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Why Isn't Homosexuality Considered A Disorder On The Basis Of Its Medical Consequences?
Life Site ^ | 11/30/06 | Kathleen Melonakos, M.A

Posted on 12/01/2006 10:50:49 PM PST by tuesday afternoon

Lethal consequences to engaging in defining features of male homosexuality-- promiscuity and anal intercourse

Special to LifeSiteNews.com By Kathleen Melonakos, M.A., R.N.Delaware Family Foundation

Originally published on Narth - National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality

** Note: This article contains explicit references to common, dangerous homosexual sexual practices and is therefore not suitable for young readers.

The writer of this article, health professional and medical reporter Kathleen Melonakos, describes the impact of male-with-male sex upon physical health.

I worked as an RN for several years during the eighties and nineties at Stanford University Medical Center, where I saw some of the damage homosexuals do to their bodies with some of their sexual practices. As a result of that eye-opening experience, I much admire the work of NARTH in the research and treatment of homosexuality.

I have long been concerned about the serious medical consequences which result from the gay-affirming attitudes that predominate in the San Francisco Bay Area. For example, I knew personally a prominent dermatologist, a dentist, an engineer, and a hairdresser that died in their mid-forties of infectious diseases related to their homosexual behavior patterns. I know of many others that have died young as a result of living a gay lifestyle.

The co-author of my own medical reference book, Saunders Pocket Reference for Nurses,[i] was the head of the surgery department at Stanford. She related case histories of homosexuals needing emergency surgery due to "fisting," "playing with toys," (inserting objects into the rectum) and other bizarre acts. I am certain--in light of my clinical experience, and since doing considerable amount of studying about it since that time--that homosexuality is neither normal nor benign; rather, it is a lethal behavioral addiction as Dr. Jeffrey Satinover outlines in his book, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth.[ii]

As far as I know, there is no other group of people in the United States that dies of infectious diseases in their mid-forties except practicing homosexuals. This, to me, is tragic, when we know that homosexuality can be prevented, in many cases, or substantially healed in adulthood when there is sufficient motivation and help.

I now live in Delaware and work in conjunction with the Delaware Family Foundation to inform the public about homosexual issues. We are debating gay activists who want to add "sexual discrimination" to our anti-discrimination code. In trying to make the case that homosexuality is not healthy and should not be encouraged, we come up against the fact that neither the American Psychiatric Association, nor the American Psychological Association recognize it as a disorder. Our opponents say we are using "scare tactics."

Dr. Satinover brilliantly laid out in his book, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth the solid, irrefutable evidence that there are lethal consequences of engaging in the defining features of male homosexuality--that is, promiscuity and anal intercourse.

It doesn't take someone trained in medicine to recognize that, as Brian Camenker of the Parent Right's Coalition said on national TV, "A lifetime of anal sex does not do great things for the body." Brian also said, "As troubling as that statement sounds, there is no logical argument against it." Thus, even lay people recognize what should be obvious, especially to those trained in medicine, and who know the basic facts about homosexuality. It seems to me that medical professionals should be more aware and concerned about the consequences of habitually engaging in promiscuous anal intercourse, and other oral-anal practices of active homosexuals.[iiia]

The risk of anal cancer soars for those engaging in anal intercourse. According to one report, it rises by an astounding 4000%, and doubles again for those who are HIV positive.[iiib]

Can anyone refute that anal intercourse tears the rectal lining of the receptive partner, regardless of whether a condom is worn, and the subsequent contact with fecal matter leads to a host of diseases?

Diseases to which active homosexuals are vulnerable can be classified as follows:

Classical sexually transmitted diseases (gonorrhea, infections with Chlamydia trachomatis, syphilis, herpes simplex infections, genital warts, pubic lice, scabies); enteric diseases (infections with Shigella species, Campylobacter jejuni, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, ["gay bowel disease"], Hepatitis A, B, C, D, and cytomegalovirus); trauma (related to and/or resulting in fecal incontinence, hemorroids, anal fissure, foreign bodies lodged in the rectum, rectosigmoid tears, allergic proctitis, penile edema, chemical sinusitis, inhaled nitrite burns, and sexual assault of the male patient); and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).[iv]

Can anyone refute that increased morbidity and mortality is an unavoidable result of male-with-male sex--not to mention the increased rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, suicide and other maladies that so often accompany a homosexual lifestyle?[v] People with this whole cluster of behavior patterns are somehow "normal"?

My primary question is: why isn't homosexuality considered a disorder on the basis of its medical consequences alone? Dr. Satinover and others have made a solid case for why homosexuality parallels alcoholism as an unhealthy addiction. It should have a parallel diagnosis.

There is a lot of literature, including on the NARTH website, discussing the 1973 removal of homosexuality as a diagnosis. The arguments against the change in diagnosis seem to center around "societal standards," moral relativism, "subjective distress" of the client, and whether or not there is any objective standard for "psychological" normalcy (for instance, the debate between Joseph Nicolosi and Dr. Michael Wertheimer in A Clash In Worldviews: An Interview with Dr. Michael Wertheimer).

While these considerations are important, it seems like we can set aside, for the moment, the debate on whether homosexuality should be classified as a developmental disorder. Very simply, it seems, an objective person just looking at homosexuality's lifestyle consequences would have to classify it as some kind of pathology. Does it or does it not lead to a dramatically shortened lifespan? Studies say it does, some by as much as 40%; the Cameron study being only one of many other studies that suggest this.[vi]

Taken together, these studies establish that homosexuality is more deadly than smoking, alcoholism, or drug addiction. However, it appears that far too few physicians or other professionals are making arguments in favor of homosexuality as a diagnosis based on its adverse health consequences.

