Wayne Besen - Author, Activist, Columnist, Public Speaker

Monday, April 28, 2008

TWO Slams Mississippi College Rag For Printing Hate Propaganda

In a disgraceful example of journalistic malpractice, the college newspaper The Daily Mississipian printed right wing talking points - while calling it an op-ed.

"Homosexuality is unhealthy," writes Zack Williams, "Not in the way that cigarettes and booze are unhealthy, but in the way that drinking a shot of turpentine every Wednesday afternoon while perusing real estate catalogues for houses near nuclear waste dumps is unhealthy."

TWO responded with a letter to the editor:

Dear Editor:

I read the anti-gay rant by Zack Williams with a mix of horror and amazement. How could a real newspaper allow such transparent lies to find their way into print? His error-laced article is not only profoundly immoral, but statistically and scientifically inaccurate.

For example, Williams cites that the life-span of gay men is 20 years less than heterosexuals. This lie came directly from Dr. Paul Cameron, a discredited psychologist who was kicked out of the American Psychological Association and Nebraska Psychological Association for distorting statistics about gay men. One would think that the Mississippian would fact check before it prints a hateful article that defames an entire population by citing a debunked researcher. Clearly, you have shoddy journalistic standards. Shame on you.

Furthermore, Williams' assertion that there is no gay gene is sophistry, at best. While technically accurate, he conveniently fails to mention that for the past three decades, there has been an enormous amount of research suggesting that sexual orientation is biological. For the record, there is also no "left handed gene," but no serious person suggests that left handedness is a learned or unnatural behavior.

I can understand your desire to have a healthy debate - but you have broken a very basic journalistic rule: One does not sacrifice accuracy for the sake of "balance."

For example, you would not have a person write that the world is flat, just because you have someone write that the world is round. (Or, maybe the Mississippian actually would.)

Please apologize immediately for this miscarriage of journalism, before the reputation of your newspaper suffers further and irreparable damage. In the future, you will find that basic fact checking goes a long way in enhancing credibility.

I hope you elect to print this letter in your newspaper, so your students can actually get some accurate information. Remember, college is supposed to be a place of education - not right wing indoctrination. Printing the talking points of the American Family Association in the guise of an honest op-ed is simply disgraceful.

Sincerely,

Wayne Besen
Executive Director
TruthWinsOut.org

MEDIA ALERT: Please send your own letters to the editor of the Daily Mississipian, Marti Covington, at:
editor@thedmonline.com

60 Comments:

What else does one expect from a dumbass hick paper in the sticks?

Even though these people have Internet access, they choose to remain dumb as rocks. I have no sympathy for these fools. They celebrate their stupidity and wear flannel.

The south has always been the home of bigots and racists. This article shows that the term "New South" is nonsense.

Jane
SoHo
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 10:11 AM

the dmonline. demonline for sure.
posted by ewe, at 4/28/2008 11:00 AM

Yeah, I had an idiot fundie demonstrator at my campus tell me I would die around the age of forty. I told him exactly what you told that newspaper, where that lie came from, discredited quack Paul Cameron. And the fundie said "no it didn't". And so I said "oh really, where did you hear it then?" And he just stared blankly off into the distance and ignored me.

Morons.
posted by Eshto, at 4/28/2008 11:48 AM

"They celebrate their stupidity and wear flannel."

Yeah, by the way "Jane", we wear flannel up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Because it's f-ing cold. In fact I have a favorite flannel I wear every winter. And once in a while I get told by judgmental pricks, in a judgmental tone, that I look like a lumberjack, which I choose to take as a compliment because I think lumberjacks are hot.

I'm guessing people in the south, where it's hot as hell - yeah, not so much into the flannel.
posted by Eshto, at 4/28/2008 12:15 PM

After living in the smalltown South for 21 years, I can tell you most of these people pass off gossip and hate speech as fact.

If they hear something gossipy from their neighbor about the lady down the street, well...it must be fact!

If they hear something about people from NY, from an illiterate somebody who's never watched or read the news a day in his life...it must be fact!
posted by Scott, at 4/28/2008 12:22 PM

Aside from name calling and now getting back to facts - it is true that STD's are very high in the gay population. But his statistic from 1978 should be regarded as outdated (since social behaviors are not static and that was WAY before the AIDS epidemic)

He sees it as bad and sees only negative pictures of gays. Instead of name calling and trash throwing how about presenting a better picture?? Like getting accurate, updated statistics. Like admnitting that yes, some gay people do engage in promiscuity and so do straight people. But then again- if being the very thing he accuses you of or not showing the alternative is satisfying - then go ahead and prove him right by continuing to caryy on as you have.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 12:43 PM

Even if gay people are more promiscuous - which is not often untrue, we just lie less about it than straight people- what does that prove? What does that mean in the grand scheme of things?

Because we may have a statistical increase in the clap (which can be cured with a pill) we should marry women who we find sexually repulsive? Give up the joys of love and sex? Lead lonely lives because once every ten years we may have to get an injection? Yeah, right.

This debate is going nowhere and is absurd. Gay people are gay - just grow the fuck up, repressed, religious closet cases and deal with it. These statistics are worthless -accurate or not, as they do not address the fact that gay people will always be gay (the high-priced so-called ex-gay, bullshit, marketing, PR, propaganda notwithstanding)

Um, just look at the lispy speech patterns and faggoty faces of Alan Chambers and Randy Thomas to drive home this obvious point that gays can't change.

As for AIDS, condoms work just dandy. Too bad conservatives keep fighting them. It seems to me they want an ignorant gay population so they can point a finger and say - "see, I told you so." They really don't care about how many gay people are killed by their policies and are quite evil.

It is important to point out that all minorities - particularly blacks have a higher STD rate. Poor people also have a higher STD rates.

