The stereotyping of gays as "paedophiles"

Being the father of a 26 year old daughter there is perhaps no greater offensive thing than to be labelled a paedophile for being gay. Even though nearly all paedophiles identify as straight, the label still exists by some that society must be protected from the LGBT for fear that children will be "recruited" by us and molested as part of the "gay agenda". It's just not true.

However it seems human behaviour at times means that a minority is demonised as a scapegoat and blamed for all sorts of terrible things.

Although, in the overwhelming majority of cases it is close family members, primarily men who identity as heterosexual, who abuse and molest youth, the cultural perception persists that primarily gay and bisexual men — and by association, lesbians and trans people — prey on the young. 

For example, Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian media ministry organization, asserted in published accounts in 2010 that gay rights advocates are forcing their viewpoints (their so-called “gay agenda”) in schools in the guise of bullying prevention. 

Focus on the Family spokesperson, Candi Cushman, argued that gay activists are the real schoolyard bullies while conservative Christians are the victims. According to Cushman, “We feel more and more that activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints, while the viewpoint of Christian students and parents are increasingly belittled.”

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A stereotype is an oversimplified, preconceived, and standardized conception, opinion, affective attitude, judgment, or image of a person or group, held in common by members of other groups. Originally referring to the process of making type from a metal mold in printing, social stereotypes can be viewed as molds of regular and invariable patterns of evaluation of others. Though every LGBTQ and Jewish person is unique in many ways and is multidimensional, when dominant groups stereotyped them, they were reduced to a single trait. 

Stereotyping can and often does result in singling out individuals and groups as targets of hostility and violence, even though they may have little or nothing to do with the offenses for which they stand accused. This is referred to as scapegoating. With scapegoating, there is the tendency to view all members of the group as inferior and to assume that all members are alike in most respects. This attitude often leads to even further marginalization. LGBTQ Nation