Anne Rice just wrote the following on her Facebook page: ...I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of ...Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.
[For the full article, see here.]
Although seemingly incongrous, quitting what is called "Christianity" and still adhering to the message of Christ are not at all incompatible in our times! In biblical times, it took guts to proclaim the name of Christ and live by His dictates, as one could easily forfeit his/her life by so doing.
Now, any two-bit hater can call him/herself a "Christian," and even get away with it by attending buildings called "churches" that house people who engage in incestuous socialization, convincing themselves and, unfortunately, many others that when they are homophobic and exclusionary they are fulfilling the will of Christ and speaking in the name of God.
Nothing could be further from the truth! Jesus hung around with the pariahs of society and saved his harshest words for the legalists and perfectionists of His time who sought to put yokes of bondage onto others. Just read the Gospels in the New Testament and see for yourself!
Our modern day pharisees can all too often be found to attend "churches," many of whom seek to proclaim their own prejudicial and ignorant interpretations of certain selected biblical passages as being part of "the word of God," and thereby cause the untold suffering of others by their perversion of everything that Jesus stood for.
Anyone who demeans another; anyone who bears false witness against another; anyone who condemns and judges another; anyone who seeks to deprive others of equal rights; anyone who in any way discriminates against others, is not a disciple of Christ!
Anne Rice seems to understand this basic principle that resonates with all those whom Jesus called out to be His disciples!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MARRIAGE AND PRESIDENT OBAMA
This brief video is taken from the website of the National Organization for Marriage:
Now, while running for the office of President, Barack Obama had this to say regarding his views concerning same-sex marriage:
After progressives, and even the Obamamaniacs, have been kicked in the teeth by Obama's betrayal of Gay people, as seen in his advocating for DADT in federal court; having Gay military personnel undergo the humiliation of having a questionnaire circulated among military personnel concerning their comfort levels when associating with Gay people; fighting for DOMA in federal court; the Democratic Congress not enacting ENDA; Obama not issuing a stop loss Executive Order preventing people like Lt. Dan Choi from being discharged from the military for being an out and proud Gay person, I'm convinced that most Progressives will stay home on election day in 2012, and the Reactionaries will go to the polls in droves so as to make this country even more Reactionary than it already is.
Our best hope for the acquisition of LGBT rights existed with a Democratic president and a largely Democratic Congress! We now see that our hopes have been dashed under the bus of political expediency and indolence where Obama seems to have never really cared, or perhaps only anemically cared, about equality for LGBT people, despite his lofty and, in my opinion, hypocritical rhetoric.
He made it clear while he was campaigning for President that he was not in favor of "marriage" for Gay couples, and that makes him no different from groups like NOM that feel the same way.
In my opinion, we are in for a much more severe Reactionary stance in the United States that will not only stall any meaningful movement for LGBT rights, but will likely rescind some of the rights that LGBT people now have.
And it may just take that political and cultural scenario to motivate LGBT people and allies to become far more serious in demanding the very same civil rights that heterosexuals enjoy!
Now, while running for the office of President, Barack Obama had this to say regarding his views concerning same-sex marriage:
After progressives, and even the Obamamaniacs, have been kicked in the teeth by Obama's betrayal of Gay people, as seen in his advocating for DADT in federal court; having Gay military personnel undergo the humiliation of having a questionnaire circulated among military personnel concerning their comfort levels when associating with Gay people; fighting for DOMA in federal court; the Democratic Congress not enacting ENDA; Obama not issuing a stop loss Executive Order preventing people like Lt. Dan Choi from being discharged from the military for being an out and proud Gay person, I'm convinced that most Progressives will stay home on election day in 2012, and the Reactionaries will go to the polls in droves so as to make this country even more Reactionary than it already is.
Our best hope for the acquisition of LGBT rights existed with a Democratic president and a largely Democratic Congress! We now see that our hopes have been dashed under the bus of political expediency and indolence where Obama seems to have never really cared, or perhaps only anemically cared, about equality for LGBT people, despite his lofty and, in my opinion, hypocritical rhetoric.
He made it clear while he was campaigning for President that he was not in favor of "marriage" for Gay couples, and that makes him no different from groups like NOM that feel the same way.
In my opinion, we are in for a much more severe Reactionary stance in the United States that will not only stall any meaningful movement for LGBT rights, but will likely rescind some of the rights that LGBT people now have.
And it may just take that political and cultural scenario to motivate LGBT people and allies to become far more serious in demanding the very same civil rights that heterosexuals enjoy!
Friday, July 23, 2010
THE IRRATIONALITY OF HOMOPHOBIA: A DEFECT IN MENTAL HEALTH
I originally posted this article on April 15, 2010, and I'd like to re-print it now.
As of now, I'm going to sporadically post articles on LGBT rights, having said about all I have to say on this subject over the last several years.
I'm very grateful for those who read and, especially, comment on the posts and articles that I've written over the past several years, and I hope that you will read many of the articles in the Links section of this blog, as well as the previous posts on this blog that you might find of interest.
I truly believe that a good part of the fight for LGBT rights requires taking the fight to the homophobes themselves; questioning and studying why people are strident homophobes; exposing the assorted motives and psychological dynamics that impel them to seek to deny equal rights to others that they, themselves, enjoy.
Also, the terrible, egregious, abominable misuse of religion, Christianity, and the Bible in seeking to deny dignity and equal rights to others is especially hateful on its face, and requires confrontation in any and every venue possible, so as to help affirm LGBT people, both young and older, and show them, their families, and all who have eyes to see and ears to hear, that God doesn't make mistakes, and created God's LGBT children just the way God wanted.
Here is the article entitled, THE IRRATIONALITY OF HOMOPHOBIA: A DEFECT IN MENTAL HEALTH:
Mental Health: A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life. (See here.)
Despite the author's contention in an article entitled, It's Not About Celibacy: Blaming the Wrong Thing for the Sexual Abuse Crisis, that celibacy is completely voluntary on the part of Roman Catholic clergy, the fact is that the Vatican DOES impose celibacy if one wants to be a member of the clergy or the religious (monks and nuns) within its ranks.
Celibacy is, therefore, involuntary, as should a priest, brother, or sister later on decide to no longer be celibate, he or she would be laicized. The author, Rev. James Martin, S.J, states: You make a promise of celibacy or pronounce a vow of chastity to offer yourself to God as fully as possible and to make yourself available to love as many others as possible. Once again, this is not to say that married and single men and women cannot do the same. Or that clergy in other religions cannot do so.
So, why the imposition of celibacy on Roman Catholic clergy, brothers, and sisters? Also, it's unbiblical to impose celibacy onto others (1Timothy 4:3), and unless called by God to be celibate, the demand of celibacy is placing a burden on people that is completely unnecessary, as the author unwittingly concedes in the above quote.
Just as the imposition of celibacy is unbiblical, it is also placing yokes of bondage onto others akin to the yokes of bondage placed on people by many denominations and churches that cause undue hardship that not only has nothing to do with the Gospel, but that can cause undue stresses that manifest themselves in assorted destructive ways both to the individual and, in many cases, to other people within his/her orbit.
Within our very being, we are as God created us to be, and to in any way thwart that aspect of God's creation we are asking for trouble! Our unconscious mind can repress our desires, and our conscious mind can suppress our desires but, sooner or later, those repressions and suppressions make themselves known, and often do so with tragic results.
Of course, for the Christian, we are to "...be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2), but that renewal is not accomplished by ourselves, through what the Apostle Paul refers to as "will-worship" (Colossians 2:23), but by the Holy Spirit Who resides within each of Jesus' disciples.
In other words, our lives are God's business, and we are not to be judged either by others or even by ourselves! It is God Who judges us, and no one else is to usurp that right! (1Corinthians 4:3-4)
I'm not one who believes that the requirement of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church has anything to do with its many sexual scandals! However, imposing celibacy, just like imposing any kind of yoke of bondage onto others for whom that yoke is "unnatural," can cause both physical and spiritual death!
Suicides can occur, either outright or on the installment plan, such as risk-taking behavior, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc., as can the needless occurrence of the experience of a spiritual wilderness, all of which can be, and often are, provoked by the often homophobic preachers of the false gospel of legalism and perfectionism who impose their own prejudices onto others "in the name of God."
Jesus says: The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10) In order to have the abundant life Jesus promises us, we must remain in Him, and be authentic!
That is, we are to never allow other mortal, fallible, human beings to define our reality for us or define our spiritual life for us! I like the line I heard Rev. Troy Perry say: Jesus came to take away our sins, not to take away our sexuality!
For the most part, it seems to me that we can't separate our mental health from our spiritual health, and the inculcation of others' prejudices, doctrines, and dogmas that are unnatural for a given person is inimical to optimal mental health; the imposition of personal prejudices that seek to defame others and deprive them of civil rights enjoyed by every other citizen causes internalized and externalized homophobia with their tragic consequences, some of which are mentioned above.
The following is an article entitled, The Irrationality of Homophobia: A Defect in Mental Health, that I wrote several months ago that I think is appropriate to reiterate in this context:
In his book, In Our Time, Eric Hoffer, who was an excellent philosopher, was self-educated, blind for the first fifteen years of his life, and became a migrant worker and then a longshoreman, wrote the following:
In the alchemy of man’s soul almost all noble attributes - courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty - can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Thus the survival of the species may well depend on the ability to foster a boundless capacity for compassion.
So many in the United States (and elsewhere) lack that essential emotion, "compassion," that will help ensure the survival of the species! Indeed, the hostility visited upon LGBT people is a very strong indicator in our time of that deficiency!
All sorts of rationalizations have been trotted out by the ignorant and/or hatefully homophobic to try and justify discrimination against LGBT people, ranging from "maintaining traditional family values" to linking Gay people with pedophiles to causing all sorts of societal calamities. The very irrationality of their arguments in favor of deprivation of civil rights to LGBT people both bespeaks lack of compassion as it bespeaks gullibility and/or lack of compassion of those who take their rhetoric seriously.
In his book, The Passionate State of Mind And Other Aphorism, Hoffer states:
Passions usually have their roots in that which is blemished, crippled, incomplete and insecure within us. The passionate attitude is less a response to stimuli from without than an emanation of an inner dissatisfaction.
A poignant dissatisfaction, whatever be its cause, is at bottom a dissatisfaction with ourselves. It is surprising how much hardship and humiliation a man will endure without bitterness when he has not the least doubt about his worth or when he is so integrated with others that he is not aware of a separate self.
And it is to this phenomenon every person who possesses both a critical intellect and the necessary emotion of "compassion" must turn to help understand why there are some homophobes who make their homophobia something like a career. So many spend an inordinate amount of time condemning God's LGBT children, and one must understand that their animus ultimately resides, not in the object of their hatred, but in their own psyches that betrays their blemishes, crippled natures, incompleteness, and insecurities.
After all, if someone is emotionally and sexually intact, why would there be a need for their obsessive condemnation of other consenting adults' emotional/sexual orientations?
How is same-sex marriage, for example, going to adversely affect anyone's heterosexual marriage? Is there anyone who can give a reasonable answer to that question?
Clearly, there can be no rational answer to that rhetorical question! If anything, same-sex marriage will enhance the institution of marriage!
Indeed, increasing legitimacy will accrue to the institution of marriage the more people partake of its rights, privileges, and responsibilities. So, people who are genuinely concerned with the future of the institution of marriage should be working to minimize divorce and encourage same-sex couples who wish to make a lifetime commitment to each other to marry!
Yet, we have many religious (and secular) people who try and prevent same-sex couples from partaking of the very institution from which they benefit, thereby encouraging fornication as one of their prejudices' byproducts, and they even have the temerity to claim the right to discriminate in the name of God. So, would they have us believe that God would prefer fornication over marriage among Gay people?
Can they be that clueless that they could reasonably expect that Gay people can, should, and must lead celibate lives while only heterosexuals can and should fulfill one of human beings' most primal urges?
The irrationality of homophobic rhetoric shows a clear deficiency on the part of homophobes regarding their level of "compassion," as it does their clear dissatisfaction with their own lot in life! Why else spend such an inordinate amount of time thinking about and condemning the emotional/sexual lives of others?
Emotionally and sexually intact people aren't particularly concerned with the emotional and sexual lives of other adults! They are likely to have a "live and let live" approach to such matters!
However, when someone has an inordinate fascination with condemning others, that condemnation betrays an emotional deficiency that makes compassion very difficult, if not impossible, to have or sustain.
And if a Christian (or any other decent person) can be characterized by any one characteristic, that characteristic is "compassion!"
Christians are to be agents of God's grace in this world; we are to preach and live out the Gospel of grace, faith, love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness! And those who condemn others, those who seek to deprive others of civil rights, those who help create a climate of fear and hatred of others, have shown by their words and/or deeds that they are neither Christians nor even decent people!
We are to make no mistake: homophobes are absolutely no different in their mind-set and in their emotional deficiencies than were and are White Supremacists! Both groups partake of the need to discriminate and hate in order for the awareness of their own emotional deficiencies to be overridden by their condemnation of others!
"Condemnation" acts as an imperfect and temporary band-aid to help heal the haters' own emotional woundedness, a woundedness that they don't have the courage to bring themselves to face, confront, and overcome! So, they take the coward's way out and, rather than deal with "the beam in their own eye," they feel the need to manufacture a beam in a minority group whom they perceive it is safe to persecute.
And when that particular minority group is no longer considered safe to persecute, they will search for another minority group upon which to vent their anger, an anger borne of their own emotional deficiencies that they cloak in religious trappings, so that they can try and stake a claim on "godliness," "virtue" and "morality" when, in fact, their own rhetoric and actions show them to manifest the greatest form of ungodliness, lack of virtue, and immorality: the sin of pride in their oppression of others!
Jesus never condemned Gay people, but He sure spent quite a bit of time condemning the proud, the haughty, the legalists who condemned and discriminated against others and put yokes of bondage onto others, all the while claiming to impose those yokes in the name of God.
If haters didn't have an object to hate, they would be forced to confront their own emotional blemishes, crippled natures, incompleteness, insecurities, deficiencies and frailties. And that is the last thing a moral coward feels he/she can afford.
As of now, I'm going to sporadically post articles on LGBT rights, having said about all I have to say on this subject over the last several years.
I'm very grateful for those who read and, especially, comment on the posts and articles that I've written over the past several years, and I hope that you will read many of the articles in the Links section of this blog, as well as the previous posts on this blog that you might find of interest.
I truly believe that a good part of the fight for LGBT rights requires taking the fight to the homophobes themselves; questioning and studying why people are strident homophobes; exposing the assorted motives and psychological dynamics that impel them to seek to deny equal rights to others that they, themselves, enjoy.
Also, the terrible, egregious, abominable misuse of religion, Christianity, and the Bible in seeking to deny dignity and equal rights to others is especially hateful on its face, and requires confrontation in any and every venue possible, so as to help affirm LGBT people, both young and older, and show them, their families, and all who have eyes to see and ears to hear, that God doesn't make mistakes, and created God's LGBT children just the way God wanted.
Here is the article entitled, THE IRRATIONALITY OF HOMOPHOBIA: A DEFECT IN MENTAL HEALTH:
Mental Health: A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life. (See here.)
Despite the author's contention in an article entitled, It's Not About Celibacy: Blaming the Wrong Thing for the Sexual Abuse Crisis, that celibacy is completely voluntary on the part of Roman Catholic clergy, the fact is that the Vatican DOES impose celibacy if one wants to be a member of the clergy or the religious (monks and nuns) within its ranks.
Celibacy is, therefore, involuntary, as should a priest, brother, or sister later on decide to no longer be celibate, he or she would be laicized. The author, Rev. James Martin, S.J, states: You make a promise of celibacy or pronounce a vow of chastity to offer yourself to God as fully as possible and to make yourself available to love as many others as possible. Once again, this is not to say that married and single men and women cannot do the same. Or that clergy in other religions cannot do so.
So, why the imposition of celibacy on Roman Catholic clergy, brothers, and sisters? Also, it's unbiblical to impose celibacy onto others (1Timothy 4:3), and unless called by God to be celibate, the demand of celibacy is placing a burden on people that is completely unnecessary, as the author unwittingly concedes in the above quote.
Just as the imposition of celibacy is unbiblical, it is also placing yokes of bondage onto others akin to the yokes of bondage placed on people by many denominations and churches that cause undue hardship that not only has nothing to do with the Gospel, but that can cause undue stresses that manifest themselves in assorted destructive ways both to the individual and, in many cases, to other people within his/her orbit.
Within our very being, we are as God created us to be, and to in any way thwart that aspect of God's creation we are asking for trouble! Our unconscious mind can repress our desires, and our conscious mind can suppress our desires but, sooner or later, those repressions and suppressions make themselves known, and often do so with tragic results.
Of course, for the Christian, we are to "...be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2), but that renewal is not accomplished by ourselves, through what the Apostle Paul refers to as "will-worship" (Colossians 2:23), but by the Holy Spirit Who resides within each of Jesus' disciples.
In other words, our lives are God's business, and we are not to be judged either by others or even by ourselves! It is God Who judges us, and no one else is to usurp that right! (1Corinthians 4:3-4)
I'm not one who believes that the requirement of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church has anything to do with its many sexual scandals! However, imposing celibacy, just like imposing any kind of yoke of bondage onto others for whom that yoke is "unnatural," can cause both physical and spiritual death!
