The Lesbian Said What??

Myth: Research shows that there is a “gay gene.” Homosexuality is genetic.

Reality: Homosexuality is not a genetically encoded condition. Contrary to media hype, there is no conclusive or compelling empirical evidence showing any absolute biological, genetic, or hormonal causation for homosexuality. Homosexual activist and molecular biologist Dean Hamer’s study claiming the existence of a homosexual gene has been scientifically discredited. Studies that claim to prove homosexuality is genetic have been purposefully designed from a homosexual advocacy perspective and seek to convince society that homosexuality is innate, psychologically normal, and thus socially desirable.

There may be a possibility of the existence of a genetic predisposition toward homosexuality, which is far different from causation. But even this possibility is far from scientifically proven. Predisposition toward something does not mean that it is inevitable, or that such a predisposition cannot or should not be resisted and overcome. Some people may have a predisposition to alcoholism, yet we do not affirm their disposition, but rather treat their condition and help them change. Current evidence suggests that environmental, familial, and personal influences contribute significantly to the development of homosexual tendencies. Seventy years of therapeutic counseling and case studies show a remarkable consistency concerning the origins of the homosexual impulse as an uncompleted gender identity seeking after its own sex to replace what was not fully developed in childhood. (NARTH.com)

Although individuals who experience homosexual attractions and thoughts may not have chosen these tendencies, they do have a choice as to whether or not they will act on the feelings. It is the acting on these feelings that constitutes homosexuality. Many people have left the homosexual community and live successful heterosexual lives, which often includes marriage and raising children.

Myth: Homosexual behavior is innate. Homosexuality is “what a person is.”

Reality: What a person does (behavior) should never be equated with what a person is. No human being can or should be reduced to his or her sexual impulses. Impulses cannot compel behavior or identities without a person’s consent. If people “are” their actions, then what does that say about the thief, the anorexic, the prostitute, or the marathon runner? Ninety-eight percent of the population does not define their very being and purpose in life by their sexual behavior.

Myth: Homosexuality is unchangeable.

Reality: Reputable studies and decades of successful treatment show that homosexual behavior can be changed. Homosexual activists claim that homosexuality is an unchangeable condition and insist that therapy does not work. They attempt to justify their claim by defining success in absolute terms stipulating that: before treatment a person must have never experienced opposite-sex attraction and never engaged in heterosexual relations. After treatment the person must be fully heterosexual in behavior and never have another same-sex thought or temptation for the rest of his/her life. This would be the equivalent of saying that no diet program works unless the person never gains back one ounce and is never tempted to overeat again.

Myth: Homosexuals suffer from the same types of discrimination that minorities experienced prior to the civil rights movement.

Reality: Homosexuality is a sexual behavior. It cannot be compared to race or ethnicity. People who engage in same-sex behavior are accorded the same rights as every other citizen. Special rights should not be given to individuals because of their sexual behavior. Homosexuality is not a genetically encoded condition – like height or skin color. Governments should not grant special rights to the homosexual community for what is a behaviorally-based identity rather than a true genetic one.

Myth: Federal and regional governments deny homosexuals basic rights by not legalizing same-sex marriage. Homosexuals should be allowed to marry.

Reality: It is not discriminatory to deny homosexuals the right to marry. Homosexuals are afforded exactly the same right as heterosexuals; they can marry one person of the opposite sex. Homosexuals enjoy full citizenship rights; they can vote, own or transfer property, name life insurance beneficiaries, and grant medical power of attorney, among other rights. Marriage has been understood and defined for centuries and throughout civilization as the union between a man and a woman, instituted for the continuance of life and to best protect and provide for children. Government and society grant benefits and protection to a man and a woman in marriage because of their biological potential to bear and effectively raise the next generation. Even childless couples or infertile couples always have the potential to procreate. Homosexual couplings always do not. If societies deviate from the standard of marriage as a child-based institution, they open the door to any kind of marriage. When homosexuals are not allowed to marry each other, they suffer no more discrimination than do bigamists, polygamists, or people who wish to marry children.

Myth: If two people love each other, they should be allowed to marry.

Reality: We love many people that we don’t marry. If there were no restrictions on marriage and feelings were all that mattered, fathers could marry their own daughters, brothers could marry sisters, and people could marry their dog. Were there no restrictions on marriage, the possible arrangements would be endless. If marriage is based solely on one’s affections, the need for companionship, or the desire for genital stimulation, then there is no logical reason for not legalizing polygamous, incestuous or pedophilic marriages. The redefinition of marriage could reduce it to a commitment between any two individuals or entities and there are many relationships in society that would meet the new definition. A marriage license fulfills a specific purpose which is to order society into families based on marriage between a man and a woman which has proven to be the best environment in which to raise children.

Myth: What people do “in the privacy of their own bedrooms” is not anyone else’s business.

