WorldNetDaily isn’t the only ConWeb entity peddling myths and falsehoods about the human papilloma virus vaccine Gardasil. With federal approval of a recommendation that the HPV vaccine be administered to boys, a new crazy narrative has popped up: that only gay males are susceptible to the types of cancer an HPV vaccine can prevent.
Tammy Bruce summed up that attitude in an Oct. 26 Newsmax column: “After all, I suppose it’s easier to inject a drug into every child than to suggest we guess which ones will become gay.”
The Media Research Center’s Tim Graham, a longtime gay-basher, copped a similar attitude in an Oct. 26 NewsBusters post with the alarmist headline “Will Your 11-Year-Old Boy Get Cancer from Gay Sex? Networks Avoid Angle As They Push HPV Shots.”
Graham grumbled: “An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that the HPV vaccine be given to boys aged 11 to 12, and not just girls. Why? Boys aren’t at risk of cervical cancer.” He noted a New York Times article stating that “many cancers in men result from homosexual sex,” then complained that “the gay angle was completely missing from network TV coverage.”
Graham’s suggestion that he has no problem with gays dying of a preventable cancer is as offensive as it is misleading. CBS offers a more rational approach:
Preventing a cancer that’s associated with gay men may not be much of a selling point, said Dr. Ranit Mishori, a family practice doctor in Washington, D.C. and an assistant professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
Some parents may say “`Why are you vaccinating my son against anal cancer? He’s not gay! He’s not ever going to be gay!’ I can see that will come up,” said Mishori, who supports the panel’s recommendation.
Schuchat said the CDC is ready for that argument: “There’s no data suggesting that offering a vaccine against HPV will change people’s subsequent sexual behavior,” she said.
Graham is too committed to gay-bashing to be bothered with such common sense.