Suicides can occur, either outright or on the installment plan, such as risk-taking behavior, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc., as can the needless occurrence of the experience of a spiritual wilderness, all of which can be, and often are, provoked by the often homophobic preachers of the false gospel of legalism and perfectionism who impose their own prejudices onto others "in the name of God."
Jesus says: The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10) In order to have the abundant life Jesus promises us, we must remain in Him, and be authentic!
That is, we are to never allow other mortal, fallible, human beings to define our reality for us or define our spiritual life for us! I like the line I heard Rev. Troy Perry say: Jesus came to take away our sins, not to take away our sexuality!
For the most part, it seems to me that we can't separate our mental health from our spiritual health, and the inculcation of others' prejudices, doctrines, and dogmas that are unnatural for a given person is inimical to optimal mental health; the imposition of personal prejudices that seek to defame others and deprive them of civil rights enjoyed by every other citizen causes internalized and externalized homophobia with their tragic consequences, some of which are mentioned above.
The following is an article entitled, The Irrationality of Homophobia: A Defect in Mental Health, that I wrote several months ago that I think is appropriate to reiterate in this context:
In his book, In Our Time, Eric Hoffer, who was an excellent philosopher, was self-educated, blind for the first fifteen years of his life, and became a migrant worker and then a longshoreman, wrote the following:
In the alchemy of man’s soul almost all noble attributes - courage, honor, love, hope, faith, duty, loyalty - can be transmuted into ruthlessness. Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil within us. Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: Where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless. Thus the survival of the species may well depend on the ability to foster a boundless capacity for compassion.
So many in the United States (and elsewhere) lack that essential emotion, "compassion," that will help ensure the survival of the species! Indeed, the hostility visited upon LGBT people is a very strong indicator in our time of that deficiency!
All sorts of rationalizations have been trotted out by the ignorant and/or hatefully homophobic to try and justify discrimination against LGBT people, ranging from "maintaining traditional family values" to linking Gay people with pedophiles to causing all sorts of societal calamities. The very irrationality of their arguments in favor of deprivation of civil rights to LGBT people both bespeaks lack of compassion as it bespeaks gullibility and/or lack of compassion of those who take their rhetoric seriously.
In his book, The Passionate State of Mind And Other Aphorism, Hoffer states:
Passions usually have their roots in that which is blemished, crippled, incomplete and insecure within us. The passionate attitude is less a response to stimuli from without than an emanation of an inner dissatisfaction.
A poignant dissatisfaction, whatever be its cause, is at bottom a dissatisfaction with ourselves. It is surprising how much hardship and humiliation a man will endure without bitterness when he has not the least doubt about his worth or when he is so integrated with others that he is not aware of a separate self.
And it is to this phenomenon every person who possesses both a critical intellect and the necessary emotion of "compassion" must turn to help understand why there are some homophobes who make their homophobia something like a career. So many spend an inordinate amount of time condemning God's LGBT children, and one must understand that their animus ultimately resides, not in the object of their hatred, but in their own psyches that betrays their blemishes, crippled natures, incompleteness, and insecurities.
After all, if someone is emotionally and sexually intact, why would there be a need for their obsessive condemnation of other consenting adults' emotional/sexual orientations?
How is same-sex marriage, for example, going to adversely affect anyone's heterosexual marriage? Is there anyone who can give a reasonable answer to that question?
Clearly, there can be no rational answer to that rhetorical question! If anything, same-sex marriage will enhance the institution of marriage!
Indeed, increasing legitimacy will accrue to the institution of marriage the more people partake of its rights, privileges, and responsibilities. So, people who are genuinely concerned with the future of the institution of marriage should be working to minimize divorce and encourage same-sex couples who wish to make a lifetime commitment to each other to marry!
Yet, we have many religious (and secular) people who try and prevent same-sex couples from partaking of the very institution from which they benefit, thereby encouraging fornication as one of their prejudices' byproducts, and they even have the temerity to claim the right to discriminate in the name of God. So, would they have us believe that God would prefer fornication over marriage among Gay people?
Can they be that clueless that they could reasonably expect that Gay people can, should, and must lead celibate lives while only heterosexuals can and should fulfill one of human beings' most primal urges?
The irrationality of homophobic rhetoric shows a clear deficiency on the part of homophobes regarding their level of "compassion," as it does their clear dissatisfaction with their own lot in life! Why else spend such an inordinate amount of time thinking about and condemning the emotional/sexual lives of others?
Emotionally and sexually intact people aren't particularly concerned with the emotional and sexual lives of other adults! They are likely to have a "live and let live" approach to such matters!
However, when someone has an inordinate fascination with condemning others, that condemnation betrays an emotional deficiency that makes compassion very difficult, if not impossible, to have or sustain.
And if a Christian (or any other decent person) can be characterized by any one characteristic, that characteristic is "compassion!"
Christians are to be agents of God's grace in this world; we are to preach and live out the Gospel of grace, faith, love, peace, reconciliation, and inclusiveness! And those who condemn others, those who seek to deprive others of civil rights, those who help create a climate of fear and hatred of others, have shown by their words and/or deeds that they are neither Christians nor even decent people!
We are to make no mistake: homophobes are absolutely no different in their mind-set and in their emotional deficiencies than were and are White Supremacists! Both groups partake of the need to discriminate and hate in order for the awareness of their own emotional deficiencies to be overridden by their condemnation of others!
"Condemnation" acts as an imperfect and temporary band-aid to help heal the haters' own emotional woundedness, a woundedness that they don't have the courage to bring themselves to face, confront, and overcome! So, they take the coward's way out and, rather than deal with "the beam in their own eye," they feel the need to manufacture a beam in a minority group whom they perceive it is safe to persecute.
And when that particular minority group is no longer considered safe to persecute, they will search for another minority group upon which to vent their anger, an anger borne of their own emotional deficiencies that they cloak in religious trappings, so that they can try and stake a claim on "godliness," "virtue" and "morality" when, in fact, their own rhetoric and actions show them to manifest the greatest form of ungodliness, lack of virtue, and immorality: the sin of pride in their oppression of others!
Jesus never condemned Gay people, but He sure spent quite a bit of time condemning the proud, the haughty, the legalists who condemned and discriminated against others and put yokes of bondage onto others, all the while claiming to impose those yokes in the name of God.
If haters didn't have an object to hate, they would be forced to confront their own emotional blemishes, crippled natures, incompleteness, insecurities, deficiencies and frailties. And that is the last thing a moral coward feels he/she can afford.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
CHECK OUT IGNORANCE IS PLENTIFUL
I strongly urge you to fully read and follow Don Charles' site, Ignorance is Plentiful, that highlights the counterproductive and, in fact, traitorous actions engaged in and/or embraced by assorted self-described "Gay Activists" and others who burlesque and revel in fulfilling negative stereotypes that are used by homophobes to justify their homophobia, and who also seem to revel in pariah status as "sexual outlaws," and who often demand equality with their voice but contradict the seriousness and seeming authenticity of that demand by their actions.
Here is a mere excerpt from the latest post on Don Charles' site:
“Our movement will never be taken seriously by the greater society unless we act like we want to be taken seriously . . . we should not be cavorting in the streets like fools when thousands of LGBT folk around the world are being so viciously persecuted, imprisoned and murdered. It's inexcusably self-indulgent.”
Predictably, "Free Speech" types popped out of the woodwork to defend Pride parade excesses. “Listen, no matter what, we're not going to stop Pride celebrations from happening, " stated someone who identified herself as JamieMcG. "And we're not going to stop people from wanting to celebrate who they are, nor should we, ever. But we can do our best to make sure that we are taking responsibility in whatever way we can to get our message out there.”
That’s the point, though: Getting the message out “whatever way” just ain’t gonna cut it! We've got to do it the right way. We’ve got to make a credible statement. This is what far too many Gay people fail to grasp. I elaborated:
“When an oppressed people have their minds on freedom, you can tell. There is a seriousness and a determination about them. That's what you saw in the demeanor of the '60s desegregation marchers. That's not what you see in the demeanor of most Pride parade participants! Tell me, how does suggestive posing, outrageous costumes, and public intoxication communicate the gravity of our struggle? There's a difference between a community showing the world its diversity and a community showing the world its ass!“
Please read Ignorance is Plentiful It treats the LGBT rights struggle with the seriousness that it deserves, and gives no quarter to those who, seemingly unwittingly, seek to undermine that struggle from within.
Monday, July 19, 2010
DON CHARLES, THE DUMB DORA AWARD FOR PUTTING OUT FIRE WITH GASOLINE GOES TO THE NATIONAL COALITION OF ANTI-VIOLENCE PROGRAMS...AND YOU
This is a superb, extremely important, heart-felt article written by Don Charles who has kindly given me permission to post it here.
Remember this truth expressed by Steve Biko: The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
I strongly urge you to read this article thoughtfully and in its entirety, and please widely circulate it and take it to heart:
The Dumb Dora Award for Putting Out Fire With Gasoline Goes to The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs . . . And You
I often talk about how hazardous it is to be a person of blended gender in this world. Let me use personal experience to illustrate what I'm talking about. As I've said before, my feminine traits are very obvious. When jocks joke about guys who glide instead of walk, they're talking about me; my sugar is raw! I don't own a car, so I'm usually on foot. More times than I can count, when I cross streets at stop lights, I'm nearly run down by drivers who pretend they don't see me. After they've barely avoided taking my life, they don't even slow down to apologize! On the contrary, they usually gun their motors. Sometimes I see drivers smirking behind the wheel as they speed away.
You might rationalize these incidents by saying: Oh, there are just a lot of rude, reckless drivers in your town. I wouldn't disagree with you. There are bad drivers all over Kansas City. And effeminacy in a male pedestrian brings out the worst in them!
For a long time, personal anecdote was the only proof we had of the danger that Gay and Transsexual Americans face every day. Now, we have hard statistics. A group called The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAV) just released a voluminous report on LGBT hate crimes. For the past few days, much of the Gay blogosphere has been talking about it, and I don't wonder why. It's quite a sobering read, especially for an effeminate Black Gay man like me. Here's a very brief excerpt:
. . . those most at risk for hate murder are young gender non-conforming or Transgender people of color who present femininely or identify as female . . . while the 22 murders in 2009 represent a 30% decline from 2008, this rate represents the second-highest number of LGBTQ(sic) people lost to hate violence in the US in the last decade. These stark figures indicate that despite significant societal change, over the past several years, LGBTQ(sic) people have been targeted for hate murder at rates comparable to those ten years prior.
Remember, the only hate murders this report documents are those committed in the United States, and those which NCAV have been able to identify as bias crimes. That leaves out an awful lot of data! Not to imply that 22 deaths is an insignificant number; but from an international standpoint, it's really just a drop in the bucket. If reliable statistics were kept on countries like Jamaica, Uganda, Malawi, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran, I shudder to think what the numbers would look like! The report should be read in its entirety. You can find it here:
http://www.avp.org/documents/NCAVP2009HateViolenceReportforWeb.pdf
Statistics make a more powerful statement when names are attached to them. Here are some names provided by NCAV, along with details that explain why we must now refer to their owners in the past tense. These details are horrifying. I don't share them here for shock value; I'm including them to underscore the point I'm going to make later on. Besides, some my more vapid Gay male readers need to realize how abruptly their lives can end. This is a surefire (albeit unpleasant) way to give them a wake-up call:
On April 14, 2009 Jimmy Ali McCollough was found stabbed to death one block away from Club Emages where he worked as drag artist “Image Devereux.” Police were investigating his murder as a hate crime. On May 09, 2009, Zachary Lee Oaks, 22, was arrested and charged with first degree murder in his death.
Michael Goucher allegedly made plans to meet with Shawn “Skippy” Freemore (age 19) for a sexual encounter on February 3rd, 2009. According to a police affidavit, Freemore confessed that he and his friend Ian Seagraves planned to murder Michael because he was Gay. That night, the teens allegedly stabbed Goucher 45 to 50 times, covered his body with snow, and drove off in his car. Both are currently facing trial in Pennsylvania, including possible hate crime charges.
William Boss died on or about February 3, 2009. He had been stabbed 27 times. Robert Lewis Sheridon was arrested on February 3, 2009, allegedly in possession of a vehicle owned by Boss. Sheridon currently is awaiting trial on charges of Homicide-Felony Murder, Possession by Felon of a Firearm, and 1st Degree Premeditated Murder. According to friends, Boss had befriended Sheridon at a local bar in Detroit and was trying to help him get off drugs. The Triangle Foundation continues to monitor the ongoing court case against Sheridon.
Frank Yazzie was brutally murdered in Gallup. Children discovered a trash bag containing Yazzie’s torso severed from his lower body on June 29, 2009. Deputies said his torso had multiple stab wounds and cuts to his face. Three days later, a garbage bag was found containing the clothed bottom half of Yazzie’s body. Deputies said the two discoveries were about 100 yards apart. Yazzie’s murder remains unsolved.
According to a police affidavit, on November 12, 2009, Jorge Sgetelmeg was murdered by 22-year-old Enrique Santos outside of a downtown bar in San Antonio, Texas. Santos allegedly struck Sgetelmeg in the face several times with his fist before pulling a rock out of his pocket and continuing to beat him in the face with it . . . then (he) strangled Sgetelmeg to death with his neck tie. Santos reportedly then dumped Sgetelmeg's body and drove off in Sgetelmeg's SUV. According to police, Santos was stopped by police moments after the killing as a result of Santos crashing the car. The affidavit states that Santos confessed to killing Sgetelmeg and claimed that he did so because Sgetelmeg made sexual advances towards him.
Isn't it the animal kingdom that's supposed to be savage, and the human race civilized? Maybe it's time for that assumption to be revised. NCAV discovered that homicidal bigots have preferred methods of killing us. Mostly, they like to bludgeon us to death with blunt objects, but they also like to slash us with broken bottles, stone us with bricks and rocks, blow us away with firearms, stab and slice us with sharpened blades, and run us down with motor vehicles (I think somebody just walked over my grave). They enjoy using lethal language as a weapon, too. The report includes this important observation:
. . . many acts of hate violence, such as hate speech, are not illegal, but may still have serious and traumatic impacts on the individuals who survive them, as well as their friends, families, and communities. Further, such aggressive speech is often an indicator of the potential for an escalation of violence.
NCAV investigators identify anti-Gay slurs as a risk factor for violence, but then what do they do? They ignore their own research! Check out the title the group gave to its plea for sanity and tolerance: "Hate Violence Against The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer(sic) Communities in the United States"!!! Not only that, but the Q-word (or the corrupted acronym LGBTQ) is liberally peppered throughout the document.
I am infuriated that this group would be so boorish as to fill a hate crimes report with hate speech, even while confirming its toxic nature . . . it's just incomprehensible! It adds insult to the injuries suffered by hate crime victims. What were these idiots thinking? Were they even thinking at all?
I don't want to hear the lame-brained excuse that lots of people identify as queer. Don't anybody dare bring it! I've had enough willful dumbassery from the so-called Gay community. Queer is not "just a word", as some imbeciles claim it is. It's also a concept. Specifically, it's the concept of a defective human being. In modern times, hetero-bigots have applied it to everyone who isn't like them.
"Queer" was, is, and always will be a tool for dehumanizing people of blended gender. Since it was specifically designed for that purpose, it can't serve any other! Anybody who says otherwise is either a liar or a fool. Whenever one human being calls another "queer", psychological harm is inflicted. When the Straight population observes LGBT folk using such cruel language on each other, it opens the door for more harm to be done.
It emboldens hardcore haters to hear those they consider sex perverts acknowledge their perversity. It's like waving a matador's cape in front of an enraged bull; assault becomes more justifiable in their minds. Lesbians, Gay men, Bisexual persons and Transfolk answering to the Q-word sends hetero-bigots a message they want to hear! It confirms that what they believe about homosexuality and transgenderism is true: "Those people ain't no f***ing good! Even they know they're queer. They're defective, deviant and diseased. They're an ugly blight on humanity that ought to be erased."
Stupid, insensitive and arrogant Gay activists like those at NCAV further encourage violent agents of Heterosexual Supremacy with their incessant, mindless RadicalSpeak! The flames of ignorance keep getting more fuel thrown on them, and guys like Jimmy Ali McCullough, Michael Goucher, William Boss, Frank Yazzie and Jorge Sgetelmeg keep getting cremated. Who will be sacrificed next? You? Me?
If I wanted to, I could make this essay so incendiary, it would burn all the bridges I haven't burned already! I could name any number of prominent Gay pundits whose discourse stinks so bad of casual homophobia and transphobia, it turns my stomach; but there are far too many offenders to point fingers at. A dead cat you couldn't swing at them all!
Instead, I'll say this: Anyone and everyone who promotes the notion that LGBT folk are queer, from the most vicious Bible bigot to the most Gay-affirming clergywoman to the most radical street activist, is also guilty of promoting TransGenocide! I charge you all with being accessories to hate crime. Some of you may not have realized the impropriety of what you were doing, but many others knew full well! You knew because bloggers like me told you.
For years, we've been telling you! Over and over again, we begged you to speak of Gay identity with respect. You responded with a middle finger salute and torrents of "reclaimed" slurs. You were childish, unrepentant and smug. Now that you see how hateful words can have tragic consequences, is your conscience clear? Can you swear that your reckless usage never contributed to a beating or a murder? Not if you've got a shred of integrity about you! Whether you're willing to admit it or not, you have blood on your hands . . . and that blood is fresh.