For all those white, conservative pieces of shit who comlain about this - please transfer your healthcare policies to those minority populations. And, you can take their level of education and lack of healthcare - and let's see how superior you truly are. Within a year, the statistics would reverse themselves.

The Mississipian is a fish wrapper that reinforces what most Americans think of that state. Unrepentant rednecks and inbred, toothless swine.

I suggest that all people read the New York Times Magazine story on gay couples. It will put all the conservative horseshit in prospective.

Max in Portland
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 1:54 PM

Hmmm...And all this from someone who refers gay men as having "lispy voices" and "faggoty faces". Methinks max needs to examine his own inner bigotries first. Peace. MH.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 2:08 PM

Wasnt there a recent news story (scandal) that found that 1 in 5 teenaged girls had some type of STD? I wonder if that was reported in the Hickissippi Collage Rag?
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 2:27 PM

I mean 'College' (i gradiated from da sixt grade).
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 2:28 PM

You mean there are enough literate people in Mississippi to put out a DAILY newspaper?
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 2:30 PM

Regardless of the opinion of the writer, one should not ignore the particular health risks of gay men. I know it is not the 80's but drug use and sexually transmitted diseases are high in this group. It floors me that this(STD's and drug use) has not ended in this particular civic and social minded group.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 6:20 PM

That STD might be the virus that causes cervical cancer. Most women over the age of 40 who have had sex (even with just one partner) are carriers of that. Just like any communicable disease - the one person you slept with means you are sleeping with everyone they slept with.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 6:46 PM

Why are some of you so sex negative? Did your pedophile priest give you hang-ups and complexes where you can't enjoy it?

I pity people who are so scared of minor STD's that they give up enormous amounts of pleasure. You've been sold a false bill of goods. With modern medicine, there is no reason not to have lot's of great sex.

Time to get in the modern world.

Paul
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 6:49 PM

"Just like any communicable disease - the one person you slept with means you are sleeping with everyone they slept with."

This is not true. Many of these diseases - particularly HIV are difficult to get. You don't catch something from every infected person you sleep with - even if they are infected. it is always good to be safe - but let's stop this self-righteous paranoia.

Please, stop trying to scare people, you sex-negative freaks. You probably are terrible in bed and don't want your partners to experience anyone else, as they may figure out that you are inferior in the hay. Please, stop passing off your personal insecurities as "science."
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 6:54 PM

I was talking about the human pap. disease that women get. A shot does not cure it. However, chlamydia, yeast etc... can be cured with a shot or anti something. HIV cannot be cured with a shot. I don't think that is being sex scared - that's being practical.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 7:06 PM

But hey, if you want to go ahead and bet your life on it, then go ahead. Many have and many have lost.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/28/2008 7:24 PM

The column was trash, but I would advise everyone to read the responses. They tear the fallacies in the column to little bits.
posted by BlackTsunami, at 4/28/2008 8:57 PM

"Hmmm...And all this from someone who refers gay men as having "lispy voices" and "faggoty faces". Methinks max needs to examine his own inner bigotries first. Peace. MH."

I'm always quick to condemn effemiphobia, but I think Max is pretty much spot on in this case. And I didn't get the sense he personally has a problem with effeminate gay men, rather I think he's pointing out the absurdity and hypocrisy of the right wing and ex-gay movement - they're the ones making a living off of claiming gay men should butch themselves up. Then you see their poster boys flaming around and lisping and failing to catch footballs. It's their own twisted logic and their own blatant failure to live up to it that makes them look like assholes.

As for STI's, any person with a soul (not to mention half a brain) would look at a statistically higher occurrence of infection in an at-risk social group, and look for ways to address the issues that might be contributing to it in order to help those people. They would wonder if safe-sex education is being made accessible to that group, or if there are associated factors like economic disparity or social justice issues that are fueling the problem.

They wouldn't use those statistics cold-heartedly to condemn the group's right to exist.

And they wouldn't be so stupid as to assume a statistic can be universally applied to anyone sharing commonalities with the sample that was analyzed. I for one live in the Midwest, we have a few gay clubs but nothing special, I've never been to a bath house or a sex party. They probably happen in my city but I wouldn't know where to find one, nor do I care to. My husband and I consulted our physicians and got tested at the outset of our marriage, and we're monogamous. The chance of me catching a sexually transmitted infection is zero, unless something truly preposterous happens, like I trip and fall on an AIDS-laden needle left in the middle of the street.

And of course, typical of nearly all homophobes, this jerkwad doesn't take females into account at all. Women who have sex exclusively with other women have a lower rate of STI's than straight women.
posted by Eshto, at 4/28/2008 9:07 PM

Damn trailer trash should take the wheat out of their fucking mouths and report more accurately. What a bunch of backward ass bumpkins.

Bart (new York)
posted by Anonymous, at 4/29/2008 12:07 AM

Eshto,

How true that is about women. No one ever talks about the disease of lesbianism. I read a pamphlet once that said lesbians get STD's from having sex with their gay male friends. Okay? That went well. It was truly absurd and disturbing that someone wrote that and believes it.
posted by Anonymous, at 4/29/2008 12:36 AM

I am not surprised if some Mississippians drank shots of turpentine (part of their homemade hooch) and live near toxic waste dumps. Something like that would enhance their ignorance. I wonder if the AFA is based near a toxic dump in Tupelo.

Blood From Machines
posted by Anonymous, at 4/29/2008 1:35 PM

I bet Zack Williams will be outed as gay within 10 years. Scientific studies have shown that homophobes often get hard while watching gay porno. I believe homophobes try to supress their own gayness by bashing gay people. I hope Zack will come out before he does anymore harm. We can then forgive him for his sins.
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The AFA is a toxic waste dump! MH.
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