While doing research into the history of the 1973 decision to remove homosexuality from the diagnostic manual of disorders, I have been shocked to find out the specious reasoning upon which the decision was based, and that qualified physicians have allowed the decision to stand.

On Feb. 5, 2002, I corresponded by e-mail with Dr. Robert Spitzer of the APA and asked him to send me references for the position papers and studies upon which his committee based its decision to remove the diagnosis. He told me to read Ron Bayer's book,[vii] the "closest thing to a position paper" (American Journal of Psychiatry,130:11, 1207-1216), and he said, "There was no specific list of references, but what was influential too was the Evelyn Hooker Rorshach study and the Eli Robins community study."[viii]

I have read many of the criticisms of the Hooker study--how respondents were specifically selected rather than at random, and other methodological limitations.[ix] Dr. Charles Socarides informs us also that Spitzer was influenced by the Kinsey Report, which was recognized as early as 1976 by "social progressives" like Prof. Paul Robinson of Stanford as "a pathetic manifestation of Kinsey's philosophical naivete.. a mechanical contrivance, which...bore little relation to reality,"[x] and since has been discredited by the work of Judith Reisman and others.

It is clear that Dr. Socarides was right when he said that the decision to remove homosexuality as a diagnosis "involved the out-of-hand and peremptory disregard and dismissal not only of hundreds of psychiatric and psychoanalytic research papers and reports, but other serious studies by groups of psychiatrists, psychologists and educators over the past seventy years..."[xi]

It appears even more obvious that the Task Force on Nomenclature cavalierly ignored (and the APA's continue to ignore!) the substantial and unambiguous evidence that homosexuality involves a life-threatening behavior with an addictive component which has serious health implications.[xii]

That the APA's have escaped accountability for their lack of scientific and professional integrity is especially incredible since the advent of the AIDS epidemic. There are currently an estimated 900,000 people in the United States that are infected with the HIV virus, or 1 in 300 Americans. Though there has been a decrease in AIDS deaths per year due to drug therapy, (which costs an average of $12,000 per patient per year) the rate of new infections per year has remained the same, at 40,000, despite the twenty year "safe-sex" campaign.[xiii]

These facts demonstrate the failure of current policies in containing the AIDS epidemic. While drug therapy will briefly extend the life of these patients, AIDS remains the fifth leading cause of death among those aged 25-44, and 60% of new cases are contracted by men who have sex with men.[xiv] According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), homosexual men are a thousand times more likely to contract AIDS than the general heterosexual population[xv]

Dr. Satinover has said in an interview with NARTH:

"A recent article in a psychiatric publication informed us that 30% of all 20-year-old homosexual men will be HIV positive or dead by the age of thirty. You would think that the objective, ethical approach would be: let's use anything that works to try to take these people out of their posture of risk. If it means getting them to wear condoms fine. If it means getting them to give up anal intercourse, fine. If it means getting them to give up homosexuality, fine. But that last intervention is the one intervention that it absolutely taboo.

"There is no doubt that a cold, statistical analysis of this epidemic would lead you to believe that this attitude of political correctness is killing a substantial proportion of these people. I think there is an element of denial, in the psychological sense, of what gay-related illnesses really mean."[xvi]

It seems to me that the APA's should be aggressively pressed to recognize the facts about the morbidity and mortality directly attributed to homosexuality, or be exposed for the recklessly irresponsible "guardians of the public health" they have become, at least on this issue.

When will doctors and other health care workers demand that officers in the American Psychiatric Association respond to the clear evidence in the following: Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth: the mortality rates listed in their own "APA's Practical Guidelines for Treating Patients with HIV/AIDS";[xvii] and other important reports, such as the Monograph put out by the Institute of Sexual Health, Health Implications of Homosexuality?[xviii]

Lest we think that APA officers justify their neglect of medical consequences of homosexuality on the basis that sexual orientation cannot be changed, we note that Robert Spitzer acknowledged in his original 1973 position paper on Nomenclature that "modern methods of treatment enable a significant proportion of homosexuals who wish to change their sexual orientation to do so."[xix]

He has now confirmed the fact that sexual orientation can be changed with his recent study.[xx] We know that changing sexual orientation only became "impossible" in the nineties, as part of a political strategy by gay activists.[xxi]

Spitzer and his allies' rationale for removing homosexuality as a diagnosis in 1973 was that to be considered a psychiatric disorder,

"it must either regularly cause subjective distress, or regularly be associated with some generalized impairment in social effectiveness or functioning....Clearly homosexuality per se does not meet the requirements for a psychiatric disorder, since, as noted above, many are quite satisfied with their sexual orientation and demonstrate no generalized impairment in social effectiveness or functioning." (Spitzer, et.al, p. 1215).

The Task Force's reasoning fails for several reasons. First, even if we grant the validity of their stated criteria (which is questionable), the fact that many homosexuals "are satisfied with their sexual orientation," fails to take into account the large number of homosexuals who are not satisfied with their sexual orientation and who do experience "subjective distress and generalized impairment in social functioning." The removal of the diagnosis is not just unfair, but cruel to those who would seek treatment for their condition.

Secondly, there are unambiguous reasons to think that homosexuality per se does cause "generalized impairment in social effectiveness or functioning." If in fact it is a lethal addiction, and the many studies documenting the behavior patterns of homosexuals are correct (that show compulsive patterns of promiscuity, anonymous sex, sex for money, sex in public places, sex with minors, concomitant drug and alcohol abuse, depression, suicide), for the APA to argue that these features do not constitute an "impairment of social effectiveness or functioning," stretches the boundaries of plausibility. To argue that early death does not constitute an "impairment of social effectiveness or functioning" is absurd.

