Questions Raised About Homosexual Advocacy on Gov't Website
by Jim Brown
January 18, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A conservative columnist and prominent mental health expert is expressing concern over a federal government website that celebrates homosexuality.
The Family Research Council has revealed that an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has numerous pages of "pro-homosexual propaganda posted on one of its websites." A website of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) boasts of "celebrating the pride and diversity among and within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations." (Link to website -- Warning: This website contains pro-homosexual material)
Columnist Dr. Warren Throckmorton says the website contain erroneous information, and points out that "one of the so-called 'facts'" on the website quotes a 1989 Department of Health report saying that homosexual youth are up to five times more likely to attempt suicide. "Anyone who knows this literature at all knows that that report ... was speculation," Throckmorton says. "There are no data, there's no research to support that. That's been debunked many, many times."
The mental health expert also notes that the website touts information from homosexual advocacy groups. For example, the website blames society for the "high-risk" behavior of homosexuals, and even offers a quiz that purportedly allows individuals to determine if they are "heterosexist" or "homophobic."
Throckmorton, who is director of college counseling at Grove City College, believes it is an improper use of taxpayer money to post information from homosexual advocacy groups on a government website.
"The sourcing of some of the information [on the website] is linked back to groups like GLSEN -- the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network -- which is an advocacy group," he says. "And inasmuch as they do research, ... it's not peer-reviewed."
The danger in this, says Throckmorton, is that "the person seeking this information on a government website would have no idea that this is advocacy-related information."
Other pro-homosexual groups with links on the website include the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); and the National Association of Lesbian & Gay Addiction Professionals. A representative of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration would not comment for this story.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.