Shocker: Am I Anti-Gay? ["Gays" malign "Gay"-friendly Pychology Today editor]

Psychology Today ^ | Jan/Feb 2003 | Robert Epstein

[Notwithstanding]

Summary: You be the judge. A letter form the editor in chief.

... I bring these matters to your attention because of a threatening phone call I received a few weeks ago from a fellow psychologist. On page 78 of our last issue, PT ran a small ad for a book called A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality by Joseph Nicolosi, Ph.D., and his wife Linda. Nicolosi is a psychologist who specializes in trying to help unhappy gays become straight. Apparently feeling that this rather modest contribution to the literature on homosexuality wasn't getting enough attention, the psychologist, who identified herself as a lesbian activist, called me at home on a Saturday to tell me that PT should not have run such a heinous ad, that she was speaking for "thousands" of gays who were going to boycott PT, "and worse," that Dr. Nicolosi was a "bigot," that no gay person had ever successfully become straight, that homosexuality was entirely determined by genes, and that sexual conversion therapy had been condemned by the American Psychological Association. I told her that the editorial department at PT has no connection whatsoever with the advertising department, but she was unimpressed. She subsequently posted messages on the Internet urging people to harrass me at home (no one else ever did) and to send me complaint letters.

In all, I received about 120 letters, many of which exemplified a bad game of Telephone: Some people complained about an anti-gay "article" PT had published; others referred to an anti-gay book I had published and people who weren't subscribers said they were dropping their subscriptions. Several writers suggested I was a "Nazi" and a "bigot," and one compared me with the Taliban. A surprising number of letters asserted that gays have a right to be rude or abusive because they themselves have been abused. Most echoed the same points that my caller had made....

[Notwithstanding]

Great find by Polycarp.

[Notwithstanding]

something to carp about

[Polycarp]

And a hearty bump to you!

[DoctorMichael]

Confucious say: Lie down with dogs............get fleas.

It doesn't take a Ph.D. in psychology to know this.

[Notwithstanding]

ping

[Maelstrom]

Welcome to the world where critical thought is rejected.

It's a queer world, I know, but you'll get used to it, your children have.


[I guess I should send this to the magazine too, eh?]

[pabianice]

Hate-filled, shrieking, gay-activist dittos!

[camle]

if homosexuality is caused by genes, THEN WHICH GENES CAUSE IT? WHERE ARE THEY?

[yendu bwam]

There's a great deal of evidence, direct and indirect, that homosexuality stems from childhood experiences and difficulties (lack of love from father, poor relationships with kids of same sex, homosexual molestation). Any loving parent would not want their kid to turn out homosexual and should welcome this book, which helps to prevent many of those situations which are related to the development of homosexuality.

[Notwithstanding]

If its genetic, then the natural question is:

"Which genes cause a boy to be the victim of a lack of love from father, poor relationships with kids of same sex, and homosexual molestation?"

[onedoug]

Why Judaism Rejected Homosexuality

"...We can say “chosen” because the vast majority of gay men have had intercourse with women. As a four-year study of 128 gay men by a UCLA professor of psychology revealed, “More than 92 percent of the gay men had dated a woman at some time, two-thirds had sexual intercourse with a woman.” As of now, the one theory we can rule out is that homosexuals are biologically programmed to be homosexual. Despite an understandably great desire on the part of many to prove it (and my own inclination to believe it), there is simply no evidence that homosexuality is biologically determined.

[RAT Patrol]

Tell that to the male sheep

What about lesbianism then? What about other animals and homosexual exclusiveness? What percentage of male sheep rape? What percentage of male sheep go after young sheep? How many male sheep do not have exclusive sexual partners? What percentage of male sheep behave any other undesirable way? Many bad behaviors have been with us from the beginning. Greed is natural. Lust is natural. That's no argument.

[Tacis]

"...that homosexuality was entirely determined by genes...'

Doesn't that make it a disease?

[uncbob]

Always amazed me how Hollywood homosexuals like Rock Huson -Montgomery Cliff -- etc could play those roles where they were making love to women
Seemed so weird

[RonF]

"... subsequently posted messages on the Internet urging people to harrass me at home (no one else ever did) ...."

And how often have we seen FR posters do this? It's wrong no matter who does it, or for what reason.

All in all this is one of the best treatments of this subject I've ever read.

[RAT Patrol]

And how is the gene passed along since gays can't reproduce? It takes a heterosexual act to produce ALL people. So if a gay reproduces is he bisexual?

[RonF]

"It's a queer world, I know, but you'll get used to it, your children have."

Is that why the current shorthand among kids for describing something they have a highly disfavorable opinion of is to say, "That's gay!"?

[camle]

Many gays have their own children. I know several and they're all screwed up worse than Bill Clinton. But most, if not all are decidedly NOT gay.

strange how that works, Gay children come overwhelmingly fron non-gay parents, and gays who reproduce, have overwhelmingly non-gay children.

genetic huh?

[RAT Patrol]

Oh yeah...and how many female sheep have oral sex exclusively...or use fake penises to penetrate female sheep? Does lesbianism exist AT ALL in the sheep world?

This natural argument just does not hold up.

[RonF]

"And how is the gene passed along since gays can't reproduce?"

Not all genetically-determined characteristics are the product of one gene with a binary solution set. There are many such that are the product of multiple genes, and where the genes themselves can be in more than two states. To oversimplify, one could posit a genetic set up where there are two genes contributing; each parent might be 40% influenced towards being gay, but function as heterosexuals. Their child might then get the characteristics of both and be 80% influenced towards being gay.

There is no proof that this kind of thing exists with regards to sexual orientation. But there are mechanisms that would allow such a thing to be dormant in one or both parents, only to come up as dominant in their offspring.