Ken Hutcherson, the former football player turned deranged anti-gay fundie preacher, appeared on a TV program in Washington and claimed that beating a child will keep him from being gay — and if your child turns out to be gay, it’s because of bad parenting.
There is no evidence at all that the homosexual was born that way. I guarantee you I was. I was born this way. I was born black, I’m living black, I’m going to die black.
You know we find out there’re criminal genes, they say, in some people. But do you know how to get rid of criminal gene? Two parents with a belt [laughs] gets rid of the criminal gene.
Discipline, understanding, good parenting removes the homosexual gene.
There is no homosexual gene, of course, and no one thinks there is. That’s an absurd caricature of how genetics operates in this area. But the notion that being a bad parent causes people to be gay is even more absurd. Is Alan Keyes a bad parent? Do you think Randall Terry spared the rod in raising his kids? Or Phyllis Schlafly? They all have gay kids.
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Skip White
April 20, 2012 at 1:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“You know we find out there’re criminal genes, they say, in some people. But do you know how to get rid of criminal gene? Two parents with a belt [laughs] gets rid of the criminal gene.”
Yes, because you can beat genes out of people. Of course, beating the shit out of your kids may actually tend to activate that so-called criminal gene and possibly turn them into a sociopath. You know, the kind of person who tries to beat the genes out of their kids.
rjmx
April 20, 2012 at 1:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Just when you thought they couldn’t get any lower…
Raging Bee
April 20, 2012 at 1:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Funny coincidence — this article comes out just after another one about the total lack of any scientific evidence to support the antigay bigoted “understanding” of homosexuality:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/alstefanelli/2012/04/20/curing-homosexuality-the-science-of-sexual-orientation-vs-bigotry-of-reparative-therapies/
So…if beating a kid PREVENTS homosexuality, that means you have to start beating him/her BEFORE any evidence of gayness becomes evident. Which raises the question: how can you know in advance when you’ve beaten him enough?
Captain Mike
April 20, 2012 at 1:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I suspect that Phyllis Schlafly was a bad parent, but not because she didn’t hand out enough beatings. Now that I think about it, though, she’s always struck me as the “Just wait until your father gets home!” type.
Raging Bee
April 20, 2012 at 1:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You know we find out there’re criminal genes, they say, in some people…
Does he have any clue that he’s playing right back to the same racist pseudoscience that was (and, yes, still is) used to justify the enslavement of people like himself?
coragyps
April 20, 2012 at 1:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“that means you have to start beating him/her BEFORE any evidence of gayness becomes evident”
In the womb, d’ya think?
raven
April 20, 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Some of those beatings will just kill the kids.
At least three followers of fundie minister and loon, Daniel Pearl have tortured their kids to death.
What happens if the beatings don’t work, which is common. The only solution is to escalate. Then escalate some more. Oops, too much escalation and then the cops and then the DA charges them with murder.
busterggi
April 20, 2012 at 1:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Does Hutcherson realize that a lot of his fellow fundies believe that the same gene that caused blackness also causes criminality?
JustaTech
April 20, 2012 at 2:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I, I just don’t even…damn that man is evil.
But he is in Western Washington, and people there are pretty, um, modern. As in, don’t take well to anyone who advocates child abuse. On the other hand, it hasn’t been covered in the papers that I’ve seen, so maybe no one noticed that the Rev Obnoxious said you should just beat your kids.
A letter to the editor might be in order. This man needs to be ridiculed out of public life now, before some child gets hurt.
andrewlephong
April 20, 2012 at 2:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You know, typically people who argue that human behavior is a malleable blank slate will DENY that there is a genetic basis to that behavior. Hutcherson seems a little confused; he acknowledges a genetic basis and then insists that one can still mold and shape that behavior in spite of the genes. In the nature vs. nurture debate, he holds the unique view that there is a nature, but that it can be over-ridden with belt-lash nurturing.
Larry
April 20, 2012 at 2:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, it MAY prevent the child from becoming gay but it will definitely fuck that person up for the rest of his or her life not to mention inflicting the same pain and humiliation on their children.
Pierce R. Butler
April 20, 2012 at 2:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Randall A. Terry had (adopted and let his wife raise, while he continued his all-important pursuit of air time) a gay kid, but poor Jamiel died in a car crash last November 30. (RAT requested that supporters not send flowers – just money.)
I really hope somebody tells Dick Cheney he didn’t beat his daughter enough, on camera.
michaelgaribaldi
April 20, 2012 at 2:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Human Rights Campaign together with the Richard Dawkins Foundation are pleased to bring you: A Few Minutes with Ken Hutcherson.
I mean really, you just can’t create advertising like this.
Bronze Dog
April 20, 2012 at 2:40 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The horrible thing I foresee: A follower doesn’t bother to ask that question and keeps beating a child until the abuse becomes a murder.
A topic inter-link I also foresee: Anti-gay bullies further encouraged to go ultra-violence on anyone slightly outside the norm.
baal
April 20, 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Um, yeah. It’s not MAY, it’s will not, no way, no how, don’t even try.
fifthdentist
April 20, 2012 at 3:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, of me and my two brothers who received (at times) severe corporal punishment in a Southern Baptist home, none of us are gay, praise the Lord!