The APA claims its mission is "to promote a bio-psycho-social approach to understanding and caring for patients, in all aspects of health care, including illness prevention" (APA's Strategic Goals Statement). Thus the APA violates its own goals then when it ignores evidence that homosexuality can in many cases be prevented, and denies reorientation therapy to those who want it.

A careful reading of the articles opposing reorientation therapy reveals their authors' rationale that they find such therapy to be "oppressive" to those who do not want therapy.[xxii]

What if this logic was applied to any other lethal illness? What if doctors said, "We refuse to treat cancer (or, say, alcoholism) because we only achieve a 50% cure rate--and many people who don't want to be cured find it oppressive that we do cure the others?" Why wouldn't the lawsuits for malpractice be filed?

We know that Ronald Gold of the Gay Activist's Alliance, an openly gay man, was a member of the committee to remove homosexuality as a diagnosis in 1973. We know that gay activists were disrupting meetings, threatening doctors, and using other strong-arm tactics to get their way at that time.[xxiii]

We also know that homosexual activists like Dr. Richard Isay in the APA have pressed for resolutions to punish therapists for practicing reorientation therapy, and that threats of lawsuits appear to be the main reason the APA has not implemented his proposals.[xxiv]

We know homosexual advocates in the APA continue to suppress debate about Spitzer's new study documenting that sexual orientation can be changed (and to suppress debate about other supporting studies).[xxv] We also know that active homosexuals such as Clinton Anderson at the American Psychological Association refuse to permit NARTH to engage in open debate or announce NARTH meetings in APA publications simply because he disagrees with the premises upon which reorientation therapy is based.[xxvi]

For these reasons, I do not think it is far-fetched to use the analogy that the "drunks are running the rehab center," in reference to the APA's--at least as far as homosexuality is concerned. Active homosexuals can hardly be objective about an addictive behavior they engage in themselves. In light of the medical evidence, it seems that the Galenic dictum, "physician heal thyself," should apply, as it did it in the past, as Dr. Satinover suggests.[xxvii]

It seems to me the situation in this country will only get worse until the APA is held directly responsible for what is arguably their criminal negligence. In failing to reckon with serious medical consequences of the homosexual behavior pattern, they are harming our whole society, and especially the upcoming generation.

The recent decision by the American Academy of Pediatrics to endorse gay adoptions is yet another disturbing example of how the decision to "normalize" homosexuality by the APA has had a broad ripple effect. Health professionals especially, should heed Dean Byrd's outcry on the NARTH web site that it is time that the American people "insist on truth, not politics, from all of our professional organizations."

What will it take to insist on truth? Lawsuits? Protests? In my opinion, doctors and other health professionals must exert pressure, or share culpability.

What if every person reading this article sent a copy of it to the president of the American Psychiatric Association and asked for a response? Reasoned debate is the least that psychiatrists owe our society--especially those whose lives and loved ones are at risk.

The following is relevant contact information If interested in contacting these organizations, remember that our aim is to open up a principled, civil debate:

American Psychiatric Association

President, Richard Harding, M.D. RHarding@Richmed.medpark.sc.edu

President-Elect, Paul Appelbaum, M.D. appelbap@ummhc.org

Or: American Psychiatric Association 1400 K Street N.W., Washington, DC 20005 (888) 357-7924 -- FAX 202-682-6850 -- apa@psych.org

[i] Melonakos, Kathleen, Saunders Pocket Reference for Nurses , Philadelphia: Saunders, 1990, (2nd ed)., with Sheryl Michelson, , 1995.

[ii] Satinover, Jeffrey, Homosexuality and the Politics of Truth, Hamewith/Baker Books, 1996.

[iiia] For an eye-opening survey of the medical studies and journal reports describing the unhygienic and disease-producing practices of homosexuals, see http://www.cprmd.org, "Homosexual Myths--Male Homosexuals are Healthy and Have Normal Sex Lives."

[iiib] Fenger, C. "Anal Neoplasia and Its Precursors: Facts and Controversies," Seminars in Diagnostic Pathology 8, no. 3, August 1991, pp.190-201; Daling, J.R. et al., "Sexual Practices, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, and the Incidence of Anal Cancer," New England Journal of Medicine 317, no.16, 15 October 1987, pp. 973-77; Holly, E.A. et al., "Anal Cancer Incidence: Genital Warts, Anal Fissure or Fistula, Hemorrhoids, and Smoking," Journal of the National Cancer Institute 81, no. 22, November 1989, pp. 1726-31; Daling, J.R. et.al, "Correlates of Homosexual Behavior and the Incidence of Anal Cancer," Journal of the American Medical Association 247, no.14, 9 April 1982, pp. 1988-90; Cooper, H.S., Patchefsky, A.S. and Marks, G., "Cloacogenic Carcinoma of the Anorectum in Homosexual Men: An Observation of Four Cases"; Diseases of the Colon and Rectum 22, no. 8, 1979, pp. 557-58. Also see Between the Lines, Michigan's statewide gay newspaper, reporting on the risk of anal cancer for men who have sex with men, http://www.afa.net/homosexual_agenda/ha031901.asp.

[iv] W.E. Owen Jr., "Medical Problems of the Homosexual Adolescent," Journal of Adolescent Health Care6, No.4, July 1985, pp. 278-85.

