News
2005-08-13
Antigay
psychologist says gays more likely to drink and drive
Paul
Cameron: Gays more likely to drink and drive
Psychologist Paul
Cameron, who
A psychologist
who has been accused of doctoring his research to promote
his antigay agenda is at it again, this time with a study
that links homosexuality to drunk driving. If you're
gay, according to psychologist Paul Cameron, you're
twice as likely as straight people to drink and drive.
Cameron published those findings in the June issue of
Psychological Reports, based on data from the
1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
Susan Cochran is
a psychologist and epidemiologist in the School of
Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 2000 she published a paper looking at alcohol use
in people who reported same-sex activity, based on the
same data Cameron used. But she did not get the
same results. She says Cameron makes inaccurate assumptions.
"He's taking people who report same-gender sexual partners
and treating them as is they are lesbian, gay, or
bisexual. In fact, some of these individuals are, but
we know from other surveys that perhaps as many as
half of these people, if you asked them, would say that
they're heterosexual."
Cochran said
Cameron also ignores that drinking correlates with other
factors, such as age, income, and place of residence. Those
could skew his findings. Cameron claimed the data was
suppressed by the government until he personally
hunted it down. Cochran said that's ridiculous: "The
government didn't cover up any data." In fact, a search of
an online database of medical research found more than 300
studies based on data from the annual survey, and a
random check of about 50 of those found more than a
dozen based on the 1996 data.
Cameron, who
directs the antigay Family Research Institute, was expelled
by the American Psychological Association in 1983 and
censured by the Nebraska Psychological Association and
the American Sociological Association for distorting
research. He publishes in a minor journal that, unlike
prestigious journals, charges authors to print their
research and does not reject papers based on objections from
reviewers. Though his previous studies have been
discredited, they are widely quoted by antigay groups
to argue against gay rights. (Neil Savage, Sirius/OutQ)
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