Ethics

PolitiFact debunks pedophile hate crimes nonsense

By Ed Brayton

One of the most idiotic arguments I've ever heard in politics is being used by the seriously hardcore religious right loonies in Congress, led by Rep. Steve King, the craziest person in the House not named Michelle Bachmann (as I said on my radio show last week, King and Bachmann are the prom king and queen of Wingnuttia High School). In a Fox News interview, King said:

"The definition for sexual orientation was defined by one of the principal authors, Tammy Baldwin of Madison, Wisconsin, as being either heterosexual or homosexual. Well, so within that definition, though, of sexual orientation by the American Psychological Association you've got a whole list of proclivities -- they call them paraphilias -- and in that list, among them are pedophiles.

"And so I don't want special protective status for a pedophile when a regular person would get less -- lesser protection under this law...This sets up sacred cows in this legislation. So some people are protected more than others in this society."

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on May 20, 2009 (boomark / email).