SPLC Issues Report On NARTH

The Southern Poverty Law Center has issued an in-depth examination of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), which the SPLC calls "the main source for anti-gay junk science." An excerpt:

The LGBT community is overwhelmingly the group most targeted in violent hate crimes, according to an Intelligence Report analysis of 14 years of federal hate crime data. Gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people are more than twice as likely to be attacked in a violent hate crime as Jews or blacks; more than four times as likely as Muslims; and 14 times as likely as Latinos. Despite this hate-inspired violence, anti-gay groups continue to employ virulent rhetoric that demonizes gay men and lesbians, some of it based on NARTH’s research.

This strategy of using science, however flawed, to fortify their religious condemnation of homosexuality was articulated five years ago by the Family Research Institute’s Paul Cameron, a psychologist whose research has been thoroughly discredited by mainstream scientists. “We can no longer rely — as almost all pro-family organizations do today — on gleaning scientific ‘bits’ from those in liberal academia. ... [W]e must subvert the academy by doing original, honest research ourselves,” Cameron wrote. Original, maybe. But honest? NARTH’s many critics argue otherwise.

Please take the time to read the full report.

RELATED: NARTH was cofounded by Charles Socarides, the father of gay activist Richard Socarides, the former White House adviser for Bill Clinton.

ALSO RELATED: You might enjoy my slideshow of our protest at the 2010 convention: Douchebags Of NARTH.