Wednesday, April 10, 2013

"Gay Will Never Be the New Black: What James Baldwin Taught Me About My White Privilege"

But there is a distinct parallel parallel between the two Civil Rights movements, and that fact must not be ignored.  Similarly, as I have written countless times, there is no "Q" when it comes to Gay people.  "Queer" means "abnormal," and LGBT people are definitely not abnormal.  However, absent these facts, the following article is a good one.

"As a white gay man committed to advocacy, I was naturally drawn to [James] Baldwin and eager to hear what he had to say about LGBTQ equality in America. What I discovered, though, was not at all what I was expecting. Baldwin, more than anyone else, taught me that although I am gay, I am white, and that being white always involves persistent privilege that must be recognized and accounted for. Baldwin explains that white LGBTQ men and women feel slighted precisely because they know that had they been straight, they would have been heirs to incomparable privilege. In a 1984 interview with Richard Goldstein, then the editor of the Village Voice, Baldwin said, "I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly." He went on to say:
Their reaction seems to me in direct proportion to their sense of feeling cheated of the advantages which accrue to white people in a white society. There's an element, it has always seemed to me, of bewilderment and complaint. Now that may sound very harsh, but the gay world as such is no more prepared to accept black people than anywhere else in society."
[For the full article, see here.]
Share |

Monday, April 8, 2013

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S ATTITUDE TOWARD ABUSE VICTIMS


Unless God calls one to celibacy, one cannot suppress our most primal urge without some dire consequences emanating from this abnormal, even dangerous, practice.  Such suppression leads to all sorts of psychological and social traumas that range from psychological depression all the way up to sexual abuse of young people.  What makes clergy sexual abuse especially egregious is that God is often invoked by the priest to emotionally manipulate the young person into forcibly being cooperative in that molestation or rape. I truly think that many RC clergy's focus on demonizing LGBT people has a lot to do with their projection of their own frustrated wish-fulfillments, as well as their immature, if not warped, view of sexuality. 
"Homosexuality is only an issue because of the church's public stance on it. It should go without saying that there is no link with abuse. But Richard Sipe believes there may be a link between abuse and celibacy. In 1990, he published a 25-year American study showing that at any one time, 50% of priests will have been sexually active in the past three years. That figure has been replicated in other places: Spain, Holland, Switzerland and South Africa. "O'Brien and Scotland are not alone or exceptions," says Sipe.
"The Catholic church has created a hierarchy of sexual morality with celibacy at the pinnacle. But that can create distortions. Sipe's studies suggest around 70% of priests display psychosexual immaturity. Celibacy, he argues, is not something most people can achieve. When legitimate sexual outlets are forbidden, some turn to illegitimate ones. "The majority of clergy are unable to deal with sexual deprivation in healthy ways," he argues. Around 6% of priests will have sex with minors. In Australia, abuse by Catholic priests is six times higher than other churches combined."
Please read the full article here.

Share |