The KY Media’s Endorsement of the Anti-Science, Anti-Gay Agenda

(I have absolutely no idea if Nougat is going to publish this column. The ownership's new "no reference to religion or icky gay people" policy is certainly being put to the test by me. I assumed that they would refuse to run it, and it looked like they weren't, but now I'm hearing it will run, though I had to butcher it down to 950 words. Anyway, more of you will read it here than in the soccer mom advertising flyer, so there)

(additionally, if this is published I'd love the fact that I managed to sneak in graphic depictions of injuries from ass rape which will infiltrate the living rooms of these delicate flowers. Be careful what you wish for, editors/publishers of America... a pissed off, stubborn writer can be a dangerous thing)

“This conduct [homosexuality] is anti-social, and it is a pathology. It is a sickness, and it needs to be treated.”

-Pat Robertson

On May 24th, George W. Bush nominated Kentucky’s own Dr. James Holsinger to be America’s next Surgeon General. After serving as the chief medical officer of the Veterans Administration, Holsinger was chancellor of UK’s Chandler Medical Center and most recently the secretary of Health and Family Services under Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

As a prominent Kentucky public figure, Holsinger was overwhelmingly endorsed by both the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Courier Journal. Both Kentucky newspapers wrote glowing and uncritical editorials for him, wishing him an easily confirmation and deriding those as “crazy” that would consider not doing so.

These uncritical endorsements were awarded despite the fact that Holsinger has a past of using junk-science and cherry picking data in order to fit his own fundamentalist religious views towards homosexuality. In 1991, he wrote a “scientific” study of the dangers of homosexuality for his church. The study was highly inaccurate and used misleading data, its conclusions being far outside of the mainstream of peer-reviewed medical research. Additionally, Holsinger has actively sought to discriminate from homosexuals in his private church activities, even founding a church that seeks to “cure” gay people.

Considering the fact President Bush has a disgraceful history of pressuring those in his executive branch to distort, manipulate and ignore well accepted scientific research in order to promote his own political and ideological agenda, one would think that Holsinger’s nomination would throw up some obvious red flags. Additionally, Bush’s tendency to surround himself with cronies and yes men might raise questions of Holsinger’s independence, as he has long been a major donor to the Republican Party and George W. Bush.

But the Herald-Leader and Courier Journal dismissed such rational concerns. Not only that, but both papers followed their endorsement with a series of guest editorials that were blatantly dishonest and full of hated towards homosexuals. Whether this was due to deference for a powerful local official or fear of a backlash from prominent anti-gay bigots in the state is up debate. In either scenario, it was a sad display of cowardice and political expediency in the face of anti-scientific intolerance.

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Soon after Holsinger’s nomination, reports of his anti-gays writing began to surface in the media. The major research cited was Holsinger’s “Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality”, written in 1991 for the United Methodist Church’s Committee to Study Homosexuality. The paper gave the appearance of a well documented piece of medical research, citing prominent academic sources. However, a close examination of the study reveals intentional manipulation of evidence to fit his preconceived bias against homosexuality, concluding that male homosexual intercourse is unhealthy and unnatural.

Holsinger sites one study to show how STD’s are strongly correlated to the sexual lifestyle of homosexuals. Of course, what Holsinger decided to leave out was that the sample of 365 males was all from one urban STD clinic in Copenhagen in 1983. This type of unrepresentative sample is par for the course in the study. He further sites the damaging effects of anal sex by selecting a sample of men and women from an emergency room setting, many the result of sexual assault. Another study cited for similar injuries consisted of a sample in which the large majority was from heterosexual intercourse or rape, and child abuse. These samples were not revealed to the reader, as they were to conclude that all of these studies were of homosexual males engaging in consensual intercourse. This is faux-science at its worst, in an attempt to denigrate homosexuals.

This study goes right along with the kind of “research” that Bush has sought from his appointees. To site the many examples from the Bush War on Science in his administration would be endless, as they have consistently altered scientific findings to fit their ideological and political agenda. Global warming studies have been altered to deny its existence, a NCI fact sheet was doctored to suggest that abortion increased the risk of breast cancer, discredited research on “abstinence only” education for teens has been trumpeted over safe sex education, and possible breakthroughs in stem cell research have been blocked by using fabrications and ridiculous assertions that using tiny blastocysts for research is murder, yet throwing them in the trash (as the cells eventually are) is not. Outgoing Surgeon General Richard Carmona testified just before Holsinger that Bush used the same tactics with him. This is the modus operandi of Bush’s administration.

Why would we expect Holsinger not to fall in line? If Bush wanted to manipulate research in order to fit a religious ideological conclusion, it seems that Holsinger would be inclined to do this. Besides the previously mentioned article, he had no problem founding a church that sought to help “fix” gay people so that they will become straight, despite the fact that this notion that gays are “diseased” has no credibility in peer-reviewed medical research.

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Both papers went a step further than just endorsing Holsinger, as they allowed several guest editorials by far-right groups that were blatantly dishonest and gay-baiting.

A column in the Courier Journal by David Edmunds of the Family Foundation defended Holsinger’s research, saying that homosexual intercourse was the cause of 70% of AIDS cases in the world in 2006. This is, simply put, a lie. The publication that he cites gives this statistic for 1981, not 2006. The percentage had fallen to 40 by 2001, and the WHO now reports that only 20% of such cases are from homosexual intercourse. But the Courier Journal apparently has no problem allowing people to openly lie about this “gay plague”.

Both papers published an editorial by Matt Barber, arguing that the “radical homosexual lobby” was trying to falsely discredit Holsinger’s wonderful research. In defending his pseudo-science, Barber claimed that the left (and, one would assume, the unanimous conclusions mainstream medical research) has an agenda that runs counter to “facts and logic”. This is the same argument of the people who built the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky, as 100% of scientists are in on a global conspiracy to deny the truth about Adam and Eve riding on the backs of dinosaurs 6,000 years ago.

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Being evangelical doesn’t mean that you can’t be a fair and professional Surgeon General. C. Everett Koop was an evangelical, yet neither before or after he was in office did he distort his research or recommendations based on his religious beliefs.

Many publications have been burned by endorsing nominees of George W. Bush. The nominees talk a good game of moderation in the nominating process, but ultimately swing back to the right once they take office. One can assume that Holsinger is taking this approach as well, as he’s tried to distance himself from his past research.

The Lexington Herald-Leader, to its credit, actually has backed off its original endorsement, saying that Holsinger must prove that his views on homosexuals would not affect his work and that he would not become a sock puppet for President Bush. This more commendable approach is what we should expect from the Herald-Leader editorial staff, as they have previously stood up to the overtly bigoted State Rep. Stan Lee and his bad 70’s porn mustache.

The Courier Journal, however, remains stuck in a fearful defensive stance towards the backlash that it would receive from criticism of Holsinger; from the religious zealots, the powerful old money elite, or both. As I said in last week’s column, sometimes standing up for what is right as a journalist or media outlet can make you a target.

However, what you make up in advertising revenue often pales in comparison to what your consumers and community lose in the process.

Comments

[lapopessa]

The amazing thing is that well into a 2nd term of this man, he still manages to get away with it. From science to social policy - if it isn't cooked up by a creationist head-in-the-sand psycho right winger, it isn't American policy.