Those of us who are seriously committed to making the world safer and saner must declare war on ignorance, and take no prisoners! When colleagues cut loose with Homophobe Mouth, we've got to shut them down fast: "I'm not queer, and neither is anybody I know. Stop using shame-based language! It perpetuates violence against Gay and Transsexual people." Verbal genocide coming from our enemies is bad enough, but it's even worse when we spout it. Helping your enemy kill you is an act of utter insanity! What will it take to make us realize that we can't put out fire with gasoline?
Remember this truth expressed by Steve Biko: The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
I strongly urge you to read this article thoughtfully and in its entirety, and please widely circulate it and take it to heart:
The Dumb Dora Award for Putting Out Fire With Gasoline Goes to The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs . . . And You
I often talk about how hazardous it is to be a person of blended gender in this world. Let me use personal experience to illustrate what I'm talking about. As I've said before, my feminine traits are very obvious. When jocks joke about guys who glide instead of walk, they're talking about me; my sugar is raw! I don't own a car, so I'm usually on foot. More times than I can count, when I cross streets at stop lights, I'm nearly run down by drivers who pretend they don't see me. After they've barely avoided taking my life, they don't even slow down to apologize! On the contrary, they usually gun their motors. Sometimes I see drivers smirking behind the wheel as they speed away.
You might rationalize these incidents by saying: Oh, there are just a lot of rude, reckless drivers in your town. I wouldn't disagree with you. There are bad drivers all over Kansas City. And effeminacy in a male pedestrian brings out the worst in them!
For a long time, personal anecdote was the only proof we had of the danger that Gay and Transsexual Americans face every day. Now, we have hard statistics. A group called The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAV) just released a voluminous report on LGBT hate crimes. For the past few days, much of the Gay blogosphere has been talking about it, and I don't wonder why. It's quite a sobering read, especially for an effeminate Black Gay man like me. Here's a very brief excerpt:
. . . those most at risk for hate murder are young gender non-conforming or Transgender people of color who present femininely or identify as female . . . while the 22 murders in 2009 represent a 30% decline from 2008, this rate represents the second-highest number of LGBTQ(sic) people lost to hate violence in the US in the last decade. These stark figures indicate that despite significant societal change, over the past several years, LGBTQ(sic) people have been targeted for hate murder at rates comparable to those ten years prior.
Remember, the only hate murders this report documents are those committed in the United States, and those which NCAV have been able to identify as bias crimes. That leaves out an awful lot of data! Not to imply that 22 deaths is an insignificant number; but from an international standpoint, it's really just a drop in the bucket. If reliable statistics were kept on countries like Jamaica, Uganda, Malawi, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran, I shudder to think what the numbers would look like! The report should be read in its entirety. You can find it here:
http://www.avp.org/documents/NCAVP2009HateViolenceReportforWeb.pdf
Statistics make a more powerful statement when names are attached to them. Here are some names provided by NCAV, along with details that explain why we must now refer to their owners in the past tense. These details are horrifying. I don't share them here for shock value; I'm including them to underscore the point I'm going to make later on. Besides, some my more vapid Gay male readers need to realize how abruptly their lives can end. This is a surefire (albeit unpleasant) way to give them a wake-up call:
On April 14, 2009 Jimmy Ali McCollough was found stabbed to death one block away from Club Emages where he worked as drag artist “Image Devereux.” Police were investigating his murder as a hate crime. On May 09, 2009, Zachary Lee Oaks, 22, was arrested and charged with first degree murder in his death.
Michael Goucher allegedly made plans to meet with Shawn “Skippy” Freemore (age 19) for a sexual encounter on February 3rd, 2009. According to a police affidavit, Freemore confessed that he and his friend Ian Seagraves planned to murder Michael because he was Gay. That night, the teens allegedly stabbed Goucher 45 to 50 times, covered his body with snow, and drove off in his car. Both are currently facing trial in Pennsylvania, including possible hate crime charges.
William Boss died on or about February 3, 2009. He had been stabbed 27 times. Robert Lewis Sheridon was arrested on February 3, 2009, allegedly in possession of a vehicle owned by Boss. Sheridon currently is awaiting trial on charges of Homicide-Felony Murder, Possession by Felon of a Firearm, and 1st Degree Premeditated Murder. According to friends, Boss had befriended Sheridon at a local bar in Detroit and was trying to help him get off drugs. The Triangle Foundation continues to monitor the ongoing court case against Sheridon.
Frank Yazzie was brutally murdered in Gallup. Children discovered a trash bag containing Yazzie’s torso severed from his lower body on June 29, 2009. Deputies said his torso had multiple stab wounds and cuts to his face. Three days later, a garbage bag was found containing the clothed bottom half of Yazzie’s body. Deputies said the two discoveries were about 100 yards apart. Yazzie’s murder remains unsolved.
According to a police affidavit, on November 12, 2009, Jorge Sgetelmeg was murdered by 22-year-old Enrique Santos outside of a downtown bar in San Antonio, Texas. Santos allegedly struck Sgetelmeg in the face several times with his fist before pulling a rock out of his pocket and continuing to beat him in the face with it . . . then (he) strangled Sgetelmeg to death with his neck tie. Santos reportedly then dumped Sgetelmeg's body and drove off in Sgetelmeg's SUV. According to police, Santos was stopped by police moments after the killing as a result of Santos crashing the car. The affidavit states that Santos confessed to killing Sgetelmeg and claimed that he did so because Sgetelmeg made sexual advances towards him.
Isn't it the animal kingdom that's supposed to be savage, and the human race civilized? Maybe it's time for that assumption to be revised. NCAV discovered that homicidal bigots have preferred methods of killing us. Mostly, they like to bludgeon us to death with blunt objects, but they also like to slash us with broken bottles, stone us with bricks and rocks, blow us away with firearms, stab and slice us with sharpened blades, and run us down with motor vehicles (I think somebody just walked over my grave). They enjoy using lethal language as a weapon, too. The report includes this important observation:
. . . many acts of hate violence, such as hate speech, are not illegal, but may still have serious and traumatic impacts on the individuals who survive them, as well as their friends, families, and communities. Further, such aggressive speech is often an indicator of the potential for an escalation of violence.
NCAV investigators identify anti-Gay slurs as a risk factor for violence, but then what do they do? They ignore their own research! Check out the title the group gave to its plea for sanity and tolerance: "Hate Violence Against The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer(sic) Communities in the United States"!!! Not only that, but the Q-word (or the corrupted acronym LGBTQ) is liberally peppered throughout the document.
I am infuriated that this group would be so boorish as to fill a hate crimes report with hate speech, even while confirming its toxic nature . . . it's just incomprehensible! It adds insult to the injuries suffered by hate crime victims. What were these idiots thinking? Were they even thinking at all?
I don't want to hear the lame-brained excuse that lots of people identify as queer. Don't anybody dare bring it! I've had enough willful dumbassery from the so-called Gay community. Queer is not "just a word", as some imbeciles claim it is. It's also a concept. Specifically, it's the concept of a defective human being. In modern times, hetero-bigots have applied it to everyone who isn't like them.
"Queer" was, is, and always will be a tool for dehumanizing people of blended gender. Since it was specifically designed for that purpose, it can't serve any other! Anybody who says otherwise is either a liar or a fool. Whenever one human being calls another "queer", psychological harm is inflicted. When the Straight population observes LGBT folk using such cruel language on each other, it opens the door for more harm to be done.
It emboldens hardcore haters to hear those they consider sex perverts acknowledge their perversity. It's like waving a matador's cape in front of an enraged bull; assault becomes more justifiable in their minds. Lesbians, Gay men, Bisexual persons and Transfolk answering to the Q-word sends hetero-bigots a message they want to hear! It confirms that what they believe about homosexuality and transgenderism is true: "Those people ain't no f***ing good! Even they know they're queer. They're defective, deviant and diseased. They're an ugly blight on humanity that ought to be erased."
Stupid, insensitive and arrogant Gay activists like those at NCAV further encourage violent agents of Heterosexual Supremacy with their incessant, mindless RadicalSpeak! The flames of ignorance keep getting more fuel thrown on them, and guys like Jimmy Ali McCullough, Michael Goucher, William Boss, Frank Yazzie and Jorge Sgetelmeg keep getting cremated. Who will be sacrificed next? You? Me?
If I wanted to, I could make this essay so incendiary, it would burn all the bridges I haven't burned already! I could name any number of prominent Gay pundits whose discourse stinks so bad of casual homophobia and transphobia, it turns my stomach; but there are far too many offenders to point fingers at. A dead cat you couldn't swing at them all!
Instead, I'll say this: Anyone and everyone who promotes the notion that LGBT folk are queer, from the most vicious Bible bigot to the most Gay-affirming clergywoman to the most radical street activist, is also guilty of promoting TransGenocide! I charge you all with being accessories to hate crime. Some of you may not have realized the impropriety of what you were doing, but many others knew full well! You knew because bloggers like me told you.
For years, we've been telling you! Over and over again, we begged you to speak of Gay identity with respect. You responded with a middle finger salute and torrents of "reclaimed" slurs. You were childish, unrepentant and smug. Now that you see how hateful words can have tragic consequences, is your conscience clear? Can you swear that your reckless usage never contributed to a beating or a murder? Not if you've got a shred of integrity about you! Whether you're willing to admit it or not, you have blood on your hands . . . and that blood is fresh.
Those of us who are seriously committed to making the world safer and saner must declare war on ignorance, and take no prisoners! When colleagues cut loose with Homophobe Mouth, we've got to shut them down fast: "I'm not queer, and neither is anybody I know. Stop using shame-based language! It perpetuates violence against Gay and Transsexual people." Verbal genocide coming from our enemies is bad enough, but it's even worse when we spout it. Helping your enemy kill you is an act of utter insanity! What will it take to make us realize that we can't put out fire with gasoline?
Sunday, July 18, 2010
FR. JOSE ALESSIO: A HERO FOR THE FAITH
A renegade Argentinian priest who publicly supports gay marriage has vowed to defy his archbishop's orders to stop celebrating Mass.
Jose Alessio, a Roman Catholic priest, backs a bill being debated in Congress this week that would grant homosexual couples
marriage and adoption rights, flouting Church doctrine and subjecting himself to sanctions.
"I feel I'm in communion with God, my people and the Gospel, regardless of whether a bishop or the Pope decides to excommunicate me."
[For the full article, see here.]
Fr. Jose Alessio has put his life in the hands of God by his living up to the demands of the Gospel, by contradicting the edicts of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that bears false witness against, and denies dignity to, LGBT people, and does everything it can to prevent the acquisition of equal rights for God's LGBT children.
Hebrews 11:6 states that without faith (That is, trusting God over and above seen circumstances; trusting God over and above the edicts of authoritarian bureaucrats; trusting God over and above the expectations of mere fallible human beings.) it is impossible to please God.
Fr. Alessio has demonstrated biblical, God-pleasing faith by fighting the good fight of faith in the face of authoritarian legalists who seem to know nothing about the Gospel of grace, or about Jesus' commands to all of His disciples to show love, and in no way judge or condemn any of God's children.
God bless Fr. Alessio, a true hero of the faith!
Jose Alessio, a Roman Catholic priest, backs a bill being debated in Congress this week that would grant homosexual couples
marriage and adoption rights, flouting Church doctrine and subjecting himself to sanctions.
"I feel I'm in communion with God, my people and the Gospel, regardless of whether a bishop or the Pope decides to excommunicate me."
[For the full article, see here.]
Fr. Jose Alessio has put his life in the hands of God by his living up to the demands of the Gospel, by contradicting the edicts of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy that bears false witness against, and denies dignity to, LGBT people, and does everything it can to prevent the acquisition of equal rights for God's LGBT children.
Hebrews 11:6 states that without faith (That is, trusting God over and above seen circumstances; trusting God over and above the edicts of authoritarian bureaucrats; trusting God over and above the expectations of mere fallible human beings.) it is impossible to please God.
Fr. Alessio has demonstrated biblical, God-pleasing faith by fighting the good fight of faith in the face of authoritarian legalists who seem to know nothing about the Gospel of grace, or about Jesus' commands to all of His disciples to show love, and in no way judge or condemn any of God's children.
God bless Fr. Alessio, a true hero of the faith!
Friday, July 16, 2010
THE HOMOPHOBIA BEHIND STUDIES OF THE CAUSES OF HOMOSEXUALITY
Again, the search for a "Gay gene" continues, and that search, that research, is deeply offensive to me.
A group of Korean geneticists has altered the sexual preferences of female mice by removing a single gene linked to reproductive behavior. Without the gene, the mice gravitated toward mice of the same sex. Those mice who retained the gene, called FucM, were attracted to male mice. (FucM is short for fucose mutarotase.)
[See here.]
By searching for a gene, or complex of genes, that may cause a person to be Gay denotes that being Gay is something akin to a disease whose source must be found, perhaps so that medication (or abortion?) can "cure" that disease. And by such research, scientists are tacitly affirming that being Gay is some sort of aberration, some sort of malady or disease, the cause of which must be found.
In this connection, I'd like to reprint an article I wrote on this subject a few years ago entitled, The Homophobia Behind Studies of the Causes of Homosexuality:
"Gay men and lesbians are more likely to be left-handed than heterosexuals. The preference for left-handedness isn’t huge. But it's distinct, and it might have a basis in human biology.
"So says Richard Lippa, a veteran Cal State Fullerton psychologist who has been poring over the sex, gender and behavioral data contained in a BBC Internet survey that involved more than 200,000 people. The 'Beeb' used the data as part of its highly praised 2005 documentary 'Secrets of the Sexes.' And it comes amid growing efforts by scientists to examine everything from the length of a person’s fingers to hair patterns for signs of sexual orientation."
[Reference: CSUF study says gays more likely than straights to be left-handed," article by Gary Robbins, "OC Register," April 6, 2007.]
In response to the above cited article, I wrote the following when it appeared:
"This is a very well written column. However, although I haven’t read the original study and checked the methodology, two factors must be addressed:
"1. There is a big difference between correlation and causation. Just because two variables are correlated doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other.
"2. The author of the study writes, "You have to look at large numbers of people to see statistically significant associations." That’s the real problem, in that, first of all, there is no indication that this is a random sample. Moreover, "statistical significance" is not necessarily the same as "theoretical significance" or "substantive significance." Also, statistical significance increases in proportion to sample size. The larger the sample size, the greater the "statistical significance," if I remember my methodology courses that I took about 45 years ago.
"Moreover, as a sociologist and LGBT rights activist (please see my blog, http://www.christianlgbtrights.org), beyond its academic interest, correlates or causes of being gay or lesbian are irrelevant to vitiating discrimination against LGBT people, as the recent remarks from Albert Mohler, President of a Southern Baptist seminary, attest, when he said that if being Gay was biologically caused, medical intervention on the fetus would be advisable and justified to change that fetus to heterosexual, as homosexuality is a symptom of 'original sin.'
"More mileage would be gained by studying the causes of homophobia, and what motivates people who obsess over condemning others’ love and sex lives, than studying the purported causes of sexual orientation."
I continue to reiterate my objections to such studies, the most recent one appearing in the "Los Angeles Times" Health section entitled, "What does gay look like? Science keeps trying to figure that out."
The article by Regina Nuzzo briefly reviews some of the studies as to why some people are Gay, and she suggests, "Finding common biological traits -- things like hair growth patterns, penis size, family makeup -- might one day shed light on the origins of sexual orientation."
We must again ask why it's so important, beyond the intellectual issues involved, to seek to establish why some people are Gay? Why not study why some people are Straight? Why not study why some people like meat and others don't like meat? Why not study why some people love vegetables and others don't? Why not study why someone's favorite color is different from another person's favorite color? Well, you get the point!
The fact that sexual orientation is felt to be deserving of the appropriation of funds and expenditure of time and energy by scientists, as opposed to such questions as the above that any scientist would hardly deem likely to investigate, has far more to do with people's hang-ups regarding sex and sexual orientation than it has to do with the intrinsic importance of that subject.
I can certainly see the validity of studies as to why some people love war and others love peace; why some people are sadistic and others are not; why some people take advantage of others and others don't; why some people prey on others and others don't; why some people are homophobic and others are not, but I can't understand why studies of the causes of sexual orientation are viewed as being so important.
The only reason that I can see for its perceived importance, beyond the false belief that if one's sexual orientation can be shown to be beyond one's control there will be fewer reasons for discriminating against Gay people, it seems to me that many people (and scientists are by no means exempted) like to put people into neat boxes, and have people meet their expectations and their requirements within the parameters that they feel should comprise those boxes, and if a group of people call into question those assumptions, expectations, and perceived requirements by their very existence, there is seen to be a pressing need to study "them" and find out why "they" are different from "normal" people; why "they" don't conform to "what I expect" and define as "normal."
A good deal of this interest in why some people are Gay has to do with the fact that being Gay has been considered to be part of one's core identity, both by homophobes, by many Straight people, and by many Gay people themselves. I fail to see why such need be the case!
Each of us is multidimensional, and our sexuality and emotional/romantic interests make up only a fraction of who we are as people. However, when one is historically and constantly discriminated against because of this one facet of a human being, that human being is virtually forced to see his or her sexual orientation as a core part of him/herself, if for no other reason than because that facet has been imposed on him/her as his/her essential essence as a human being. And, in order to seek to defend oneself from these attacks or potential attacks, a concept of self that affirms oneself amidst lack of affirmation by many, if not most, within the larger society, encourages the person to view that aspect that is the cause of one's ill treatment to be defended, if not asserted.