[v] See O'Leary, Dale, "Recent Studies on Homosexuality and Mental Health," http://www.narth.com/docs/recent.html. O'Leary gives a summary of health findings and references for specific studies.

[vi] Mr. Trey Kern, President of the Citizen's for Parent Rights, in Pasadena, Maryland has collected an impressive amount data on studies documenting the diminished lifespan of active homosexuals. See http://www.cprmd.org, "Homosexual Myths: Homosexuals Live Long Lives, Fact Sheet. Studies include: (G. Tardieu, 1858; M. Hirschfield, 1914, Kinsey, 1930's, 1940's; Mattachine Society, 1950's: Berger, 1960's, Kinsey Institute, 1969; Spada Report 1978; M. Mendola, 1979; Cameron, Playfair, Wellum, 1994; Hogg, R.S., et. al, International Journal of Epidemiology, 1997; Cameron, P, Cameron, K, Playfair, WL., Psychological Reports, 1998.

[vii] Bayer, R. Homosexuality and American Psychiatry, Princeton University Press, 1987. Mr. Bayer chronicled the story of how homosexuality was removed as a diagnosis. It confirms that the APA did not officially investigate or study the issue thoroughly before it gave formal approval of the deletion of homosexuality from the DSMII.

[viii] Personal e-mail correspondence with Dr. Spitzer, Feb. 5, 2002.

[ix] Socarides, Charles, W., "Sexual Politics and Scientific Logic: The Issue of Homosexuality," The Journal of Psychohistory, 10:3, 1992, p. 309 Dr. Socarides explains that a task force within the APA itself concluded in 1973 that Hooker's study was full of methodological errors, and did not warrant her conclusions. See also, Joseph Nicolosi, "Clash of Worldviews: Interview with Michael Wertheimer", http://www.narth.com.

[x] Socarides, p. 324.

[xi].Socarides, p. 315

[xii] Spitzer, R.L, et. al, in "Symposium: Should Homosexuality Be in the APA Nomenclature?" American Journal of Psychiatry, 130:11, 1973 make no mention whatsoever of any health implications of homosexuality. Also, I asked Dr. Spitzer in an e-mail correspondence April 4, 2001, whether there was any chance the APA might change its policy in light of evidence that sexual orientation can be changed and the negative impact of homosexual practices upon lifespan. He acknowledged nothing about shortened lifespan, but gave a one-sentence reply that said there was no possibility that APA would change its policy on homosexuality at that time.

[xiii] "APA's Practical Guidelines for the Treatment of Patients with HIV/AIDS," Epidemiology, Clinical Features Influencing Treatment, sections, http://www.psych.org/aids/

[xiv] Ibid, Anti-Viral Treatment section.

[xv] The HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Division of HIV/AIDS, January, 1992, p. 9.

[xvi] Satinover, Jeffrey, "Reflections: Interview with NARTH," Feb. 5, 2001, http:http://www.narth.com/docs/satinover.html.

[xvii] See American Psychiatric Association website, http://www.psych.org/aids/, or obtain bound copy of report available from American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 1-800-368-5777, or Symposium: Should Homosexuality Be in the APA Nomenclature?" p.1215.

[xx] Spitzer, R.L, "Two Hundred Subjects Who Claim to Have Changed Their Sexual Orientation from Homosexual to Heterosexual," presentation made at the American Psychiatric Association, May 9th, 2001, in New Orleans, available from NYS Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, 10032, phone (212) 543-5524.

[xxi] Rev. Dr. Earle Fox, former president of the chapter of Exodus Intl. whose members picketed the 2000 APA convention to protest the denial of therapy to those who want it (which resulted in Dr. Robert Spitzer's 2001 study on reorientation therapy), tells in "Homosexuality Wrongly a Civil Right," Delaware State News, January 13, 2002, how no one was disputing that sexual orientation could be changed until gay activists, Kirk and Madsen, in After the Ball: How America will Conquer It's Fear and Hatred of Gays in the 90's, Doubleday, 1989, outlined their plan to convince America gays were "born that way," and "beyond the realm of moral choice," p. 189.

[xxii] For an extensive survey of the articles promoting the view opposing reorientation therapy, see Diamond, Eugene, et.al, Homosexuality and Hope, the results of a two-year study, published by the Catholic Medical Association, p. 14, obtainable at P.O. Box 757, Pewaukee, WI, 53072 or http://www.cathmed.org. Some of the articles quoted are Davison, G., 1982; Gittings, 1973; Begelman, 1975, 1977; Murphy 1992; Sleek 1997; Silverstein, 1972; Smith, 1988. See also, "Psychiatrists Reject Therapy to Alter Gays: Efforts aimed at Turning Homosexuals into Heterosexuals are Harmful, Professional Board Declares, Even for Those Not Being Treated," Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1998.

[xxiii] Socarides, p. 310. See also, Satinover, p. 31-40.

[xxiv] See Satinover, p. 36,180-182, and Stern, Mark, E, "The Battle Against the A.P.A. Resolution", http://www.narth.com, Interviews/Testimonies.

[xxv] Rev. Dr. Earle Fox, Delaware State News, Jan. 13, 2002.

[xxvi] NARTH Bulletin, Vol. 10, No. 3, Dec. 2001, Letter from Clinton W. Anderson to Drs. Nicolosi and Byrd, p. 16.

[xxvii] Satinover, p. 47.

See the Narth website
http://www.narth.com/index.html


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: aids; disease; gayspreadisease; homophobes; homophobia; homophobic; homosexualagenda; narth; perverts; satinover; sodomites; sodomy
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There is a synopsis of the artilce at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/dec/06120109.html
1 posted on 12/01/2006 10:50:56 PM PST by tuesday afternoon
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To: tuesday afternoon

bookmark for a.m.


