Sunday, October 21, 2012

Concern over newspaper's links between bisexuals and paedophilia

Members of Melbourne’s bisexual community are alarmed at comments made by the Herald Sun in which the word bisexual was used in describing paedophiles in the Catholic Church.
In a bizarre opinion piece that appeared on the Herald Sun on Friday October 12, Executive Editor, Alan Howe, wrote:

“Rather than operate as a respected religious institution, the church's response to its deadly infestation of bisexual paedophiles has been to act like gangsters: covering up evidence, hiding criminals, possibly aiding the destruction of evidence, threatening victims and failing to tell the truth about its actions.”

Uproar in the community has been stemming over the article, with some describing the use of the word as pure vilification and point out that the term ‘heterosexual’ is not used when describing male paedophiles who abuse female victims.

James Dominguez, president of the Bisexual Alliance Victoria, says Howe’s use of the word 'bisexual paedophiles' is ill conceived and wrong.

“The primary issue is that bisexuality, like homosexuality, heterosexuality, and other sexual orientations, describes an adult's healthy sexual attraction to other adults,” he said.

“Conflating bisexuality and paedophilia in this way is not only factually incorrect, but also extremely distressing and hurtful to Australia's bisexual community.”

“The phrase 'bisexual paedophiles' reeks of bigotry and biphobia, and Mr Howe's hostile and dismissive responses to the members of this community who have contacted him demonstrate that he has no desire to back away from his hateful words.”

“Pedophilia is not a sexual orientation; it is a psychiatric disorder,” he said.