Jul 29, 2005  |  By: ELIZABETH WEILL-GREENBERG  | COMMENTS     

Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has asked that the Department of Health & Human Services review its controversial 4parents.gov Web site, after four leading health experts commissioned by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) called the site inaccurate and ineffective.

Waxman and several health advocacy groups have criticized the site since its launch in March for providing what they call outdated and inaccurate information about sexual orientation and contraception.

The not-for-profit National Physicians Center for Family Resources hired by HHS to create the site’s content is also under fire for its faith-based and unscientific positions on homosexuality, contraception and abortion.

John Whiffen, chair of the NPC board, defended the government’s online advice for parents on homosexuality.

“There are obvious effects for male homosexuals from a health standpoint,” he told the Blade, when asked how parents should respond to a son or daughter who says he or she is gay. “Parents should discuss those with their child.”

He added, “It’s fairly well-accepted that smoking is not a good idea. It takes seven years off your life. It appears that male homosexuality takes more than that off your life. Naturally you should warn them about that.”

Parents should also reassure their children that they love them, Whiffen said.

But comments likening the dangers of homosexuality to smoking contradict advice offered by mainstream medical associations, like the National Mental Health Association.

Whiffen explained that sexual orientation is not featured prominently on 4parents.gov because NPC was told to emphasize abstinence.

“The focus was on getting kids not to have sex at all,” he said. “We were really not getting into homosexuality at all, nor were we asked to.”

NPC’s statements on its Web site take a clear stand against reproductive rights, single parents and condoms.

Public health advocates, including Waxman, have demanded HHS explain why and how it chose NPC over organizations like the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to supply the site’s content. HHS officials were not available for comment.

‘Fringe right-wing group’?
“[NPC] are not affiliated with any public health organization,” said Adrienne Verrilli of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information & Education Council of the United States. “From what we can tell they’re kind of a fringe, right-wing group.”

NPC’s future involvement with the site is uncertain because HHS is now accepting applications from different groups to maintain the site, according to Whiffen. NPC plans to apply, he said.

A letter authored by SIECUS and more than 100 public health advocacy groups, alleges that NPC has ties to conservative, religious organizations, including Focus on the Family and the California Family Group. These associations influence the NPC’s positions on issues for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered youth, critics charge.

Richard Pleak, chair of the Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Issues Committee for the New York Council on Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, wrote in his review of the site for Waxman, that while improvements have been made, sexual orientation is still not properly addressed.

Pleak also recommended the site use the term, “people” instead of “lifestyle.”

Waxman’s experts also said that the site “inappropriately relies on Seventeen magazine for scientific information” about the risks of different types of sexual behaviors.