Genetic cleansing...

I was in the process of typing up an article about this then cruised on over to the Blend and there was the post already done by Pam!

Baptist leader urges 'genetic cleansing' of homosexuality

One of the nation's leading Southern Baptists has called for a policy that would support medical treatment, if it were to become available, to change the sexual orientation of a fetus inside its mother's womb from homosexual to heterosexual.

"If a biological basis is found, and if a prenatal test is then developed, and if a successful treatment to reverse the sexual orientation to heterosexual is ever developed, we would support its use as we should unapologetically support the use of any appropriate means to avoid sexual temptation and the inevitable effects of sin."
-- Rev. R. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY

I just don't know where to begin with this one! First the evangelicals say that Homosexuality is a choice now they are moving towards the belief that it is genetic. So they suggest that it is OK to treat a fetus for homosexuality if it will make it a heterosexual. On the other hand if a fetus is determined to have a genetic abnormality of, say, Downs Syndrome treatment is forbidden because this defect is "God's will".

Is there no end to the hypocrisies?

The authentic life - choose wisely

The Spokane gay community has been giving the CPR (caring, preventing, restoring homosexuality) a lot of press and rightly so. There was much debate in the community, once the document was circulated, whether to give it some air time and expose the “ex-gay” ministry for the myth that it is or just let it go. I have to admit I was originally on the “just let it go” side and hope it fades into the ancient past like the rest of the fundamentalist-anti-gay-social-conservative ideals and be done with it.

Then I read the heart wrenching stories of Anderson, Mahieu and ‘Lisa’ in the Stonewall. The damage inflicted on these individuals as a result of their attempt to repress that portion of their lives into submission is intolerable. Why should we “just let it go” when the ‘ex-gay” movement causes so much pain, anguish and self hatred in direct contradiction of modern psychological precedents?

So, publish it wide and expose it for the myth that it is and the harm that it causes. The minds behind the madness of this outrage are preying on the most vulnerable in our community and at what price?

The primary premise behind the CPR document is that homosexuality is a choice. On this point I completely agree. Being gay or being straight is a choice. But not the choice you might think. The choice is not to be gay or be straight, the choice is to live life or live a lie.

It is time to reframe the debate over choice.

The so called ex-gays never “cure” themselves they choose to suppress the core of their being and go through life as half of a person, a divided psyche. To live with a divided psyche is harmful at best, causes suicidal tendencies at worst. Anyone who suffers this divided life has made a choice. The choice was not to suddenly be straight, for this is impossible; the choice is to beat that aspect of the self into suppression. In doing so the psychological damage can be severe, all reputable psychologists agree on this point as the APA maintains.

At some point in our lives, either gay or straight, all of us have faced with a duality of self. We put on the false self to meet new people, our defenses go up in strange environments, we act completely differently when alone than in public. The harm comes when a core aspect of our personhood is brutally suppressed out of shame, fear, bigotry or hatred. The only place where these traits of shame, fear, bigotry and hatred exist is in society as a whole, perpetuated by the eternal diatribe of religious fanatics.

Many of us know from personal experience how it feels to live a divided life. Inwardly, we experience one imperative of our lives, but outwardly we respond to quite another. This is the human condition, of course – our inner and outer worlds are never in perfect harmony. But there are extremes of dividedness that become intolerable, when one can no longer live without bringing one’s actions into harmony with one’s inner life. When that happens inside of one person, then another, and another, and another, in relation to a significant social issue, a movement may be conceived. -Dr. Parker J. Palmer from The Courage to Teach.

The ex-gay movement establishes an “intolerable dividedness” that requires action. Only by being true to themselves can gays and lesbians live an authentic life. Being an authentic individual merely means being a person who is honest and has an awareness of self that supersedes the false exterior. To force a person into a mold of humanity that is not their own or of their making, under the threat of eternal damnation, is abuse in its most intimate form.

No, the community should not remain silent about the “ex-gay” ministry; in fact the gay community should rise up and denounce it!

Being out is living life as we are predisposed to live it. Being out is loving ourselves unconditionally as we are. Being out is the only way to live without fear, without self loathing, without internalized homophobia. Being out is being authentic.

It is time to reframe the debate over choice.

It is true that being gay is a choice. The choice is to live the life authentic or live the life of lies.

Its because we plan for our families

Adoption Survey Gives Gay Parents High Grades

(New York City) Adoptive parents invest more time and financial resources in their children than biological parents, according to a new national study challenging arguments that have been used to oppose same-sex marriage and gay adoption.

Because we plan for our families as opposed to just popping out babies on accident it makes for healthier home environments for our kids!

The researchers said 161 families in the survey were headed by two adoptive parents, and they rated better overall than families with biological parents on an array of criteria - including helping with homework, parental involvement in school, exposure to cultural activities and family attendance at religious services. The only category in which adoptive parents fared worse was the frequency of talking with parents of other children.

So, when it comes to gay adoptive parents we rank better than biological parents in all regards except for the frequency in talking to parents of other children! This is probably because we are spending more time with our own kids!

The researchers said their findings call into question the long-standing argument that children are best off with their biological parents. Such arguments were included in state Supreme Court rulings last year in New York and Washington that upheld laws against same-sex marriage.

At some point in the near future the ridiculous supreme court ruling is going to be trumped by good old peer reviewed scientific facts.

Haggard run out of town

Haggard Leaves Town

Ted Haggard, one of the most powerful evangelical pastors in the country until it was disclosed he had frequented a male prostitute and had purchased methamphetamine, is packing up and leaving Colorado Springs to begin a new life with his wife.

"Jesus is starting to put me back together," Haggard wrote in an email he sent to his former parishioners at the 14,000-member New Life Church he had founded.

Now to REALLY scare you...

In his email Haggard said he and his wife would pursue psychology degrees.

