Gays Assail Dannemeyer for Hiring Researcher

The hiring of Paul Cameron, an anti-gay psychologist-researcher, by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) brought vehement reactions Monday from Orange County gay rights leaders.

“The hiring is akin to relying on the Ku Klux Klan or the American Nazi Party for advice,” said Werner Kuhn, director of the Orange County Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center.

“My feeling is that a large majority of Orange County residents would be disappointed and surprised to see that the congressman is aligning himself with such a homophobic person like Cameron,” Kuhn said.

The controversial psychologist, who advocates a “rolling quarantine” of homosexuals, intravenous drug users and prostitutes infected with AIDS, has been hired by Dannemeyer for one month to conduct research projects on the deadly disease.

Cameron, who was expelled from the American Psychological Assn. in 1983 and reprimanded by the Nebraska Psychological Assn., said recently that “the time to act is now” to protect the American public from “deliberate and thoughtless exposure” to AIDS by homosexuals.

“If we wait much longer, the risks to all will become astronomical,” he added. The statement, issued by Cameron’s Nebraska-based Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality, did not elaborate on the recommendation for a “rolling quarantine.”

Other gay leaders accused Dannemeyer, who has popular support among conservatives, of using the AIDS issue to help gain attention for his candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

“He is looking for issues that will get him in the news and help raise money,” said Dr. Donald Hagen, co-chairman of an Orange Countygay political action committee.

“Many right-wing politicians have found that being against homosexuals raises money,” Hagen said.

A spokesman for Dannemeyer said Monday that the congressman, a member of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment, did not share Cameron’s views on quarantines.

David Ellis, Dannemeyer’s press secretary, said Cameron had been retained to “investigate some specific projects on AIDS.” Ellis refused to give more details but acknowledged that “the gay community is disturbed” by the decision to hire Cameron.

Cameron, reached in Dallas, said that he resigned from the American Psychological Assn. before the organization’s ethics committee began its investigations. “One year and one month after I resigned, they decided to drop me from membership,” he said. “The APA is like a church. I resigned; they didn’t like it, so they fired me.

“If any of the charges were really serious, then they should go for my license. I’m a licensed psychologist and no one has gone after my license.”

Cameron said of the APA: “They jumped on me because they are now in favor of gay rights.”

He said of homosexuals with AIDS: “They’re getting what they deserve. Unfortunately, others are getting it, too.”

Officials at the American Psychological Assn. refused to discuss Cameron’s ouster from the organization, citing rules of confidentiality. However, Dr. Natalie Porter, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Nebraska and one of six Nebraska psychologists who requested the APA investigation of Cameron two years ago, said Cameron “had violated several aspects of the psychologist’s code of ethics.”

She added: “He was misrepresenting and distorting other peoples’ psychological research and using it to sensationalize his point of view on homosexuals. He talks about homosexuals being mass murderers and child molesters and credits other people for those findings. If you read their research, they have in no way made such claims. We have letters from those researchers saying his (work) has distorted their research.

“His refusal to acknowledge that he is doing that suggests to me that he has his own ends in mind--and I think they are homophobic. I think his interests are homophobic.”

In a supplemental opinion to a 1982 Texas district court decision in a case in which Cameron appeared as a witness, U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer wrote of Cameron last year that “he is not a credible witness” because of charges of unethical conduct against him.

Charges Detailed

These charges included “his continuing misrepresentation of Kinsey data and other research sources on homosexuality, inflammatory and other inaccurate public statements about homosexuals, and his fabrications to a Nebraska newspaper about the supposed sexual mutilation of a 4-year-old boy by a homosexual,” Buchmeyer said.

Asked about the controversial nature of Cameron’s views, Ellis replied: “People who take leadership positions tend to be controversial. Those are Mr. Cameron’s views, not Mr. Dannemeyer’s views.”

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House health subcommittee, said he believed Dannemeyer “has hired somebody . . . irresponsible. I don’t know what he will advise Rep. Dannemeyer, but it sounds like the congressman will not be getting constructive health views but anti-gay ideology.”

Jeffrey Levi, political director of the National Gay Task Force, said: “What is dangerous about Paul Cameron is that he disguises his homophobia and ignorance with his doctorate degree.”

Victims Vulnerable

And Albert Ogle, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center in Hollywood, said of Cameron’s quarantine proposal: “If he’s proposing quarantining people who have been exposed to the AIDS virus, he’s talking about up to 1 million people. That could develop into a witch hunt that could make Salem look like a picnic.”

AIDS, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, destroys the body’s immune system, leaving its victims vulnerable to otherwise rare infections. It is believed to be transmitted through bodily fluids, primarily semen and blood.

In response to a recent request by Dannemeyer that gays be banned from donating blood, Hagen, an Irvine physician, noted a recent American Red Cross survey that said in part that instituting new screening procedures, increasing public awareness and encouraging gays not to give blood have made donated blood safer.

“Only two weeks ago we had public health officials saying the danger has past. Now he (Dannemeyer) brings up an issue relating to blood donors,” Hagen said. “We’ve already passed the major issues relating to blood donors. Most intellectual people recognize that. What could possibly be his motive?”

Last week Dannemeyer asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to forbid homosexuals from donating blood. He recommended that potential blood donors be asked whether they are homosexual before being permitted to donate.

“If the answer is yes, they should be denied,” Ellis said. He added that the congressman did not believe that the newly instituted blood screening test to detect AIDS antibodies in blood was sufficient, despite the recent declarations of federal public health officials that the nation’s blood supply was now safe.

“This is not an attempt to legislate homosexuality out,” Ellis said. “Mr. Dannemeyer believes they have the right to do whatever they want--but when it impacts the heterosexual community through the blood supply, he wants to put a stop to it.”