2 posted on 12/01/2006 10:57:10 PM PST by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: tuesday afternoon

Homosexuality makes no sense any way you look at it. Just as we tolerate a bunch of things, like people drinking their own urine, eating their own crap, piercing their bodies, we can tolerate homosexuals doing whatever crap to themselves, sure. But that doesn't change the fact that homosexuality is unnatrual, every bit as unnatural as people drinking their urine and eating their own feces.


3 posted on 12/01/2006 10:58:54 PM PST by davy
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To: tuesday afternoon

ping


4 posted on 12/01/2006 11:01:44 PM PST by 8thChild (Merry Christmas!!!)
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To: tuesday afternoon

Talk about an "inconvenient truth!"


5 posted on 12/01/2006 11:11:22 PM PST by the invisib1e hand (* nuke * the * jihad *)
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To: tuesday afternoon

As far as I know, there is no other group of people in the United States that dies of infectious diseases in their mid-forties except practicing homosexuals.


I have one: drug addicts. And THEY certainly are considered to have a 'disease'.


6 posted on 12/01/2006 11:34:05 PM PST by bpjam (Don't Blame Me. I Voted GOP.)
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To: tuesday afternoon
30% of all 20-year-old homosexual men will be HIV positive or dead by the age of thirty

Nature has her way with things.
7 posted on 12/01/2006 11:40:24 PM PST by Pro-Bush (hater)
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To: Pro-Bush

Call me evil, but I don't feel a bit bad about that.


8 posted on 12/01/2006 11:43:48 PM PST by derllak
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To: 8thChild
Homosexuality is simply a variant form of non-reproductive human sexuality that contributes somewhat towards the continuance of our somewhat larger world.
9 posted on 12/02/2006 12:06:12 AM PST by the final gentleman
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To: derllak
The question is: What obligation does society have to prevent people from killing themselves if they insist on doing it? Do we imprison drug users simply to prevent them from overdosing?

We can't force people to survive whether its heroin users or gay men. But the idea of glamourizing it or making it a constitutional right is literally insane. There is not a single argument which can be made publicly which is defensible or logical. The entire idea that a form of sexual activity would be considered to be a part of our founding documents is perverted in itself.

10 posted on 12/02/2006 12:06:14 AM PST by bpjam (Don't Blame Me. I Voted GOP.)
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To: bpjam
I'm a recovering drunk and addict with many years' sobriety (or, as they say in the Program, 'a few 24 hours'), and over time I've reconsidered the disease paradigm of alcoholism and drug addiction. Calling addiction a disease is a way, I think, for people to get a mental grasp of what's happening to them or their loved one(s), but I don't think--in the final analysis--that disease is the right word. It's safe to say that I have a predisposition to drugs and alcohol abuse, probably a genetic one since alcoholism runs rampant through a specific branch of the maternal family tree.Once, in an AA meeting, I heard an old-timer say that alcoholism was a symptom of her disease, and her disease was selfishness and self-centeredness. (I know this all seems off-topic but I'm getting there.)

About homosexuality. It would be natural for a nurse or someone in the health-care field to come to the conclusion that same-sex sexual attraction is a mental illness--and perhaps it is for some; e.g., those who have been molested as children by a same-sex predator, for example. I tend to think, though, that there are a myriad reasons why some people are attracted to members of their gender. Sexuality is incredibly complex, so there's no reason why the reasons should be simple. Reducing it to an either/or, nature/nurture argument doesn't offer a definitive answer because I don't think there is a single, definitive answer that encompasses everyone.

I'm a Christian now--something I probably wouldn't be had I not been a drunk and a junkie--and don't believe we are helpless slaves to our impulses and our passions. We make moral choices. My younger sister, for example, chose never to touch alcohol and drugs because of what alcohol and drugs had done to our mother and myself, along with a whole bunch of other relatives. She made the logical, commonsense choice--just as all correct moral choices are.

I think I do know, though, why those gay men who willfully engage in self-destructive behaviors, living the bar scene, doing drugs, sleeping with dozens of anonymous partners. The purpose of self-destructive behavior is self-destruction. And not because of repression from a supposedly homophobic society, either, but because orgasm junkies of either heterosexual or homosexual persuasion--like drunks, like drug addicts--have an empty place in their souls that cannot be filled--by drugs, by booze, by sex. I know about that empty place and I know about that not-so-subconscious desire to take it all the way and go out in a blaze. I also know there's a way out.

That's my take on things, anyway.
11 posted on 12/02/2006 12:24:12 AM PST by Rembrandt_fan
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To: derllak
Interesting in that if you remove the arguments from the homosexual context, they are so uncontroversial as to be almost tautological.
1. Promiscuity is unhealthy. I think that every scientist would admit that there is a correlation between the number of sexual partners you have in your life and the risk for a host of STDs.
2. Anal sex/rectal damage. Again, this is uncontroversial. Regularly damaging the rectum is very dangerous, for men, women, heterosexual or homosexual.
These indicate that the problem is primarily one of the "gay culture" rather than same-sex attraction per se. If two men were monogamous for life and never engaged in anal sex, their is little danger of these pathologies. Likewise, the article primarily refers to male homosexuality. I wouldn't be surprised if the life expectancy of lesbians is average or even above average.

