Washington Post seems to think gay suicide is a two-sided issue
October 13, 2010 11:44 am ET by Julie Millican
Via Pam's House Blend, I learn that the Washington Post's remarkably poor decision to post Tony Perkins's falsehood laden, anti-gay screed on their On Faith blog (on National Coming Out Day nonetheless) was because they felt they needed to "cover both sides" of "bullying and gay suicide." No, really, they're serious. Apparently they hosted a Live Q & A chat with Dan Savage to discuss "bullying and gay suicide" and his "It Gets Better Project," which is a You Tube channel Savage created in order to reach out to gay youths to prevent suicide. So, to balance Savage, the Post turned to Perkins to respond. Apparently to the Post, gay suicide is a two-sided issue.
GLAAD and the Washington Post had an exchange over Twitter, in which the Post responded to criticism over publishing Perkins' column, by saying, "[W]e're working to cover both sides. Earlier, we hosted Dan Savage of It Gets Better in a live chat." GLAAD rightly replied, "There are not 'both sides' to this issue. Teen suicide isn't a debate-it's a tragedy."
Need I remind you that Perkins's argument was that gay suicide, which often is prefaced by homophobic bullying, was caused not by the bullying, but because "homosexuals experience higher rates of mental health problems in general, including depression," and that the "homosexual movement and their allies" teach kids "that they are 'born gay' and can never change. This--and not society's disapproval--may create a sense of despair that can lead to suicide." To back up this insanity, Perkins linked to studies that showed exactly the opposite of what he claimed. While Perkins is right, "Several studies suggest that gay men, lesbians and bisexuals appear to have higher rates of some mental disorders compared with heterosexuals," he's just wrong that this is pathological, and he's equally wrong that there's no link between this and discrimination. Indeed, the article to which Perkins himself linked immediately goes on to report that "[d]iscrimination may help fuel these higher rates." The article further reported: "In a study that examines possible root causes of mental disorders in LGB people, [Susan] Cochran [PhD] and psychologist Vickie M. Mays, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, explored whether ongoing discrimination fuels anxiety, depression and other stress-related mental health problems among LGB people. The authors found strong evidence of a relationship between the two."
The article also reported that the researcher who conducted several of these studies was "concerned that these findings may give ammunition to people who want to falsely promulgate the argument that gay people are by nature mentally ill." The article added:
For one thing, she says, "these are certainly not levels of morbidity consistent with models that say homosexuality is inherently pathological." For another, the data simply don't prove either pro- or anti-gay arguments on the subject, whether it's that the inherent biology of homosexuality causes mental illness or that social stigma provokes mental illness in LGB people, she says.
It seems that Perkins counted on the fact that people wouldn't click through his links, and apparently the On Faith blog editors obliged.
Joseph Stiglitz once wrote of the 2004 elections:
Most of the media not controlled by the right wing tried to play the role of honest broker, giving equal weight to each interpretation. If one side said the sky was blue and the other said it was orange, journalists would work hard, for the sake of appearing balanced, to find some academic, even a color blind one, willing to say that the sky was indeed orange.
Unfortunately, the same still holds true today, and the Post feeling the need to balance a conversation with a gay man about how to prevent gay suicide with a homophobic rant from a crazy man who blames the gays for the suicides, is just the latest sad example of this fallacy.
Yea...and cows get made into hamburgers because thay chose to be cows.
The typical theme of those stories goes something like this: "Smith says the grass on his front lawn is green. When reached for comment, Jones says there is no grass. The controversy continues."
There! The "reporter" has "reported" what one side said (green grass) and what the other side said (no grass). Therefore, the story is complete (two sides) and balanced (each side received equal coverage).
What does the reporter not do? Find out if Smith has a lawn. Go to Smith's house, look at the grass, and report a first hand observation on its existence and color. Find out if Smith has a reason to lie about the grass in front of his house. Find out if Jones might be mistaken, or if Jones has a reason to lie about the condition of Smith's lawn.
That's the state of today's journalism -- transcription.
Mental illness" is a retreat from reality. Suicide has many causes, imlying metnal illness is "the" cause is fallacious.
The resort to "stimga" is equally fallacious. I am imprssed by teh "she said," for it was women who first refuted the assicaiton of that term- with rape. Apparently other assocations from "she said" are "acceptable." "Stigma" is a primary term of bullies. ecah tiem it has been exposed it has been found to be a flaw in the prson using it, not the person who is the intended victim.
It is vicious, ithas no other purpose.
