Rachel Maddow trashes gay-to-straight therapist
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow took a prominent gay-to-straight therapist to the woodshed Tuesday night.
In an interview with Richard Cohen, whose claims that gay men can be trained to become heterosexuals have been used to support an effort to pass a law in Uganda that would imprison gays for life or execute them, Maddow blasted Cohen and said he had "blood" on his hands.
"I realize I was taking the risk of helping promote you and the way that you think about these things by putting you on the air," Maddow told viewers. "But I do think that you've actually got blood on your hands."
"Just in case this gets heard in Uganda," she added. "Richard Cohen is not licensed by any American or any other licensing body whatsoever."
Cohen defended his efforts to "reform homosexuals," and tried to distance himself from the proposed Ugandan law. But Maddow -- who is herself gay -- put him on the spot by reading passages from his book, Coming Out Straight, which are blatantly false.
"Homosexuals are at least 12 times more likely to molest children than heterosexuals; homosexual teachers are at least 7 times more likely to molest a pupil; homosexual teachers are estimated to have committed at least 25 percent of pupil molestation; 40 percent of molestation assaults were made by those who engage in homosexuality," Cohen wrote.
The book was coauthored by anti-gay crusader Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Cohen also authored the book Gay Children, Straight Parents: A Plan for Family Healing, published in 2007.
This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Dec. 8, 2009.