Bottom line: It is not homophobic or discriminatory to say that extreme promiscuity and preference for anal sex are harmful to ones health and should be classified as illnesses, regardless of sexual preference.
12 posted on 12/02/2006 12:44:07 AM PST by zpaladin
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To: tuesday afternoon
Dr. Warren Throckmorton has a rebuttal to this article at his blog - www.wthrockmorton.com.
13 posted on 12/02/2006 12:44:09 AM PST by mf01234
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To: tuesday afternoon
"...neither the American Psychiatric Association, nor the American Psychological Association
recognize it as a disorder.."

The Catholic church calls it a disorder,
but the Bible calls it an ABOMINATION.

It doesn't get any worse than that.

14 posted on 12/02/2006 2:12:01 AM PST by trickyricky
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To: Rembrandt_fan

Thought-provoking and illuminating post. Thanks.


15 posted on 12/02/2006 2:17:09 AM PST by maryz
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To: Pro-Bush
Nature has her way with things.

AIDS is nature reclaiming the natural order. And, nature does not care about collateral damage either...

16 posted on 12/02/2006 2:23:02 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: zpaladin; tuesday afternoon; sageb1; davy; bpjam; Pro-Bush; the final gentleman; 8thChild; ...
It is no coincidence Islamic pagans hate Israel, Jews, Christians and Western Civilization. The entire basis of Western Civilization is Mosaic Law, something both the Neo-Pagan Left and the pagan Islamic thugs cannot abide and wish to destroy.

The very idea that human beings have individual rights not subject to the whims of an earthly monarch, but subject to the laws of Yahweh, is directly from Moses.

Historically, this is proven over and over again with the successive conflicts between the forces of paganism and the Judaic culture. (This includes the idolatry of cultural Marxist paganism.)

A greater number of "atheists" and "pagans" adopt the same hackneyed tenets of a false Judaic-Christian ideal (golden calf). They also subscribe to the Judaic fetishism of "sin," but will fight to their death in denial of it. Most of them are so wrapped up in their own polemics that they have become nothing more than pathetic anti-Christians with the same false hypocritical philosophy. They just slap a new label on it hoping nobody will notice - - they replace the idea of "avoiding sin" with "morals."

Morality and all of its associated ideals are rooted entirely in the presupposition some higher power defines what is correct in human behavior. Today, "morals" are a religious pagan philosophy of esoteric hobgoblins. Transfiguration is a pantheon of fantasies as the medium of infinitization. Others get derision for having an unwavering Judaic belief in Yahweh or Yeshua, although their critics and enemies will evangelize insertion of phantasmagoric fetishisms into secular law.

Mosaic Law (of which the Ten Commandments is just a part) is the foundation of Western Civilization. Genesis is the primary focus of the Declaration of Independence, from where our Constitutional rights are derived. The Ten Commandments are the foundation of our judicial system.

Moses wrote Genesis. This is why such people will jump up and down screaming when the Ten Commandments are displayed or the Creationist idea of monogamy from the book of Genesis is introduced.

Genesis also ruins the illogical and non-biological arguments of homosexual monogamy. In a secular sense, homosexuality is an idolatry of perversion. It is in no way an anatomical function of the human organism, but a phantasmagoric creation from within the mentally disturbed human mind, a social psychosis, naked and on full exhibitionist display.

This is the whole crux (pun intended) of their attack on creationism - - they are really frustrated by Genesis, but cannot destroy the axiomatic state of procreant human biology, it does not fit their religious agenda.

Homosexual monogamy advocates seek ceremonious sanctification of their anatomical perversions and esoteric absolution for their guilt-ridden, impoverished egos.

Neither of those will satisfy their universal dissatisfaction with mortality or connect them to something eternal. With pantheons of fantasies as their medium of infinitization, they still have nothing in them of reality, any more than there is in the things that seem to stand before us in a dream.

Homosexual deviancy is really a pagan practice (and a self-induced social psychosis) at war with the Judaic culture over what is written in the book of Genesis (1:27, 2:18).

This is exactly what the National Socialists were at war with... so, when someone uses the term "Gaystapo," they might not realize how close to the truth they really are, especially if you consider their eugenic breeding programs.

Many will seek ceremonious sanctification and esoteric absolution in some type of marriage rite, but that still fails to give them a connection to the eternal in both a religious and temporal, procreant sense - - the union does not produce offspring.

Dissatisfaction with inevitable mortality only feeds the impoverishment of the ego further. Homosexuals really hate human life; their whole desire is rooted in the destruction of it...

17 posted on 12/02/2006 2:42:55 AM PST by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: tuesday afternoon

It IS a mental disorder. It's status has never changed.

The only thing that changed was how the homosexuals on the American Psychological Association altered the definition so that it was no longer considered a mental disorder.

I suspect this was also in line with the thought that such policy would generate them decades full of millions of victims or "patients" in their eyes.

I suspect they supported gay marriage with the same interests in mind. "It's good for business".

18 posted on 12/02/2006 2:45:21 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: the final gentleman

Besides the moral implications and the degrading behavior that homosexuals practice, there are other problems with it.

Scarce medical resources are used for the homosexual lobby to cure diseases which should not be prevalent.

Take multiple sclerosis. If the dollars that have been spent for the AIDS lobby had been put into multiple sclerosis, then multiple sclerosis would probably not be a problem. There would probably also be a cure for alzheimers by now.

These homosexuals are very ill and selfish. It does them no favor by telling them that they are ok and everyone else is the problem. Let them pay for their diseases and let me pay for mine. At least I take responsibility for my benavior.

Most alcoholics are in denial about their problems. So, it is not unusual for people with "issues" to deny that their issues are problems.

Another deadly harm that homosexuals are perpetrating is to teach our children in schools that homosexuality is normal. They are recruiting our children in schools. It is really child molesting on a huge basis.