Good As You says it best:

That three years of (alleged) motel sex -- just an oopsie
Rev. Tim Ralph, one of the men who has been overseeing Ted Haggard's "restoration," has a message for everyone wondering about the disgraced pastor's current standing. He tells the Denver Post:

"[Haggard] is completely heterosexual,"..."That is something he discovered. It was the acting- out situations where things took place. It wasn't a constant thing."
...
"If we're going to be proved wrong, somebody else is going to come forward, and that usually happens really quickly,"..."We're into this thing over 90 days, and it hasn't happened."

Oh, where to begin? Well, let's start with the obvious -- a "completely heterosexual" man does not routinely dabble in sex with someone of the same gender, even if it is confined to only one man. A "completely heterosexual" man may try same-sex sex and discover that it is not for him, just as many homosexuals have first experienced gender-discordant sex and learned the same about themselves. But this is a man who headed one of the most gay-unwelcoming organizations in the nation who, over the alleged span of three years, has extramarital sexual relations with a male escort! Not only did he have it, he PAID FOR IT! If he was not enjoying himself, wouldn't logic lead him to spend both his time and money elsewhere?

Exactly!

Box Turtle Bulletin

The Box Turtle Bulletin makes me hot...

All We, Like Sheep?
A Commentary on Gay Rams and the Nature/Nurture Debate

I have often argued that, first of all, it is silly to suppose that something as complex as human sexuality and romantic attractions can be boiled down to a single cause for all people. But even if such an argument could be made and it were somehow proven that homosexuality were environmental, does that mean we are any closer to “curing” it?

The best evidence says we aren’t, and that assessment seems to be shared by the collective “gut check” taking place in a society where psychoanalysis has fallen out of fashion. Psychoanalysis (that particular branch of psychology based on the methods and theories of Sigmund Freud in which childhood experiences reign supreme) reached its peak some thirty years ago, but it has been losing its influence ever since. (When’s the last time you heard of someone seeing their analyst?) The reason for its loss of influence is obvious: While it may help some people, it hasn’t proven to be terrible effective for many. Woody Allen is just as messed up today as he ever was. And yet, ex-gay groups like Exodus and NARTH continue to cling to those outdated notions because it’s all they have. There is no pill or vaccine to “cure” homosexuality. Not yet, anyway.

The article is a brilliant piece of work! Read it in its entirety at the link!

Good for us or Bad for us?

There has been much conversation and debate about the gay sheep experiments going on in Oregon. "Science told: hands of gay sheep"

SCIENTISTS are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of “gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.

The experiments introduce hormones into the systems of male sheep that are oriented towards sexual intercourse with other male sheep. The hormones appear to change the orientation and the once gay sheep start having intercourse with female sheep.

On the one hand it is good for us because the right wing religious conservatives cannot start bleating "see, we told you homos can be cured" because this would validate the premise that homosexuality is biological. This is good for us because it can now be proven that attraction to the same sex is a biological function; we are gay not by choice but by design. According to religious conservatives the only biological “designer” out there is God, in fact, religious conservatives believe that God’s law is natural law and that nothing occurs in nature that is not the will of God. God is the ultimate designer (look at any argument for intelligent design and creationism). Therefore, if homosexuality is in fact biological then homosexuality, by this definition, is God’s will because God “designed” us to be gay.

Coincidentally, there are 28,200 Google results for the search “gay sheep Oregon” and the leading ultra conservative activist group “Concerned Women of America” (who are immediate to respond to any gay findings) have absolutely nothing on their website in response to the scientific study! On the ultra-conservative-facts-be-damned World Net Daily website (fondly referred to as “wingnut daily” by progressive bloggers”) there is only one article regarding the gay sheep. Because they know they will lose the argument if they acknowledge homosexuality as occurring by design, the following is the best they could come up with:

Lesbian tennis star slams 'gay sheep' research

OHSU researchers found a difference between "straight" and "gay" rams in one region of the hypothalamus. While the region is generally twice as large in rams as in ewes, in male-oriented rams it was nearly identical in size to hat in normal females. Similar differences have been found in the brains of homosexual men, but since most of those studied had died of AIDS-related illnesses, scientists were unable to say whether the condition was related to disease or sexual orientation.

In true wingnut fashion, they do not cite the study that was conducted of gay men so this "study" is likely loosely based on fact or completely fabricated.

This issue has been going on since 1995! Only recently did it come to the forefront and start receiving media attention as a result of Martina Navratilova’s letter to the President of Oregon State University. The study itself is a punch to the face of the religious conservatives because it is scientific proof that homosexuality is biological in nature.

NOW – Bad for us.
The fact that homosexuality is a biological function and, according to the Oregon State University scientific research, can be treated with hormone therapy, would place homosexuality squarely back on a “treatable disease” list, just like diabetes. This was Navratilova’s objection to the experiments. What is to stop a pregnant woman from treating her unborn child with the “anti-gay hormone” therapy? This would put an end to gay men being born and ultimately end homosexuality (in theory).

The big hole in the experiment that I see is that it has been conducted on male sheep ONLY! What about female homosexuality? Does the same condition with the hypothalamus occur in women? No studies that I have seen have been conducted on lesbians.

Also, being gay is not just sexual attraction; there is the psychological and emotional attraction as well. The studies only indicate that the sheep will convert to heterosexual physical interaction (and it was not conclusive that the sheep became exclusively heterosexual). What about the emotional aspect of gay relationships? No, treatments to fix the hypothalamus will not eliminate homosexuality; after all, humans are not sheep! We have emotions and loving bonds that transcend any physical relationship. Gays have existed thru ought history and will exist until the end of time, the OSU is further proof of this fact. This is what the religious conservatives are afraid of and why they are not acknowledging the existence of the OSU research.