Were Priests who Abused Boys Gay?

Marty said: "Unsubstantiated slur? It’s actually well documented fact that approximately 80% of the abuse cases involved in this scandal were same-sex, male-male abuse."

This is exactly the discredited Paul Cameron type misuse of "facts" that we all should condemn. Child predation has everything to do with the availability of the victim and nothing to do with the sexual orientation of the perpetrator. About one third of child molesters, for example, are the live in boyfriends of women who have custody of their children. Half of these children are boys, half are girls. To say that half of those who molest these children are "gay" because the victim is a boy is just nonsense. Obviously none of these perpetrators is gay since the whole reason they are there is to have sex with the child's mother. The fact that many of the victims are boys is just a matter of happenstance.

This Cameronesque illogic is mis-used in other situations. One study found that in 32% of the cases of male pedophilia, the victim was a boy. Using the guestimate that 3% of the population are gay, proponents of Colorado Proposition 2 often and loudly proclaimed, "Studies [sic] show the gays are ten times more likely to molest children."

When the researchers in this and other studies actually look into the backgrounds of these pedophiles, they have a hard time finding perpetrators who are gay. Instead almost all are heterosexuals, most have wives and many have children of their own. What these and other legitimate studies confirm is that gays are a third to a half less likely to abuse or molest children.

Suggesting that since 80% of the cases in this scandal involved male-male abuse, this implies that the Priests involved were gay is as absurd as saying that 50% of abusive live in boyfriends are gay. Abuse has everything to do with availability and nothing to do with sexual orientation.

Also posted at Family Scholar's Blog Comment #22