Harold A. Maio
I've had no use for Gregory ever since.
letters@washpost.com, national@washpost.com
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/marcus+brauchli/
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http://projects.washingtonpost.com/staff/email/shirley+carswell/
Dan Savage is a hero. And the [aptly named] Tony Perkins is a psychotic, hypocritical, self-righteous, lying scumbag.
The circular logic here is enough to give you motion sickness.
Siuicide isn't the result of bullying (or of society's general intorlaerance, led by biggots like Perkins) because gay have larger rates of depression, etc...
Now... even were that true, if it totally lost on the ignorant baffons that maybe, JUST MAYBE, some of that might be being caused by the...
wait for it...
Bullying, or by society's general intorlaerance, led by biggots like Perkins?
I hate these people. I hate them for no reason other than that they hate. The hate, and they hurt people and they pervert whatever good religion might otherwise accomplish by loading down these institutions with they're own hatred, biggotry and messages of intolerance.
Intolerant jackasses like Perkins are about the only people on earth I can't tolerate. Homosexuality hurtts NO ONE. Period. To argue otehrwise is to embrace supertition over sicence, myth over fact, hate over coexsistance, violence over peace and insanity over common sense.
Shame on Perkins, shame on the Right, shame on the Church and SHAME on the G--D---ED WASHINGTON POST for giving a forum to this brand of RW insanity.
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THANK YOU, MMFA: BEHOLD, YOUR LIBERAL MEDIA! *puke*
They think they can always see whats right, and always can see the only evidence that 'matters' without explaining how it can change from moment to moment their outlook.
They are stupid, scared, ignorant people, taught their whole lives that anyone enjoying things like friends, lovers, fun, happyness..they are evil awful things that no one should have, because that makes god so angry.
I pity them. Their lives must be filled with such nightmarish horros if they think this is an appropriate way to act. Beck and all of them are terrible people for harming those so clearly vulnerable people just to get themselves more attention. Truth be damned. Mental health be damned. We hate gays and we want to see more die, and we have a cadre of brainwashed evil minions more than willing to violently express their latent homophobia on the hunting and dominating of a gay man. Probably some weird father/priest issues. I have no idea what could make a mind turn so rotten, so decayed and corrupted that the acts of these weeks could be anything but sickening.
We see it though. We saw it on the very first day, when there were screams of "GRRR this triple torture/murder and lifelong scaring of two boys and a man would NEVER have been on the news if they werent gay." Even if this was true, they neglected to mention that it was COMING OUT WEEK, and maybe it had pertiencne. Nope. they just vomited out the same ol black bile. Only now are they realising how horrible what they said was. But we know. the people on this site, all the comments attacking the story even being aired. The monsters showed their true face as gays lay batterd, shaken and killed, at the hands of those hateful followers of the rightwing propaganda.
They have no remorse. They think we're subhuman, that we're unworthy of their twisted view of a relatively nice Jesus into this monster of hate and greed and projetion.
My favorite? the "Gays are destroying my marraige!" nonsense. If your constant thoughts about gays are destroying your marraige, thats your problem. We do not have telepathic powers. Its a lot more likely that you, as a hateful and spiteful christian, are horrible to be around and your spouse finally realised it. Or you started sreaming violent threats against politicians, which scares just about anyone off.
But they're happy to scapegoat us. personal responsibility is unheard of in the right. They blame us for summoning terrorism, conjuring hurricanes, the wholesale destruction of society. at the same time they encourage bigotry, spite and hate, and they even want to reduce our strained military to support their horrendous, wrong set of beliefs.
Its hard to imagine such people are real. I keep hoping ill wake up and the supreme court in 2000 hadnt given the election to the guy with the least votes. But its not a dream, and ill be damned if im gonna let their pretend majority outnumber us in the polls. I may be mad at democratic candidates for a lack of support..but democrats dont like the idea of me being harmed. Seems an obvious slogan: "Vote For Republicans, They Justify Murdering Gay People!" or "Vote GOP! The DEMS only ignore and manipulate the gays, we want em to go to HELL!"
I may be embelishing. but these are their thoughts, their awful thoughts, all day and all night. Truly, if there is a god, he has turned away from these miserable souls.
I do some "reasoning analogies" on my blog from time to time, and usually get a pretty good response from them. So I'd like to offer one as a follow-up to your post. It applies more to the trangendered, than gays, but is motivated by the very same "logic" you so articulately decribed:
Liberals try to fix "God's Mistakes" with Medicne.
Conservatives try to fix "God's Mistakes" with Guns.
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Peace, my friend. Great post.
I guess this means that from now on every time Tony Perkins gets a slot we can anticipate an opinion piece from the other side?