19 posted on 12/02/2006 4:16:41 AM PST by 2ndClassCitizen
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To: mf01234

Dr. Throckmutton is obviously heterophobic.

Rosie O'Donnpoop is heterophobic also.

So are most liberals.

Just because they are heterophobes does not make them right.


20 posted on 12/02/2006 4:22:28 AM PST by 2ndClassCitizen
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To: tuesday afternoon
Does it or does it not lead to a dramatically shortened lifespan? Studies say it does, some by as much as 40%; the Cameron study being only one of many other studies that suggest this.

I wonder how much this compares to smoking. It is interesting that there is no public outcry on this behavior. This is a very good article and it points out how one sided ALL of the information we receive on a daily basis really is.
21 posted on 12/02/2006 5:05:45 AM PST by mikeandike
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To: 2ndClassCitizen

mf01234
Since Dec 2, 2006



Newbie with one post.


22 posted on 12/02/2006 5:07:46 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (The terrorists have many allies in the United States, especially in the democrat party.)
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To: tuesday afternoon

I had a serious argument about homosexuality with a liberal at work. This is some great ammo to dispute her claims. Thanks.


23 posted on 12/02/2006 5:10:35 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (The terrorists have many allies in the United States, especially in the democrat party.)
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To: tuesday afternoon
For example, I knew personally a prominent dermatologist, a dentist, an engineer, and a hairdresser that died in their mid-forties of infectious diseases related to their homosexual behavior patterns.




Look around and you just don't see many OLD
queers. And those you do see have for the most
part had one or few "part-ners".
This is a not a scientific study just MHO.
24 posted on 12/02/2006 5:22:45 AM PST by WKB (Rudy V Hillary= There is no lessor of two liberals.)
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To: the invisib1e hand

"Talk about an 'inconvenient truth!'"

Well said!


25 posted on 12/02/2006 5:24:58 AM PST by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like what you say))
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To: mikeandike
"I wonder how much this compares to smoking."

Or overeating. Or skydiving. Or any dangerous activity.

The author is connecting the condition (homosexuality) to the behavior (homosexual anal sex). Granted, that connection exists.

But what if all homosexuals woke up one day and decided they would only engage in oral sex? Does that mean homosexuality is no longer a disorder?

26 posted on 12/02/2006 5:45:43 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: wagglebee

Sneaking on to FR - list?


27 posted on 12/02/2006 5:52:58 AM PST by little jeremiah
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To: tuesday afternoon

Gays don't bother me.


28 posted on 12/02/2006 5:59:12 AM PST by Prodigal Son
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To: davy

It is amazing to me the lengths to which so many people with advanced college degrees will go to validate a lifestyle disease that is contrary continuance of the species. Is 'homosexuality' their human equivalent of 'thinning the herd?'


29 posted on 12/02/2006 6:04:02 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Rembrandt_fan

"The purpose of self-destructive behavior is self-destruction."

Thanks for that post. Eye-opening.


30 posted on 12/02/2006 6:09:48 AM PST by L98Fiero (The media as a self-licking ice-cream cone)
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To: bpjam

True, we can't force people, but based on reading the article the APA is forcing doctors to not engage in reorientation therapy for those seeking it. Therein they are denying treatment.


31 posted on 12/02/2006 6:10:14 AM PST by EBH (All great truths begin as blasphemies. GB Shaw)
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Comment #32 Removed by Moderator

To: megatherium

How does this argument fit into your position on the issue?


33 posted on 12/02/2006 6:16:26 AM PST by Lucky Dog
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To: tuesday afternoon

There are a lot of terms and description I don't begin to understand in this article. However, one in particular caught my eye -- chemical sinusitis. What on earth is that?


34 posted on 12/02/2006 6:30:47 AM PST by WashingtonSource
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To: tuesday afternoon
I worked as an RN for several years during the eighties and nineties

Then the facts about AIDS as you know them are irrelevant. It'd be like someone who worked in computer programming in the 1980s discussing the topic today, as if what he knew was still pertinent.

The current numbers show that the infection rate for gay men is down, while increasing for heterosexual black females. Also, a person diagnosed with AIDS today now has a life expectancy of 24 years. That will increase as technology and medicine advance.

35 posted on 12/02/2006 6:52:07 AM PST by ItsJeff
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To: Islamisalie
"Too many young people have died and will die of this bad behavior."

True, though I wonder what this country would look like had HIV/AIDS never happened.

36 posted on 12/02/2006 7:02:28 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: ItsJeff
Also, a person diagnosed with AIDS today now has a life expectancy of 24 years. That will increase as technology and medicine advance.

And will those individuals contracting HIV/AIDS through purely voluntary activities and whose life expectancy has been increased, "pay" for the life extending medical treatments and the research to derive those treatments, or will the taxpayer be forced to do so?
37 posted on 12/02/2006 7:19:58 AM PST by Lucky Dog
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To: Lucky Dog

That's a separate issue. I'm just pointing out that the facts she's presenting are based on her observations 15-20 years ago. If you're talking about AIDS treatment, that may as well have been 100 years ago.


38 posted on 12/02/2006 7:24:05 AM PST by ItsJeff
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To: tuesday afternoon

Now that businesses are creeping toward firing/not hiring smokers because of the health costs, they should start firing/not hiring homosexuals for the same reason. Add to that the extra cost of partner benefits. Please remind the leftist of this fact each time they complain about smokers and their "burden" on the health care system.


39 posted on 12/02/2006 7:24:57 AM PST by rabidralph (Merry Christmas, y'all!)
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To: ItsJeff
Then the facts about AIDS as you know them are irrelevant.

