Anything But Gay Paul Cameron doesn't like homosexuality. But his 1978 recipe for avoiding it -- sex play for teens -- will shock many a parent.
In a 1978 book called Sexual Gradualism, Paul Cameron offered a "solution to the sexual dilemma of teenagers and young adults." The man who would go on to become America's most vitriolic anti-gay researcher proposed that teenagers and unmarried adults be encouraged by their parents, church leaders and society in general to engage in sexual activity that gradually increases in intensity, but always stops short of "going all the way" before marriage. What follows are excerpts from the meandering, 70-page manual, which is part social theory, part how-to guide.
Gradualism is a process-oriented approach to learning the physical skills of sexuality in step with gaining maturity in the psychological aspects of sexual intimacy. Gradualism is anchored on set levels of sexuality activity. These levels are: Level 1: Being near another. Level 2: Holding hands, hugging and the like. Level 3: Kissing. Level 4: Breast fondling. Level 5: Mutual hand exploration of the genitals. Level 6: Total nudity, perhaps in a bathtub. Manual stimulation. Level 7: Oral sex. Level 8: The final level of sexual intimacy.
Level 5 is the break-off point. Only people who truly love can care enough to handle beyond Level 5. Level 5 provides 60 percent of the overall fun of sex. Kissing is probably among the most harmful practices in which our culture indulges. I know of no absolute way to compare the amount of disease attributable to sexual intercourse as compared to mouth-to-mouth exchange. But one would suspect there are far more dangerous diseases communicated by mouth than by the genital track. Gradualism would best be practiced at home. A responsible set of parents might allot a room, privacy, access to a bathroom, a television, and snacks to their teen-agers to practice gradualism. Some parents may shudder at this prospect. But they should remember that the minute a teenager leaves in a car, he or she is able to do anything desired.
Another advantage of gradualism is the insulation value it provides against homosexuality. By gradually introducing a young person to the opposite sex, gradualism steers in a heterosexual direction. While no parent wants his child starting the sexual process "too young," better too young than homosexual. *************************************************************88 03-10-06, 09:32 PM gerry After 28 years, has any parent taken him seriously? What a jerk.
03-11-06, 12:19 AM DorianGreyed Psychologist Paul Cameron has used his own studies to claim that homosexuals threaten public health, social order, and the well-being of children. His conclusions are generally at odds with other published research, and objective indices show that his work has had no apparent impact on scientific research on sexual orientation.
Although Cameron has been criticized in the popular press, extensive scientific critiques of his group's research have not been widely available. Those that have been published have been brief or appeared in obscure journals. This inattention by the scientific community is perhaps not surprising, given the poor quality of the Cameron group's data and the low prestige of the journals in which they have published. Most scientists have simply ignored the Cameron studies.
On his curriculum vitae, he describes himself as a "Researcher/Clinician." According to the web site of the Nebraska Department of HHS Regulation and Licensure, his license as a Psychologist has been "inactive" since 1995.
# On December 2, 1983, the American Psychological Association sent Paul Cameron a letter informing him that he had been dropped from membership. Early in 1984, all members of the American Psychological Association received official written notice that "Paul Cameron (Nebraska) was dropped from membership for a violation of the Preamble to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists" by the APA Board of Directors.5 Cameron has posted an elaborate argument about his expulsion from APA on his website, claiming that he resigned from APA before he was dropped from membership. Like most organizations, however, APA does not allow a member to resign when they are being investigated. And even if Cameron's claims were accepted as true, it would be remarkable that the largest professional organization of psychologists in the United States (and other professional associations, as noted below) went to such lengths to disassociate itself from one individual.
# At its membership meeting on October 19, 1984, the Nebraska Psychological Association adopted a resolution stating that it "formally disassociates itself from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron in his writings and public statements on sexuality."6
In 1985, the American Sociological Association (ASA) adopted a resolution which asserted that "Dr. Paul Cameron has consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented sociological research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism" and noted that "Dr. Paul Cameron has repeatedly campaigned for the abrogation of the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, substantiating his call on the basis of his distorted interpretation of this research."7 The resolution formally charged an ASA committee with the task of "critically evaluating and publicly responding to the work of Dr. Paul Cameron."
Cameron's credibility was also questioned outside of academia. In his written opinion in Baker v. Wade (1985), Judge Buchmeyer of the U.S. District Court of Dallas referred to "Cameron's sworn statement that 'homosexuals abuse children at a proportionately greater incident than do heterosexuals,'" and concluded that "Dr. Paul Cameron...has himself made misrepresentations to this Court" and that "There has been no fraud or misrepresentations except by Dr. Cameron" (p.536).9 -------- Apparently, in a twist of Groucho Marx's quote, Cameron seems not to be a member of any organization that would throw him out. -------- From Wikipedia -
Paul Cameron was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA), on November 9, 1939. He received a BA from Los Angeles Pacific College in 1961, an MA from California State University in Los Angeles the following year and a PhD from the University of Colorado in 1966. He has been associated with various schools including Wayne State University (1967-68), University of Louisville (1970-73), Fuller Graduate School of Psychology (part of the Fuller Theological Seminary) (1976-79), and the University of Nebraska (1979-80).
