The Jerry Sandusky abuse scandal was propped up by the gay rights movement, conservative Linda Harvey has said, media watchdog RightWingWatch.org reported.

Sandusky, a former coach at Penn State, has been accused of sexually molesting at least 8 underage boys, charges Sandusky has denied.

Harvey, the founder of the Columbus, Ohio-based Mission America and a frequent contributor to the conservative website WorldNetDaily.com, which is run by Joseph Farah, argued in an American Thinker op-ed that progressives want to normalize pedophilia.

“Through serial neglect, obfuscation, and deceit, leftists have given youth a culture that is confused about child-adult sex,” Harvey wrote under the headline Boy Assault Is a Crime, Not a Sexual Debut.

“There's even a line of thought among some homosexual advocates that says that young guys need to rethink those first fumblings initiated by the coach, the uncle, the family friend down the street,” she added. “The boy isn't necessarily a victim, and it wasn't really criminal – it might have been the boy's first 'gay' encounter.”

“When a child begins acting out with age-inappropriate heterosexual behavior, the first suspicion is molestation. When a youth begins calling him or herself 'gay' and reveals early sexual experience, why are we not asking that same question?”

Harvey has joined other social conservatives who have used the scandal to demonize gay men and lesbians, including Rush Limbaugh, Michael Brown, Matt Barber and Joseph Farah, to name a few.