Vander Plaats Organization, Iowa Family Leader, continues to exploit AIDS to attack gay marriage

Linda Waddington, of the Iowa Independent, reported Wednesday that Bob Vander Plaats, during a joint appearance in Iowa City, asserted that he wasn't "aware" of seminar series' propaganda posted on the website of the Iowa Family Leader, an organization that denies ties to the Mormon-led national organization with an identical name. When pressed, Vander Plaats, revealed he was aware of a posting on a gay blog which revealed links on the Family Leader website to the series' disinformation, partially based on studies by discredited former University of Nebraska psychologist Paul Cameron, whose junk statistics are apparently quite believable to Iowa state representative Dwayne Alons (R-Hull). (See video at end of this post.)

Web page of The Family Leader's website was captured and published by Igor Volsky
of Think Progress. It clearly shows The Family Leader advocating on behalf of the seminar series
that discussed same-sex marriage and homosexuality "second-hand effects."

     ...the organization’s website continues to advertise the seminars, and the leadership of its subsidiaries have repeatedly said homosexuality is as dangerous as second-hand smoke...
     During a back-and-forth with the reporter, who represented Iowa Public Radio, Vander Plaats asked if the question was result of a posting on the “Good As You” blog, and then noted that he and The Family Leader were not responsible for what may have appeared on that website.
     “The Family Leader has not been a part of that [seminar series],” Vander Plaats said. “The Family Leader — as a matter of fact, I’m the president and CEO of it — started in November 2010.
     ...The Family Leader is an umbrella organization that includes IFPC and the formerly federally funded counseling program Marriage Matters.
     “We have not held seminars on that,” Vander Plaats told The Iowa Independent during the follow-up interview. “My guess would be that maybe it was something done earlier… you know, ‘The Other Effects’ — I don’t know how they (the IFPC) phrased it. I was not aware of it.”
     ...When asked by The Iowa Independent how a blogger posted a screen shot of The Family Leader’s website with information about the seminar series, Vander Plaats pledged to look into it.
     Chuck Hurley, who leads the Iowa Family Policy Center, made the charge in March 2010 that gay marriage was more dangerous than smoking...
     Days later the IFPC published information in its blog entitled: “What’s Worse — Smoking or Sodomy?"
     A website promoting the seminar series indicates that sessions have been held in at least 11 Iowa cities, but no dates are provided. Downloads available on the “Second-Hand Effects” website make several public health claims about homosexuality. The first such claim — that being a homosexual reduces an individual’s life span — was used by conservative radio host Jan Mickelson in February 2010 as he introducing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Vander Plaats at an event in Des Moines...