And the desire to both defend one's sexuality and to assert the normality of that sexuality is seemingly bolstered by the desired findings of studies that will "hopefully" show that being LGBT is beyond one's control, and is a normal variant that does not deserve to be in any way condemned; such findings will eliminate or greatly reduce externalized and internalized homophobia.
Clearly, heterosexuals who are sexually and emotionally intact will not condemn LGBT people, as same-sex love wouldn't repel them in any way. Why should it? If one is intact and content in his/her sexual life, what would be the motivation to condemn, or even make a veritable career out of condemning, the sexual/affectional life of another?
The fact that it is the sexually and/or emotionally dysfunctional people who condemn another's sexuality is highlighted by the patently specious and foolish reasons given by these self-styled arbiters of "morality" for their blatant hostility and discrimination against LGBT people.
So, appeal to the Bible, when the Bible does not condemn same-sex love and, actually, affirms it. Or the appeal to "tradition," where such an appeal could also be used to justify the institutions of slavery and segregation (which, of course, did, in fact, occur). Or the appeal that Gay people will prey on children, when the statistics clearly show that it is heterosexuals who are far more likely to be pedophiles than are Gay people. Or the appeal that same-sex parents will likely have more homosexual children when, in fact, virtually all Gay kids are raised by heterosexuals. Or the appeal that children do better when raised with both a mother and a father in the home when, in fact, what studies we have show that kids raised in loving homes with two mothers or two fathers do just as well as kids raised when both a mother and a father are present. And, of course, the list goes on!
And encouraging studies that seek to find out why some people are Gay is implying that there is something "abnormal" or "against the natural order" about being Gay, and we should find out why Gay people exist so that we can better understand this "strange" phenomenon. The fact is that many people fail to realize that God made His Gay children, just as He made His Straight children, with the capacity to love another person, and that capacity and the love that ensues from it are priceless gifts from God that He has graciously given to us.
What deserves study, on the other hand, is what makes it possible for so many people to be incapable of loving another human being? What makes it possible for a human being to despise and condemn the love life of another person? What is the source of such hate that resides in all too many hearts, be that hate justified in the name of "religion" or not, that makes one incapable of loving and not judging and not discriminating against others because of their capacity to love another person of the same sex?
It is these questions that deserve much study, for it is those who hate, especially those who hate in the name of God, who are the ones who really deserve to be studied. They are the aberration, they are the dangerous forces that wreak havoc on society and in the lives of innumerable LGBT people and their families. They are the ones who are directly responsible for parents kicking their Gay kids out of the house and into the streets and disowning them because their children placed their trust in them and that trust was horribly and sinfully betrayed. They are the ones who pervert the Gospel, if they profess to be "Christians," and who provide "justification" for those on the fringe to even kill LGBT people and do so thinking that they are doing God a favor by so doing.
It is the religious and other homophobes who deserve study! Far more mileage will be gotten by studying the causes and dynamics of homophobia and homophobic people, especially homophobes who "justify" their homophobia in the name of the Prince of Peace Who makes it crystal clear that to truly be His disciples we must love and not judge others, than will be gotten by studying the causes and dynamics of same-sex love and attraction!
It is especially the clear disconnect, the clear inconsistency, between homophobic professing Christians who spew hateful rhetoric and engage in discriminatory actions on the one hand, and Jesus' Commandment to those who would be His disciples to love and not judge others on the other hand, that certainly deserves scientific scrutiny for the well-being of society, for the well-being of LGBT people and their families, for the well-being of those who are Christians indeed, and for the well-being of the image of Christianity when seen by many decent, intelligent, and sensitive people!
A group of Korean geneticists has altered the sexual preferences of female mice by removing a single gene linked to reproductive behavior. Without the gene, the mice gravitated toward mice of the same sex. Those mice who retained the gene, called FucM, were attracted to male mice. (FucM is short for fucose mutarotase.)
[See here.]
By searching for a gene, or complex of genes, that may cause a person to be Gay denotes that being Gay is something akin to a disease whose source must be found, perhaps so that medication (or abortion?) can "cure" that disease. And by such research, scientists are tacitly affirming that being Gay is some sort of aberration, some sort of malady or disease, the cause of which must be found.
In this connection, I'd like to reprint an article I wrote on this subject a few years ago entitled, The Homophobia Behind Studies of the Causes of Homosexuality:
"Gay men and lesbians are more likely to be left-handed than heterosexuals. The preference for left-handedness isn’t huge. But it's distinct, and it might have a basis in human biology.
"So says Richard Lippa, a veteran Cal State Fullerton psychologist who has been poring over the sex, gender and behavioral data contained in a BBC Internet survey that involved more than 200,000 people. The 'Beeb' used the data as part of its highly praised 2005 documentary 'Secrets of the Sexes.' And it comes amid growing efforts by scientists to examine everything from the length of a person’s fingers to hair patterns for signs of sexual orientation."
[Reference: CSUF study says gays more likely than straights to be left-handed," article by Gary Robbins, "OC Register," April 6, 2007.]
In response to the above cited article, I wrote the following when it appeared:
"This is a very well written column. However, although I haven’t read the original study and checked the methodology, two factors must be addressed:
"1. There is a big difference between correlation and causation. Just because two variables are correlated doesn’t necessarily mean that one causes the other.
"2. The author of the study writes, "You have to look at large numbers of people to see statistically significant associations." That’s the real problem, in that, first of all, there is no indication that this is a random sample. Moreover, "statistical significance" is not necessarily the same as "theoretical significance" or "substantive significance." Also, statistical significance increases in proportion to sample size. The larger the sample size, the greater the "statistical significance," if I remember my methodology courses that I took about 45 years ago.
"Moreover, as a sociologist and LGBT rights activist (please see my blog, http://www.christianlgbtrights.org), beyond its academic interest, correlates or causes of being gay or lesbian are irrelevant to vitiating discrimination against LGBT people, as the recent remarks from Albert Mohler, President of a Southern Baptist seminary, attest, when he said that if being Gay was biologically caused, medical intervention on the fetus would be advisable and justified to change that fetus to heterosexual, as homosexuality is a symptom of 'original sin.'
"More mileage would be gained by studying the causes of homophobia, and what motivates people who obsess over condemning others’ love and sex lives, than studying the purported causes of sexual orientation."
I continue to reiterate my objections to such studies, the most recent one appearing in the "Los Angeles Times" Health section entitled, "What does gay look like? Science keeps trying to figure that out."
The article by Regina Nuzzo briefly reviews some of the studies as to why some people are Gay, and she suggests, "Finding common biological traits -- things like hair growth patterns, penis size, family makeup -- might one day shed light on the origins of sexual orientation."
We must again ask why it's so important, beyond the intellectual issues involved, to seek to establish why some people are Gay? Why not study why some people are Straight? Why not study why some people like meat and others don't like meat? Why not study why some people love vegetables and others don't? Why not study why someone's favorite color is different from another person's favorite color? Well, you get the point!
The fact that sexual orientation is felt to be deserving of the appropriation of funds and expenditure of time and energy by scientists, as opposed to such questions as the above that any scientist would hardly deem likely to investigate, has far more to do with people's hang-ups regarding sex and sexual orientation than it has to do with the intrinsic importance of that subject.
I can certainly see the validity of studies as to why some people love war and others love peace; why some people are sadistic and others are not; why some people take advantage of others and others don't; why some people prey on others and others don't; why some people are homophobic and others are not, but I can't understand why studies of the causes of sexual orientation are viewed as being so important.
The only reason that I can see for its perceived importance, beyond the false belief that if one's sexual orientation can be shown to be beyond one's control there will be fewer reasons for discriminating against Gay people, it seems to me that many people (and scientists are by no means exempted) like to put people into neat boxes, and have people meet their expectations and their requirements within the parameters that they feel should comprise those boxes, and if a group of people call into question those assumptions, expectations, and perceived requirements by their very existence, there is seen to be a pressing need to study "them" and find out why "they" are different from "normal" people; why "they" don't conform to "what I expect" and define as "normal."
A good deal of this interest in why some people are Gay has to do with the fact that being Gay has been considered to be part of one's core identity, both by homophobes, by many Straight people, and by many Gay people themselves. I fail to see why such need be the case!
Each of us is multidimensional, and our sexuality and emotional/romantic interests make up only a fraction of who we are as people. However, when one is historically and constantly discriminated against because of this one facet of a human being, that human being is virtually forced to see his or her sexual orientation as a core part of him/herself, if for no other reason than because that facet has been imposed on him/her as his/her essential essence as a human being. And, in order to seek to defend oneself from these attacks or potential attacks, a concept of self that affirms oneself amidst lack of affirmation by many, if not most, within the larger society, encourages the person to view that aspect that is the cause of one's ill treatment to be defended, if not asserted.
And the desire to both defend one's sexuality and to assert the normality of that sexuality is seemingly bolstered by the desired findings of studies that will "hopefully" show that being LGBT is beyond one's control, and is a normal variant that does not deserve to be in any way condemned; such findings will eliminate or greatly reduce externalized and internalized homophobia.
Clearly, heterosexuals who are sexually and emotionally intact will not condemn LGBT people, as same-sex love wouldn't repel them in any way. Why should it? If one is intact and content in his/her sexual life, what would be the motivation to condemn, or even make a veritable career out of condemning, the sexual/affectional life of another?
The fact that it is the sexually and/or emotionally dysfunctional people who condemn another's sexuality is highlighted by the patently specious and foolish reasons given by these self-styled arbiters of "morality" for their blatant hostility and discrimination against LGBT people.
So, appeal to the Bible, when the Bible does not condemn same-sex love and, actually, affirms it. Or the appeal to "tradition," where such an appeal could also be used to justify the institutions of slavery and segregation (which, of course, did, in fact, occur). Or the appeal that Gay people will prey on children, when the statistics clearly show that it is heterosexuals who are far more likely to be pedophiles than are Gay people. Or the appeal that same-sex parents will likely have more homosexual children when, in fact, virtually all Gay kids are raised by heterosexuals. Or the appeal that children do better when raised with both a mother and a father in the home when, in fact, what studies we have show that kids raised in loving homes with two mothers or two fathers do just as well as kids raised when both a mother and a father are present. And, of course, the list goes on!
And encouraging studies that seek to find out why some people are Gay is implying that there is something "abnormal" or "against the natural order" about being Gay, and we should find out why Gay people exist so that we can better understand this "strange" phenomenon. The fact is that many people fail to realize that God made His Gay children, just as He made His Straight children, with the capacity to love another person, and that capacity and the love that ensues from it are priceless gifts from God that He has graciously given to us.
What deserves study, on the other hand, is what makes it possible for so many people to be incapable of loving another human being? What makes it possible for a human being to despise and condemn the love life of another person? What is the source of such hate that resides in all too many hearts, be that hate justified in the name of "religion" or not, that makes one incapable of loving and not judging and not discriminating against others because of their capacity to love another person of the same sex?
It is these questions that deserve much study, for it is those who hate, especially those who hate in the name of God, who are the ones who really deserve to be studied. They are the aberration, they are the dangerous forces that wreak havoc on society and in the lives of innumerable LGBT people and their families. They are the ones who are directly responsible for parents kicking their Gay kids out of the house and into the streets and disowning them because their children placed their trust in them and that trust was horribly and sinfully betrayed. They are the ones who pervert the Gospel, if they profess to be "Christians," and who provide "justification" for those on the fringe to even kill LGBT people and do so thinking that they are doing God a favor by so doing.
It is the religious and other homophobes who deserve study! Far more mileage will be gotten by studying the causes and dynamics of homophobia and homophobic people, especially homophobes who "justify" their homophobia in the name of the Prince of Peace Who makes it crystal clear that to truly be His disciples we must love and not judge others, than will be gotten by studying the causes and dynamics of same-sex love and attraction!
It is especially the clear disconnect, the clear inconsistency, between homophobic professing Christians who spew hateful rhetoric and engage in discriminatory actions on the one hand, and Jesus' Commandment to those who would be His disciples to love and not judge others on the other hand, that certainly deserves scientific scrutiny for the well-being of society, for the well-being of LGBT people and their families, for the well-being of those who are Christians indeed, and for the well-being of the image of Christianity when seen by many decent, intelligent, and sensitive people!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
IT SEEMS THAT ARGENTINA SURPASSES THE UNITED STATES IN REGARD TO LGBT RIGHTS
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the political leaders of the United States had the same courage, moral rectitude, social conscience, and fidelity to the U.S. Constitution that has been interpreted as stating that "separate is not equal," to express revulsion and outrage when LGBT people are denied dignity and full and equal civil rights, as we see in the words of the President of Argentina?
What an irony when Argentina seems to be far ahead of the United States where LGBT civil rights are concerned!
And it is a downright embarrassment and outrage when some professing "Christian" denominations, such as the Roman Catholic and LDS Churches, affirm discrimination; one leading Roman Catholic cleric in Argentina going so far as to invoke the name and blame the role of Satan in this struggle for equality, so as to prevent the acquisition of equal rights for LGBT people in Argentina.
Hear ARGENTINA'S PRESIDENT SPEAKS OUT FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN RESPONSE TO CHURCH ATTACKS AS SENATE PREPARES VOTE (Thanks to Towleroad.):
What an irony when Argentina seems to be far ahead of the United States where LGBT civil rights are concerned!
And it is a downright embarrassment and outrage when some professing "Christian" denominations, such as the Roman Catholic and LDS Churches, affirm discrimination; one leading Roman Catholic cleric in Argentina going so far as to invoke the name and blame the role of Satan in this struggle for equality, so as to prevent the acquisition of equal rights for LGBT people in Argentina.
Hear ARGENTINA'S PRESIDENT SPEAKS OUT FOR SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IN RESPONSE TO CHURCH ATTACKS AS SENATE PREPARES VOTE (Thanks to Towleroad.):
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
GOPROUD, GLENN BECK, SARAH PALIN, AND THE PATHOLOGY OF THE GAY CONSERVATIVE
I just came across this post entitled, GOProud Aligns With Glenn Beck For Massive DC Teabagger Rally, part of which reads as follows:
GOProud, the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their allies, will join with thousands of Americans, including Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. GOProud members and supporters will meet near the Smithsonian Metro stop before joining the event at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
This relationship of a group of Gay conservatives with the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, clearly no advocates for LGBT equality, is not particularly unusual! Indeed, in the last Presidential election, a CNN exit poll found that 27% of Gay people voted for John McCain. (See here.)
Apropos of Gay people aligning themselves with those who seek to deny them equal rights, I'd like to reprint my article of a few years ago entitled, The Pathology of the Gay Conservative, that tries to show some of the dynamics regarding why a Gay person might well align him/herself with those who deny him/her dignity and who fights against equal rights for LGBT people:
To "conserve" in the political sense, means to adhere to traditions of fiscal responsibility and seek to minimizie the government's intrusion or encroachment on individual rights! If that is what we meant in today's U.S. by "conservative," that would be a perfectly understandable political position for a rational Gay person to take.
However, the unfortunate reality is that what passes for "conservatism" today is diametrically opposed to those very traditional principles! President Bush inherited an economic surplus and in just a few short years we have come to the point where we have the largest debt that this nation has ever seen. We invaded a sovereign country based on lies and deceit, having 9/11 cynically used as a pretext to enter a war that I believe was planned before Bush even took office.
Moreover, with the initiation of the Patriot Act, suspension of habeus corpus for those viewed as "enemy combatants," and a whole host of other encroachments on our civil liberties, this Administration is anything but "conservative," and has done a great deal to encroach upon our individual liberties, more than ably and willingly abetted by most of the mainstream media that has both uncritically accepted the sound bytes emanating from the self-serving White House, acting as mere stenographers of the political spin of the day, and airing hitherto unthinkable hateful rhetoric from assorted talk show hosts.
However, one of the consequences of all of this relatively rapid change in our society is the demonization of LGBT people by the self-described "conservative" forces in this country, and the cowardly capitulation to those forces of the opposing, the Democratic, party that has to appeal to an electorate inundated with what is purported to be "conservative" ideas that are really pure naked hatred dressed in the drag of "conservatism." So we even have political opponents adopting many of the "ideas" of those who garner votes and market share of audience by frequently hateful rhetoric and the playing of the politics of exclusion, and who feel the need to intrude on others' private lives, deny them dignity and full and equal civil rights, and frame our political sport as one where one can't tell the players without a scorecard and, unfortunately, when it comes to LGBT rights, the scorecard doesn't show either side in a very favorable light. So, the reality becomes that every decent person who wants to partake of the political process in the U.S. has to support/choose the least of two evils, go into the voting booth, hold his/her nose, and vote!
However, when a Gay person aligns him/herself with the political party that runs on a platform of writing an Amendment into the Constitution that would seek to prevent same-sex marriage, that largely demonizes LGBT people, that is quite comfortable with the fact that there are absolutely no federal civil rights protections for LGBT people, assiduously fights "hate crime" legislation (more accurately viewed as legislation against "terrorism," as I have written before), and where LGBT people are viewed as fodder for the purpose of garnering votes, it calls into question what manifestation of self-loathing or self-denigration would foster such an alliance and, even, an allegiance.