One of us however, is atheist, one is agnostic/atheist, and the third is fundietarded.
evilDoug
April 20, 2012 at 3:07 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Usually one or twice a month I see something that makes me think that former amusement trade workers should just be put down when they cease to be useful. Today we have this fucking total asshole AND Ted nuckerfutz. I may start actively advocating.
Alukonis, metal ninja
April 20, 2012 at 3:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well I’m completely heterosexual and my parents never beat me, they punished me by taking away my TV privileges. Therefore, excessive TV makes you gay.
LOGIC!
billdaniels
April 20, 2012 at 4:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
My father regularly beat me with his hand, fist, or belt. I’m still gay. Every time he hit me or called me names or humiliated me I lost a little respect and love for him. By the time I was seven there was no respect or love left. Fortunately I was a lot smarter than he was–he was a high school dropout and barely literate, I was a straight A student, so I recognized very early that I was a better person than he was and that helped me survive. I never really thought about it but I raised my sons by doing the opposite of what my parents did.
I wonder if there has ever been a study among violent criminals to see how many of them had been beaten as kids. I would guess there would be a high correlation.
Who Knows?
April 20, 2012 at 4:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I can just see some asshole yelling at his son. “I’ll teach you to suck dick!”
Rip Steakface
April 20, 2012 at 5:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, let’s see here. PZ is from western Washington, and so am I. Most of the people I know here are damn modern, so yes, he’s heartily ignored.
Robert B.
April 20, 2012 at 6:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Ken Hutcherson, the former football player turned deranged anti-gay fundie preacher, appeared on a TV program in Washington and claimed that beating a child will keep him from being gay”
Only if you hit him hard enough. (But that, boys and girls, is known as “murder,” and it is frowned upon in most societies.)
WMDKitty
April 20, 2012 at 7:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Speaking as a Western Washingtonian, yeah, this guy is pretty much ignored. If the local news media does report on him, well… you can tell they’re trying hard to look like they’re taking him seriously.
spamamander, hellmart survivor
April 20, 2012 at 9:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Was this the same guy who thought he could take down Microsoft because of the company’s support of domestic partnerships?
Hell, this guy is bat-guano crazy even by EASTERN Washington standards. (There’s a reason I encouraged my daughter to go to the University of Washington instead of a closer school…)
dan4
April 21, 2012 at 2:37 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
“Two parents with a belt [laughs] gets rid of the criminal gene.”
Whether you agree whether this kind of punishment from parents is appropriate or not (which is a separate discussion/debate altogether), why would anyone find such behavior funny?
Marcus Ranum
April 21, 2012 at 9:18 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
For some reason, Rowan Atkinson’s “Fatal Beatings” sketch came to mind.
“I think your child would have benefitted from a few fatal beatings before now…”
ohioobserver
April 21, 2012 at 11:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I had two very good parents who saw to it we learned right and rong. I turned out pretty well. So did my brother. Responsible, law-abiding, productive. I’m straight. My brother was gay.
Anecdotes are not evidence, admittedly. But thousands of anecdotes become a trend.
Idiot.
ohioobserver
April 21, 2012 at 11:21 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Sorry- “wrong”.
wheatdogg
April 21, 2012 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Raven @7:
The Pearls are one pair of dangerous people, who advocate treating one’s children worse than most people treat their dogs or horses. When kids die at others’ hands, the Pearls say, “Oh, they weren’t following our guidelines closely enough,” in so many words.
IIRC, James Dobson also has recommended beating your kids as a child rearing tool.
sc_83020c6545a7be5f12c0e4cf645fd913
April 21, 2012 at 6:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Come on, that’s absurd. How could that possibly make any sense? That’s just…
Is Alan Keyes a bad parent? Do you think Randall Terry spared the rod in raising his kids? Or Phyllis Schlafly? They all have gay kids.
…well shit, maybe he has a point.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
April 21, 2012 at 8:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It may prevent the child from accepting their sexuality and coming out, but it won’t prevent them from being gay.
kermit.
April 22, 2012 at 11:04 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
DAN4 Whether you agree whether this kind of punishment from parents is appropriate or not (which is a separate discussion/debate altogether), why would anyone find such behavior funny?
Because he used to be the beatee, now he is the beater. You don’t find that funny?
You must not have been beaten enough as a kid.
One classic book that helped clarify my thinking on this is “For Your Own Good”, by Dr. Alice Miller. Despite being trained as a Freudian psychiatrist, she approaches the subject scientifically.
mikecline
April 24, 2012 at 5:30 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Actual transcript from one of Ken Hutcherson’s sermons:
“My dad beat the gay dream of being on Broadway out of me. Whenever he’d catch me watching Grease or singing West Side Story he’d whip me with his belt and shout, ‘Stop gay dreaming!’, and that fixed me.”
educational flash games
April 22, 2012 at 4:11 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
educational flash games…
[...]Hutcherson: Beating a Child Prevents Homosexuality | Dispatches from the Culture Wars[...]…