In deed, exactly what has changed about the fact that, for the overwhelming and vast majority of infectees, HIV/AIDS is disease that is the result of voluntary behavior?

Furthermore, except for unfortunate natal infections due to maternal misbehavior, these HIV/AIDS infections are through what most of the US population deems to be immoral activities. Has this fact changed?
40 posted on 12/02/2006 7:28:57 AM PST by Lucky Dog
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To: tuesday afternoon

"I worked as an RN for several years during the eighties and nineties at Stanford University Medical Center, where I saw some of the damage homosexuals do to their bodies with some of their sexual practices."

This is, scientifically, no different than saying "I worked as an RN for several years during the eighties and nineties at Stanford University Center, where I saw (from all the drug-addicted prostitutes she help treat) some of the damage heterosexual women do to their bodies with some of their sexual practices.

When your focus of attention is only on a segment of a population, it is an error to impute the entire population - even of a subgroup - has the same problem that you have observed, in only those you observed; particularly keeping in mind that EVERYONE not experiencing the problems you observed would not come into your observation.

That is not to deny the problems she and other medical professionals observed. But, it is not an anecdotal, scientific or objective fact that the entire "gay" population (whatever that is) is self-inflicting the traumas that she observed.

Prostitutes, strip clubs, topless bars, Playboy and Penthouse magazines and their addicts, swapping spouses for sex and many other activities are KNOWN HETEROSEXUAL ACTIVITIES, but we do not condemn HETEROSEXUALITY because of them and we do not classify HETEROSEXUALITY as the problem when those people come in for medical treatment for the harm they have done to themselves.

And, when a women prostitute with HIV gives HIV to a man, we do not condemn their HETEROSEXUALITY, we condemn their promiscuity and their stupidity for not using condemns.

We could very easily condemn HETEROSEXUALITY all together if our focus was entirely on those HETEROSEXUAL men and women who get medical treatment for problems caused by their sexual practices. We don't. We condemn their promiscuity and their stupidity, and we do not impute that all heterosexuals go about harming themselves in those ways. Well, the truth is, factually, that neither do all "homosexuals".

This article is typical of why many social conservatives are considered scientifically illiterate.


41 posted on 12/02/2006 7:45:38 AM PST by Wuli
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To: robertpaulsen

But what if all homosexuals woke up one day and decided they would only engage in oral sex? Does that mean homosexuality is no longer a disorder?

And what about homosexuals who aren's sexually active or have been in long term relationships?
My neighbors are two gay men who have been together for 36+ years. I've known them for 10 years and see them differently than those who are promiscuously bedding everyone they can at every opportunity. Their lifestyle doesn't seem any different than my own and I have come to value their friendship over the years. I've found more disorder in some of my other straight friends. From this experience I try not to judge too quickly. There are good responsible people everywhere regardless or orientation. Just open your eyes and try not to judge too quickly.


42 posted on 12/02/2006 7:58:23 AM PST by Joan Kerrey
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To: Wuli
Prostitutes, strip clubs, topless bars, Playboy and Penthouse magazines and their addicts, swapping spouses for sex and many other activities

And those activities are recognized as not being good.

but we do not condemn HETEROSEXUALITY

A lot of us think babies and children and the future are good things.

So what good does homosexuality do?

43 posted on 12/02/2006 8:05:15 AM PST by Tribune7
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To: Joan Kerrey
"And what about homosexuals who aren's sexually active or have been in long term relationships?"

You make a good point. But I was referring to the other 99.7%.

44 posted on 12/02/2006 8:06:35 AM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: Tribune7

Again, you are missing the point.

When heterosexual people seek medical treatment for problems they caused by their sexual practices there are two things we do not impute from that; we do not impute (1)all heterosexuals have the same problems or (2)the cause of their problems was their heterosexuality. Scientifically, a medical condition presented persons who are homosexual should also not cause us to impute (1)all homosexuals have the same medical poroblems or (2)homosexuality was the cause.

Promiscuity and stupidity are not specific to any particular "sexuality".


45 posted on 12/02/2006 8:20:01 AM PST by Wuli
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To: tuesday afternoon

Can you get cancer from smoking a White Owl?


46 posted on 12/02/2006 8:21:30 AM PST by toddlintown (Six bullets and Lennon goes down. Yet not one hit Yoko. Discuss.)
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To: the final gentleman

I don't understand, what does homosexuality contribute?


47 posted on 12/02/2006 8:24:01 AM PST by Eva
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To: tuesday afternoon
Bad, bad reasoning.

People do lots of whacked-out crazy dangerous things every day and they're not mentally ill.

Homosexuality IS disordered, all right - but not because of the secondary consequences.

48 posted on 12/02/2006 8:26:11 AM PST by Jim Noble (To preserve the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity)
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To: Gaffer
It is amazing to me the lengths to which so many people with advanced college degrees will go to validate a lifestyle disease that is contrary continuance of the species. Is 'homosexuality' their human equivalent of 'thinning the herd?'

Not every individual is personally responsible for the propagation of the species. It's kind of a group project. Oddly enough, from a numbers standpoint, it's quite successful. Our population has exploded across the Earth in just a few short millennia. A few hundred million homosexuals out of six billion aren't going to reverse the trend.

49 posted on 12/02/2006 8:45:40 AM PST by Caesar Soze
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To: Caesar Soze

Then, by your reasoning, they serve no purpose? That's a tenet I could endorse...


50 posted on 12/02/2006 8:47:24 AM PST by Gaffer
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