Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Bias on Internet Encyclopedias: "Homosexuality" According to Conservapedia, Wikipedia, and Liberapedia

Thanks to Cracked.com (that bastion of truth and good-will on the Internet) I found Conservapedia. And then Liberapedia (made solely as a response to Conservapedia, it appears). I thought the best way to consider the bias of each site (including Wiki, which C-pedia says is liberal and L-pedia says is conservative) was to take an article from each discussing the same entry, link it, and maybe leave a few quotes from each. (Warning: Apparently the stuff from C-pedia can not only induce anger, but could possibly be triggering for survivors of abuse/violence. Please please please only read if you are SURE you want to; I don't want to inadvertently hurt or trigger anyone.)


1. Conservapedia:
http://conservapedia.com/Homosexuality

-"Many studies demonstrate a sadly disproportionate extent of sexual abuse in the childhoods of homosexual men, suggesting at the least that both homosexual unhappiness and homosexuality itself derive from common causes..."
-"childhood sexual molestation may not be a causal factor for homosexuality and that the abuse molestation may be occurring after the individual is a homosexual and the medical researchers speculated that the victims of molestation may be engaging in behaviors that put them at greater risk for molestation."
-"The occultist Aleister Crowley was a bisexual and was dubbed in his lifetime the most wicked man on earth"
-"there is a strong argument that one can leave homosexuality. In addition, given that the homosexual population has significantly higher rates of many diseases and the homosexual population also has significantly lower rates of various measures of mental health it can be strongly argued that engaging in homosexual acts is a bad choice for individuals. Another other factor that makes engaging in homosexual acts a bad choice for individuals is the significantly higher rates of domestic violence in homosexual couples. In addition, according to experts homosexual murders are relatively or quite common and often homosexual murders are very brutal. Also, the homosexual population has a greater propensity to engage in illegal drug use."
-"A 53-year-old university professor and campaigner for legalized same-sex marriage in the UK said she was once a married "happy heterosexual" who had no doubts about her sexual orientation, but political activity and involvement in feminist causes "changed" her into a lesbian."
-"In relation to homosexuality and smoking, the recent medical literature states the homosexual men and lesbians in the United States have significantly higher rates of cigarette smoking than heterosexuals."
-"American Lesbian Women More Than Twice as Likely to Be Obese Than All other Female Sexual Orientation Groups"
-"In 2008, conservative groups in the United States had a major victory. Proposition 8 passed in California." (No mention made of any of the more recent VICTORIES for gay rights)

2. Wikipedia This is significantly shorter than the one from C-pedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality

-"Homosexuality refers to attraction and/or sexual behavior between people of the same sex, or to a sexual orientation."
-"The American Psychological Association states that sexual orientation "describes the pattern of sexual attraction, behavior and identity e.g. homosexual (aka gay, lesbian), bisexual and heterosexual (aka straight)."
-"Most lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who seek psychotherapy do so for the same reasons as heterosexuals (stress, relationship difficulties, difficulty adjusting to social or work situations, etc.); their sexual orientation may be of primary, incidental, or no importance to their issues and treatment."
-"the APA also says that "most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation"."
-"The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that "sexual orientation probably is not determined by any one factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences"."
-"Sex between men has many health benefits including relieving stress, boosting the immune system, increasing self-esteem, intimacy, and promoting good sleep.[110][111][112][113][114] Same-sex sexual activity between women likely has similar benefits. In contrast to its benefits, sexual behavior can be a disease vector. Safe sex is a relevant harm reduction philosophy.[115] The United States prohibits men who have sex with men from donating blood "because they are, as a group, at increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and certain other infections that can be transmitted by transfusion."[116] Many European countries have the same prohibition."
-"Most nations do not impede consensual sex between unrelated persons above the local age of consent. Some jurisdictions further recognize identical rights, protections, and privileges for the family structures of same-sex couples, including marriage."
-"In the United States, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes reported to police in 2004 were based on perceived sexual orientation. "

3. Liberapedia This is the shortest article yet. Here is the entire article (minus the part talking about conservative abuse of GLBT)
http://liberapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Homosexuality

-"Homosexuality (also Gayness, Queerness, LGBTness) is a perfectly natural sexual orientation, wherein a man loves a man, or a woman loves a woman, or a small furry creature from Proxima Centauri loves a small furry creature from Proxima Centauri of the same gender.It is doing everyone a favor, as gays are less likely to reproduce and contribute to overpopulation. Many animals have been shown to have homosexual tendencies, so the religious argument of it not being "natural" makes no sense. But it makes a fair amount of dollars for those using the issue to fatten their right-wing warchests. Churches that accept gays are called Open and affirming.
Since society does not really yet accept homosexuals, one of the things that holds progress back the most are words used as insults that relate to gays. In youth especially, use of the word "gay" as a term to indicate something or someone is bad in some way, is used very often. Again in youth the word "lesbian" is used in excess to show you are not one. If your friend does something that you, in your homophobia, might consider to be homosexual behaviour, you call her a lesbian."

For those of you who stuck with me on this one, good job! Please understand that none of this was an attack by me on any person and ideology (although C-pedia scares me--mostly because as an atheist, queer, Socialist I think some of the writers on there would either kill me or lock me up). I just find bias interesting--I like learning how to read through it. I think it's important to be able to do so, especially on the Internet, where the level of anonymity can make it almost impossible to attribute a piece of writing to an author, and therefore makes it easier to appear as fact, rather than opinion.
It's late and I'm sleepy. Peace!

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