As I have previously written, "Being Gay need not be one's top priority, just as being straight is not to be one's top priority. However, when a Gay person aligns him/herself with a political party that has as its platform to prevent same-sex marriage, supports the fact that there are no federal civil rights protections for LGBT people, and is generally hostile to LGBT people, supporting that political party reeks of masochism in my book, and shows that person to be "ignorant and/or mendacious and/or traitorous'."
I want to try to delve into the dynamics of Gay people aligning themselves with today's Republican party, a party that has fostered an anti-Gay agenda that is quite extraordinary from a number of perspectives, not the least being the fact that it regards itself as "conservative," all the while it seeks to limit the human freedom to legally relate to another whom one loves and to whom one seeks to make a lifetime commitment. Why would a Gay person seek to align him/herself with a politcal party and its allies that view same-sex marriage as an assault on "traditional family values," ruining "the sanctity of marriage" (posited by people many of whom have been married more than once or even twice), and who apparently feel no compunction about ridiculing Gay people?
I've heard more than one such Republican Gay person say that, although they were Gay, that isn't all they were. They were not one issue voters, and that their being Gay wasn't the major part of their lives or identities. Fair enough! However, let's consider another scenario.
If I lived on welfare and food stamps, would it make any sense if I aligned myself with the Democratic Party, for example, if it had as its platform that it was going to do away with welfare and food stamps, and deny those who were on those programs its benefits? Even though I might not consider my economic situation to be the most important "identity" I had, or the fact that I didn't consider myself to be a one issue voter, would it make any rational sense if I voted for the Democratic ticket if it largely ran on such a platform? I doubt many would answer, "yes," to this rhetorical question.
I really believe that the bombardment of anti-Gay messages throughout our lives in assorted venues, not the least of which is most of the organized Church, has taken hold on many LGBT people's lives and psyches and, even though many are "out," they still harbor a visceral self-loathing that manifests itself by many identifying with their oppressors. This phenomenon is quite common in a variety of arenas, and it's called "the Stockholm Syndrome", where the oppressed become emotionally attached to their oppressors.
Succumbing to this phenomenon doesn't denote any necessary intentional malice (although the subsequent consequence of that decision can provoke maliciousness) on the part of the victim. It seems to me that it merely denotes that in order to maintain one's "ego integrity," and one's inner sense of "dignity," one feels that he/she must identify with his/her oppressors (though not consciously acknowledging them as such), so as to consciously reject the role of "victim" and embrace the role as being one of their comrades. Indeed, in this case, "comrades in arms." (This phenomenon is seemingly quite widespread, as I remember reading a poll shortly after the last Presidential election that about 23% of LGBT people voted for President Bush who largely ran on the platform of placing an amendment into the Constitution preventing same-sex marriage.)
Of course, Gay people, like many of the rest of the population, care about higher taxes (though it could be viewed as irrational to support a political party that has virtually guaranteed higher taxes to pay for the profligate spending that has occurred in these past several years), limited government (though that, too, is irrational, if one is supporting a party that has grossly intruded on many of the bulwarks of our judicial system, such as habeus corpus, and wiretapping without judicial oversight or even prior approval), and would want to vote accordingly. However, the reality of today's "conservatives," of today's Republican party, does not address these concerns, and it doesn't take a Democrat or an Independent to point out that fact.
Basically, I believe that when one supports a political party that works against that person's very dignity, personhood, and right to pursue happiness that is the right of every human being to enjoy in the U.S., he/she is manifesting his/her conscious and/or unconscious self-loathing in a "Stockholm Syndrome" that not only affirms the party that largely institutionalizes that oppression, but devalues the dignity of the person succumbing to that syndrome and casts him or her as one who is "ignorant and/or mendacious and/or traitorous'."
GOProud, the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their allies, will join with thousands of Americans, including Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. GOProud members and supporters will meet near the Smithsonian Metro stop before joining the event at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
This relationship of a group of Gay conservatives with the likes of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, clearly no advocates for LGBT equality, is not particularly unusual! Indeed, in the last Presidential election, a CNN exit poll found that 27% of Gay people voted for John McCain. (See here.)
Apropos of Gay people aligning themselves with those who seek to deny them equal rights, I'd like to reprint my article of a few years ago entitled, The Pathology of the Gay Conservative, that tries to show some of the dynamics regarding why a Gay person might well align him/herself with those who deny him/her dignity and who fights against equal rights for LGBT people:
To "conserve" in the political sense, means to adhere to traditions of fiscal responsibility and seek to minimizie the government's intrusion or encroachment on individual rights! If that is what we meant in today's U.S. by "conservative," that would be a perfectly understandable political position for a rational Gay person to take.
However, the unfortunate reality is that what passes for "conservatism" today is diametrically opposed to those very traditional principles! President Bush inherited an economic surplus and in just a few short years we have come to the point where we have the largest debt that this nation has ever seen. We invaded a sovereign country based on lies and deceit, having 9/11 cynically used as a pretext to enter a war that I believe was planned before Bush even took office.
Moreover, with the initiation of the Patriot Act, suspension of habeus corpus for those viewed as "enemy combatants," and a whole host of other encroachments on our civil liberties, this Administration is anything but "conservative," and has done a great deal to encroach upon our individual liberties, more than ably and willingly abetted by most of the mainstream media that has both uncritically accepted the sound bytes emanating from the self-serving White House, acting as mere stenographers of the political spin of the day, and airing hitherto unthinkable hateful rhetoric from assorted talk show hosts.
However, one of the consequences of all of this relatively rapid change in our society is the demonization of LGBT people by the self-described "conservative" forces in this country, and the cowardly capitulation to those forces of the opposing, the Democratic, party that has to appeal to an electorate inundated with what is purported to be "conservative" ideas that are really pure naked hatred dressed in the drag of "conservatism." So we even have political opponents adopting many of the "ideas" of those who garner votes and market share of audience by frequently hateful rhetoric and the playing of the politics of exclusion, and who feel the need to intrude on others' private lives, deny them dignity and full and equal civil rights, and frame our political sport as one where one can't tell the players without a scorecard and, unfortunately, when it comes to LGBT rights, the scorecard doesn't show either side in a very favorable light. So, the reality becomes that every decent person who wants to partake of the political process in the U.S. has to support/choose the least of two evils, go into the voting booth, hold his/her nose, and vote!
However, when a Gay person aligns him/herself with the political party that runs on a platform of writing an Amendment into the Constitution that would seek to prevent same-sex marriage, that largely demonizes LGBT people, that is quite comfortable with the fact that there are absolutely no federal civil rights protections for LGBT people, assiduously fights "hate crime" legislation (more accurately viewed as legislation against "terrorism," as I have written before), and where LGBT people are viewed as fodder for the purpose of garnering votes, it calls into question what manifestation of self-loathing or self-denigration would foster such an alliance and, even, an allegiance.
As I have previously written, "Being Gay need not be one's top priority, just as being straight is not to be one's top priority. However, when a Gay person aligns him/herself with a political party that has as its platform to prevent same-sex marriage, supports the fact that there are no federal civil rights protections for LGBT people, and is generally hostile to LGBT people, supporting that political party reeks of masochism in my book, and shows that person to be "ignorant and/or mendacious and/or traitorous'."
I want to try to delve into the dynamics of Gay people aligning themselves with today's Republican party, a party that has fostered an anti-Gay agenda that is quite extraordinary from a number of perspectives, not the least being the fact that it regards itself as "conservative," all the while it seeks to limit the human freedom to legally relate to another whom one loves and to whom one seeks to make a lifetime commitment. Why would a Gay person seek to align him/herself with a politcal party and its allies that view same-sex marriage as an assault on "traditional family values," ruining "the sanctity of marriage" (posited by people many of whom have been married more than once or even twice), and who apparently feel no compunction about ridiculing Gay people?
I've heard more than one such Republican Gay person say that, although they were Gay, that isn't all they were. They were not one issue voters, and that their being Gay wasn't the major part of their lives or identities. Fair enough! However, let's consider another scenario.
If I lived on welfare and food stamps, would it make any sense if I aligned myself with the Democratic Party, for example, if it had as its platform that it was going to do away with welfare and food stamps, and deny those who were on those programs its benefits? Even though I might not consider my economic situation to be the most important "identity" I had, or the fact that I didn't consider myself to be a one issue voter, would it make any rational sense if I voted for the Democratic ticket if it largely ran on such a platform? I doubt many would answer, "yes," to this rhetorical question.
I really believe that the bombardment of anti-Gay messages throughout our lives in assorted venues, not the least of which is most of the organized Church, has taken hold on many LGBT people's lives and psyches and, even though many are "out," they still harbor a visceral self-loathing that manifests itself by many identifying with their oppressors. This phenomenon is quite common in a variety of arenas, and it's called "the Stockholm Syndrome", where the oppressed become emotionally attached to their oppressors.
Succumbing to this phenomenon doesn't denote any necessary intentional malice (although the subsequent consequence of that decision can provoke maliciousness) on the part of the victim. It seems to me that it merely denotes that in order to maintain one's "ego integrity," and one's inner sense of "dignity," one feels that he/she must identify with his/her oppressors (though not consciously acknowledging them as such), so as to consciously reject the role of "victim" and embrace the role as being one of their comrades. Indeed, in this case, "comrades in arms." (This phenomenon is seemingly quite widespread, as I remember reading a poll shortly after the last Presidential election that about 23% of LGBT people voted for President Bush who largely ran on the platform of placing an amendment into the Constitution preventing same-sex marriage.)
Of course, Gay people, like many of the rest of the population, care about higher taxes (though it could be viewed as irrational to support a political party that has virtually guaranteed higher taxes to pay for the profligate spending that has occurred in these past several years), limited government (though that, too, is irrational, if one is supporting a party that has grossly intruded on many of the bulwarks of our judicial system, such as habeus corpus, and wiretapping without judicial oversight or even prior approval), and would want to vote accordingly. However, the reality of today's "conservatives," of today's Republican party, does not address these concerns, and it doesn't take a Democrat or an Independent to point out that fact.
Basically, I believe that when one supports a political party that works against that person's very dignity, personhood, and right to pursue happiness that is the right of every human being to enjoy in the U.S., he/she is manifesting his/her conscious and/or unconscious self-loathing in a "Stockholm Syndrome" that not only affirms the party that largely institutionalizes that oppression, but devalues the dignity of the person succumbing to that syndrome and casts him or her as one who is "ignorant and/or mendacious and/or traitorous'."
Monday, July 12, 2010
A MUST READ ARTICLE BY DON CHARLES: THE DUMB DORA AWARD FOR DISHONORABLE HONORS GOES TO TOURISM MONTREAL AND GAY.COM
As you know, I've often written on the frivolity and counterproductive aspects of the public persona and the use of self-identifying epithets that all too many professional "activists" and others engage in and applaud that are downright traitorous to the dignity of LGBT people, and to the acquisition of full and equal LGBT rights.
Everything from calling oneself "abnormal" (i.e., "Queer"), to incorporating the oppressor's hate language (i.e., ""Dyke," "Fag," etc.), to fulfilling many of the negative and false stereotypes attributed to Gay people by homophobes, that can be seen in all too many "Pride Parades," undermine, denigrate, and betray the fight for full and equal rights for LGBT people.
Indeed, if I were more paranoid than I already am, I would think that many professional "activists" are in the employ of such homophobes as James Dobson and Peter LaBarbera! If they aren't, they might as well be!
Don Charles has kindly let me reprint his excellent article entitled, The Dumb Dora Award for Dishonorable Honors Goes to Tourism and Gay.Com in its entirety.
I hope that its message is taken to heart by all those who are both activists in the true sense of that term, and by those who have been foolishly misled and/or co-opted into believing that using hateful epithets as self-identifiers, and publicly burlesquing and sexualizing Gay identity, are somehow "edgy" and desirable, which couldn't be further from the truth.
The following is Don Charles' superb article that I hope you take to heart:
The Dumb Dora Award for Dishonorable Honors Goes to Tourism Montréal and Gay.com
Now that Gay Pride Month is over, I can relax a little bit. I always tense up when there's a lot of hypocrisy going on around me! I'll say this to anybody: twenty-first century Gay Pride is a huge joke. I think it's the biggest hoax since Orson Welles staged his fake Martian invasion in 1938.
First of all, putting your sexuality on public display makes no sense to me whatsoever. There's nothing remarkable about sex! Whether you knock boots with boys, girls, or both, it’s just a normal part of being human. Leaving shame about sexuality behind, declaring "This is the way I love, and it's not a sin", I can certainly understand that; but strutting down the middle of the street in fetish wear? It looks kinda forced. I come away from Pride parades thinking most of the participants are fronting like crazy, and nowhere near as proud as they claim to be.
Second, the majority of LGBT folk remain closeted, and many of those who don’t still rationalize the decision to hide in the closet. Maybe it's OK to "out" an anti-Gay politician or clergyman, but speaking the truth about anybody else is strictly verboten (unless it's gossip). I'll never forget the furore that followed disclosure of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan's Lesbian relationship; and God forbid a Gay actor should compromise his career by going public with his affectional preference! Comedienne Joan Rivers got much Gay support for this position when she broached it in a recent interview:
http://www.towleroad.com/2010/06/joan-rivers-young-gay-performers-hoping-to-be-romantic-idols-should-stay-in-the-closet.html
Third, too many members of the so-called Gay community do things that truly proud, truly dignified people don't do! They heavily abuse drugs and alcohol, and gamble their health with unsafe sexual practice. They celebrate the most stereotypical images of themselves imaginable. They faithfully attend churches, mosques and temples where they're utterly despised. For the most part, they respond to societal persecution with either denial, apathy or frivolity. They adopt the vilest of epithets for casual use on themselves.
Let me expand on that last example. In a 7 July post titled “Montréal’s Search for Queer Of The Year”, the editors of advocate.com reported:
This August, Tourism Montréal and Gay.com will bring five contestants to Montréal to compete for the title Queer of the Year. Daniel Baylis, event host and Tourisme-Montréal.org blogger, told The Advocate he can't reveal the celebrity judge panel, or what the top five contestants can look forward to when they arrive to Montréal, but any Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender person from anywhere around the world is welcome to compete. "The contest itself is kept fairly tightly under wraps," he said, "but they will be judged on five criteria: Personality, talent, healthy lifestyle, sex appeal, and a sense of community . . . community involvement is definitely considered a worthy trait, as well as the ability to spread your experience of your trip, should you come to Montréal," he added. "So if you have a Twitter following, or a Facebook following, those are great tools to have, as well." Judging from the people interviewed on the street, "queer" can mean just about anything, from being someone who stands up for their rights, to simply being a male version of Lady Gaga! Prospective contestants must fill out an application and upload their short entry video to YouTube. From there, the video entries are posted on QueerOfTheYear.com, where visitors can vote on their favorite contestants. The top five picks then get to go to Montréal for a quick getaway and contest on August 9.
Lordy mercy! I think I’m going to be sick.
Imagine, if you will, a competition for Nigger, Pollock, Kike, Chink, C*nt or Greaser of The Year. Wouldn't those respective communities be up in arms? Wouldn't the National Organization for Women have a f*cking cow? Wouldn't the Black media be riddled with outraged editorials? Even less inflammatory honors like Jew, Hispanic or Asian Of The Year sound uncomfortably patronizing; no public agency run by conscientious staff would ever want to go there. Yet French Canadian officials think it's safe to go there with us! Pourquoi?
They're undoubtedly aware that LGBT folk never heard a disparaging name they didn't love. Ethnic groups and women are known to trade race and gender-based slurs among themselves, but they're not in the habit of posting them on banners like we do! We also incorporate slurs into our organization titles, plaster them all over our media, and encourage Straight people to use them. (Whatever would they have thought of that last development at Stonewall?) We've pushed "reclamation" theory as far as it can possibly go (right off the edge of a cliff). Some of us are so enamored of hate speech that we'll shout down anybody who dares to criticize the casual way we use it. I know this is true from having been the one shouted down! (If only we'd put as much passion into equality activism!)
How many times have I heard Transfolk swear up and down that "queer" is a "unifying" term? How many times has a Lesbian claimed that "dyke" is a symbol of strength? How many times have Gay men said "queen", "homo" and "faggot" to one another as if these cruel epithets were badges of honor? Far more times than I can count.
The argument that we can somehow drain these ignorant labels of their toxicity isn’t any more convincing today than it was 25 years ago, but large numbers of us subscribe to it. In Gay activist circles, group RadicalSpeak is all but mandatory. Our language simply must be on the cutting edge, even if that edge cuts both ways; we're hooked on hate speech like some people get hooked on crystal meth! I can't fathom what kind of a high it produces, but it's obviously a potent one. Anybody who's willing to debase himself in a “Queer Of The Year” contest is strung out for real.
This addictive behavior reminds me of the old Tareyton cigarette commercials I saw on TV as a child. Patrons of the product would light up, glare into the camera and snarl: I'd rather fight than switch! That's when you'd notice that one of their eyes had been blackened. Later on, we found out that their lungs were black, too! We learned how bad inhaled tobacco was for our health, and how the rugged Marlboro Man had died of lung cancer.