He is currently the chairperson of the Family Research Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Family Research Institute was recently classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[1] Cameron's research is controversial as it often casts homosexuals as criminals, killers, deviants, and perverts. While Cameron's research receives much criticism, it is sometimes cited as support by groups who oppose same-sex marriage and foster or adoptive parents rights for people of homosexual orientation. -------- Founded in 1987 by Paul Cameron, the Family Research Institute (FRI) claims to produce "cutting-edge research" on "family policy" issues. In truth, Cameron is the longtime house psychologist of the anti-gay movement ý and one of the most thoroughly discredited researchers in America.
After losing his job teaching psychology at the University of Nebraska in 1980, Cameron began to crank out "scientific" studies that bolstered the claims of Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell and other early anti-gay crusaders that gay people were "diseased perverts" with a program to molest children and demolish America. - Southern Poverty Law Center -------- I have seen people called "a tool of the Left" and people called "a tool of the Right." Cameron seems to be just a tool.
03-11-06, 11:02 AM MrsS Frankvan, I hope you aren't in this forum supporting the concept that being homosexual is a sickness or a sign of deviance. DSM-IV has long since dropped homosexuality as a mental illness (and not a minute too soon) Homosexuality cannot be "prevented" or "cured" and does not need to be. (and this Cameron guy really spends far too much time worrying about what people do in their private lives)
03-11-06, 11:30 AM frankvan MrsS, did my posting this suggest to you that I'm a fan of that nutcase, Cameron?? Gee, thanks a lot! I posted in this forum because this guy and his "credentials" makes him the darling of the homophobes and religious right screwballs. Pretty much the same way that the Bushites point to Dubya's MBA from Harvard as evidence that he's a real smart guy despite the evidence to the contrary. My source for this came from an article from the Southern Poverty Law Center. FYI: I have been a contributing member for over twenty years.
03-11-06, 02:20 PM MrsS My humble apologies for having had even a moments doubt! I am truly sorry...I also needed to make perfectly clear to any newer members that no gay bashing will be acceptable here, so I would have commented even without the momentary lapse of faith in you...mea culpa...am I forgiven?
03-11-06, 02:23 PM babthrower Frank, I have to say that I sympathize with people whose children are all gay. (I have a friend with a son and a daughter, both gay.) She envies me my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. So I understand that some people would prefer that their children be heterosexual, without condemning their choice exactly.
Second point:
I remember reading some study that one's first experience of sexual arousal could 'imprint', thus determining what would cause arousal later in life. The context was not specifically anti-gay, in fact if I recll it was anti-violent-pornography.
03-11-06, 03:35 PM frankvan MrsS, you're forgiven. Wink It was my fault for thinking that I didn't need to add a bit of my own sentiments and C.V to Cameron's opinions. I suppose that the date of Cameron's Book ws reason enough to suggest that the contents had been discredited pretty thoroughly by now.
And Babs, I find that study's conclusions very suspect also. My own inclination is to suspect that we are all either hetero or homo with a tiny bit of the potential for the opposite which for most of us never amounts to enough to make us bisexual. I don't know how scientific that is, but as mommaA says, Wink "that's just how I feel".
03-11-06, 05:02 PM gerry
quote: Originally posted by babthrower: Frank, I have to say that I sympathize with people whose children are all gay. (I have a friend with a son and a daughter, both gay.) She envies me my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. So I understand that some people would prefer that their children be heterosexual, without condemning their choice exactly.
I can understand how some people would prefer that their children be hetero, but to be envious of others because their children are hetero and their own are not, well, in my opinion, that is a crying shame. I hope your friend is receiving counseling, for the sake of her children.
03-11-06, 06:10 PM babthrower Gerry, how very careless of me to use that term! You're quite right, there is a sense of malice:
"painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage" (MW)
But I assure you there is nothing negative in her thoughts toward me or her son and daughter. It's just that she wishes it had been otherwise -- that she, too, could have grandchildren.
03-11-06, 09:32 PM gerry Babs, yes, thanks, excellent point. Being myself a grandfather of 8, I know of no greater joy.
03-12-06, 07:28 AM frankvan As a grandfather of 7 and great-grandfather of 2, I have to agree! Smile Wink
03-12-06, 08:42 AM MrsS Grandchildren aside, I can't imagine what loving parent would PREFER for their child to be homosexual... Now, everyone knows that I am stridently opposed to the idea that there's anything wrong with any preference that includes only consenting equals, but I'm not blinded to the facts:Being gay is HARD! Things are slowly improving, but that's still a difficult road, on which one often meets dissaproval, internal conflict, discrimination, harrassment and, infuriatingly,sometimes actual violence... no parent WANTS that for their baby, any more than any sensible person would choose to stack the cultural deck against themselves ... the difference lies in accepting it gracefully and continuing to love the child that at some point comes to you and says "Um, Mom...we gotta talk." And, happily, as the stigma and legal barriers fade, the parents of homosexual children are growing more and more likely to become grandparents...It's more complicated, of course, to get there, but at least it is becoming more possible than it was a decade or two ago... Forgive the rambling, I'm stll on my first cup of coffee.
03-12-06, 08:53 AM gerry
quote: Originally posted by MrsS: And, happily, as the stigma and legal barriers fade, the parents of homosexual children are growing more and more likely to become grandparents...It's more complicated, of course, to get there, but at least it is becoming more possible than it was a decade or two ago...
Not if the Pope gets his way.
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