Reality: Private behavior often has very public consequences. Statistics clearly show that homosexual behavior is destructive and bears high costs, not only to the individual, but to society. Homosexual behavior has implications far beyond the bedroom. Last year the U.S. government spent billions of dollars on AIDS treatment, research and programs. AIDS in the U.S. is largely a homosexual disease stemming from unhealthy sexual practices. There are many consensual behaviors that current laws and customs have deemed harmful because of their negative effect on society. Drug use, prostitution, rape and incest are examples of activities that happen in the “privacy of bedrooms.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Lawrence v. Texas) decriminalizing homosexual sex has opened the door for children to be taught in public schools that homosexual sodomy is normal, healthy and the equivalent of marital sex. California has already established programs to accomplish the above. Now that homosexual sex is legal it is coming out of the bedroom and into the classroom.

Myth: In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) removed homosexuality from its list of “disorders.” Homosexual behavior should be considered normal.

Reality: The decision to remove homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) was made after APA leaders and members had endured several years of intense political pressure and disruptive lobbying efforts by militant homosexual activist groups. (Ronald Bayer, “Homosexuality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis,” 1981) Homosexual activist groups pressured APA committees to remove homosexuality from the APA’s approved list of disorders. In spite of the long documented history showing that therapists have helped homosexual clients reduce and change their homosexual tendencies, professionals who persist in viewing and treating homosexuality as a changeable condition are labeled unenlightened, prejudiced, homophobic, and unethical. There is currently a movement within the APA to normalize pedophilia that appears to be following the same path to legitimization as homosexuality.

Myth: The mental and emotional problems that homosexuals experience are due to the straight community’s persecution and intolerance of their lifestyle.

Reality: If this were true, then one would expect to find lower rates of suicide and mental illness among homosexuals in areas where homosexuality has been mainstreamed and widely accepted for decades (i.e., San Francisco, European countries, particularly the Netherlands). However, research shows that there is no reduction in the rates of suicide, mental illness, substance abuse, alcoholism, and homosexual domestic violence in areas where homosexuality is more widely accepted. High rates of emotional trauma in homosexuals are not induced by society but rather are the result of deviant behavior that assaults the emotional and physical health, of those who engage in homosexual sex.

Myth: Homosexuals are powerless and oppressed by society.

Reality: Homosexuals are one of the most powerful special interest groups in the U.S. Their success in passing special “gay” rights legislation is unprecedented. Their opponents are silenced by cries of “homophobia,” and their cause has been taken up as a major plank in the Democratic Party’s platform. Their political power goes way beyond what would be expected of a minority that makes up about 2 percent of the population.

Myth: Homosexuals are highly persecuted and frequently the victims of hate crimes.

Reality: Rates of violence against homosexuals are the highest within the homosexual community (gay-on-gay violence). (www.ojp.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/ipva99.pdf) In the U.S. during the year 2000, only two out of 15,517 murders were motivated by hatred toward homosexuals. (www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm) The federal government’s statistics confirm that anti-homosexual crime is not only rare, but statistically irrelevant, (Violence toward any person, regardless, is not acceptable.) The total number of crimes in the U.S. in 2000 was 11.6 million. Roughly eight ten-thousandths (0.008) of that number were found to be hate crimes of any type.

Why is there so much emphasis on the few homosexual hate crimes? What about the15,715 non-homosexual victims who were murdered in the year 2000? The rationale behind the great publicity and focus on hate crimes against homosexuals is to elevate sexual orientation to a special and protected class, to silence anyone who would speak out against homosexual behavior, and to advance a pro-homosexual agenda.

Myth: Schools are not a safe place for homosexual students. This problem should be specifically addressed in school curriculum, clubs, and safe-school policies and programs.

Reality: Public schools must be safe for every child, without differentiation. Most schools already have policies prohibiting harassment of every kind. Many children suffer from the same kind of harassment purportedly directed exclusively at homosexual students, including children who are overweight, undersized, timid, suffering from acne, or who belong to ethnic minorities. Anti-harassment policies should cover all students, in all circumstances, equally, and not provide special protection for specific groups.

Federal crime rate statistics (www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm) reported a total of 140 incidents of hate crimes based on sexual orientation within U.S. schools and colleges during the year 2000. The nation has roughly 55 million students. The incidence rate of 140 crimes based on sexual orientation relative to 55 million students is 0.00003 percent, or three in 100,000.

Pro-homosexual organizations such as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and the National Education Association (NEA) see safe school policies as an opportunity to establish clubs and develop curriculum that will indoctrinate student populations toward pro-homosexual advocacy. These organizations use the “safe school” notion as a Trojan horse. Once sexual orientation is established as an issue of safety rather than of sexual behavior, activists demand the entire fabric of public instruction be modified to promote, validate, and even celebrate risky sexual practices and lifestyles that are unacceptable to the majority of students and their families.