Cigarettes are a perfect metaphor for heterosexist hate speech. "Reclaimed" slurs are just cancer-causing agents of a different kind. The cancer they grow within us eats away at our intelligence and self-esteem so that we no longer care if people demean and objectify us. Insults start to sound like endearments. Exploitation begins to feel like praise. Marginal status is mistaken for identity. It's amazing, how tangled our perceptions get when internalized shame holds us fast in its clutches.
Residual homophobia notwithstanding, most of the Western world has learned to feel affection for its "queers". We're such adorable pets, aren't we? Always ripe fodder for a "Saturday Night Live" skit, a late night comedy monologue, or a tacky "fagsploitation" scheme! In an objectifying context, “Queer Of The Year” awards make perfect sense. We've come to the point where society tolerates, derives amusement from and even celebrates people it considers freakish. Yet it still denies us basic respect. Why shouldn’t it, though, when we show so little respect for ourselves?
Many LGBT folk seem satisfied with this degree of acceptance. They enjoy playing the Happy Pervert no end. When patronizing entities like Tourism Montréal and Gay.com call on them to take part in degrading publicity stunts, they can't wait to go snuggle with Mama! They come eagerly a-scampering on tiny raccoon feet. How sad.
I guess it's possible to live a decent life devoid of dignity; clearly, a lot of us don't think dignity is important. Without it, though, the substance of a Gay Pride demonstration sure doesn't amount to much. Neither does the substance of a Gay Rights movement.
Everything from calling oneself "abnormal" (i.e., "Queer"), to incorporating the oppressor's hate language (i.e., ""Dyke," "Fag," etc.), to fulfilling many of the negative and false stereotypes attributed to Gay people by homophobes, that can be seen in all too many "Pride Parades," undermine, denigrate, and betray the fight for full and equal rights for LGBT people.
Indeed, if I were more paranoid than I already am, I would think that many professional "activists" are in the employ of such homophobes as James Dobson and Peter LaBarbera! If they aren't, they might as well be!
Don Charles has kindly let me reprint his excellent article entitled, The Dumb Dora Award for Dishonorable Honors Goes to Tourism and Gay.Com in its entirety.
I hope that its message is taken to heart by all those who are both activists in the true sense of that term, and by those who have been foolishly misled and/or co-opted into believing that using hateful epithets as self-identifiers, and publicly burlesquing and sexualizing Gay identity, are somehow "edgy" and desirable, which couldn't be further from the truth.
The following is Don Charles' superb article that I hope you take to heart:
The Dumb Dora Award for Dishonorable Honors Goes to Tourism Montréal and Gay.com
Now that Gay Pride Month is over, I can relax a little bit. I always tense up when there's a lot of hypocrisy going on around me! I'll say this to anybody: twenty-first century Gay Pride is a huge joke. I think it's the biggest hoax since Orson Welles staged his fake Martian invasion in 1938.
First of all, putting your sexuality on public display makes no sense to me whatsoever. There's nothing remarkable about sex! Whether you knock boots with boys, girls, or both, it’s just a normal part of being human. Leaving shame about sexuality behind, declaring "This is the way I love, and it's not a sin", I can certainly understand that; but strutting down the middle of the street in fetish wear? It looks kinda forced. I come away from Pride parades thinking most of the participants are fronting like crazy, and nowhere near as proud as they claim to be.
Second, the majority of LGBT folk remain closeted, and many of those who don’t still rationalize the decision to hide in the closet. Maybe it's OK to "out" an anti-Gay politician or clergyman, but speaking the truth about anybody else is strictly verboten (unless it's gossip). I'll never forget the furore that followed disclosure of Congresswoman Barbara Jordan's Lesbian relationship; and God forbid a Gay actor should compromise his career by going public with his affectional preference! Comedienne Joan Rivers got much Gay support for this position when she broached it in a recent interview:
http://www.towleroad.com/2010/06/joan-rivers-young-gay-performers-hoping-to-be-romantic-idols-should-stay-in-the-closet.html
Third, too many members of the so-called Gay community do things that truly proud, truly dignified people don't do! They heavily abuse drugs and alcohol, and gamble their health with unsafe sexual practice. They celebrate the most stereotypical images of themselves imaginable. They faithfully attend churches, mosques and temples where they're utterly despised. For the most part, they respond to societal persecution with either denial, apathy or frivolity. They adopt the vilest of epithets for casual use on themselves.
Let me expand on that last example. In a 7 July post titled “Montréal’s Search for Queer Of The Year”, the editors of advocate.com reported:
This August, Tourism Montréal and Gay.com will bring five contestants to Montréal to compete for the title Queer of the Year. Daniel Baylis, event host and Tourisme-Montréal.org blogger, told The Advocate he can't reveal the celebrity judge panel, or what the top five contestants can look forward to when they arrive to Montréal, but any Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender person from anywhere around the world is welcome to compete. "The contest itself is kept fairly tightly under wraps," he said, "but they will be judged on five criteria: Personality, talent, healthy lifestyle, sex appeal, and a sense of community . . . community involvement is definitely considered a worthy trait, as well as the ability to spread your experience of your trip, should you come to Montréal," he added. "So if you have a Twitter following, or a Facebook following, those are great tools to have, as well." Judging from the people interviewed on the street, "queer" can mean just about anything, from being someone who stands up for their rights, to simply being a male version of Lady Gaga! Prospective contestants must fill out an application and upload their short entry video to YouTube. From there, the video entries are posted on QueerOfTheYear.com, where visitors can vote on their favorite contestants. The top five picks then get to go to Montréal for a quick getaway and contest on August 9.
Lordy mercy! I think I’m going to be sick.
Imagine, if you will, a competition for Nigger, Pollock, Kike, Chink, C*nt or Greaser of The Year. Wouldn't those respective communities be up in arms? Wouldn't the National Organization for Women have a f*cking cow? Wouldn't the Black media be riddled with outraged editorials? Even less inflammatory honors like Jew, Hispanic or Asian Of The Year sound uncomfortably patronizing; no public agency run by conscientious staff would ever want to go there. Yet French Canadian officials think it's safe to go there with us! Pourquoi?
They're undoubtedly aware that LGBT folk never heard a disparaging name they didn't love. Ethnic groups and women are known to trade race and gender-based slurs among themselves, but they're not in the habit of posting them on banners like we do! We also incorporate slurs into our organization titles, plaster them all over our media, and encourage Straight people to use them. (Whatever would they have thought of that last development at Stonewall?) We've pushed "reclamation" theory as far as it can possibly go (right off the edge of a cliff). Some of us are so enamored of hate speech that we'll shout down anybody who dares to criticize the casual way we use it. I know this is true from having been the one shouted down! (If only we'd put as much passion into equality activism!)
How many times have I heard Transfolk swear up and down that "queer" is a "unifying" term? How many times has a Lesbian claimed that "dyke" is a symbol of strength? How many times have Gay men said "queen", "homo" and "faggot" to one another as if these cruel epithets were badges of honor? Far more times than I can count.
The argument that we can somehow drain these ignorant labels of their toxicity isn’t any more convincing today than it was 25 years ago, but large numbers of us subscribe to it. In Gay activist circles, group RadicalSpeak is all but mandatory. Our language simply must be on the cutting edge, even if that edge cuts both ways; we're hooked on hate speech like some people get hooked on crystal meth! I can't fathom what kind of a high it produces, but it's obviously a potent one. Anybody who's willing to debase himself in a “Queer Of The Year” contest is strung out for real.
This addictive behavior reminds me of the old Tareyton cigarette commercials I saw on TV as a child. Patrons of the product would light up, glare into the camera and snarl: I'd rather fight than switch! That's when you'd notice that one of their eyes had been blackened. Later on, we found out that their lungs were black, too! We learned how bad inhaled tobacco was for our health, and how the rugged Marlboro Man had died of lung cancer.
Cigarettes are a perfect metaphor for heterosexist hate speech. "Reclaimed" slurs are just cancer-causing agents of a different kind. The cancer they grow within us eats away at our intelligence and self-esteem so that we no longer care if people demean and objectify us. Insults start to sound like endearments. Exploitation begins to feel like praise. Marginal status is mistaken for identity. It's amazing, how tangled our perceptions get when internalized shame holds us fast in its clutches.
Residual homophobia notwithstanding, most of the Western world has learned to feel affection for its "queers". We're such adorable pets, aren't we? Always ripe fodder for a "Saturday Night Live" skit, a late night comedy monologue, or a tacky "fagsploitation" scheme! In an objectifying context, “Queer Of The Year” awards make perfect sense. We've come to the point where society tolerates, derives amusement from and even celebrates people it considers freakish. Yet it still denies us basic respect. Why shouldn’t it, though, when we show so little respect for ourselves?
Many LGBT folk seem satisfied with this degree of acceptance. They enjoy playing the Happy Pervert no end. When patronizing entities like Tourism Montréal and Gay.com call on them to take part in degrading publicity stunts, they can't wait to go snuggle with Mama! They come eagerly a-scampering on tiny raccoon feet. How sad.
I guess it's possible to live a decent life devoid of dignity; clearly, a lot of us don't think dignity is important. Without it, though, the substance of a Gay Pride demonstration sure doesn't amount to much. Neither does the substance of a Gay Rights movement.
Friday, July 9, 2010
DADT TROOP SURVEY MADE PUBLIC: A STUDY IN DEGRADATION
This subject of this article entitled, DADT Troop Survey Made Public has angered me more than I can express.
Please read the full article, but part of it reads as follows:
The Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has made available the “don’t ask, don’t tell” survey distributed to 400,000 active duty and reserve military personnel Wednesday....
Here is one sample question:
"If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed and you are assigned to bathroom facilities with an open bay shower that someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian Service member also used, which are you most likely to do? Mark 1.
Take no action
Use the shower at a different time than the Service member I thought to be gay or lesbian
Discuss how we expect each other to behave and conduct ourselves
Talk to a chaplain, mentor, or leader about how to handle the situation
Talk to a leader to see if I had other options
Something else
Don't know
If you selected 'Something else,' please specify below."
This "study" is one of the most despicable things I've seen in my life. And I've seen quite a few of them.
Even that one question that the article cites is biased. But the very fact that any questionnaire would be used regarding the "acceptability" of any minority group is despicable!
Why don't they do such a study regarding Jews? It's undoubtedly because in their minds Gay=Sex, and they don't see Gay people as full human beings.
My ethnicity is Jewish! Why not do a survey among military personnel as to whether or not they would be comfortable being in close association with Jewish people?
Why shouldn't such a survey be done? After all, if one minority group's acceptability and worthiness are at issue, why not have other minority groups' acceptability and worthiness also be at issue?
You see, putting equal rights up for grabs, be it at the ballot box or in a survey questionnaire, be it in the military or in any other institution, is not only degrading to the given minority group, but also sets the stage where equality is granted at the behest of others, rather than granted as a fundamental right by mere virtue of being a citizen.
Gay people, by the mere virtue of having their fate and fortunes depend on the values and prejudices of others, have been demeaned, degraded, and humiliated in a terribly egregious way by the very existence of this "study." (Indeed, just seeing the above cited question shows me that whoever crafted that question knows little or nothing about survey research!)
The kind of mind-set that would even think it appropriate to allow such a study to occur is not at all unlike the mind-set of White Supremacists and Fascists who, for example, took advantage of the relatively muted anti-semitism that existed in Germany prior to Hitler's ascendancy and, moreover, made possible Hitler's ascendancy by his and like-minded people's manipulation of the media, and crafting his and his followers' rhetoric to appeal to that anti-semitism that came to its full flowering in the Holocaust.
What I am writing is no mere hyperbole! Heterosupremacy is no less real and no less dangerous than is White Supremacy and Fascism!
The very existence of this study, the very idea that such a study should be undertaken regarding any minority group, shows that this country has devolved into one that is setting the stage for increased homophobia and further rationalizations for the exclusion and further demonization of Gay people within the military and even within other institutions in our society.
Before Hitler's ascendancy, many Jews remained in Germany and Austria because they never in their wildest dreams believed that they would be the target of extermination, of genocide! When they found out that the unthinkable was actually occurring before their eyes, it was too late to avoid their horrific fate.
In my opinion, the very existence of this study is a harbinger of an escalation of hate-speech and discriminatory actions against LGBT people, and is also serving to provide rationalizations and "justifications" for military personnel, and others, to further demean and degrade, as well as even physically assault, Gay people who are now serving in the military.
And should the results of this "study" result in the conclusion that DADT cannot be repealed, further ammunition will be given to the military and to other segments of this society to further humiliate and degrade LGBT people, thereby stalling any hope we have for full equality for all U.S. citizens.
After all, as of now, ENDA has not yet been repealed; we still have DADT; we still have DOMA; in many states, a person can be fired from his/her job for merely being Gay.
If you think that the state of the Jews in pre-Nazi Germany is that much different from the current state of LGBT people in the U.S., think again!
Please read the full article, but part of it reads as follows:
The Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has made available the “don’t ask, don’t tell” survey distributed to 400,000 active duty and reserve military personnel Wednesday....
Here is one sample question:
"If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed and you are assigned to bathroom facilities with an open bay shower that someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian Service member also used, which are you most likely to do? Mark 1.
Take no action
Use the shower at a different time than the Service member I thought to be gay or lesbian
Discuss how we expect each other to behave and conduct ourselves
Talk to a chaplain, mentor, or leader about how to handle the situation
Talk to a leader to see if I had other options
Something else
Don't know
If you selected 'Something else,' please specify below."
This "study" is one of the most despicable things I've seen in my life. And I've seen quite a few of them.
Even that one question that the article cites is biased. But the very fact that any questionnaire would be used regarding the "acceptability" of any minority group is despicable!
Why don't they do such a study regarding Jews? It's undoubtedly because in their minds Gay=Sex, and they don't see Gay people as full human beings.
My ethnicity is Jewish! Why not do a survey among military personnel as to whether or not they would be comfortable being in close association with Jewish people?
Why shouldn't such a survey be done? After all, if one minority group's acceptability and worthiness are at issue, why not have other minority groups' acceptability and worthiness also be at issue?
You see, putting equal rights up for grabs, be it at the ballot box or in a survey questionnaire, be it in the military or in any other institution, is not only degrading to the given minority group, but also sets the stage where equality is granted at the behest of others, rather than granted as a fundamental right by mere virtue of being a citizen.
Gay people, by the mere virtue of having their fate and fortunes depend on the values and prejudices of others, have been demeaned, degraded, and humiliated in a terribly egregious way by the very existence of this "study." (Indeed, just seeing the above cited question shows me that whoever crafted that question knows little or nothing about survey research!)
The kind of mind-set that would even think it appropriate to allow such a study to occur is not at all unlike the mind-set of White Supremacists and Fascists who, for example, took advantage of the relatively muted anti-semitism that existed in Germany prior to Hitler's ascendancy and, moreover, made possible Hitler's ascendancy by his and like-minded people's manipulation of the media, and crafting his and his followers' rhetoric to appeal to that anti-semitism that came to its full flowering in the Holocaust.
What I am writing is no mere hyperbole! Heterosupremacy is no less real and no less dangerous than is White Supremacy and Fascism!
The very existence of this study, the very idea that such a study should be undertaken regarding any minority group, shows that this country has devolved into one that is setting the stage for increased homophobia and further rationalizations for the exclusion and further demonization of Gay people within the military and even within other institutions in our society.
Before Hitler's ascendancy, many Jews remained in Germany and Austria because they never in their wildest dreams believed that they would be the target of extermination, of genocide! When they found out that the unthinkable was actually occurring before their eyes, it was too late to avoid their horrific fate.
In my opinion, the very existence of this study is a harbinger of an escalation of hate-speech and discriminatory actions against LGBT people, and is also serving to provide rationalizations and "justifications" for military personnel, and others, to further demean and degrade, as well as even physically assault, Gay people who are now serving in the military.
And should the results of this "study" result in the conclusion that DADT cannot be repealed, further ammunition will be given to the military and to other segments of this society to further humiliate and degrade LGBT people, thereby stalling any hope we have for full equality for all U.S. citizens.
After all, as of now, ENDA has not yet been repealed; we still have DADT; we still have DOMA; in many states, a person can be fired from his/her job for merely being Gay.
If you think that the state of the Jews in pre-Nazi Germany is that much different from the current state of LGBT people in the U.S., think again!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
FLEE TOXIC CHURCHES AND CLERGY!
As I've often written, many clergy within the institutional Church preach and teach the false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and exclusion and thereby do immeasurable harm to the emotional and spiritual lives of those who allow themselves to be exposed to that kind of toxic religion.
The only Gospel to be found in Christianity is the Gospel of grace (God's unmerited favor); faith (trusting God over and above seen circumstances); love; peace; reconciliation; inclusiveness. Any other gospel is a false gospel!
If you allow yourself to be subjected to preaching and/or teaching other than the Gospel of Christ (the "Good News" that all of our sins have been forgiven by the Sacrifice of Christ), flee those churches, or other such venues, as fast as your legs can carry you!
Moreover, if you take seriously the rhetoric of those who claim to speak for God and for the Bible, and who teach and preach a false gospel, you are not only being subjected to a warped version of Christianity that is really not "Christianity," but you are making decisions about your spiritual and emotional life that are based on lies and perversions of: the grace of God; the teachings, ministry, and Sacrifice of Jesus; the Bible; Christianity itself.
Unfortunately, those who pervert Scripture and the Gospel, those who deny the full and final Sacrifice that Jesus made to cover over all of our sins, are those who spit in the very face of God and seek to impose their false and perverted gospel onto others, falsely taking on the role of being possessors of moral authority; an authority that they do not deserve and which must be given no credibility.
