Dannemeyer Hires AIDS Quarantine Advocate

A controversial psychologist who advocates “a rolling quarantine” of homosexuals, intravenous drug users and prostitutes infected with AIDS has been hired by Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) for one month to conduct research projects on the deadly disease.

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

‘Astronomical’ Risk Cited

“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.”

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

David Ellis, Dannemeyer’s press secretary, said that 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.

When asked about the controversial nature of Cameron’s views, Ellis replied: “People who take leadership positions tend to be controversial.”

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 (association) 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.

“They jumped on me because they are now in favor of gay rights,” he said. And he added, referring to homosexual AIDS victims: “They’re getting what they deserve. Unfortunately, others are getting it, too.”

Ethics Violations Charged

Spokesmen at the American Psychological Assn. refused to discuss Cameron’s ouster, 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 association investigation of Cameron two years ago, said that Cameron “had violated several aspects of the psychologists’ 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 he has distorted their research.”

Credibility Questioned

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.

Those 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.

AIDS, or 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 body fluids.