Anti-gay activist Robert Oscar Lopez
has cited the relationship between Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black
as proof that gay men are sexual predators and cannot be trusted as
fathers.
To be certain, neither British Olympic
diver Daley, who
came out earlier this week, nor Hollywood screenwriter Black have
confirmed that they are a couple.
Daley is 19, while Black is 39.
Lopez, who is celebrated among social
conservatives due to the fact that he was raised briefly in a
same-sex household and claims he was damaged by the experience, made
his comments in a December 4 post published at English Manif, the
blog dedicated to opposition of France's gay marriage law. The
coupling, Lopez said, proves that gay men find “sexual crimes”
against young boys to be “very sexy.”
“It just so happens that gay male
culture treats the whole affair [of preying on teenage boys] with
such casual indifference, even reveling in the sick, twisted
predation in all of it …,” Lopez
wrote.
“In my dealings over the last year
with family members of children raised by gay male couples, as well
as the children themselves, a recurring theme is that the gay dads
leave their pornography around, leave around pornographic pictures of
themselves, have threesomes or even large orgies in the house while
the teenage child is locked in their room, or speak in vulgar ways
about sex in front of their charges.”
“I can hear right now the response
from the pro-gay press: 'But Daley's nineteen, so he's legal.'
People who say things like that just prove that the gay male
community has a lot of growing up to do. Toying with a
nineteen-year-old's sexual identity, when the person is still at a
tender age, still not secure enough in himself to piece together what
homosexuality means, or even know why he's embarking on such a risky
erotic journey – that's just wrong. And until I see gay writers in
Queerty and Thinkprogress acknowledging that this is a problem with
the gay male community, I can't deny that I feel uncomfortable with
this, almost at the same level as my friend. A community led by
people like Dustin Lance Black, a community that thinks this is
normal and acceptable, is simply not a community that is prepared to
have custody over defenseless pubescent boys.”
“Yes, it's true that heterosexuals
commit terrible sexual crimes – but heterosexuals make up 98% of
the country, and for the most part, they have a guilty conscience and
express disdain over blatant cradle-robbing like this. A critical
mass of gays think it's all very sexy.”
Equality
Matters' Carlos Maza wrote in response: “The myths that gay men
are more likely than heterosexuals to be pedophiles and sexually
abuse their own children has been debunked and discarded by experts
in psychology and child welfare.”
We would add that Daley has said that
he made the first move on his boyfriend, who might be Black.
(Related: Tom
Daley says “It really was love at first sight.”)