Needless to say that these perverts have done enormous harm, and caused untold suffering, to so many of God's LGBT children!
I recently received an email from someone who wrote of his and his family's heartbreaking experiences in the church that they attend. He said that the pastor preached his reactionary political positions from the pulpit, and he felt depressed at the state of that church that he and his family have faithfully attended for many years.
I wrote him the following reply that I thought you might be interested in reading:
Thank you for your heartfelt letter to me. You and I share exactly the same sentiments, save for the fact that you view the institutional Church as being equivalent to Christ's Church and I don't. I feel that most of the institutional Church has defamed the name of Christ and, in many cases, has spit in the very face of God through its proclamation of a false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and exclusion.
You say, "My family and I have declared a fasting from TV." I suggest that you declare a fast from that church you attend, as that pastor is most likely reflecting the ungodly and political sentiments of most of the congregation of that "church."
He and most of the rest of that congregation are more likely to change you than you are likely to change them.
Run from such a "church" as fast as you can! If you can't find a church that is truly reflective of the Gospel of Jesus, then worship with other Christians in a home Bible study or, if that is impossible, it is far better for you and your family to stay home and study the Bible and worship together.
What you describe is toxic religion, about which I've often written, and is terribly harmful to one's spiritual and emotional life. My very best wishes, Jerry.
You, too, have my very best wishes, and I strongly urge you to not be taken in by the smug, self-righteous teachers of a false gospel that puts unnecessary yokes of bondage on you.
Don't be fooled by the seeming urgency and sincerity of their message that they often profess with an air of oracular authority; a message for which many are quite handsomely rewarded materially and/or psychologically and/or socially and/or politically.
The Gospel of Christ is so simple that even a child can understand it: You have been saved, through the grace of God, from the wrath of a righteous and just God by the sacrifice of God's Son, and by having faith in Christ's teachings and Sacrifice for your redemption and for your eternal reconciliation with God.
That's the Gospel, and it is the Gospel for all of God's children, be they Gay, Straight, Bisexual, or Transgender!
You and I have been saved by the Sacrifice of Jesus; there is nothing we can do to win God's approval, as God already approves of us due to the Sacrifice of Jesus. All we have to do is to plug into God's grace by having faith in Jesus' Sacrifice that covers over all of our sins.
That is why the Gospel is called "Good News!" After all, if we have to obey all sorts of rules, regulations, doctrines, etc., what's the good news in that?
Communicating this message has been the major goal of this blog, and I just hope that this message gets through so that no one feels condemned by the ignorant and/or hateful rhetoric that emanates from the lips of all too many clergy and other professing "Christians" who erroneously claim to speak for God.
The only Gospel to be found in Christianity is the Gospel of grace (God's unmerited favor); faith (trusting God over and above seen circumstances); love; peace; reconciliation; inclusiveness. Any other gospel is a false gospel!
If you allow yourself to be subjected to preaching and/or teaching other than the Gospel of Christ (the "Good News" that all of our sins have been forgiven by the Sacrifice of Christ), flee those churches, or other such venues, as fast as your legs can carry you!
Moreover, if you take seriously the rhetoric of those who claim to speak for God and for the Bible, and who teach and preach a false gospel, you are not only being subjected to a warped version of Christianity that is really not "Christianity," but you are making decisions about your spiritual and emotional life that are based on lies and perversions of: the grace of God; the teachings, ministry, and Sacrifice of Jesus; the Bible; Christianity itself.
Unfortunately, those who pervert Scripture and the Gospel, those who deny the full and final Sacrifice that Jesus made to cover over all of our sins, are those who spit in the very face of God and seek to impose their false and perverted gospel onto others, falsely taking on the role of being possessors of moral authority; an authority that they do not deserve and which must be given no credibility.
Needless to say that these perverts have done enormous harm, and caused untold suffering, to so many of God's LGBT children!
I recently received an email from someone who wrote of his and his family's heartbreaking experiences in the church that they attend. He said that the pastor preached his reactionary political positions from the pulpit, and he felt depressed at the state of that church that he and his family have faithfully attended for many years.
I wrote him the following reply that I thought you might be interested in reading:
Thank you for your heartfelt letter to me. You and I share exactly the same sentiments, save for the fact that you view the institutional Church as being equivalent to Christ's Church and I don't. I feel that most of the institutional Church has defamed the name of Christ and, in many cases, has spit in the very face of God through its proclamation of a false gospel of legalism, perfectionism, and exclusion.
You say, "My family and I have declared a fasting from TV." I suggest that you declare a fast from that church you attend, as that pastor is most likely reflecting the ungodly and political sentiments of most of the congregation of that "church."
He and most of the rest of that congregation are more likely to change you than you are likely to change them.
Run from such a "church" as fast as you can! If you can't find a church that is truly reflective of the Gospel of Jesus, then worship with other Christians in a home Bible study or, if that is impossible, it is far better for you and your family to stay home and study the Bible and worship together.
What you describe is toxic religion, about which I've often written, and is terribly harmful to one's spiritual and emotional life. My very best wishes, Jerry.
You, too, have my very best wishes, and I strongly urge you to not be taken in by the smug, self-righteous teachers of a false gospel that puts unnecessary yokes of bondage on you.
Don't be fooled by the seeming urgency and sincerity of their message that they often profess with an air of oracular authority; a message for which many are quite handsomely rewarded materially and/or psychologically and/or socially and/or politically.
The Gospel of Christ is so simple that even a child can understand it: You have been saved, through the grace of God, from the wrath of a righteous and just God by the sacrifice of God's Son, and by having faith in Christ's teachings and Sacrifice for your redemption and for your eternal reconciliation with God.
That's the Gospel, and it is the Gospel for all of God's children, be they Gay, Straight, Bisexual, or Transgender!
You and I have been saved by the Sacrifice of Jesus; there is nothing we can do to win God's approval, as God already approves of us due to the Sacrifice of Jesus. All we have to do is to plug into God's grace by having faith in Jesus' Sacrifice that covers over all of our sins.
That is why the Gospel is called "Good News!" After all, if we have to obey all sorts of rules, regulations, doctrines, etc., what's the good news in that?
Communicating this message has been the major goal of this blog, and I just hope that this message gets through so that no one feels condemned by the ignorant and/or hateful rhetoric that emanates from the lips of all too many clergy and other professing "Christians" who erroneously claim to speak for God.
Monday, July 5, 2010
THE GENDER MONOLOGUES, BY DON CHARLES
On my June 12th post entitled, Transgender People Are Not Mistakes, I wrote the following:
Blended gender exists, and when that blended gender exceeds one's comfort zones and/or society's comfort zones, many transgender (and other) people are led to believe that they are one gender trapped in the body of the opposite gender when, in fact, they are not trapped at all, but are created just as they are meant to be by God Who also transcends gender.
Hence, it's up to all of us, transgender or not, to recognize transgenderism as a gift, as transgender people can be seen to more fully represent the nature of God Who also transcends gender!
In this vein, the following is an article that Don Charles kindly gave me permission to reprint here, after which I have included his incisive comment to the critics of his thesis.
His discussion and comment are superb, and deserve to be thoughtfully read in their entirety:
The Gender Monologues
A Myra Breckinridge Moment
I was a middle-aged man before I finally saw Myra Breckinridge, that bawdy, gender-bending comedy from 1970. Based on a book of the same title by Gore Vidal, it had long since become a classic cult film. I'm old enough to remember when it first got released, but I was still too young to buy a ticket (as I recall, the MPAA had slapped it with an X-rating). I'd like to have watched it in a theatre, just to see the reaction of the audience.
How it must have shocked them! They saw Lesbianism (with Farrah Fawcett, no less). They saw transsexuality. They saw movie critic Rex Reed in a hospital bed, screaming hysterically about his "tits"! And there was that infamous "pegging" scene where Raquel Welch rides a naked man like a mechanical bull! The content was so incendiary for that era, I'm surprised that a major movie studio (20th Century Fox) would touch it.
I thought Myra Breckinridge was the most absurd film I'd ever watched. The climax, where Myra pulls down her panties and exposes her transsexual anatomy to a room full of men was especially demented. I know what Gore Vidal was up to, though. He was trying to startle conservative America out of its ignorance about the range of human gender and sexuality. Methinks his approach was a bit too over-the-top! The man had the right idea, though.
America is still ignorant about gender and sex, and so is most of the rest of the world. The laws, the media, the public education, the courtship rituals, the religious practice! All of it is geared toward people who are heterosexual, and either male or female. Just think how many millions of human beings that leaves out! It's unbelievable, not to mention uncivilized and unkind.
As a Gay man growing up, I know how damaging it was for me to not be validated by any of society's institutions. Lesbians and Bisexual folk suffered along with me, I'm sure. At least we came of age in a time when the oppressive notion that homosexuality is sick was beginning to fall out of favor. Unfortunately, Transsexual persons didn't have that advantage. They still don't have it.
Transsexuality perceived as a malady is part of the Myth of Queerness. In my opinion, it's the worst part of all! Rejection of gender diversity is the basis of all hostility directed at LGBT folk. It dictates a rigidity of gender definitions that flies in the face of nature. It denies the very existence of blended gender, forcing Transgender human beings into prefabricated roles that don't fit them. It tells Transsexual boys and girls that God made them wrong. Historically, it has driven them to commit suicide, attempt self-castration, visit backstreet surgeons and harm themselves in various desperate ways.
I've heard that, for some Transsexual children, the belief that something's wrong with them comes very early in life. This doesn't surprise me at all. Negative messages about yourself can be absorbed at an early age, and what could be more negative than people not acknowledging your gender? I don't believe these feelings of wrongness are inborn, though, and they need not be permanent. They can be overcome, or at least soothed, by the intervention of loving parents.
First, Transsexual children must be affirmed in their gender identity. When they insist that they belong to the "opposite" gender, parents must believe and accept it! This isn't easy to do, but a child's natural gender expression must never be condemned. It should be interfered with only when the child has to enter a potentially hostile environment.
Second, Transchildren must be taught that they are Transgender. Third, they must be taught that Transgender is a gender all its own. It has its own unique rules: A girl can be born with a boy's body. A boy can be born with a girl's body. Or a child may not identify with either male or female gender. All three possibilities are valid.
Most important, parents must explain that prejudice against Transgender people exists. It's necessary to prepare them for the inevitable hurts. Transsexual children must be given a frank talking-to just as soon as they can understand it! It's for their own good.
Needless to say, this kind of affirmation is an extremely difficult undertaking. The parents of a Transsexual child will find little if any community support. They will lose friends. They may also make enemies. Depending on where the family lives, their lives and/or livelihoods may be threatened. There's no such thing as over-protecting Transgender children! Cruelty stalks them everywhere.
Some psychologists recommend forcing adherence to biological gender expectations(listen to this May 2008 report by National Public Radio reporter Alix Spiegel: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90247842), but what a mistake! It can lead to tragedy. Failure to affirm gender identity destroys a person's sense of self-worth. If parents and other responsible adults choose to value societal approval over a child's mental health; if they fail to respond compassionately to blended gender, then Transsexual children will suffer needlessly. I don't know if it's possible to make the world completely safe for them, but we've certainly got to try.
You might ask: Why am I so concerned about these kids? How do I know so much about what they need? What's in it for me? Well, I was deeply moved by that NPR report I linked to in the previous paragraph. Also, if you've read my other Gender Monologues, you’ll know that I view myself as a Transgender person. No, my biological gender never conflicted with my gender identity; but because of my non-traditional gender expression, I still suffered. My childhood was anything but a pleasant one. It would've been so much better if my parents had understood that I was Gay, hadn't tried to bully the femme behavior out of me, and had prepared me for the hostility I encountered. But they had no guidance! Nobody told them how to raise an effeminate boy. I'm no expert, but I've done some research, and anything I can do to help parents understand their blended gender children, I'll do.
My core message is that transsexuality in human beings is normal. Ironically, that message has infuriated some Transfolk. Many if not most Transpersons will assure you that their biological gender is an affliction; but why wouldn't they believe this? Who doesn't? Binary gender bias couldn't be any more pervasive; everybody on this planet learns that gender is either male or female. Nobody who lives to adulthood escapes contact with a Transsexual person, but society stubbornly behaves as if they don't exist! With no validation from the world they live in, Transfolk come to believe that they shouldn't exist, at least not in the body they were born with.
From the cradle to the grave, Transsexual individuals are never fully affirmed. Initially, their gender identities are rejected by the people around them. Later, many reject their own biology, and the medical profession concurs. They're diagnosed with "gender dysphoria" and set on a course ending in so-called gender reassignment. But there's no need to force Transfolk to go under the knife; they've been so deeply indoctrinated by society's transphobic messages, most of them couldn't be more willing. Biological "legitimacy" has become an obsession for them.
They consider themselves "disordered" until they can "transition surgically." And what if they don't have the money to pay for the surgery (which ain't cheap)? Tough t*tty! Then they're "trapped" for the rest of their lives in a sex and gender Twilight Zone. That is, if they don't resort to drastic measures which can result in injury or death. Excuse me for asking, but has anybody considered the possibility that it's our thinking about Transsexual bodies that's disordered, and not the bodies themselves?
The only Twilight Zone that Transfolk live in is a society that despises the way they challenge conventional concepts of gender. The trap that encloses them is one of collective ignorance! What is natural and good (male and female blended into one body) the modern world has portrayed as unnatural and bad, so bad that it's pathologized. When the Lord has gifted humankind with a trio of genders, why do we insult Her generosity and pretend to only possess a pair?
The scientific mind in all its broadness is somehow too narrow to conceive of a woman with male anatomy, or vice versa; but if God can conceive it, we can believe it! Gender identity needs no medical component in order to be valid. It isn't necessary for Transfolk to undergo "sexual reassignment". It's a futile endeavor, anyway! The gender you have at birth (male, female or transgender) is the gender you will always have, cosmetic procedures notwithstanding. What's necessary is for Transsexual men and women to feel free to express gender identity as they see fit. If that expression involves extensive surgery, so be it; but that doesn't make blended gender an affliction! Transsexual anatomy is no more of a deformity than large noses or small breasts or dark skin is.
There's nothing about a Transgender body that needs to be fixed!
God knew what She was doing when She fashioned little girls with penises and little boys with vaginas. God loves the Transgender body! It must be very much like Her own. When the Lord shares Her mirror image with a segment of humanity, you don't call that a mistake. You call that a blessing. May ancient civilizations did. Most Native American nations did.
As I've said before, the Gender Rights movement today is stuck where the Gay Rights movement was in the 1950s, the era of the Mattachine Society. Back then, nearly all LesBiGay people believed they were sick (and that's the reason they labeled themselves "queer"). They let themselves be committed to mental wards. Mattachine members flocked to lectures by experts on "sexual inversion." They sought "cures" by means of psychotherapy, drug therapy, and aversion therapy. Some were even castrated, subjected to electro-shock therapy, or forced to undergo lobotomies!
Radical as these forms of "treatment" were, they produced a far less convincing result than "sexual reassignment" surgery does. Essentially, though, the results were the same: People got changed in only the most superficial of ways. They remained who and what they were born to be: People of blended gender.
Over time, LeBiGay folk began to accept the permanence of their so-called medical condition. Some had suspected all along that choosing same gender mates wasn't abnormal for certain people; they'd just never had that knowledge affirmed by society. One day, they realized they didn't need anybody's validation but their own! That's when they rose above the mythology that Gay or bisexual identity was a disorder (although the proliferation of "ex-Gay" ministries shows that we've still got some rising left to do).
It was scary for these early activists to challenge the institutions that had pathologized same gender love. It took an awful lot of guts to claim that "Gay is good" when nobody else thought so. It took even more guts to believe it! Frankly, some Gay people weren't up to the challenge. However, Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Kay Lahusen and several others did find the courage to speak their truth to power.
Thank God for them! They dared to say out loud that same gender love wasn't a sickness, and they forced the medical establishment to admit it. (You can listen to the fascinating story of how they did it by visiting the archives of PRI's popular radio show "This American Life" and downloading the January 2002 episode called Eighty One Words: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/204/81-Words)
They dialed back anti-Gay oppression, gave the LesBiGay populace a much-needed infusion of self-esteem, and paved a path to the more tolerant America we live in today. Society isn't half as welcoming of us as it should be, it's true; but putting up with 21st century inequality beats the Hell out of having your brain carved up like a holiday turkey!
What Gay Rights crusaders did for the perception of homosexuality Gender Rights activists must do for the Transgender body. They must de-pathologize it! The pre-operative Transwoman must have the courage to strip herself naked before a full-length mirror, look at herself without shame and say: "I am a woman, and I am beautiful. Women can and do look like me." The pre-operative Transman must have the courage to do the same thing and say: "I am a man. The world tells me a man can't have a body like mine. The world is full of sh*t!"
It's hardly enough to speak this truth, though. There must be conviction behind the words. That will take some time to develop.
I wish there was a way to instantly validate the identities of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual people all over the world. I want their suffering to end right now. How I'd love to haul off and slap some sense into the hard heads of the binary gender cabal: The clergy, the legislators, the judges, the educators, the doctors! I'd wake them up! I'd shake them up! I'd make them acknowledge the existence of what they've denied for so long: The blended gender of the God many of them claim to worship. The Transgender ancestor from whom separate male and female gender surely evolved from!