Myth: Ten percent of individuals worldwide are homosexual. Since a substantial segment of the population is homosexual, we should recognize, accommodate, and protect the homosexual lifestyle.

Reality: This 10 percent figure is a great example of statistical distortion. This figure comes from an analysis of interviews conducted from 1938 to 1948 under the supervision of Alfred Kinsey where 10 percent of men interviewed claimed to be homosexual. The study considered only male behavior and thus the 10 percent figure cannot be applied to the half of the population who are women. Furthermore, the Kinsey study did not claim that the 10 percent were exclusively homosexual for life. Some boys experiment with same-sex behavior in adolescence only to become completely heterosexual later. The Kinsey study itself stated that less than 4 percent of men are homosexual. Current studies estimate that between 1.8 to 3 percent of the male population consider themselves to be homosexual with the rate for females at 1.5 percent. (Herrel, R. et al (1999) A Co-twin Control Study in Adult Men” Archives of General Psychiatry. 56, 10: 867-874 Edward O. Laumann, John H. Gagnon, Robert T. Michael and Stuart Michaels, The Social Organization of Sexuality: Sexual Practices in the United States Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. John O. G. Billy, et al., “The Sexual Behavior of Men in the United States,” Family Planning Perspectives 25 (March/April 1993): 58. J. Gordon Muir, “Homosexuals and the 10 percent Fallacy,” Wall Street Journal (March 31, 1993). Milton Diamond, “Homosexuality and Bisexuality in Different Populations,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 22 (1993): 300)

Myth: Homosexuals function within the community just like heterosexuals.

Reality: Homosexuals, like the general population, contribute in the workplace and in their communities. Nevertheless, homosexuals engage in behaviors that are destructive to themselves and to society. Homosexuality carries a number of risks, the most serious of which is exposure to HIV/AIDS and other STDs. Fifty percent of men who have sex with men will eventually become HIV positive or infected with another potentially fatal sexually transmitted disease. About 30 percent of homosexually active men and women have serious drug and alcohol problems. Pedophilia is widespread among the homosexual community. Though homosexuals make up just two percent of the U.S. population, homosexuals commit 33 percent of the pedophilia crimes. About 40 percent of homosexuals have been victims of childhood sexual abuse or adult sexual violence. Prevention, early intervention, and treatment for homosexual behavior, while not 100 percent effective, does work. Lawmakers, parents, teachers, students, and the community at large have a right to know the negative consequences associated with the homosexual behavior and lifestyle.

Myth: The U.S. government should spend more money to help AIDS victims and to find a cure for AIDS.

Reality: In the U.S., the most prevalent adverse health conditions are arthritis and heart disease, which respectively afflict 40 and 50 million individuals, at an estimated total annual per capita cost ranging from $3,000-$6,000. Less than 1 million Americans have HIV/AIDS, with an estimated total annual per capita cost of about $200,000.

More than 400,000 Americans have died of AIDS. Most of the infections and deaths could have been prevented by the employment of standard public health practices, which were in place for more than half a century leading up to the inception of the AIDS epidemic. These practices include testing, contact tracing, reporting, and closing of infections sites. These standard practices were all abandoned under intense and unrelenting political pressure from homosexual activists and the AIDS lobby.

Myth: The homosexual community is doing everything in its power to stop the AIDS epidemic.

Reality: AIDS in the homosexual community, after a short drop in the infection rate during the mid-eighties, continues to rise. Many of the homosexual men involved in AIDS education believe “The proper goal of AIDS prevention is to defend the gay sexual revolution.” For these men, “Gay liberation was founded on a sexual brotherhood of promiscuity,” and “any abandonment of that promiscuity would amount to a communal betrayal of gargantuan proportions.” (Rotello, G. (1997) Sexual Ecology: AIDS and the Destiny of Gay Men. NU: Dutton, p. 109.)

Those who have died of AIDS have been memorialized as martyrs. Rather than calling for changes in the behaviors that led to these deaths, the homosexual activists blame the general public for not finding a cure, not funding education, and for causing homosexuals’ low self-esteem. When one points to the cost of the AIDS epidemic and the fact that in the U.S. it is primarily a disease of homosexuals and IV drug users, the messenger is accused of victim blaming.

Myth: Homosexuals make great parents and should be allowed to adopt..

Reality: When considering the negative health and social consequences of homosexual behavior, adoption of children by homosexuals cannot be considered in the best interest of the child. Allowing homosexual couples to adopt would seem to ignore the statistics on the high mortality rate from HIV/AIDS and high rate of alcohol and drug abuse, as well as the instability and violent nature of homosexual relationships.

Children in homosexual households do not experience first-hand three of the most important relationships required for social development: male/female, husband/wife or mother/father. Adoption law should, first and foremost, protect the best interest of children and should not be changed. Social science research indicates that children do best in traditional family settings.