Let’s get one thing straight.  Most pedophiles present socially as “straight.”  In fact, most pedophiles are not only identified as heterosexual, but many are parents or in a role of significant trust and their victims are children (usually girls) they know.  Not pleasant, but desperately true (there are too many statistics to quote sources but here’s a link to one resource http://www.prevent-abuse-now.com/stats.htm/#Links).  Although this statistic shifts toward young boys in the disabled community, most sexual abuse victims are girls between the ages of 11-17.  Listening to the ravings of evangelist and American Family Association member Bryan Fischer, I wonder where he gets his facts.  Statements like “they’re [homosexuals] responsible for a third of all the offenses against children” are just so wildly out of the ballpark that one wonders how the FCC could allow him to be on the air?  But then you have to consider certain narrow public opinions and what “gay” really looks like in the eyes of the general public.  Here’s the article that got me thinking:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/18/bryan-fischer-of-american_n_1606675.html

So then let’s turn to the latest child abuse monster, Jerry Sandusky.  Bryan Fischer was very quick to use Sandusky as a poster boy for gays preying on innocent boys and he refers to him as part of his argument in support of the the Boy Scout’s ban on homosexuality.  We’ve now heard in vivid detail about the web of twisted lies and cover ups that resulted in numerous young boys being subjected to the predatory sexual proclivities of one man in a powerful position.  He used a combination of hero worship, bribery and misguided trust to create a perfect storm for abuse.  But the organization around him didn’t call it abuse.  They seemed to regard it as a tolerable annoyance (maybe like a fly in the room) while Penn State continued to build a deity factory around it.  The big question is, why did  everyone look the other way?  Was it just because there were hundreds of millions of dollars tied up in the sports program?  Was it because Joe Paterno couldn’t be sullied in the eyes of his psycophantic community?  I dare say that the community surrounding Jerry Sandusky “let it go” because of one thing, and one thing only.  Jerry Sandusky is “straight.”

Jerry Sandusky has been married to Dottie Sandusky (a woman) for 46 years.  Jerry Sandusky has never, to anyone’s knowledge, visited gay bars, sought out the sexual company of adult men, or publicly identified as a homosexual.  His world is built around a heterosexual paradigm and world view that upholds football, being “masculine,” and winning the game as the right way to be if you have a penis.  He and his wife adopted and raised 6 children.  We are not privy to the details of their sex life, but one can only assume that they at least tried to have children of their own and/or engaged in intimacies that any “normal” heterosexual couple would engage in.  At the very least, they took on the responsibility of creating a public image of “traditional family.”  Nothing in his outward actions indicates that Jerry Sandusky was or would now identify himself as homosexual.

When I add this up, it seems to me then that the big danger with Jerry Sandusky and those like him, particularly if you look at the real statistics about who is victimizing children, is not that they are homosexuals at all, but instead that they are heterosexually self identified and use being “straight” as a cover for for their sickness.

So then let’s look at what the directors of the Boy Scouts of America are saying.  According to them, homosexuality endangers the safety of the young people involved in the organization. Okay, fine. Let’s say, all of the gays are out of the  Boy Scouts, that is, all of the people who have been strong enough and have the intense moral fortitude to stand up for what they believe in, to stand in the face of a less than accepting society and family criticism…people who publicly, self identify as same gender loving…let’s say they are ousted.  What does this leave?  Only straight people right?  Only people who publicly identify as opposite gender loving people with a deep commitment to traditional male moral values and healthy traditional male pursuits like the outdoors, and camping…and football.

Yep, the Boy Scouts of America is creating yet another perfect storm.  Let me be clear here, I do not believe that pedophilia has anything to do with being either straight or gay.  But the most common “cover” is one of being “normal” which in our society is equated with heterosexuality.  So now, if there is another Jerry Sandusky lurking in the midst of the all male bastion of the Boy Scouts, we will never know.  That person is probably just like Jerry, straight identified, married, fatherly and respected in the scouting community to the point of hero worship.  And with their decision, the BSA has made a case for anyone who suffers from pedophiliac sickness to dig in their heels deeper and pull the cover closer over their and their victims heads, keep the doors locked tighter and create an even more invisible hell.  Who knows, maybe the scouting organization is fully aware that this person or people has/have a ‘special’ interest in the boys, but they realize that the health of the organization as a pillar of all American boyhood is more important that someone crying wolf.  And, well, they got rid of all the queers anyway…right?  Let the witch hunt begin.