Research-based
answers to ten of the most commonly asked questions about lesbian women, gay
men, and their families.” By Jeff Lutes, MS, LPC. Executive Director,
Soulforce, Inc. Published by Soulforce, Ind. P. O. Box 3195, Lynchburg, VA
24503, www.soulforce.org. pp. 23, 27.
(link checked 5/10)
[3] The Vatican's second-highest authority said the sex scandals
haunting the Roman Catholic Church are linked to homosexuality and not celibacy
among priests. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state,
made the comments during a news conference in Chile, where one of the church's
highest-profile pedophile cases involves a priest having sex with young girls. http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/cardinal-bertone-says-priest-pedophilia. (link checked 5/10)
[4]
http://www.frc.org/ (link checked 5/10)
[5]
“Facts about Homosexuality and Child Molestation” by Gregory Herek. http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_molestation.html
(link checked 5/10)
[6]
Finkelhor, D., Hotaling G., Lewis I. A., and Smith C. "Sexual abuse in a
national survey of adult men and women: Prevalence, characteristics and risk
factors." Child Abuse and Neglect (1990). 14:19-28.
[7]
A study in three states found 96% of reported rape survivors under age 12
knew the attacker. Four percent of the offenders were strangers, 20 percent
were fathers, 16 percent were relatives and 50% were acquaintances or friends. Advocates
for Youth, "Child Sexual Abuse: An Overview," January 1995. American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (2004). Child Sexual
Abuse. Washington , D.C. :
American Academy
[8]
Just 3% of the offenders in the sexual assaults of children under age 6 were
strangers, compared with 5% of the offenders of youth ages 6 through 12, and
10% of offenders of juveniles ages 12 through 17. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics , US
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1147 (link checked 5/10)
[9]
Finkelhor, David. "Current Information on the Scope and Nature of Child
Sexual Abuse." Sexual Abuse of
Children. Vol 4. No. 2. Summer/Fall, 1994.
[10]
"Male offenders are responsible for 92 percent of sexual assaults reported
to the police." Juvenile Justice Bulletin, "Child Abuse Reported to
the Police" by David Finkelhor and Richard Ormwood. May 2001. U.S.
Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Available online at
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/187238.pdf
(link checked 5/10)
[11] Finkelhor, David. "Current Information on the
Scope and Nature of Child Sexual Abuse." Sexual Abuse of Children. Vol 4. No. 2. Summer/Fall, 994.
[12]
According to the bulletin cited in footnote 4, 80 percent of child sexual
assault victims who report to the police are girls and 20% are boys.
[13]
Females were more than six times as likely as males to be the victims of sexual
assaults known to law enforcement agencies. The relative proportion of female victims
generally increased with age. Sixty-nine percent of victims under age 6 were
female, compared with 73% of victims under age 12, and 82% of all juvenile
(under age 18) victims. The female proportion of sexual assault victims reached
90% at age 13 and 95% at age 19. Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics , US
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1147
(link checked 5/10)
[14]
McConaghy notes: "The man who offends against prepubertal or immediately
postpubertal boys is typically not sexually interested in older men or in
women." (p. 259.) McConaghy, N.
(1998). "Paedophilia: A review of the evidence." Australian and New Zealand
[15]
Abel, G. M.D., Nora Harlow (2001) The Abel and Harlow Child Molestation
Prevention Study. Available online at http://www.childmolestationprevention.org/pdfs/study.pdf
(link checked 5/10)
[16]
Jenny, C., Roesley, T., and Poyer, K. (1994) "Are Children at Risk for Sex
Abuse by Homosexuals?" Pediatrics,
Vol. 94, No. 1. p. 41.
[17]
A greater percentage of juvenile sexual assault victims known to law
enforcement were male (18%) than were adult male sexual assault victims (4%).
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics ,
US
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=1147
(link checked 5/10)
[18]
According to the Human Rights Watch, 2001 "22% of male prison inmates have
been raped at least once during their incarceration; roughly 420,000 prisoners
each year. Human Rights Watch, No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons 63 (2001). news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/hrw/hrwmalerape0401.pdf
[19] In a 2007 academic study, funded by the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and conducted at six California men’s prisons, 67 percent
of inmates who identified as LGBTQ
reported having been sexually assaulted by another inmate during their
incarceration, a rate that was 15 times higher than
for the inmate population overall.
Valerie Jenness et al., Center for Evidence-Based Corrections, "Violence in California Correctional Facilities: An Empirical Examination
of Sexual Assault" (2007)
[20]
Sobsey
et al., 1997 found that boys are overrepresented among sexually abused children
with disabilities compared with their respective proportion of sexually abused
children without disabilities. Sobsey D, Randall W, Parrila R (1997),"
Gender differences in abused children
with and without disabilities". ChildAbuseNegl 2l.707-720
[21]
For a discussion of female victims in the Catholic Church, check out the
website http://www.snapnetwork.org/female_victims/female_victims_index.htm
(Link checked 5/10)
[22]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3872499.stm (link checked 5/10) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-church-child-abuse
(link checked 5/10)
http://theweek.com/article/index/201287/Pope_Benedict_and_the_pedophilia_scandal_A_timeline (link checked 5/10)
[23]
Pediatrics. Volume 109 No. 2
February 2002, pp. 341-344. American Academy of Pediatrics. Technical Report:
Coparent or Second-Parent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents, by Ellen C. Perrin, MD
and Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health.
[24]
“What the SCIENCE Says – And Doesn’t Say – About Homosexuality: Research-based
answers to ten of the most commonly asked questions about lesbian women, gay
men, and their families.” By Jeff Lutes, MS, LPC. Executive Director,
Soulforce, Inc. Published by Soulforce, Ind. P. O. Box 3195, Lynchburg, VA
24503, www.soulforce.org. pp. 19 – 23.
(link checked 5/10)
[25] Stacey &
Biblarz, 2001; Tasker, 2005; Stacey, Judith and Biblarz, Timothy. "How
Does the Gender of Parents Matter?" Journal
of Marriage and the Family, Feb. 2010, Volume 21, Issue 1, pp. 3 - 22.
[26]
Valerie
Jenness et al., Center for Evidence-Based Corrections, "Violence in California Correctional
Facilities: An Empirical Examination of Sexual Assault" (2007)
Bisexual and
Transgender Youth in Our Nation’s Schools. by Joseph G. Kosciw,
Ph.D.
Elizabeth
M. Diaz Emily A. Greytak, M.S.Ed.
Published by GLSEN. http://www.glsen.org/binary-data/GLSEN_ATTACHMENTS/file/000/001/1290-1.pdf
(link checked 5/10)
The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender Youth
in Our Nation’s Schools The 2007 National
School Climate Survey
The Experiences of Lesbian,
Gay,
