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The idea that pedophilia might not be a mental disorder became instant fodder for all of the conservative radio and TV shows on June 11, 2003. Of course, homosexuality was equated to pedophilia on most of these programs. Interestingly, these shows misrepresented reality so much that even Dr. Spitzer felt compelled to say it was being over sensationalized when he appeared on Bill O'Reilly's June 11 primetime Fox News TV show, The O'Reilly Factor. The timing of Spitzer's announcement conveniently reinforces Senator Rick Santorum's comments that if the Supreme Court legalizes sodomy, then pedophilia will be next. Of course, the anti-gay hate radio jocks conveniently ignore that noncommercial and harmless sex between consenting adults in private is a much different "crime" than an adult forcing a child to have sex. The mainstream media is ignoring some important facts. In fact, the psychiatrist's official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision, which is commonly called the DSM-IV-TR, was revised in 2000 to make it easier to diagnose somebody as having the Pedophilia mental disorder. Dr. Spitzer and a small group of anti-gay doctors supported this change, despite it being contrary to general DSM requirements. Previously, in the 1994 revision of the DSM-IV, a patient was considered mentally ill only if his pedophilic fantasies, sexual urges or behaviors caused him significant distress or impairment. Obviously, many North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) members are not distressed or impaired by their urges. In response, the 2000 text revision criteria were changed to also include those patients who are not distressed or impaired by having sex with a child, and even if the child had consented and wasn't harmed. Distress or impairment is a general DSM requirement for defining somebody as mentally ill, except for pedophilia. In addition, there has been an upward creep in the age definition of pedophilia. The DSM-III, which was in use before 1994, defined pedophilia as an attraction to those under the age of 11. The current definition includes attraction to "a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 or younger)."
Dr. Spitzer's anti-gay spin on Bill O'Reilly's TV show was subtle. Spitzer's problem with removing pedophilia from the list of mental disorders is that it would stop research on how to treat pedophiles. Thirty years ago, Spitzer made the same objection to removing homosexuality from the list of mental disorders because he supports ex-gay therapy. In fact, many ex-gay researchers shifted to pedophilia treatment after homosexuality was removed as a mental disorder in 1973. I am sure that Spitzer assumed that O'Reilly would be sympathetic to his cause, but O'Reilly went ballistic and started screaming that pedophiles should be punished so severely that they will never consider doing it. O'Reilly forced Spitzer and the other guest, Dr. Fred Berlin, M.D. of John Hopkins University, to concede that the psychiatric understanding of pedophilia was still in its infancy. In other words, it is still "voodoo" medicine. Dr. Berlin also told O'Reilly that boys would grow up to be homosexual pedophiles if they had sex with men. I agree that there is data that "child abusers" often grow up to be "child abusers." However, even if it is a criminal act for a boy to voluntarily have sex with a man, it is not "child abuse" unless the boy is harmed. I suspect that these situations are often mislabeled as "child abuse," which would skew the data. Unfortunately, homophobic age-of-consent laws assume that a 17-year-old "boy" is unable to consent to having sex with a 19-year-old "adult." The actual "child abuse" occurs when the parents freak out and the boy's lover is sent to prison.
Despite O'Reilly's screaming, both doctors tried to make the point that the DSM is not designed to legally excuse bad behavior. And bad behavior does not mean that you are mentally ill. O'Reilly asked if by keeping pedophilia as mental disorder, it might prompt some judges to give lighter sentences to convicted pedophiles. O'Reilly yelled that this would be wrong, suggesting that pedophilia should be removed as a mental disorder! As another example of legal mayhem, O'Reilly repeated his diatribe on the ACLU for helping NAMBLA "teach men how to molest boys." To Dr. Berlin's credit, he attempted to correct O'Reilly that the ACLU NAMBLA case is about free speech and the ACLU is not defending any criminal behavior by NAMBLA. O'Reilly cut him off before he could finish his statement, as he regularly does with anybody who defends the ACLU. At the end of the segment, both doctors were visibly shaken by O'Reilly's angry rants about pedophiles. Even I was feeling sorry for them. Laboratory test have shown that homophobes (individuals with negative feelings toward homosexuals) get more erections than other men while watching gay videos. I wonder if child porno would arouse individuals, such as Bill O'Reilly, who have extremely negative feelings toward pedophiles? I know for sure that I don't hate pedophiles, and I do not get erections looking at children. It must be hard for Bill O'Reilly. |
Dr. Robert
Spitzer, M.D. continues to preach his anti-gay psychiatric theories to the mainstream media 
Bill O'Reilly 
Scene from the British version of Queer as Folk