There's a little bit of Gore Vidal in me: I long to pull down the panties of oppression and fling those dirty drawers in the faces of transphobic leaders! Leaders like Pope Joseph Ratzinger, who tells lay Catholics that Transgender life upsets the balance of nature:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5387858.ece
Believe me, I wouldn't hesitate to give Ratzi a Myra Breckinridge moment to remember! Transgender activists need to feel that kind of outrage, too. They must compel the Straight world to broaden its official definitions of male and female, stretch them wide until there's enough room for human gender in all its expressions. That's the only treatment for "gender dysphoria" that will ever be 100% effective.
On another site, Don Charles posted the above article and received significant condemnation by some transgender persons who said that he didn't really understand the struggles that they had, and that he didn't understand that there was a definite need to reconcile their bodies with their gender identities.
The following is Don Charles' trenchant comment to all those who feel that being transgender is in any way "abnormal," "an affliction," "a mistake," or any other label that seeks to conform to, and validate, the dominant society's erroneously imposed norms regarding gender:
I'm Not Buying What You're Selling . . .
. . . this argument that since I'm not Transsexual, I have no insight into Transsexual suffering. Nor will I fall for the old ploy of twisting what I wrote out of context (or lying about it outright). I've neither told you who you are, nor have I told you what to do. Even if I had, what influence do I have over you? Absolutely none. I've simply expressed my opinions. I've tried to envision a world with room in it for LGBT folk to exist as God made them, free of stigma. You obviously want to silence my kind of expression. You will not succeed!
The purpose of this post was to challenge people, all people, regardless of gender, to think about the Transgender body in a new way. And I'm not the only one to ever suggest that the current thinking is flawed; not all Transpersons agree with the comments you've posted here. Contrary opinions can be found online, if you've got the courage to seek them out. You say you're offended? Well, I'm thoroughly disgusted by your binary gender bias, thinly veiled in haughty outrage and condescension. Who do you think you're fooling? I see right through your nasty attitudes. It's easy to detect what lies behind them: Internalized shame! Now, there's an affliction that really runs rampant up in here!
You should be ashamed of yourselves, every one of you. Don't future generations deserve to suffer less than you have? Your pitiable victim mentality ensures that Transfolk will continue to be viewed as misfits, both by society and themselves. Lordy mercy, the oppressor has certainly trained you well! When someone tells the truth about you, that you're natural and normal and good and beautiful, you swarm to the attack like pit bulls foaming at the mouth! Such obedient slaves! You deserve an extra helping of raw chit'lins and cold cornbread tonight!
I'm not taking back any of what I wrote. You don't have to read my diaries if you can't handle what I have to say, but I dare you to read them! Dare to stand outside your comfort zone. The truth isn't always easy to hear, but only the truth can set us free. I'll be damned if I perpetuate a status quo that stigmatizes Transgender identity and exploits the vulnerabilities of blended gender human beings! You can be willing handmaidens for the forces of Transphobia if you like! And if doing the work of the Devil doesn't weigh on your consciences, then may God have mercy on your souls.
As I wrote to Don Charles regarding his response to those critics: A great response to these "victims" of their own and society's making! You affirm them, and they condemn you! "No good deed ever goes unpunished!" You speak the truth and they love the lies that consign them to a netherworld of suffering!
Blended gender exists, and when that blended gender exceeds one's comfort zones and/or society's comfort zones, many transgender (and other) people are led to believe that they are one gender trapped in the body of the opposite gender when, in fact, they are not trapped at all, but are created just as they are meant to be by God Who also transcends gender.
Hence, it's up to all of us, transgender or not, to recognize transgenderism as a gift, as transgender people can be seen to more fully represent the nature of God Who also transcends gender!
In this vein, the following is an article that Don Charles kindly gave me permission to reprint here, after which I have included his incisive comment to the critics of his thesis.
His discussion and comment are superb, and deserve to be thoughtfully read in their entirety:
The Gender Monologues
A Myra Breckinridge Moment
I was a middle-aged man before I finally saw Myra Breckinridge, that bawdy, gender-bending comedy from 1970. Based on a book of the same title by Gore Vidal, it had long since become a classic cult film. I'm old enough to remember when it first got released, but I was still too young to buy a ticket (as I recall, the MPAA had slapped it with an X-rating). I'd like to have watched it in a theatre, just to see the reaction of the audience.
How it must have shocked them! They saw Lesbianism (with Farrah Fawcett, no less). They saw transsexuality. They saw movie critic Rex Reed in a hospital bed, screaming hysterically about his "tits"! And there was that infamous "pegging" scene where Raquel Welch rides a naked man like a mechanical bull! The content was so incendiary for that era, I'm surprised that a major movie studio (20th Century Fox) would touch it.
I thought Myra Breckinridge was the most absurd film I'd ever watched. The climax, where Myra pulls down her panties and exposes her transsexual anatomy to a room full of men was especially demented. I know what Gore Vidal was up to, though. He was trying to startle conservative America out of its ignorance about the range of human gender and sexuality. Methinks his approach was a bit too over-the-top! The man had the right idea, though.
America is still ignorant about gender and sex, and so is most of the rest of the world. The laws, the media, the public education, the courtship rituals, the religious practice! All of it is geared toward people who are heterosexual, and either male or female. Just think how many millions of human beings that leaves out! It's unbelievable, not to mention uncivilized and unkind.
As a Gay man growing up, I know how damaging it was for me to not be validated by any of society's institutions. Lesbians and Bisexual folk suffered along with me, I'm sure. At least we came of age in a time when the oppressive notion that homosexuality is sick was beginning to fall out of favor. Unfortunately, Transsexual persons didn't have that advantage. They still don't have it.
Transsexuality perceived as a malady is part of the Myth of Queerness. In my opinion, it's the worst part of all! Rejection of gender diversity is the basis of all hostility directed at LGBT folk. It dictates a rigidity of gender definitions that flies in the face of nature. It denies the very existence of blended gender, forcing Transgender human beings into prefabricated roles that don't fit them. It tells Transsexual boys and girls that God made them wrong. Historically, it has driven them to commit suicide, attempt self-castration, visit backstreet surgeons and harm themselves in various desperate ways.
I've heard that, for some Transsexual children, the belief that something's wrong with them comes very early in life. This doesn't surprise me at all. Negative messages about yourself can be absorbed at an early age, and what could be more negative than people not acknowledging your gender? I don't believe these feelings of wrongness are inborn, though, and they need not be permanent. They can be overcome, or at least soothed, by the intervention of loving parents.
First, Transsexual children must be affirmed in their gender identity. When they insist that they belong to the "opposite" gender, parents must believe and accept it! This isn't easy to do, but a child's natural gender expression must never be condemned. It should be interfered with only when the child has to enter a potentially hostile environment.
Second, Transchildren must be taught that they are Transgender. Third, they must be taught that Transgender is a gender all its own. It has its own unique rules: A girl can be born with a boy's body. A boy can be born with a girl's body. Or a child may not identify with either male or female gender. All three possibilities are valid.
Most important, parents must explain that prejudice against Transgender people exists. It's necessary to prepare them for the inevitable hurts. Transsexual children must be given a frank talking-to just as soon as they can understand it! It's for their own good.
Needless to say, this kind of affirmation is an extremely difficult undertaking. The parents of a Transsexual child will find little if any community support. They will lose friends. They may also make enemies. Depending on where the family lives, their lives and/or livelihoods may be threatened. There's no such thing as over-protecting Transgender children! Cruelty stalks them everywhere.
Some psychologists recommend forcing adherence to biological gender expectations(listen to this May 2008 report by National Public Radio reporter Alix Spiegel: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90247842), but what a mistake! It can lead to tragedy. Failure to affirm gender identity destroys a person's sense of self-worth. If parents and other responsible adults choose to value societal approval over a child's mental health; if they fail to respond compassionately to blended gender, then Transsexual children will suffer needlessly. I don't know if it's possible to make the world completely safe for them, but we've certainly got to try.
You might ask: Why am I so concerned about these kids? How do I know so much about what they need? What's in it for me? Well, I was deeply moved by that NPR report I linked to in the previous paragraph. Also, if you've read my other Gender Monologues, you’ll know that I view myself as a Transgender person. No, my biological gender never conflicted with my gender identity; but because of my non-traditional gender expression, I still suffered. My childhood was anything but a pleasant one. It would've been so much better if my parents had understood that I was Gay, hadn't tried to bully the femme behavior out of me, and had prepared me for the hostility I encountered. But they had no guidance! Nobody told them how to raise an effeminate boy. I'm no expert, but I've done some research, and anything I can do to help parents understand their blended gender children, I'll do.
My core message is that transsexuality in human beings is normal. Ironically, that message has infuriated some Transfolk. Many if not most Transpersons will assure you that their biological gender is an affliction; but why wouldn't they believe this? Who doesn't? Binary gender bias couldn't be any more pervasive; everybody on this planet learns that gender is either male or female. Nobody who lives to adulthood escapes contact with a Transsexual person, but society stubbornly behaves as if they don't exist! With no validation from the world they live in, Transfolk come to believe that they shouldn't exist, at least not in the body they were born with.
From the cradle to the grave, Transsexual individuals are never fully affirmed. Initially, their gender identities are rejected by the people around them. Later, many reject their own biology, and the medical profession concurs. They're diagnosed with "gender dysphoria" and set on a course ending in so-called gender reassignment. But there's no need to force Transfolk to go under the knife; they've been so deeply indoctrinated by society's transphobic messages, most of them couldn't be more willing. Biological "legitimacy" has become an obsession for them.
They consider themselves "disordered" until they can "transition surgically." And what if they don't have the money to pay for the surgery (which ain't cheap)? Tough t*tty! Then they're "trapped" for the rest of their lives in a sex and gender Twilight Zone. That is, if they don't resort to drastic measures which can result in injury or death. Excuse me for asking, but has anybody considered the possibility that it's our thinking about Transsexual bodies that's disordered, and not the bodies themselves?
The only Twilight Zone that Transfolk live in is a society that despises the way they challenge conventional concepts of gender. The trap that encloses them is one of collective ignorance! What is natural and good (male and female blended into one body) the modern world has portrayed as unnatural and bad, so bad that it's pathologized. When the Lord has gifted humankind with a trio of genders, why do we insult Her generosity and pretend to only possess a pair?
The scientific mind in all its broadness is somehow too narrow to conceive of a woman with male anatomy, or vice versa; but if God can conceive it, we can believe it! Gender identity needs no medical component in order to be valid. It isn't necessary for Transfolk to undergo "sexual reassignment". It's a futile endeavor, anyway! The gender you have at birth (male, female or transgender) is the gender you will always have, cosmetic procedures notwithstanding. What's necessary is for Transsexual men and women to feel free to express gender identity as they see fit. If that expression involves extensive surgery, so be it; but that doesn't make blended gender an affliction! Transsexual anatomy is no more of a deformity than large noses or small breasts or dark skin is.
There's nothing about a Transgender body that needs to be fixed!
God knew what She was doing when She fashioned little girls with penises and little boys with vaginas. God loves the Transgender body! It must be very much like Her own. When the Lord shares Her mirror image with a segment of humanity, you don't call that a mistake. You call that a blessing. May ancient civilizations did. Most Native American nations did.
As I've said before, the Gender Rights movement today is stuck where the Gay Rights movement was in the 1950s, the era of the Mattachine Society. Back then, nearly all LesBiGay people believed they were sick (and that's the reason they labeled themselves "queer"). They let themselves be committed to mental wards. Mattachine members flocked to lectures by experts on "sexual inversion." They sought "cures" by means of psychotherapy, drug therapy, and aversion therapy. Some were even castrated, subjected to electro-shock therapy, or forced to undergo lobotomies!
Radical as these forms of "treatment" were, they produced a far less convincing result than "sexual reassignment" surgery does. Essentially, though, the results were the same: People got changed in only the most superficial of ways. They remained who and what they were born to be: People of blended gender.
Over time, LeBiGay folk began to accept the permanence of their so-called medical condition. Some had suspected all along that choosing same gender mates wasn't abnormal for certain people; they'd just never had that knowledge affirmed by society. One day, they realized they didn't need anybody's validation but their own! That's when they rose above the mythology that Gay or bisexual identity was a disorder (although the proliferation of "ex-Gay" ministries shows that we've still got some rising left to do).
It was scary for these early activists to challenge the institutions that had pathologized same gender love. It took an awful lot of guts to claim that "Gay is good" when nobody else thought so. It took even more guts to believe it! Frankly, some Gay people weren't up to the challenge. However, Frank Kameny, Barbara Gittings, Kay Lahusen and several others did find the courage to speak their truth to power.
Thank God for them! They dared to say out loud that same gender love wasn't a sickness, and they forced the medical establishment to admit it. (You can listen to the fascinating story of how they did it by visiting the archives of PRI's popular radio show "This American Life" and downloading the January 2002 episode called Eighty One Words: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/204/81-Words)
They dialed back anti-Gay oppression, gave the LesBiGay populace a much-needed infusion of self-esteem, and paved a path to the more tolerant America we live in today. Society isn't half as welcoming of us as it should be, it's true; but putting up with 21st century inequality beats the Hell out of having your brain carved up like a holiday turkey!
What Gay Rights crusaders did for the perception of homosexuality Gender Rights activists must do for the Transgender body. They must de-pathologize it! The pre-operative Transwoman must have the courage to strip herself naked before a full-length mirror, look at herself without shame and say: "I am a woman, and I am beautiful. Women can and do look like me." The pre-operative Transman must have the courage to do the same thing and say: "I am a man. The world tells me a man can't have a body like mine. The world is full of sh*t!"
It's hardly enough to speak this truth, though. There must be conviction behind the words. That will take some time to develop.
I wish there was a way to instantly validate the identities of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual people all over the world. I want their suffering to end right now. How I'd love to haul off and slap some sense into the hard heads of the binary gender cabal: The clergy, the legislators, the judges, the educators, the doctors! I'd wake them up! I'd shake them up! I'd make them acknowledge the existence of what they've denied for so long: The blended gender of the God many of them claim to worship. The Transgender ancestor from whom separate male and female gender surely evolved from!
There's a little bit of Gore Vidal in me: I long to pull down the panties of oppression and fling those dirty drawers in the faces of transphobic leaders! Leaders like Pope Joseph Ratzinger, who tells lay Catholics that Transgender life upsets the balance of nature:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5387858.ece
Believe me, I wouldn't hesitate to give Ratzi a Myra Breckinridge moment to remember! Transgender activists need to feel that kind of outrage, too. They must compel the Straight world to broaden its official definitions of male and female, stretch them wide until there's enough room for human gender in all its expressions. That's the only treatment for "gender dysphoria" that will ever be 100% effective.
On another site, Don Charles posted the above article and received significant condemnation by some transgender persons who said that he didn't really understand the struggles that they had, and that he didn't understand that there was a definite need to reconcile their bodies with their gender identities.
The following is Don Charles' trenchant comment to all those who feel that being transgender is in any way "abnormal," "an affliction," "a mistake," or any other label that seeks to conform to, and validate, the dominant society's erroneously imposed norms regarding gender:
I'm Not Buying What You're Selling . . .
. . . this argument that since I'm not Transsexual, I have no insight into Transsexual suffering. Nor will I fall for the old ploy of twisting what I wrote out of context (or lying about it outright). I've neither told you who you are, nor have I told you what to do. Even if I had, what influence do I have over you? Absolutely none. I've simply expressed my opinions. I've tried to envision a world with room in it for LGBT folk to exist as God made them, free of stigma. You obviously want to silence my kind of expression. You will not succeed!
The purpose of this post was to challenge people, all people, regardless of gender, to think about the Transgender body in a new way. And I'm not the only one to ever suggest that the current thinking is flawed; not all Transpersons agree with the comments you've posted here. Contrary opinions can be found online, if you've got the courage to seek them out. You say you're offended? Well, I'm thoroughly disgusted by your binary gender bias, thinly veiled in haughty outrage and condescension. Who do you think you're fooling? I see right through your nasty attitudes. It's easy to detect what lies behind them: Internalized shame! Now, there's an affliction that really runs rampant up in here!
You should be ashamed of yourselves, every one of you. Don't future generations deserve to suffer less than you have? Your pitiable victim mentality ensures that Transfolk will continue to be viewed as misfits, both by society and themselves. Lordy mercy, the oppressor has certainly trained you well! When someone tells the truth about you, that you're natural and normal and good and beautiful, you swarm to the attack like pit bulls foaming at the mouth! Such obedient slaves! You deserve an extra helping of raw chit'lins and cold cornbread tonight!
I'm not taking back any of what I wrote. You don't have to read my diaries if you can't handle what I have to say, but I dare you to read them! Dare to stand outside your comfort zone. The truth isn't always easy to hear, but only the truth can set us free. I'll be damned if I perpetuate a status quo that stigmatizes Transgender identity and exploits the vulnerabilities of blended gender human beings! You can be willing handmaidens for the forces of Transphobia if you like! And if doing the work of the Devil doesn't weigh on your consciences, then may God have mercy on your souls.
As I wrote to Don Charles regarding his response to those critics: A great response to these "victims" of their own and society's making! You affirm them, and they condemn you! "No good deed ever goes unpunished!" You speak the truth and they love the lies that consign them to a netherworld of suffering!
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